I approach these two matters of hard work and wealth with fear and trembling because I don’t want to throw gasoline on any fires. Working hard is good but extoling the virtues of working hard to hard working people can lead to problems. I’m not talking primarily about pride here. Rather, I’m talking about the fact that working hard can become a respectable way to escape problems in other areas of life. That doesn’t make working hard bad, but it should give us reason for pause when extolling the virtues of hard work.
Wealth is good too, but it also has pitfalls. Scripture has a very nuanced view on wealth. It doesn’t condemn the rich but neither does it celebrate the rich. It says that wealth is important, but it also says that wealth doesn’t really matter. The Bible has a very nuanced view on wealth which is precisely is needed because wealth is a complicated matter. Wealth means more than we tend to think. For some of us it means freedom—we can do what we want when we want. For some of us it means security—having enough means that we will never need help. For some of us it means power—having money means we can influence others to do what we think is right. Not all of that is proper.
Honoring hard work and recognizing the importance of wealth is simultaneously necessary and risky because while hard work and wealth are good, but they aren’t purely good. Please look at the first two questions on your sheet—write two words that describe your relationship with working hard. Maybe you’ll write “identity”—because working hard is who you are. Maybe you’ll write “temptation”—you can see areas in your life that have suffered because you’ve worked so hard. The next question is, “write two words that describe your relationship with wealth.” I’ll give you some time. Working hard and wealth are good, but they aren’t purely good. We need to be aware of both sides of that truth. That’s the claim of this sermon: working hard and wealth are good, but they aren’t purely good.
We will study this in two points. First: working hard. Second: wealth. First, we will look at proverbs that have to do with working hard. Second, we will look at proverbs that have to do with wealth.
First: hard work. Solomon wrote and collected proverbs to train the young people. He wanted them to live productive, meaningful lives and hard work is part of a productive, meaningful life. Proverbs 10:5, “He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.”
Work must be done while it needs to be done. If you’ve been harvesting, you know that full well. You know that it would be foolish and financially disastrous to put off the harvest until Christmas vacation. Working hard involves submitting yourself to the realities on the ground. You need to harvest when the crop is ready. You need to work late one night because it is supposed rain the next morning. To do so is simply wise.
Hard work is good but it requires planning. Proverbs 12:27, “The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.” The diligent are willing to get up early or stay up late for the hunt because they know that’s when they are likely to catch the game. Good fishermen are willing to get up well before the sunrise to get out there while certain fish are biting. Good contractors prepare to hit the ground running the next morning. Good retail managers plan and tweak how they will lay out the floor weeks in advance. They don’t just work hard when the action is happening; they work hard in preparation for the action.
Planning is important but this planning needs to be carried out. Proverbs 14:23, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” This isn’t a condemnation of talking for a living. The Bible is clear that politicians have their place just like plumbers have their place. We tend to set blue and white color jobs in opposition to each other—even those labels do so. That’s not entirely helpful. It’s not a good situation when people think they are too good to do manual labor. It’s not a good situation when people who work with their hands think they are better than those who don’t. This proverb isn’t about talking for a living compared with working for a living. It is about doing what you plan; “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”
Both planning and executing your plans are necessary. Proverbs 12:11, “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.” It’s easy for each of us to sit around and imagine what we would do if we were in a different job, but that different job is not the one in which God has placed you right now. Bloom where you are planted.
It’s getting down to work that brings results. Proverbs 12:24, “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.” Those who work hard generally get ahead. Two women starting the same position at the same time will have vastly different career trajectories if one of them is diligent while the other one is lazy. At least they should have vastly different career trajectories. A workplace that rewards laziness is in trouble.
Hard workers need that reminder. They need to hear proverbs like 22:29, “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.” Again, this isn’t always the case, but it is a general rule. Hard work is appreciated; it opens doors. We ought to appreciate hard work when we see it.
The one who refuses to work is, in the book of Proverbs, called a sluggard. Proverbs 6:6, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.” There is a bit of lighthearted teasing in this proverb. The idea is that the ant is wiser than the sluggard. The ant, who doesn’t think, instinctively gathers food. The sluggard, who can think, doesn’t think or act and will wind up worse off than an ant.
The sluggard needs to suffer the consequences for his behavior or he won’t change. As Proverbs 16:26 puts it, “A worker’s appetite works for him; his mouth urges him on.” A society that prevents people from suffering the consequences of their laziness is on a trajectory to destruction. As Bruce Waltke put it, “Though work is tiring and frustrating in this fallen world, nevertheless the drive to gratify his appetites prods the diligent person to produce efforts. The history of civilization is unimaginable without it.” We might resent the fact that we must work but if we didn’t have to, it’s unlikely that we would add much to society.
Laziness ought to bring consequences. Diligence ought to bring consequences. Proverbs 13:4, “A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.” People who aren’t willing to work hard still want what hard work brings. The sluggard wants the rewards of hard work but isn’t willing to work for it. The diligent person is willing to work for it and so receives it.
The diligent tend to get ahead. The lazy tend to fall behind. Proverbs 10:4, “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.” There is no neutral gear in these regards. As Bruce Waltke puts it, “chaos ever threatens to undo the created order, and, if unchecked by diligence, destroys hard-earned wealth.” This is why successful companies who rest on their laurels fall behind while companies that continue to innovate remain ahead.
Hard work matters. The most celebrated person in Proverbs is a hard worker; that’s the Proverbs 31 woman, “She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.” Now this isn’t a prescription; it is a picture. This isn’t a call to women to get up before the sun rises and go to bed long after it sets. This is a way of celebrating hard work. Take a look at your second set of questions—what advantages has hard work brought you? What consequences has failing to work hard brought you?
God is a hard worker. The first two chapters of the Genesis are a play by play of Him at work. Jesus thought of his work in similar terms. He said, about creation and providence, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.” Work isn’t bad. Hard work isn’t bad. It is good. It brings great benefits provided we keep it in its place. The same goes for wealth. That’s our second point.
Proverbs is a book about living wisely and living wisely brings wealth. Wisdom, speaking in Proverbs 8:17-18, says, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.” Wise management of a company will, in general, yield better results than poor management of a company. You might be able to think of exceptions, but those are the exceptions that prove the rule.
Wisdom brings wealth and wealth brings many benefits. Proverbs 14:24, “The wealth of the wise is their crown, but the folly of fools yields folly.” Having wealth from working hard isn’t something to be ashamed of. Wealth brings opportunities. Being wealthy has many advantages over being poor. As Tevye put it in The Fiddler on the Roof, “Oh, Lord, you made many, many poor people. I realize, of course, it's no shame to be poor, but it’s no great honor either!”
Wealth buffers us from many sorrows. Wealthy people are rarely evicted from their apartments. They can send their children to the programs and opportunities that can help them get further ahead. Wealth provides much that poverty doesn’t. That’s why when given a choice people prefer wealth to poverty. Proverbs 10:15, “The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor.”
Wealth offers a great deal but that’s a double edged sword. Proverbs 18:11, “The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale.” Wealth is easy to depend on and so we who have more than enough learn to depend on it. We begin to think our savings is what keeps us secure. We become more and more unwilling to do anything that might upset our bottom line even if that action would be right. All this and more led Jesus to say, “how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Now we Americans need to think long and hard about those words of Jesus because we live amid affluence that would have been unimaginable in the first century. We live amid affluence that would have been unimaginable at the beginning of the 20th century. This means that in some ways we are like the rich man who finds it so hard to enter the kingdom of heaven. However, most of us are probably somewhere in the middle class and there are genuine differences between how the middle class and those in the upper class live; this means in other ways we aren’t exactly like the rich man. For example, most of us would have a hard time successfully manipulating other people with money. Very few of us have enough money to feel genuinely secure no matter what might happen economically in this country in the next five years. That leads us to our third set of questions: in what ways do you consider yourself wealthy, and next, are there any ways in which you are different from the rich in our day?
Now wealth can do a good deal, but in the end, it can do nothing. Proverbs 11:4, “Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” On the final day, God will not be swayed by your salary or by what’s in your savings account. He will not be impressed by whether you had employees or were someone else’s employee. He will have no interest in whether you had a better standard of living than your parents are a lower one. He will be interested in your righteous living in these situations.
This means that we would be wise to use whatever wealth we have to express righteousness. That’s Proverbs 3:9, “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops.” The Israelites were called to give the Lord the first fruits of their crops a sign of trust. Assessing the wealth you’ve got and then determining what you can give without changing your standard of living doesn’t require trust. God works to cultivate trust because He cares about righteousness.
God believes Proverbs 28:6, “Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.” Each of us needs to ask ourselves if we believe that. Do we truly think that a woman on the poverty line who trusts and obeys God is more blessed than the woman who doesn’t trust or obey God but is able to vacation where she wants when she wants? Do we truly think that the man who isn’t sure he will be able to retire due to financial constraints but trusts God is better off than the man who doesn’t trust God but could retire right now if he wanted to and live more than comfortably until he was one hundred and twenty? Jesus would look at that choice and say, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
The Lord cares about what you do with your money just like He cares about what you do with your body. He is clear about the ways that using your body will bring pain to you and others and about the ways in which using whatever wealth you have will bring pain to you and others. He is clear about how you can do good and receive good with both as well. Proverbs 19:17, “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward them for what they have done.”
Wealth matters. It matters what we do with it. It isn’t bad. Like many things in life, it is an excellent servant but a horrible master. Like many things in life, it can become our master without our knowing it. Proverbs 30:8-9 explains the nuanced view of wealth best. ‘Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.’ This isn’t a way of saying that being part of the middle class is the best way forward. It’s a way of showing the goodness of wealth—you don’t have to worry about where your next meal will come from—and showing the danger of wealth—you forget where your daily bread truly does come from.
Jesus strikes this balance best. He owns everything and yet he self-selected poverty as his way of life. As Paul put it, “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor.” The same God who arranged life so that hard work would generally lead to wealth also chose to become poor. The way that life is arranged should give us pause when we are unwilling to work hard and yet want the fruit of hard work. The incarnation of the Son of God should give us pause when we think that we are better and have done better than anyone with less. That is to say that hard work and wealth are good but there are much more important matters that make up a life. Amen.