Commanded to work

Austin Gardner • August 17, 2022

If you will not work then you are not to eat 

Use this short devotional to teach your children or the young people you are training on the mission field to work, They need to know what God says. You can teach this in 5 minutes or so. Help them realize it is not you plan or will that they work but God, their Creator.


Exodus 20:9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

  • God prescribed that man would work for six days and rest the seventh
  • The real issue was the rest that is commanded here
  • It is in man’s nature since creation to work
  • The question is will you learn to work productively


  • God had worked for six days and then rested
  • You are to follow His example
  • We need work and we need rest


  • The sons and daughters were expected to work
  • Our parents should teach us to work
  • Work is expected of all


  • The commandment to work is found in several places in Scripture. So learn to work .
  • If you will not work then you are not to eat 
     
    II Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. 
  • You are to work with your own hands 
     
    I Thessalonians 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; 


Work with all your might, but never trust in your work. Pray with all your might for the blessing in God, but work at the same time with all diligence, with all patience, with all perseverance. Pray, then, and work. Work and pray. And still again pray, and then work.

George Müller


 Mark Water, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd, 2000), 1132–1133.



The Dignity of Work


First Mention of Work

There was work before the fall

Commanded to Work

God gifted people to do a certain work

Even the poor had to work to get food




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