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The Bible warns against both laziness and working too much. Scripture commends diligent labor, but God also designed people to rest, depend on Him, and keep work from consuming responsibilities to Him and others. Overwork can become spiritually harmful when productivity becomes an idol or when constant labor crowds out worship, family, and needed rest.
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Imagine a young father named Mike, whose parents made him work hard during his upbringing. Although he didn’t like it at the time, he now appreciates the way his parents raised him. To provide for his family, he’s been putting in more hours than ever before. Over time, he begins to prioritize his job over his family. What his boss thinks is more important than what his wife, children, or God think. He regularly feels exhausted, and his health is suffering. But he doesn’t slow down. He pursues every work message, project, deal, sale, and offer so he can continue to advance in the company.
Church attendance has become infrequent because he’s convinced his paycheck can care for him better than God can. He invests the same passion in his job that he once invested in his relationship with Christ. He turned a good thing into a god thing. Work is a blessing, but, like Mike, we have the potential to ruin even the blessings God gives us because of our flesh.
When We Turn Blessings Into Idols
Consider this account from Israel’s history to illustrate what can happen. When Israel was in the wilderness, they complained, and as a judgment, God sent poisonous serpents into the camp that started biting the people:
Numbers 21:7 The people [said] to Moses, “We have sinned…Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
When people looked at this bronze serpent, they were spared from the snakebites. But, tragically, over time, people began to worship the bronze serpent. When Hezekiah reformed the nation and destroyed the idolatry, he had to include the bronze serpent, which by then had developed its own name:
2 Kings 18:4 [Hezekiah] removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.”
The object that brought miraculous healing became an idol. Nehushtan serves as a reminder that we must be vigilant against taking any of God’s blessings—whether it’s marriage, children, homes, relationships, money, or jobs—and allowing them to become idols. Mike’s work, and our work, is no more sinful than the bronze serpent, but work becomes Nehushtan if it’s ever more important than God.
When I returned from Africa, I preached a sermon on laziness because I believe the culture there breeds it. But what do you think the culture in America breeds? I think our competitive American culture can breed working too much, as Africa can breed laziness. Because our motto is “bigger and better,” we feel the pressure to keep up and find ourselves busier than ever. Covetousness has never been a stronger temptation. The only solution appears to be working harder. We can end up overworked, under-rested, and spiritually undernourished.
In the past, people couldn’t begin working until the sun rose, and they stopped working when the sun set. Now electricity allows us to have our lights, computers, and cell phones on all the time. Consider this verse:
Isaiah 2:8 Their land is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
The people in Isaiah’s day worshiped their work, and we can worship our work too. When we work too much, work doesn’t suddenly become sinful or unrighteous. Instead, our relationship to work became sinful or unrighteous.
Workaholics can have the same relationship to their work that addicts have to alcohol, drugs, or pornography. Everything else in their lives—family, friends, church, health, and rest—can take a backseat to their jobs. We should recognize that our relationship with work has become sinful when it overshadows the areas of our lives that the Lord wants us to prioritize, such as our relationship with Him and our family members.
Do You Work Too Much?
Answer these questions honestly to help determine whether you struggle with working too much:
- When you’re supposed to be resting, does your mind return to work?
- Do you obsess about your job when you’re not working, thereby removing the distinction between work and rest?
- If you’re home, can you focus on your loved ones, or are you still preoccupied with your job?
- Do you find ways to avoid other responsibilities in your life so that you can get more work done for your job?
If you want honest answers to these questions, consider asking your spouse or children what they think you should answer!
The Twelve Apostles Knew the Solution Isn’t Always Working Harder
Let’s consider an example from Scripture of individuals who had too much to do to see how they handled it:
Acts 6:1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
The Hellenist or Greek widows said they weren’t receiving a share of food, and this seemed to be a legitimate complaint. The early church was growing exponentially:
- In Acts 2:41, 3,000 joined the church
- In Acts 4:4, 5,000 when the church
- John MacArthur said there could’ve been over 20,000 men and women.1
This was just too many people for the 12 apostles to shepherd effectively.
Throughout the Old Testament, God commanded care for orphans and widows. This continues into the New Testament:
James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Paul instructed Timothy, “Honor widows” (1 Timothy 5:3) and “care for widows” (1 Timothy 5:16). The apostles recognized caring for widows as a significant matter. So, what would we expect them to say? “We’ll work harder! We need to make sure no widows fall through the cracks. If we all put in a few more hours, we can get this under control.” Instead:
Acts 6:2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
This has nothing to do with serving food or cleaning up after a meal. Instead, the word “tables” refers to tables for financial transactions. Think of Jesus turning over the moneychangers’ tables. In Luke 19:23, the same word is translated as “bank.” This doesn’t mean the Twelve didn’t want to handle the administrative duties, such as distributing funds, or that they were lazy or thought it was beneath them. Instead, they wisely recognized that they couldn’t “serve tables” and fulfill the other responsibilities that God had given them. Instead, what they decided:
Acts 6:3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
This is when the office of deacon was established.
Three Lessons to Learn from the Apostles
First, it’s not wise, kind, humble, or impressive when we take on more than we can handle. It demonstrates a lack of wisdom due to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual problems it causes.
Second, sharing responsibilities with others is not a sign of laziness or thinking something is beneath us. Instead, we have limited time and energy, and we recognize that the load is too much for us.
Third, we sometimes recognize that our time and energy are better spent elsewhere. The apostles understood that caring for widows was important, but they recognized that it wasn’t more important than preaching the Word and prayer.
God Modeled Rest for Us
God was the first worker. We see Him work from the very first verse of the Bible, when He creates the heavens and the earth. Then, at the beginning of Genesis 2:
Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Three times in two verses, we are told about His work. But God is also the first rest-er. Two times in these verses, we are told that God rested. God introduced the concept of work and rest at creation. God didn’t need to work for six days. He could have created everything in a single day or moment. He worked for six days because He was establishing a pattern for us. Similarly, God didn’t need to rest on the seventh day. He wasn’t tired. Instead, He was establishing a pattern for us to follow.
The Ten Commandments made resting on the Sabbath a requirement of the Law. The fourth commandment reads:
Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day (keep this in mind), to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The command to rest was not an excuse to be lazy, considering they were supposed to work six full days before the seventh.
God said, “Remember the Sabbath,” versus I’m creating the Sabbath, because it wasn’t something new; it had been around since the seventh day of creation. And because the Sabbath existed before the Mosaic Law, we can “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy” separately from, or without, the Law. The Sabbath is a creation mandate. Let me make it simple: even though we are not under the Mosaic Law, we are still expected to rest.
Should We Rest on Saturday or Sunday?
Wondering whether to rest on the seventh or first day of the week is a common enough question; I’d like to take a moment to answer it. Jesus kept the fourth commandment, just as He kept the other nine commandments, because He kept the Law perfectly. But after His resurrection on the first day of the week, we see that day emphasized. Acts 20:7 tells us that the early church met on the first day of the week.2
Paul said believers should bring their giving to church with them on the first day of the week:
1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with the 12 disciples and instituted the New Covenant with these familiar words:
Luke 22:20 “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
With the institution of the New Covenant, there was a shift from the seventh day of the week (the Sabbath/Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday) in honor of Christ’s resurrection on Sunday.3
Our Need to Rest Should Remind Us to Depend on the Lord
Let’s consider the spiritual implications of our need to rest. When God became a Man in the Person of Jesus Christ, He experienced our human limitations, including the need to rest. When Jesus left Judea for Galilee, He passed through Samaria and:
John 4:6 Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
The sixth hour is noon. In other words, this is not Jesus getting tired because it’s evening. This is Jesus getting tired from walking.
Matthew 8:24 There arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.
At one point, He was so fatigued that He slept at the bottom of a boat during a storm.
Mark 6:31 [Jesus] said, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
Jesus and the disciples were so busy they didn’t have time to eat, let alone sleep. Jesus was God in the flesh, yet when he became a Man, even He needed to rest; therefore, we must recognize the same need in our lives. And when we become fatigued, hopefully, it encourages us to depend on the Lord.
Psalm 121:4 Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
God doesn’t need to sleep. This reveals that we are creatures, and not the Creator. Being tired reminds us of our limitations. This keeps us grateful, humble, and dependent on God.
Lamentations 3:23 [The Lord’s mercies] are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
This suggests that after a good night’s sleep, we can pray for help and strength for the day.
Physically Resting Is Often a Spiritual Matter
I added the word often because I’m not going to say that every time we can’t sleep, it’s because God is withholding it from us. However, I want you to see that often there is a connection between sleep and our spiritual condition.
Scripture presents sleep as a blessing God gives. He says:
Leviticus 26:6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall [sleep].
Proverbs 3:24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet.
David wrote…
Psalm 4:8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
And Scripture presents the inability to sleep negatively:
Psalm 6:1 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath…6 I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears.
Psalm 77:4 You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
These verses, and there are more I can give you, present sleep as something God gives and withholds. That makes sleep spiritual!
We Are Often Kept Awake for Spiritual Reasons
When we are overworked, we think it would be the best sleep of our lives. We would be so tired that the moment we lie down, we would immediately fall asleep. But instead, the opposite is often true: when we are working too much, we have trouble sleeping: we are anxious, our minds don’t turn off, we can’t stop thinking about all the things we need to finish, if we manage to fall asleep but wake up before our alarm goes off, we probably lie there stressed about all the things we need to do, preventing us from falling back to sleep.
And the solution is spiritual rather than physical. Trusting the Lord allows us to sleep well. If anxiety is keeping us awake, focusing on God’s control gives us the peace we need to sleep. Confidence in God’s sovereignty liberates us from worry because we believe God will bring about the best end. Consider this wonderfully encouraging verse:
Psalm 37:7a Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him
When we rest in the Lord, we don’t feel obligated to handle everything ourselves. We can relax our grip on our responsibilities because we know the Lord is helping us.
1 Peter 5:7 [Cast] all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.
If anxieties are keeping us awake at night, instead of carrying them with us, we are supposed to, not just to give them to the Lord, but cast them on Him. In other words, don’t hand them to God: throw them to Him and trust Him to deal with them, and of course He will, because He cares for us.
Another spiritual concern that often keeps us awake at night is a guilty conscience or conviction. After David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah murdered, he wouldn’t repent until God sent the prophet Nathan to him.
In Psalm 32, David wrote about the misery he experienced when he refused to repent. Part of it was being unable to sleep at night:
Psalm 32:4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
Why did David say that God’s hand was heavy on him at night? Because he couldn’t sleep! If we want to sleep well at night, we should pursue clean relationships with the Lord, confess our sins, and repent.
Repent of Working Too Much By Finding Balance
Let me explain why repenting of working too much is not as straightforward as other sins…
Matthew 5:29 [Jesus said], “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
Jesus didn’t mean to do these things literally. Instead, He was describing the severity with which we should deal with sin in our lives:
- If we struggle with drunkenness, we get all the alcohol out of our home
- If we struggle with looking at things we shouldn’t, we get software for our phone or computer, or maybe get rid of our phone or computer
- If we struggle with covetousness, we avoid driving by the store or house that tempts us to covet
- If we have a friend who corrupts us spiritually, we can cut off that relationship
But for some sins, we can’t apply this same sort of severity:
- If we struggle with gluttony, we don’t cut all the food out of our lives
- If we struggle with laziness, we don’t cut all the rest out of our lives
- And if we struggle with working too much, we don’t cut all the work out of our lives
Instead, we strive for the right balance: God wants us to have a strong work ethic, and He wants us to rest. We depend on God for the strength we need to do the work He wants us to do:
Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”
And we strive to rest.
This might all sound nice, but what does it look like practically?
- We head home from work on time, because we know God can take care of the work until the next day
- We decline the overtime that is available on Sunday, because we want to keep our priorities in ourder and we know the Lord will provide for our needs
- We take a day off or go on vacation to spend time with our family, because we trust the Lord will take care of things until we return to work
Repenting of Working Too Much Is Repenting Of Idolatry
The bronze serpent was good until the Israelites made it into an idol. Similarly, work is good until we make it into an idol. When work becomes an idol, we apply the principle of putting off and putting on: we put off our idolatry, and we put on heartfelt worship.
Our love for Jesus trumps our love for our jobs. As we think of the work He did for us, we can’t help but think less of the work we do throughout the week. Our jobs move from being idols to occupying their rightful places as tools that allow us to serve Christ.
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Thomas Nelson, 2005), 1446. ↩︎
- The words “break bread” refer to communion as opposed to simple fellowship together. The two are distinguished from each other in Acts 2:42: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” As much as communion looks back to Christ’s death, it also looks forward to His return: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). They broke bread as part of their Sunday worship service. They wouldn’t celebrate communion on the seventh day of the week when Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week. ↩︎
- Six times in the Gospels, the first day of the week is identified as the day of Jesus’ resurrection: Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, 9, Luke 24:1, and John 20:1, 19. ↩︎
