I’ve been listening to Grace to You on the radio this week and John MacArthur has been preaching through a series called Wisdom for the Workplace. Although I’m semi-retired, I’ve been impressed anew by the wisdom of Biblical attitudes toward work.

“The Greatest Generation,” those who came of age before or during WWII, were famous  for their  work ethic. The current generation is lamented as having lost the drive to provide an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. The boss, whether a small businessman or large corporation, is now viewed, not as the benefactor for whom we exchange time and energy for our sustenance (the founder of the feast as Dickens puts it in A Christmas Carol), but as the enemy who makes us work too hard in exchange for too little. How can anyone enjoy their job with such an attitude?

The Bible, as usual, has the answer to this contemporary issue: if we labor in order to honor God, then we are free from the burden of resentment toward an unkind employer.

On this Labor Day weekend, it is a good time to consider our own attitudes to doing whatever work we are called to do. Rather than a too-brief break from onerous labor, perhaps it could be a long weekend when we adjust our attitudes in order to return to work on Tuesday with gratitude toward our employers and a determination to do our best as an act of honor to God.