"Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." Deuteronomy 5:13
Additional readings: Deuteronomy 5:1-22, Psalm 45, Psalm 46, John 6:25-40
The command to labor is embodied in one of the Ten Commandments. Work is necessary to human life. When man was created, he was commanded to increase and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it, and to have dominion.
We are aware of the hardship that results when men in a single industry stop working for a week. If all people in our nation stopped working for a week, the nation would be brought to the verge of disaster; if people ceased working for a month, starvation and pestilence would be widespread.
The command to labor is just as plain as the command to worship, or any other of the Commandments. Idleness is a sin against God. It does violence to human nature, it is destructive to human society, it defeats the purpose for which man was created.
The command to labor, like all the other Commandments, is the affirmation of a law of the Divine nature, and consequently of man’s nature. The Two Great Commandments are based on this law. No one can love the Lord or the neighbor without engaging in some useful employment. Activity is life; inactivity is death.
The Lord is a Creator — a worker — and He is continually creating. The Lord did not create the universe and then withdraw as an idle spectator: "existence is perpetual creation." Everything that exists today — all things of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdom, and man — are products of the Divine love, wisdom, and power at work today as in the beginning.
The purpose of creation was that the Divine Love might have some object on which it could bestow itself. This constant desire of looking to the good of others, is the very nature of the Divine Love. When the Lord said, "These things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves" (John 17:13), He was referring to the work that He had come into the world to do. The Divine happiness is in serving others. Human happiness can be obtained only in this same way. No man or woman can ever be happy who is not engaged in the performance of some use to others from a desire to do them good.
There is a spurious delight in sensual gratification, in enriching ourselves at the expense of others; there is also an infernal delight in deceiving and in stealing and getting the better of others. But this is not happiness; and the delight of the evil soon turns to suffering.
Because active service is of the Divine nature, and man is created in the image and likeness of God, it follows that useful employment is essential to human happiness. No one can enter heaven and become a citizen of the kingdom of God — no one can love God or his neighbor — without performing some use.
While we live in this world, most of our activities are concerned with the physical aspects of life. We are familiar with the expression "a sound mind in a sound body." But the body with its organs is but the instrument that our spiritual faculties employ in their development. If the appetites of the body are perverted and the senses dulled, it cannot serve the spirit well.
Work develops and gives strength to the body and to the brain. When we are busy, our thoughts are directed to the use we are performing; and if we are doing it from regard to others, we find happiness in our employment. The idle have nothing to do but to think of themselves. If they are poor, they dream life away in inaction, and physically and mentally they become weak. If they are rich, they seek to gain pleasure with the least exertion, and waste their time and strength in indulgence.
All the life and strength of the body is from the mind. The body was created to be the servant of the mind, and when the laws of health are learned and kept, the body becomes a helpful servant. The brain and the other organs of the body are constantly working: they were created to perform their particular uses. Although the man as a whole may not wish to work, yet he is to some extent impelled to do so. We may feel a sense of duty, or we may be led by the desire for pleasure, or we may be forced to work from necessity.
If one lived by himself, he would have to provide for all his needs; and most of his time would be spent in providing for himself his food, clothing, and shelter. Think how little of what we now have we would possess if we had to make everything for ourselves! It is for the purpose of securing the cooperation of men with each other that the Lord designed the world as it is, and placed men in the midst of influences which call his faculties into action.
When we look out upon the world and see want and suffering, we sometimes wonder why the Lord, Who is omnipotent, did not provide abundantly for all human wants without human agency. He has provided for the necessities of plants and animals: why should He not do the same for man?
It is because man is endowed with the power of reason, and with faculties capable of indefinite development. He can come to know the Lord, and receive life from Him in ever-increasing measure and fullness, forever. Animals have an instinct which is perfect in its action within its limits and special purpose. It cannot be improved. Man was created to love the Lord and his fellow men. So the Lord placed him in conditions which would call forth this love. He can do something for the Lord and the neighbor. Stone cannot help stone. Plant cannot help plant. Animals cannot minister to the development and progress of animals. Therefore these forms of creation do not need to provide for wants that they can never know, nor for the exercise of faculties which they can never possess.
We are not born with knowledge. All our faculties and powers have to be developed. They are formed in us, and we become conscious of them, through bringing them down into outward act. Love of itself is of no value: it is a force which must get existence in truth, and be brought into act in deed. Love has no objective until it is combined with wisdom and embodied in work. What would the Divine Love be unless it were united with Divine Wisdom and embodied in creative act? Or what value to you or to anyone else would your love be if it were not expressed in word and transmitted in deed? The Lord’s love is embodied in the creations of worlds and human beings. He embodies His love in His works. He communicates it by His works. He is our pattern.
But we may be physically and intellectually active, and abound in works, and not do anything to develop our spiritual faculties. It is not sufficient that our employment is useful. Most of our employments are. The multitudes of workers are busy providing food, clothing, houses, and a host of things for others. But wicked people may be most productive in material things.
Not only should our employments be useful in themselves, but we must engage in them from the love of service to others. There must be in our work love to God and to man. In many cases the trouble is not that men and women do not work hard enough. They often work too hard — they work too many hours — but they do not work from the right motives, and so they do not reap the true rewards of their labors, and many find themselves unhappy. When we work for selfish or worldly ends, every being and force in the universe is against us. When we work from the love of service to others, we are in the current of the Divine forces; and the Lord, the angels, and every good man and woman, are on our side. If one does not find happiness in his work, it is seldom necessary that he change his occupation; it is only necessary that he engage in it from the right motives. To perform our tasks for the service of other will not diminish wages — nor will it necessarily increase them — but it will bring the delight of ministering to the good and comfort of others. Then we will do our work better, and will find pleasure in it.
There is no safe or honorable position in the world except in useful employment. It is a terrible mistake to think that work is a curse, and that to become rich so as not to have to work is the mark of success.
Jesus said, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." This is the teaching of the Word. Good deeds done from love to God and the neighbor are the path that leads to happiness and to heaven. It is the path that winds by every door, through every house and employment, and through all the labyrinths of our social, civil, industrial, and family life.
