ICS Daily Devotions
Work Is Not Cursed
God created the heavens and the earth. God was like a gardener, He tended to His creation with care to nurture it to fruitfulness. God worked and He was thrilled with the end result of all the work He had created. Then He handed over to Adam to be the steward of His creation. Adam, created by God, was to work on creation just as God had done. But Adam sinned.
Genesis 3: 17-18 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.
Based on these verses, there may be a misconception that work is cursed and a necessary evil (ie. we have to work but we don’t have to like it). Some may perceive that because of sin, work is then sinful and we have a right to hate our work. However, we need to see that work per se is not cursed. God Himself worked. It is the entire creation that has come under the curse from Adam’s sin. The consequence of our sin has affected our work.
We are created in God’s image. We are to work in the same pattern as God Himself, who is creative and nurturing, and willing to work with His hands so that all creation would flourish. Because of the consequence of sin, we “all fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We have missed the mark of honour and glory that God has bestowed upon His creation at the Garden and this shows up in our lives including our work. Instead of being thrilled at seeing the results of what we have accomplished at work, we will often feel that whatever we do is never enough, or the rewards are never enough. There is always more to do, more that is expected of us, and the end never seems to be in sight. We may even feel miserable when we find that our work can never bring us fulfillment.
The good news is that for those who are in Christ, we have been set free from the curse. We have been made right with God (Romans 5:15-16). As a result of this new position we have before God, we can now do what is right. Our work can be more than just about ourselves. We can now become God’s stewards in the flourishing of creation and humanity just as how He intended Adam to be. We can do that because in Christ, we reign in life.
Sermon Series: Man At Work
