Working Unto the Lord – Fourth Commandment

Working Unto the Lord

Exodus 20.8-10; Deuteronomy 5.12-14

“Remember the Sabbath day, observe it, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.”

Ecclesiastes 2.24-25

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

Do your job to please God.

All the work we have been given to do – including that which we do in our jobs – is a gift from God. He gives us the strength, abilities, and opportunities for serving Him and others, making a living, finding satisfaction in a job well done, and being part of a fruitful or profitable venture. Since God gives us our work, we need to do our work in order to please Him. This has implications for the quality of work we do. We should strive for goodness and excellence in all things. It also has implications for the balance with which we do our work. We must not neglect one component of our work for the sake of another, but must strive to achieve a balance in all the work we’ve been given to do. There are also moral implications to our work. We must not compromise the commandments of God or the demands of the Gospel in doing our work. Finally, there are Kingdom implications to our work. Since all the work we do is an aspect of what we do to further the Kingdom of God, we need to look for every opportunity in all our work to advance the righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit which are the defining attributes of the Kingdom of God (Rom. 14.17, 18). Indeed, the demands and priorities of the Kingdom must take precedence in defining our approach to work and all the activities we pursue in it (Matt. 6.33). God will prosper our work when we receive it as a gift from Him, pursue it to the praise of His glory and the progress of His Kingdom, serve others in it, and rest from it one day per week.

To what extent are you conscious of doing all your work to the glory and honor of God? Do you consider all your work a gift from Him?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.