Listen to this article (18:37 min)
This article was published exclusively online in the Christian Research Journal, volume 49, number 02 (2026).
When you support the Journal, you join the team and help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever-growing database of more than 2,000 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.
Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10, which is the cost of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here
Each weekday morning, I begin my workday by opening my laptop and clicking the Slack icon. Bombarded with notifications, messages from coworkers, and tasks that need to be completed, in many ways, “work” in our present age has become abstracted from what we read about in the opening chapters of the Bible where work appears much more tactile; it looks like gardening and tending animals.
Despite the fact that food and goods are easily available to us with the press of a few buttons or a trip to the store — things that would have been completely inaccessible in years past without hard labor — we all find ourselves called to work in some capacity today. Even though physical difficulty has been removed from many critical tasks, we all still experience vestiges of frustrations and challenges that come with work as a result of the fall of humans into sin.
The biblical doctrine of work remains imperative to our life and flourishing as God’s people. Many of us carry an inherent desire to “get things done,” despite not having a fully developed understanding of why our work is important, and what God’s desire for our work is. And so, we turn to Scripture, which has much to say about work.
Recapturing what Scripture says about work and our callings in the world today leads us to center our lives on loving God and serving our neighbor with an eye to our future work in the new heavens and new earth. No longer do we need to question “Why am I here?” and “What am I called to do?” Instead, we can rest in the assurance that God has called us to be exactly where we are. This is the first of a series of three articles on a biblical theology of work, exploring what the Bible tells us about work, from creation through redemptive history, and into to the eschaton.
WORK IN THE BEGINNING
In the beginning, God created all things in heaven and on earth. On the sixth day, God created Adam, then “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15).1 The specific instructions about what that “working and keeping” of the garden looked like are more clearly laid out in Genesis 1:28–31:
And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Adam and Eve were therefore charged to “be fruitful,” that is, to have children, and then to “fill the earth.” This calling is often referred to as the “creation mandate.” By filling the earth, the goal was to steward it. Having dominion over the animals, cultivating plants and trees, and subduing the earth — the work done in the garden of Eden by Adam and Eve was not meant to be restricted to that location only, but was to extend beyond, making the whole earth like the garden.
By actively stewarding the gifts that God gave them, Adam and Eve participated as an integral part of God’s creation. As those who reflected God’s love and care toward His creation, they were shaping and molding, tending and blessing the things that God entrusted to them. As Adam and Eve participated in the work God gave them, they actively obeyed God’s call for their lives. Adam and Eve thus walked in the path that God laid out for them as they fulfilled their duties as workers.
Work is therefore a deeply important part of what it means to be human. As humans, we are all called to work as part of our pre-fall, God-given identities. And to work faithfully is a God-honoring and holy endeavor.
WORK AND REST
Before the fall, work and rest appear together. Working well necessitates resting well. It is no mistake that God, despite His infinite ability to work, rested on the seventh day of creation (Genesis 2:2). Creation was called “very good,” but the seventh day is the first time God declares something holy: “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation” (2:3).2 God then graciously calls us into that same rest by blessing and sanctifying the seventh day.
Remember the Sabbath day, 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. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8–11)
Both work and rest clearly existed before the fall of mankind into sin, and both work and rest are good things that God has called us to do. This has multiple applications. Keil and Delitzsch explain in their commentary on Genesis 2:
As the whole earthly creation is subject to the changes of time and the law of temporal motion and development; so all creatures not only stand in need of definite recurring periods of rest, for the sake of recruiting their strength and gaining new power for further development, but they also look forward to a time when all restlessness shall give place to the blessed rest of the perfect consummation.3
Because God has created our bodies and knows how they function best, when He tells His people to rest, it truly is the best thing for us to do. In fact, our physical need for rest bears itself out in medical studies. Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine explains that without sleep, “judgment, mood, ability to learn and retain information” are affected in the short term, and in the long term, “chronic sleep deprivation may lead to a host of health problems including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even early mortality.”4 It is not just unwise to neglect rest, but it can even be dangerous!
Although there is a physical need for our bodies to rest, God’s call to rest is also an opportunity to bless and intentionally remember the Lord. It even, as Keil and Delitzsch explain above, points us toward a greater, final rest at the end of time. God himself thus creates a pattern that we are called to emulate in our lives — one that honors both active work and intentional rest. This is the case from the very beginning, and it is good.
CREATED TO DO CREATIVE WORK
God created out of nothing, and by His Word called into being all things that exist apart from Himself. Having created all things, He also brings order, purpose, and structure to His creation; there is power in His creative work to shape and subdue. Pastor and author Bob Thune writes, “The language of subduing and ruling mirrors what God did in creation: turning chaos into order. Adam and Eve are to turn the whole earth into the Garden of Eden. And it won’t happen by magic, but by concerted effort.”5 When God invites Adam and Eve to work, it is an invitation to participate in His creative purposes and reflect His wisdom and order in the world.
Along with this, the Bible tells us that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Being created in God’s image carries with it the ability and the expertise to shape and mold creation as a steward. Art Lindsley, vice president of theological initiatives at the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics, writes, “[B]ecause God is creative, we can be creative in our work. Knowing the basis for our dignity and worth helps us understand we have gifts and talents to employ.”6 We do not work as mindless robots, tortured slaves, or as unskilled laborers; rather, we work as creative, God-imaging creatures who share in the blessed calling to bring our skills to bear on this world that God has given us.
Later in Scripture, we see artisans like Bezalel called to create beautiful art for the glory of God. God sends His Spirit to fill Bezalel with “ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft” (Exodus 31:2–5). Then God appoints skilled workers to help him create what is needed for the Tabernacle (vv. 6–11). God then equips Bezalel to teach these crafts to others:
And he [the LORD] has inspired him [Bezalel] to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver — by any sort of workman or skilled designer. (Exodus 35:34–35)
Just as the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters as God spoke creation into existence (Genesis 1:2), the Spirit of God filled the chief artisan to create God’s dwelling place and teach others. God is present with His people as they do the creative work that they are uniquely called to do.
Working creatively does not necessitate an artistic hand. We use creativity in just about every kind of work we can do. It takes creativity to use your skills and aptitudes to accomplish goals — whatever those goals may be.
THORNS AND THISTLES
However, our work has been directly impacted by the fall of humans into sin. Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and God cursed the very ground on which they walked:
[C]ursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:17–19)
When we look at work today, it can be hard to untangle the incredible calling that God has placed before us to work and steward His creation, and the “thorns and thistles” that have infected our labor. As much as we can see the natural world impacted by this curse — one would only have to turn on the news to hear of natural disasters or glance outside to see the weeds growing in our gardens — this curse on work extends beyond just physical labor. Our work is hard. All that we do is done with toil, and nothing we desire will come easily.
In Ecclesiastes, the Teacher explains, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (2:11). We do the tasks set out for us, and they often still feel as if they are done in vain. We go to our places of work day after day, but the tasks are never done. And when we toil, there is a very real possibility that the work we accomplish will never benefit us — we will simply leave it behind for someone else to enjoy: “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me” (2:18).
And still, even though work is hard and often unfulfilling, Scripture speaks clearly to those who choose not to work: “The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor” (Proverbs 12:24). Paul likewise encourages the church of the Thessalonians, saying:
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. (2 Thessalonians 3:10–12)
Despite the pain, monotony, and frustration that comes with work today, there is hope to be found in the fact that Jesus Christ has redeemed work.
WORK IS REDEEMED IN CHRIST
Part of the fallen human experience is the desire to work in a way that was never intended for us: the desire to work in order to earn salvation. In some sense, we expect that we will be able to “do more” to please God or make Him want to bless us. Whether it be through what job we choose to do, or individual acts of service, or through spiritual disciplines, our sinful selves may still think, “I can please God.” We simply cannot do enough to earn salvation.
Jesus — true God and true man — came to earth to work. And yes, He spent time as a carpenter before He began His ministry, but the work referred to here is the work of perfectly fulfilling God’s law. Through Jesus’s perfect life, death, and resurrection, He accomplished our salvation. Unlike us, He was without sin and therefore did not deserve death, which entered the world through sin. Yet in His great love and mercy, He gave Himself for us, bearing our sins and dying in our place, and rose from the grave victorious over sin, death, and the devil. When Jesus cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), from the cross, His saving work was truly finished. No human work can add to the perfect salvation Christ has accomplished for us. As Paul explains, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
It is because Jesus has perfectly accomplished salvation for us that we are now free to work for the good of those around us. We were once slaves to sin, and now we are free to do what God has called us to do: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). God has placed people in our lives: family, neighbors, church members, so that we can share what we have (Hebrews 13:16), and we can let our light shine before them (Matthew 5:16). And even when our faithful work feels fruitless, we can be encouraged that God is at work through us regardless: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Many theologians have used the term “vocation” (derived from the Latin vocatio, or “calling”) to explain how work encompasses not only our paid or physical labor, but all our activities in the world — how we love our neighbor and serve God. Author and professor Gene Edward Veith explains, “Vocation shows Christians how to live out their faith, not just in the workplace but in their families, churches, and cultures.”7 This expansive view of work encourages us to see God’s calling in all areas of our lives.
By understanding that Jesus has redeemed our work, we can work without fear in whatever positions God has called us to in this life. Veith continues: “[God] also calls us to arenas of service. ‘Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him’ (1 Cor. 7:17). Thus, the Lord ‘assigns’ us to a ‘life,’ and then He calls us to that life.”8 Christ has called each and every one of us to the life we are living right now, whether that means changing diapers or delivering mail, caretaking or bookkeeping. All actions — as long as we are living within the moral parameters of God’s law — done by those who are in Christ are deemed “good” by God because of the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ.
WORK IN THE ESCHATON
The curse of the fall affected all creation, not just humans. And so, all creation awaits the day when things will be made right. Creation groans, Paul says, as it awaits being set free from bondage to decay (see Romans 8:21–22). One day, Jesus will return and set all things right.
At that time, the new heavens and new earth will be established where we will dwell with the Lord forever (see Revelation 21:1–4). In the new heavens and new earth, we will — with our physical bodies (see 1 Corinthians 15) — continue to work. Because work is good and integral to who we are as those who have been created in God’s image, work continues into the eschaton.
In the book of Isaiah, we see a prophecy concerning the activities of humans in the new heavens and new earth: “[My people] shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands” (Isaiah 65:21–22).
Therefore, as we work in the new heavens and new earth, we will not only experience the joy of doing good work, but we will be able to continually enjoy the fruits of our labor. Similar to the work we see in the garden of Eden, work in the new heavens and new earth will involve stewarding the creation God has given to us.
As we look toward the second coming of Christ, there is hope for the redemption of all our work. As legend has it, when Martin Luther was asked what he would do if he knew that the world would be gone tomorrow, he replied that he would plant an apple tree. Although there is reason to believe that he never actually said this, the principle remains a good one: our work is good, and God gets to decide how that good work is used. We simply do those good works as people who are in Christ and trust that God will use them for the benefit, encouragement, and sustaining of our neighbor. And when we dwell with the Lord forever, there will also be rest — just as the cyclical pattern of work and rest was established at creation.
Lisa Cooper is a marketing manager at Paravel Insights and a freelance writer with numerous ministries. She has a master’s degree in religion from the American Lutheran Theological Seminary, has served in college ministry for the past decade, and currently serves as a women’s ministry leader.
NOTES
- All Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version.
- “Balancing Rhythms of Rest and Work (Overview),” Theology of Work Project, accessed May 7, 2026, https://www.theologyofwork.org/key-topics/rest-and-work-overview/.
- C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, “Genesis 2,” StudyLight, accessed May 7, 2026, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/kdo/genesis-2.html.
- “Why Sleep Matters: Consequences of Sleep Deficiency,” Harvard Medical School: Division of Sleep Medicine, accessed May 7, 2026, https://sleep.hms.harvard.edu/education-training/public-education/sleep-and-health-education-program/sleep-health-education-45.
- Bob Thune, “Created for Work,” The Gospel Coalition: Faith and Work, March 22, 2011, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/created-for-work/.
- Art Lindsley, “The Image of God and the Dignity of Work,” The Gospel Coalition: Faith and Work, February 18, 2013, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-the-image-of-god-means-for-our-dignity-and-work/.
- Gene Edward Veith, “The Doctrine of Vocation,” The Gospel Coalition, accessed May 7, 2026, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-doctrine-of-vocation/.
- Veith, “The Doctrine of Vocation.”
