Genesis 2 Commentary

Meaningful Work

Something we see in the Scriptures here is the display of work and its meaningfulness. We also see the relationship of work and rest displayed in God’s example. And we see that God’s work is this beautiful, pure, good, wise, and life-giving.

Work has become such a bitter word for us, and indeed, much work can be bitter because it is only driven by necessity and not goodness and godliness. One of the cries of the human heart is this need to have a work that is meaningful, and our generation is doing a lot to try and find the path for this.

Our generation tends to fall to one of two sides—we either live purely by necessity in our work, and then try to find meaning in pleasures work gives us a way for, or we can adopt a mindset of having a meaningful existence in being raised above the meager works rooted in serving the necessities and cares most people have, and doing a work outside of these. There is often a despising of the work that is simply meeting needs—to be a dentist, to do child care, work in a restaurant or as a cashier, and to instead see meaningful work as doing something leading to fame, play, or wealth. We are slow to realize just how much contempt this sort of mindset can create, and how truly selfish it can be.

The challenge for us as Christians is to not obey the world’s ideas of meaning, or efforts after it, but to understand what God says on this.

In one part, we need to see the contempt there is upon the “lowly” works of meeting necessity and doing care work. This is something historically rooted in oppression and inequality among humanity. Where one group of people tries to force and resign another group of people to this work, in order that they might do the “greater” or more enjoyable work. There is nothing more self-seeking and self-elevating than this attitude, and yet it goes on in the church’s midst!

When we are trying to understand the path to meaning in work, we should be very careful to identify this sort of contempt, and this sort of method to finding meaning in finding some sort of “elevation”. What is sadly very common in our society is a business for self in this manner, where one is chasing wealth, fame, or pleasure, not looking at if their work is truly taking part in the health and good of the society at large. How sad that we despise the professions that literally give the most to our society! I have heard a talk show host scoff at a woman talking about going to school to be a dentist—we need dentists! As if only working in entertainment or being famous gives worth. But what does fame do for our neighbor?

We should see in God that His work is that kind which is good and is full of true substance. We should care to have work in our lives that is real substance and meat for others. That is adding to this world instead of expecting the world to be sustained by others while we pursue whatever we wish. How guilty so many are in our society who expect our society to be upheld, cared for, and sustained while they have no part in doing so. This is the guilt of the rich as well as the poor.

As we address this first issue within finding meaning in our work, we then must see that meaning in our work is found in living for God. The purpose of life for each of us is to know God truly, to serve God as fully as we can, and to be conformed to the nature of Jesus Christ (to be holy in spirit and body). This is the great path to a meaningful life. To do this is the way to have our lives count for something.

The challenge in this is to understand how to do this with our lives. Many of us fall into the error of trying to be “great” in the name of God, and so begin the very same worldly quest, just in our religion. The same burning selfish ambition and pride, the same elevating of ourselves over others, instead of stooping to do the real work. But for all of us, it is not to be “great” but to be godly. It is to work for God and to belong to God in our lives.

What we have today is generally two types of Christians. We have the one that is busy trying to be “great”, claiming they do this for God when it is nothing more than selfish ambition and pride. And the other is one who has set aside seeking this in order to indulge in idleness and the lie of their responsibility being removed. Both of these are very guilty, and very dangerous ways to try and live.

The true path is a humble godliness. To love God and to seek to humbly serve Him in all that is good and godly. It is born from a love of righteousness and the great wisdom and goodness of God. If we do not love God’s righteousness, nor labor to truly know and understand Him and His ways, then we cannot hope to truly serve Him. Many “work” for God who do not know God. Many preach for “God” who only preach their own understanding and desires of God.

The question for all of us to answer is what does it mean to truly come to know God? What does it look like for us to serve Him fully within our lives as they are? (Not thinking we need to go be great for God, but to live godly and holy lives fully unto God where we are). What does it really mean to love God? What does it mean to truly be holy and walk in godliness as Christ would show us? The answer to these questions is how to have a meaningful life.

One of the greatest parts of our lives is our work. To learn to do our work from the motivation of love for God and humble service to those around us is how to put life and depth into our work. This is where we begin to see work not from some “appearance”, but we see the value within it. To do work from right motives of goodwill and regard to God, and not from selfish ambition and pride. This will also teach us respect for all people who do their work honestly and humbly.

The path of a meaningful existence in our work is rescuing our work to belong to God, to work for God in our work.

This was the incredible wisdom that God gave to those enslaved, who had no power to escape their circumstances. We would think that only in being able to escape such circumstances would our work and lives be meaningful, but God met people where they truly were, showing them to work unto God, and to do good, despising where they found themselves and what those around them did. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” (Col 3:23) “Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.” (Eph 6:8)

God shows the path of doing good into the world around us, and this is done under God and unto God.

God’s Work and Our Work

Something else we see in the Scriptures here is an example of the distinction between God’s work and our work, our work within God’s work.

We see all of God’s work displayed, and yet we find here in Genesis 2 God showing the clear place He’s given to mankind for their work within His work. This system God has designed is rooted within all the laws of our existence, physical as well as spiritual.

It also important to understand this in order to understand faith and obedience rightly, because we can fall into two extremes: in one we do not believe God’s sovereignty at all and believe that all things in life consists from human choices and chance; in the other, we believe everything is rooted in God’s sovereignty and do not believe human choices matter. In the church today, the latter is the one many fall into in the name of faith. We do not see how essential our own choices and work are to our spiritual and physical lives.

God’s system is our work within His work. He gives a very important place to our work, and God does not violate this. God has assigned to each human being in this world their personal responsibility, and the great misery we too often see is how people do not do the work that is needed in order to work true goodness and life in the world around them.

Our spiritual lives are just like the gardener’s work. If we do not plant and water, do not fertilize, weed, support, and prune, then we will not have a good outcome.

Sadly, mankind generally does not see how important its own personal responsibility and work is, nor just how harmful their neglect of their work, or the working of sinful things is upon the world around them and the world within them. God gave us a very important and powerful place in this world — our own personal responsibility and work. And by this we either starve and poison the world or we cultivate it and do good in it like our Creator.

Idleness is something we can fall into in a wrong understanding of faith. Where we think God’s sovereignty bypasses our own place that He has given us to choose and work all that we do in life. But our work is the entire direction and outcome of our own lives. What we choose is who we will be. Just as God’s work speaks of who He is, so our work will declare who we are. That is why the Bible speaks of our works.

We can misunderstand works to be vain things, and fall into meaningless work—we can see the world is often very busy with work, but its fruit has no real life or goodness in it. So we can do the same, even within our religion. Yet God’s aim for us is to learn what true works are, and to walk in them: “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Tit 2:14).

Work is not necessarily what we often take it to mean, the doing of something. Many fall into activity and believe this is the will of God. Rather, it is the doing, living, and believing all that is truly of life and godliness.

One of the greatest challenges we have as Christians is to understand what the true nature of good works is. We can be so busy running around in whatever good works seem right in our own eyes, and fail to do the true work to learn the true Spirit of what is actually good and wise.

The duality in life is that of God’s working and that of our own work. This is the utter dignity and purpose that God has given each person in this world. That all of us get to choose how we will live our lives, all of us do a “work” in this world, for better or worse. And God allows all of us to choose what we will. Our choosing never goes beyond God’s power and sovereignty, it is not a power over God, but it is the full power of our own lives.

God is manifesting every person in this world, whether as good, wise, and godly, or sinful and corrupt. We are continually revealing all that is in us by what we choose, live after, and do.

The call of God to all of us is to come within His wisdom in order to truly learn how to live, how to do work that truly is full of life, how to choose what is truly good and wise, and to be saved from the worthlessness in the world.

The Christian needs to learn that our lives as believers are not automatic. Just because God is sovereign does not mean we are on some automatic track to holiness and heaven. This is taught very often in our churches, but each of us must see that it is we ourselves who are choosing to believe this or not. Because of this twisted view of God’s sovereignty, many Christians are idle and/or wasting their lives in a business in God’s name that isn’t truly good and of His Spirit. All of us have a very great work to do in laboring to understand the will of God, and what is truly of Him. And many Christians need to see and understand that they are daily choosing many many things in life.

This personal responsibility does not go away when we become Christians. The promise of Christ is that of a pathway to true living, to knowing how to live a meaningful life. But if we try to cut corners on this, or we don’t labor after this true inner work at all, having our minds, values, spirits, and plans in life renewed, then we fall short of God’s purpose in His grace.

The great deception in the church today is many people blessing themselves as being in the will of God, as being on the right path with God, and being heaven-bound, who are not doing the work that ensures this, that is the substance of this. They bless themselves as being in God’s will when they fail to understand that the work to be done is to know what is truly God’s will and to walk in it—only then can they relish the peace of God for their conscience. They bless themselves as being on the path and as if holiness is somehow theirs when they do not do the work for it; they do not truly labor to obey God at the full depth of His will. And they bless themselves as having all the promises of God, when God’s promises are for those who fear and obey Him.

They have taken Christ to be some banner of favoritism with God, as if God’s grace removed their personal responsibility and work, when God’s grace is the very opposite, helping them to find the true power in their lives by finding the true path of personal responsibility and work in the life of Christ. Far from removing the work, God instead is giving us the means to fulfill it, and this being His grace to us. Whereas in the world, people have no idea how to live this out, how to own their personal responsibility, how to walk in true wisdom, righteousness, and goodness; whereas in Christ, God gives us the true means for all of these.

Rather, it is learning the place of God’s sovereignty as well as our own personal work, and rightly holding these is the power of life and hope to us.

God wants us to see the great meaningfulness and importance of personal responsibility in all that we choose and do. In all that we choose to believe, choose to value, choose to live after, and choose to obey. God is laboring to save us from the corrupted ways that come into these places within us, but He is not seeking to remove the function altogether, as if He is rescuing us from this, rather than from sin corrupting these. Instead, He is laboring to show us the great importance of these and to redeem us in them, so that we, like Him, do true good in this world.

Work and Rest

Another lesson we learn about work in Genesis 2 is the relationship of work and rest. God displays for us His great work, encouraging us in meaningful work, and He also displays for us the significance of rest.

While it is certainly the case that mankind neglects work and is blind to the great significance of work, it is also the case that we often are utterly blind to the needfulness and goodness of rest.

So many Christians in the church are encouraged to go go go, and do some work for God, seeing activity as this “good works”, who are not given time, space, and discipline in order to truly learn the Spirit of God’s will in works. They are also not given permission for true rest and health. Because many will assume they value work, and they preach it, but they do not understand the right depth and purpose of work from God, nor the time needed to be sanctified to this, and equally, they can run people ragged, having no proper understanding of health and rest.

God’s work is supposed to be healthy, not breaking our health. And many Christians have done much harm to the image of God by acting as if God wants to run us into breakdown and brokenness.

There is a very real spiritual fight in our day to understand godly work rightly, to walk in our responsibility, and yet to also rescue right rest. Instead, many simply obey the spiritual pressures to work themselves ragged, and do not resist, seeking to know the true will of God in rest.

We think idleness is our only sin, and even this “sin” we do not know how to properly cure. We substitute the doing of the true will of God for activity and busyness. And with this, we do not rightly hold and display true godly rest. Whereas our lack of rest often reveals the pride and foolishness in us. How we do not rightly know God, nor resist the spiritual pressures that exist in our day, but instead obey them.

Wisdom shows us that it is not just idleness that is an issue, but a busyness that is not rooted in the true will of God. And additionally, that it was not the challenge of getting Israel to work, but to get them to stop working and keep the Sabbath that was the real issue. That they were very busy with many things, and yet they were not doing the true work of God’s will and law, nor resting on the Sabbath.

We have great need in the church today to understand our true work rightly, and to do this. And at the same time, we have great need of understanding right godly rest. A rest that is not rooted in an idleness of our true work, and corrupted “grace”, but is a work that is healthy and good, accompanying our godly work.

Work, Productivity, and Covetousness

It is important for us to understand rest rightly in our society because we put a lot of confidence into activity and productivity. When we talk about meaningfulness in work we have to be careful to see the worldly ideas that can exist in this. Many people in the world trust in productivity as a means to their “meaningfulness”. It’s very easy for us to fall into this wrong mindset when we aim to inspire people to true godly meaning in work.

The work God aims at for us is the work of righteousness and godliness. It is not selfish ambition and conceit. It is the work of true holiness and doing what is good and humble, abandoning the works of ambition and self seeking. These are what the world trusts in to be meaningful.

In our world we have much that goes on telling us “how” to have a meaningful life, and much of it is rooted in fulfilling our dreams, or some end for ourselves. These things look impressive and noble, but they are selfish and proud. People choose these over the work of righteousness and godliness. Where people choose to serve a status or gain, rather than serving the great purpose of goodness and light.

One thing we should also see is how we can covet meaningful work. Many people are inspired to live a meaningful life, and then they quickly run to covet “meaningful” work!

Covetousness is the sin of seeing something for ourselves at the cost of our neighbor. And many Christians boast of not coveting gold and luxury, yet they covet the far greater things of God! They covet meaningful work, study, and purposeful living.

True godliness will not have this error to it. It does not covet anything, but is rooted in a desire for true righteousness and godliness in all people. It loves people so as to seek the same opportunities for others that they seek for themselves. Anything else is against love for our neighbor.

Part of this covetousness is found in seeking an escape from lowly work. The work of care or labor. Many have tried to delegate these things to people enslaved or women in order to seek some “meaningfulness” for themselves. We cannot be too cautious to guard against such bitter selfishness and sin.

We must understand that the true work is in living for God, and living for God is doing what is good and right. It is rooted in a desire for righteousness, a desire for truth in the souls of all people. And a person’s glory in this work is never based upon some status, but upon the true quality of their work, both within and without.

The True Work

God did good work. It’s important for us to understand that work is not merely about labor, but it is about the quality within it.

In our world we have to be careful even in talking about work because our society takes productivity as some super power, failing to see how it is the path of godliness in our work that matters.

Many miss their way because they do not have the right quality in their work. This is sadly very true in the church. Many run about and shout from this and that housetop, yet they are blind to the lack of quality within themselves, the great need to be sanctified within.

The great task the Lord has set before us is not simply to “work” but to be worthy of that work. To have a true substance within, from His substance, in order to do true good in this world.

This work is not cheap, and we cannot have meaningful work if we do not equally carry about the hidden work within.

We are far too easily deceived here. We trust so much in activity and trying to control others, and have very little sight of the great work of sitting down, being quiet, truly learning of God until we are changed, and continually changing.

Oh, many Christians today profess to have this “change”, when it is evident they know little of how great the work of this change costs one truly given to it. We profess with superstitious lips that “we are changed, we are changed,” and we fail to get quiet and alone with God, and labor with Him to understand the true Spirit of God, and be changed within.

Therefore there is a great amount of Christian work in this world, and yet sadly most of it is rotten and built upon unreality and even cruelty. And yet self deception is so many people’s substitute for faith that they cannot see just how empty and poisonous their efforts for God are. That they poison the world rather than feed it, they are full of pretenses rather than true substance, and their “wisdom” is actually darkness and blindness.

All of this is because they do not sit down and be quiet and learn the true work from God needed. Nor do they think it is even necessary!

To do the work of God means the full work. It is not just some external activity, but it is about doing all that is required for true wisdom, righteousness, and godliness. Not in some idea of these things, but the true nature of them.

Our greatest need in the church is that we would stop “working” in order to develop the true work within. To take years for this, not minutes. To be worthy of the work.

“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” (2 Tim 2:21)

True Substance in the Work

The Lord Jesus died so that we might become truly clean. Truly worthy of Him by taking hold of His Word and Spirit, and so, being sanctified and truly brought into goodness, light, and life.

This is the true work.

Jesus’ prayer was that we would obey Him and therefore our prayers would be able to be answered. That we could do good work in this world by being worthy to be assisted by God.

The tragedy today is that so many Christians go about believing they have the blessing of God of believing their prayers to be answered, their pathway in life to be blessed, their ways all turning out for good, and heaven to be theirs, all while failing to see that ALL of these things hinge upon how we LIVE in this life. That God answers the prayers of the holy and good, “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” (1 John 3:22). That He blesses the ways of the person who truly labors to know the good way. And He gives heaven to those who live to be worthy of it.

If this right fear of God would be kept in our hearts, it would do much to sanctify us. As it is, we have removed this right fear of God and therefore we walk in the greatest, and darkest presumption.

We do such great evils and have no fear of truly discerning our own ways, the ways we walk in even in God’s very name. We have no fear to truly listen to the ways of our lives and to see if they are truly good in nature and conscience. We go so far as to even sear our conscience in the name of some “faith” in God’s “grace”, and destroy the work of His righteous law upon us. We even confuse this listening for the true spirit of what is good and right as somehow listening to our own hearts.

Yet faith is about listening to the true authority of what is good and what is of God, and holding ourselves accountable to this. The worldly and sinful heart does not obey this authority, but the religious heart can miss this by following a fanaticism, superstition, or doctrine of men in the place of the true Spirit of God. Where the fear of God is taken into a darkness and evil, rather than the authority to truly test the spirit of our ways and see if they are just, merciful, and good.

This is the very same darkness that existed in idolatry where fear of “God” drove the people even to burn their own children in fire.

Yet God’s purpose in Christ is light, it is to come out of all that is selfish, proud, and evil. All that is foolish and blind. And if we as Christians do not truly know this work in us, and do not therefore seek this work zealously, then we will never be light and salt. Instead, we are that noisy gong of 1 Corinthians 13, declaring how “we are light and salt” when we have none of its substance in us. We become an offense and a stench, instead of a true help and the sweet fragrance of Christ.

If only Christians would test their works, testing them with their spiritual senses, to “taste” and “smell” what substance they are of, then they would learn a great deal of wisdom and a great deal of rebuke for their ways.

The way of sin in all of us is to imagine our works are “good” when we are blind to just how foolish and sinful they really are. This is not some power of “faith in God”, it is the hard and sinful heart in all of humanity. It is to continue headstrong in our ways, never allow the true Light of God to search out the substance and nature of our ways.

Yet it is only when this substance in us is changed that we can truly serve Christ. All efforts outside of this are only born from self deception, pride, contempt of others, and utter ignorance of the true nature of sin. You cannot serve God through the arm of sin! And yet this is what so many attempt to do with their shouting and arguing, their pride and plans, their selfish ambitions and unreality. They imagine they serve God, failing to see you can never serve God with an unclean nature. Therefore the true work for God must be worked here first.

True Work to Be Worthy of the True Sabbath

All of this is the true work that God is calling us to. God is calling us to bear His image. His works are true goodness and life, and He is calling us to learn from Him the ways of living that will be true wisdom and goodness.

We cannot cheat this path. We cannot expect that we have the blessings that come to the one who does the true work if we do not do it.

God is declaring to all of us what the true work is. That it is to walk in the light. It is to know God, in a true and sincere way—not living by the wisdom of men and what they say of God, but to truly learn of Him ourselves through His Word and Spirit alone. It is to walk in a renewed nature in our minds, spirits, attitudes, and desires. It is to allow God’s Spirit within to search out the true nature, attitude, beliefs, and spirit of our ways. Holiness is about getting at what is truly good.

God is setting this path before us, calling us all to this true work. This work of substance and meaning. And we have so much around us that is cutting this great work far short of what it is meant to truly be. Yet for all of us, we need to steadily follow God past all of these things, into a true worthiness and work. For God reveals that it is only the one who sets about this true work who will enter His Sabbath Rest in Heaven.

Work is far more than just labor, it is the entire summation of all we think, believe, value, and do. And our work as Christians is to do the true work of seeking true wisdom, goodness, light, and life. Our works manifest who we are, what we value, and the value of us.

It is the one who truly works with God who will have true rest from God.

One of the great evils Christians do today is to say that this rest is automatically theirs though they do not do the works worthy of it. Yet for all of us, it is the one who works the works of righteousness and godliness, the true nature of them and not a mere pretense of them, who will become truly righteous and godly, and enter into their Master’s rest. “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Mt 25:23)