Is the American work ethic sliding back to pagan standards? That is not the question Eric Chester, founder of RevivingWorkEthic.com, asked in an article published in a Dec. 21, 2011, Forbes Magazine article. But his example of today’s work ethic certainly raised the issue.
Chester said of younger American workers, they “don’t always want to work, and when they do, their terms don’t always line up with those of their employers. All too often, the young worker shows up 10 minutes late wearing flip-flops, pajama bottoms and a T-shirt that says ‘My inner child is a nasty b——.’” Then she fidgets through her shift until things slow down enough that she can text her friends or update her Facebook page from her smartphone.”
Chester went on to say employers are searching for positive, enthusiastic people who show up for work on time, who are dressed and prepared properly, who go out of their way to add value and do more than what’s required of them, who are honest, who will play by the rules and who will give cheerful, friendly service regardless of the situation.
Unfortunately, he argues, that kind of work ethic has been slipping for at least two generations.
The pagan Greeks and Romans regarded work as a curse, points out Roger B. Hill in his article “Historical Contest of the Work Ethic.” Both cultures traced the word for work back to a root word meaning pain. Hard work, whether due to economic need or under the orders of a master, was disdained, Hill writes.
The Greeks believed that a person’s “prudence, morality and wisdom was directly proportional to the amount of leisure time that person had.” Aristotle viewed work as a “corrupt waste of time that would make a citizen’s pursuit of virtue more difficult.”
Romans also held work in low regard. Work detracted from virtue, they believed, and was to be done by slaves. Free men sought “independence from external things, self-sufficiency and satisfaction with one’s self.”
Sound familiar?
While the view of work began to change during the Middle Ages, it was not until the Reformation that society recognized the dignity of work itself. Religious reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, among others, pointed out that God is a worker. The opening verses of the Bible present God as Creator — an act of work. Genesis 2:2 reinforces that point when it says “By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing so on the seventh day He rested from all His work.”
The New Testament teaches that God continues to work. In John 5:17, Jesus says “My Father is working until now and I am working.” God working gives work dignity, meaning and significance, the reformers argued. Work was not corrupt, wasteful or painful as the pagans believed.
Genesis 1:27 teaches man is made in the image of God. Certainly that image implies man is to resemble God as a worker. Genesis 2:15 makes that exact point. There God gives Adam a job. He is to work taking care of the Garden of Eden. From the beginning God intended man to find purpose and meaning, at least in part, from his vocation.
Since Luther, Protestant churches have generally taught that one’s vocation should be related to one’s calling by God. Vocation is not just a way to support a family or pay for a hobby. Vocation is an expression of personhood and every vocation contains equal spiritual dignity.
Work became equated with the will of God. Human kind was to join God in the creation process of reshaping the world into the kingdom of God so God’s will can be done on earth as it is in Heaven. One might move up the economic ladder during a lifetime but each person was to “lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him” (1 Cor. 7:17).
Christians came to understand that God worked. Jesus worked. The apostle Paul worked as a tentmaker. All people, rich or poor, were to work. In 1 Timothy 5:8 Paul writes, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” That requires work.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:10 Paul declares that if someone is not willing to work then that person should not be given anything to eat. In each instance work contained dignity, provided meaning and was significant to the individual and to the community.
This “Protestant work ethic,” as Max Weber later termed it, made much of the apostle Paul’s teachings that “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31), “For from Christ and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever” (Rom. 11:36) and “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23–24). All the verses were applied to work.
Weber, an economic sociologist, even argues that the change in the theology of work which occurred during the Reformation led to the rapid expansion in commerce and the rise of industrialism in the same time period.
After more than 300 years of the Protestant work ethic holding sway, things have begun to change. Today instead of diligence, punctuality, deferred gratification and the importance of work, one often finds what Chester calls “me-centric workers” who he describes as “entitled, disengaged, unmotivated and disloyal.”
Critics lay part of the blame at the feet of the church. They charge the church has been silent about applying God’s word to the marketplace. On this Sunday before Labor Day how many Alabama Baptist churches will teach what God’s Word says about the dignity of work? How long has it been since you heard a sermon about avarice and greed in the marketplace (whether employer or employee)? What does the church teach about the ethics of capitalism or the need to express love of God and love others in business?
In short, there seems to be a separation between work and the teachings of Scripture resulting in the death of the Protestant work ethic. It should be no surprise that the corrupting nature of sin moves culture back to pagan standards whenever the teachings of God’s work are rejected. That includes the teachings about the dignity, significance and purpose of work as an expression of humankind made in the image of God.
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