Work, toil and sustenance : an examination of the view of work in the New Testament, taking into consideration views found in Old Testament, intertestamental, and early Rabbinic writings
Göran AgrellWork for a living must be ranked with family life as that
to which
most people devote the best part of their lives. One's outlook on
work therefore plays an essential role in human life. The ethical
evaluation of work has varied from one period to another,
and from
one class
in society to another. Especially in our time, however,
work, working life, working milieu, work's organization,
etc. have
been much debated.
In Sweden,
a number of Christian denominations
have attempted
to contribute
to this debate by articulating their
view of the problems connected with everyday work for a living,
taking Christian faith as their base. The place of work in human
life in general is no longer obvious
or problemfree. Work for a
living is seen by few as something one is called to by God; perhaps
as few see
it as
a totally meaningless
torment from which one would
most of all like to be free.
But how is work for a living to be re-
garded?
Is it reasonable that man's life should be made up of work
to such an extent
as is most often the case?
Is work the genuinely
human way of relating to existence?
Or is it only a hard necessity,
ideally a transient one? For the Christian view of these questions,
it is of great interest
to investigate if an early Christian or
biblical view of everyday work exists,
and if so, what form it
takes.
This already provides
a motivation
for the following study
of the view of work in the writings of early Christianity.
This,
however,
does not mean that the theological assessment of work to-
day must be based entirely or perhaps even primarily on these
texts.
In any case,
this study takes no position on that question.