Many people are familiar with the premise of the TV show Dirty Jobs, where Mike Rowe would feature different jobs that were “dirty” or “undesirable.” One theme was that the people who did these jobs were happy and content and took pride in doing work that was necessary, even if they were “dirty.”
It is common for people, especially today, to avoid work whenever possible and to do the bare minimum. In an economy where inflation means that wages stretch less than they used to and many people feel less satisfied with their positions, it is easy to become disgruntled and do the bare minimum. But what does the Bible say about wages?
Work in Eden
The connection between work and getting what we need to live goes all the way back to Eden before the fall. God gave Adam and Eve the gracious permission to eat from all the trees except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he also commanded them to tend the garden. If Adam had obeyed, he would have seen a cause-and-effect relationship—he would tend the trees, and in turn, they would bear fruit for him to eat. This work would have been pleasant and easy. Since it was God who created work in the first place and it was meant for man even before the fall (Genesis 2:7–8, 15), we can be confident that it was God’s purpose for mankind to enjoy and experience some satisfaction in his work.
One of the effects of the fall is that painful toil and an element of futility was added to man’s work. Rather than simply tending the garden that God planted, Adam would have to battle thorns and thistles to grow his food. But even in a fallen world, there was a cause-and-effect relationship. We see this even when Cain’s sacrifice was rejected. God told Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” (Genesis 4:7). So both in the physical realm as well as the spiritual realm, there was a cause and effect between work and reward.
Wages for Work Done for God’s Kingdom
Even in the context of mundane business dealings, borrowing and lending, and raising a family and providing for them, Scripture has much to say. In the context of OT saints and Christians, we see that God is not unfair toward us but provides us with life, health, and the expectation that work done for God’s kingdom will not go unrewarded.
For example, Jesus answered Peter,
Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. (Mark 10:29–30)
Paul admitted,
He who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:7–9)
Paul also told the church at Colossae,
Work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23–24)
And the author of Hebrews wrote,
God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. (Hebrews 6:10 NKJV)
Paul also wrote to Timothy and the church in Thessalonica with instructions about wages:
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” (1 Timothy 5:17–18)
We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3)
Withholding Legitimate Wages, or Extortion, and Fraud
The Bible consistently lists that wages must be paid as soon as they are incurred (usually meaning the same day). Obviously, today’s businesses pay their employees weekly, biweekly, or monthly, but these are all stipulated in the contract and/or employee handbook that the worker agrees to. So the principle is the same. If an employer deliberately refuses to pay someone for his work, changes the agreement, or moves around the pay schedule, then he is defrauding that employee.
You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. (Leviticus 19:13)
You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin. (Deuteronomy 24:14–15)
Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages. (Jeremiah 22:13)
Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:5)
And the crowds asked him [John the Baptist], “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.” (Luke 3:10–14)
Squandering Resources God Has Given to Us
God also tells us much about being good and faithful stewards (1 Corinthians 4:2), being wise in personal dealings (Matthew 10:16; Romans 16:19; James 3:13), and using honest weights and measures (Proverbs 16:11, 20:23). But Scripture spends just as much time on revealing our unthankful and ungrateful hearts in hoarding things for ourselves but neglecting to give back to God (see verses below) or helping others in need (Romans 15:2; 1 Corinthians 10:24; Ephesians 4:28).
But his master answered him, “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.” (Matthew 25:26–27)
But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:20–21)
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:6–7)
The Wages of Sin
Scripture tells us that when we were outside of Christ, we worked hard for our wages: death.
You may also be surprised to find that the Bible has much to say on the “wages of sin,” as well as our conduct prior to becoming Christians, where our self-serving and anti-God motivations are also described as wages (Romans 1:28–31, 6:17–23). Basically, our “earnings” outside of Christ only increase the debt we owe to God. Once that is properly understood, we easily can see that we can never earn (or merit) our salvation because we are under judgment due to our “wages of sin.” And Scripture tells us that when we were outside of Christ, we worked hard for our wages: death.
Paul spoke much about this in Romans:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:23–26)
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (Romans 4:1–8)
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:20–23)
The wages of sin is an Old Testament concept too. Psalm 37 is almost entirely about this subject but especially the end of the Psalm:
Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace. But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the future of the wicked shall be cut off. The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him. (Psalm 37:37–40)
Other OT passages also mention this subject of unrighteous “wages” contrasted with the lifestyle of the righteous and connect to Paul’s words in Romans and 2 Timothy (and we need to keep in mind that David stated in Psalm 14:2–3 that there are none who seek after God and none who do good, “not even one”).
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. (Psalm 51:1–4)
The wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin. Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray. (Proverbs 10:16–17)
“Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’” (Malachi 3:13–15)
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:28–32)
People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. (2 Timothy 3:2–4)
Can there be any doubt that the Holy Spirit–inspired words of Malachi and Paul could (and should) be applied to today? Even many in Christendom are endorsing (and even promoting) evil practices that go against God’s Word. Asaph started to have this same attitude (“why am I suffering for the Lord when he does not punish evil?”) when he saw the prosperity of the wicked (Psalm 73:2–15), but he did not stop and dwell there for long. He went to the temple and thought on the majesty of God, which made him realize that unrepentant sinners are in a slippery place, waiting for the judgment of God (Psalm 73:18–19, 27).
The Gift of Salvation
For those who cling to the belief that they can earn their way to heaven (by doing “good deeds” or having the “good vs. bad” scales tip in their favor), the above Scripture verses in Romans (and other Pauline Epistles listed below) should cause them to tremble before God. Good deeds and righteous living are the result and by-product of salvation, not the precursor to it, nor the means to “achieve salvation.”
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7–8)
For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (1 Corinthians 4:7)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8–10)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 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. (Titus 2:11–14)
Paul exhorted Christians to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12) and to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14). But these things are written for true Christians, not for “the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work” (Titus 1:15–16). Jesus taught the same thing during his earthly ministry, that “a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:18–19).
It becomes quickly apparent that we cannot boast of earning salvation because of anything we did, but “let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (2 Corinthians 10:17).
What then is the solution to this problem of having a defiled mind and conscience? God must give us “a new heart, and a new spirit.” He says, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:26–27).
And as Paul earnestly wished that Jesus would “comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (2 Thessalonians 2:17) and again that the Lord would “direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5), we notice the pattern that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). It becomes quickly apparent that we cannot boast of earning salvation because of anything we did, but “let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (2 Corinthians 10:17) since “salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:10).
