Sunday, April 13, 2025
Dr. John Welborn
Good Work
We Are Created for Work
Genesis 2:15

On my first mission trip I served as a youth director for a church in Alabama nearly 25-years-ago. A small group traveled to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to help a church in Nags Head. They had been given a house that had to be moved off the property, so they had paid a company to relocate the house to the backside of their church building. It was used for office space, kids’ programs, and other ministry purposes. However, the church was a beautiful white sided building, the house was brown and wooden. There was a professional vinyl siding contractor who oversaw the project to install siding on this house to make it look like they fit together. After a day and a half of cutting vinyl siding with hand snips, my forearms were on fire. So, I asked the professional why we couldn’t just use the hand saw to cut the siding and he said it wasn’t designed that way and would shatter the siding. When his back was turned, I grabbed the hand saw and did it anyway. Sure enough, I destroyed an entire panel of siding…by deviating from its designed use!

Everything has a Designed Use, Including Human Beings Like Us!

We refer to our jobs as a necessary evil, a means to an end, or putting our nose to the old grindstone. The enemy, the devil, and our own flesh has done a good job of convincing us that we were designed for endless leisure, never-ending vacations, and a life free from any real responsibility. We believe that work is the monster that gets in the way of the life we were created to enjoy. But…


Main Idea: God Designed People with Work in Mind

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Genesis 2:15


We are Created for Work in Two Ways in Genesis 2:15

I. Work with God
“Then the LORD God took the man…” Genesis 2:15a

Notice the language God “took the man” (fetch, lay hold, take by the hand), rather than “sent the man.” From the very beginning, God intended to work with Adam and Eve to cultivate his very good creation. We can deduce that God left his work in creation incomplete on purpose, to partner with people! So, it only makes sense that work is not some necessary evil due to sin’s curse on the world. No, from the beginning we were made to work with God.

“As a being created in God’s image, Adam, like God, was to be a worker. Without the taint of sin, work was an undiluted blessing.” CSB Study Bible

“Work is a God-given assignment and not a cursed condition. It was sin that spoiled the pristine relationship between the man and his environment…life without work would not be worthy of human beings.” K.A. Matthews

“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

Why is work so hard? Toxic workplaces, exploitative practices, unfair compensation, unclear expectations, miserable supervisors?

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good & evil you shall not eat…So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, & that it was a delight to the eyes, & that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit & ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, & he ate…And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife & have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns & thistles it shall bring forth for you; & 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, & to dust you shall return.’”Genesis 2:16-17a, 3:6, 17-19 – The Fall Cursed Work

There are many things I dislike about my job, just like you. But, despite that, I like to think that God is waiting for me at my desk when I come to work (not that he wasn’t with me at home or on my commute), but that when I engage in work that it is at his invitation and in partnership with him.

Implications of Working With God:
• All Work is Sacred, No Legitimate Job is Secular
• Sin Has Made Work Difficult and Painful at Times
• My Dream Job Must Be Re-Defined
• There are No Insignificant or Meaningless Jobs

“We are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:9


II. Work for God
“…and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Genesis 2:15b

The phrase “put him in the garden” literally translates that God made him to come to rest in the garden (work and rest are both here from the beginning). We do not work because we must and we do not rest only when we are exhausted, both are part of God’s plan for us from the beginning. In addition, the words “work it and keep it” is instructive on two levels: 1) Work (abed) carries the idea of service, labor, and worship, and 2) Keep (shamar) is all about guarding, preserving. The combination of these terms is commonly used to describe the work of the priests in the temple.

“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.” Colossians 3:23-24 – All work is FOR God!

We struggle to appreciate people who work differently than we do. I am quick to criticize slow service at a restaurant, or dismiss the pressure of high-earning workers, without considering the unique stresses they face.

Everyone is on a quest for meaning and significance. Work is a big part of that and certain types of work carry more significant meaning in our minds. Teachers are better than pro athletes (despite pay gaps), doctors are better than bankers, farmers are better than politicians, in Christian circles pastors/missionaries are better than nearly everyone (lol). Is this true???

“This hierarchy of vocations is toxic and untrue. Work becomes a competition to prove that what we’re doing counts. Winners at the vocational game inevitably fall into pride and criticism of others. Losers feel less-than, or worse, thinking their work isn't meaningful or important or spiritual, they embrace lower standards for excellence and ethics. Fortunately, God’s wisdom cuts through the noise to remind us that all work is important.”Chip Roper

Could I make a table? Maybe. But, not without depending on the work of thousands of others to do it (forestry managers, saw manufacturers, transportation workers, oil refineries, paint makers, etc.). You see, it would take multiple lifetimes for just one of us to make something as basic as a table. Even if we worked every second of the day, we could come nowhere close to creating what human workers worldwide provide to us. Consider…

“Imagine that everyone quits working, right now! What happens? Civilized life quickly melts away. Food vanishes from the shelves, gas dries up at the pumps, streets are no longer patrolled, & fires burn themselves out. Communications & transportation services end, utilities go dead. Those who survive at all are soon huddled around campfires, sleeping in caves, clothed in raw animal hides. The difference between a wilderness & culture is simply, work.” Tim Keller (Every Good Endeavor)

Does this help if you are still in a dead-end job in a toxic work environment with a jerk for a boss with impossible coworkers and no end to misery in sight. You think, “I was made for this?” Yep! Pretty much! Work is an act of worship (service, preservation, cultivation) to God, and we were made for it!

“And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice & praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven & glory in the highest!’ And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’” Luke 19:36-40 – Made to Worship and Made to Work

God desires to fellowship and work with all people made in his image (everyone). But, just like Adam who was given the job to keep the garden and refused by choosing to sin instead, we can also miss out on God’s best for us.

“He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:24 – Adam missed out, but we don’t have to!

God made you on purpose, for a purpose. Despite the many ways you have rebelled against him and how meaningless your work feels right now, he invites you into an intimate relationship with him as he forgives your sins, adopts you into his family, empowers you to do good work WITH him and FOR him! He does not need you, but he wants you to enjoy the life you were born to live.



Sources and Further Reading Opportunities:
CSB Study Bible – Trevin Wax, General Editor (2021)
Expository Outlines on the Old Testament – Warren Wiersbe (1993)
New American Commentary – Genesis 1-11:26 – K.A. Matthews (1996)
If God’s a Worker, What Kind of Work Does He Do? – R. Gehrlein (2017)
Every Good Endeavor – Timothy Keller (2012)
What Makes Your Work Matter – Chip Roper (2023)