Yet the drive to work without rest is nothing new. The Exodus recounts how the Lord redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt. Among many other things, this was an environment that required constant work and constant productivity. Before giving the Ten Commandments, the Lord reminds his people, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deut 5:6). Notice that the command to “Observe the Sabbath day” (Deut 5:12) is placed between the commands related to love for God and the commands related to love for neighbor. The reason the Lord gave for this mandate is, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day” (Deut 5:14-15). [1] In this commandment, the Lord reminds his people that although work and productivity were important, they were not ultimate.
Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to teach a class on Sabbath with two other pastors at our church. And we’ve been reflecting on the freedom that the Sabbath command provides for us as Christians today. I’m convinced that both corporate and church worlds need this wisdom now more than ever. Based on my pastoral experience as well as my work in the tech industry, there are four insights I’ve learned regarding a theology and practice of work and rest.
Do you often feel like your identity, worth, and hope are too connected to your work? Does your life often revolve around the demands and expectations of culture more than the God-given rhythm of work and rest? If so, then these four insights are for you.
(1) Our ultimate goal in both work and rest is to worship Jesus.
Everything we do should point us to Jesus. Both our work and our rest can be done in a way that magnifies him. We should work hard to please the Lord (Col 3:17). This was a theme highlighted by the Protestant Reformers. The sad reality is, however, that we have a way of turning the best gifts into the worst idols. The gift we’ve been given of work can easily morph into an all-consuming desire to produce, acquire, accomplish, and consume.
This is where Jesus’ words – “I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28) – call us back to the goodness and freedom of rest. We can worship the Lord in the way we rest and the way we work. Theologian Marva Dawn notes, “Our weekly ceasing reminds us that the value of work lies not in itself nor in the worth it gives us, but in the worship of God that takes place in it.”[2]
How can we establish this way of life? All of us – ministry leaders, teachers, doctors and nurses, full-time parents, employees, leaders in the corporate world, and small business owners – can begin to cultivate deliberate practices of prayer that are integrated with, instead of disconnected from, our rhythms of working and resting. Our times away from work can become spiritually restful, instead of filled with mindless leisure and entertainment. Our times of work can be done in a way that prayerfully seeks to please the Lord, even as we excel and bless the culture around us.
(2) We live life in view of God’s time and God’s story.
The entire story of the world has been redefined because of Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. We live under the cosmic story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. History is not cyclical, but is heading towards an ultimate destiny. The Lord says at the end of the Revelation, indeed, at the very end of Scripture’s story, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:6).
We live in light of this ultimate destiny as “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb 11:13). Therefore, our rhythms of work and rest should not ultimately be dictated by work demands. We live in light of eternity. Resting well is one small way to remind us of this.
How can we constantly remind ourselves of this? One simple, yet increasingly uncommon, practice is to observe a 24-hour weekly Sabbath. There is a lot of freedom in how we do this as New Covenant Christians. But a general principle could be to cease from all work, worry (making plans, having difficult conversations, etc.), and maybe even technology one day a week to remind ourselves of the ultimate story in which we are living.
(3) Our time ultimately belongs to the Lord.
Whether we are good at it or not, we intuitively know as Christians that we should give a portion of our financial income to the Lord. We give, not because God needs it (Ps 50:10-12), but to remind our hearts that our money does not satisfy and our money is not ultimately our own. “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7).
We can practice this same intentionality with our time by resting in meaningful ways and not always needing to produce and accomplish more. We should recognize our physical, emotional, and spiritual limitations as humans and embrace the rest the Lord has given us.
“Time is money,” as the saying goes. Perhaps our most precious and finite resource is our time. We only get 168 hours each week. When we dedicate a portion of this to rest in a way that pleases the Lord, we remind ourselves that our time is not our own.
How can we be good stewards of our time? This may be as simple for some of us as ceasing our work to sleep more consistently. “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Ps 4:8). For others, this may look like reprioritizing time with the Lord’s people in our local churches. Don’t let the constant demands of work, even work done for the Lord, cause you to neglect the corporate gathering (Heb 10:25).
(4) Who we are in Jesus is more important than what we do for Jesus.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus sent out seventy-two of his followers to minister in the surrounding towns. When they returned after much ministry success, he reminded them, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Later in Luke 10, we read the familiar story of Martha and Mary, a constant reminder for us that being with Jesus is more important than what we do for Jesus (Luke 10:38-42).
These stories remind us that we are not ultimately defined by what we do for the Lord, but rather by who we are in the Lord. Serving the Lord is good, but it is not our ultimate identity. Rest confronts the core of our never-ending temptation to do more by forcing us to stop and be who we are in Christ. For those of us tempted to never-ending work and productivity, Jesus’ words to Martha remind us of this: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42).
This sounds right, but how do we practically live in this reality? We can start by being more thoughtful in our daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythms, making sure we take time to intentionally cease and rest from doing, so we have the freedom to be. Take a look at your calendar and plan your next year so this is possible.
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