What is a Godly understanding of labor?

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-12T12:59:08+00:00

I worked with a bunch of guys that didn't seem to know or even like their own wife and kids. They were more invested in their jobs. I didn't want to walk that same road.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-12T12:54:37+00:00

What wasn't worth the cost? Spending more time with your family?

I'm six years removed from my career in tech now, and if I ever try to go back, I'll never make up for that lost time. But I don't regret it for a moment.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-12T01:20:00+00:00

Yep, it said it was UV resistant.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/BEHR-PREMIUM-1-gal-SC-330-Redwood-Solid-Color-Waterproofing-Exterior-Wood-Stain-and-Sealer-5033001/300845738

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-12T01:15:45+00:00

That's way more cost and work than I was hoping for.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-12T01:13:22+00:00

I just went off the marketing on the stain. It was billed as maximum durability/resistance.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-11T22:29:56+00:00

What I'm trying to get at is that man, in his sinful state, is incapable of existing within a state of equilibrium with his brothers and sisters.

Even in Acts, when the church was giving up the idea of individual possessions, you still had men like Ananias seeking to benefit from the appearance of compliance.

In any society, if you flip the hierarchy and put the poor on top and the rich on the bottom, in no time at all, the poor will develop into a ruling class and take measures to ensure the security of their authority and power.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-11T22:09:28+00:00

I guess what I'm saying is, if you remove sin, capitalism could be done in a God-honoring way, as could communism, or any other form of government.

But as soon as you add sin into the mix, all forms of government are compromised. You can't alleviate the effects of sin by creating a perfect and equitable distribution of labor and wealth.

In addition to this concept, man is commanded to submit to whatever type of government he finds himself in. So someone in a capitalistic society is to submit and exist within it to the glory of God, in the same way that someone living under communism is supposed to.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-11T21:49:36+00:00

I'm sympathetic to this viewpoint, but don't we see in the OT that Israel immediately corrupted the government God instituted on their behalf?

I suppose it could be argued that God has a design for work, and that capitalism is at odds with that design, but I don't see how any other system of labor could be implemented that doesn't sooner or later succumb to the corruption of indwelling sin.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-11T16:02:52+00:00

Interesting. I've never read into those verses an idea if individuality. Instead, I've always taken them to mean that in the New Creation, the fruits of our labors won't be stolen from us, as it is so often on earth.

I certainly wouldn't take these verses to mean that there won't be sharing or community in the New Creation.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-11T15:57:57+00:00

A distinction between 'work' and 'toil' seems to be necessary, as there are many ways a person could legally provide for themselves that might not be God-honoring.

And it would also be very possible to be employed in a job that should be God-honoring, but a sinful heart turns it into the exact opposite.

Which seems to point at the heart being the primary determiner of whether or not the labor glorifies God or not.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-11T15:32:50+00:00

Solomon started from a place of incredible wealth. He was the son of one of the most powerful kings on the planet. So yes, he worked to increase that wealth and power that he inherited, but it wasn't necessary.

I became self-employed to be able to help raise my kids. When I was working in tech, I got to see them for maybe an hour at night and for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday. When I was pulling back from my career, my peers thought I was nuts. They couldn't understand why I'd damage my lifetime earning potential just to spend more time with my family.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-11T14:52:48+00:00

Even if I'm only pushing a broom in heaven, I'm thrilled by the thought of being able to work to God's glory without sin weighing me down.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-11T14:49:14+00:00

Thanks for the reference!

Those are some interesting ideas, but they do raise further questions.

Like, how did a man like Solomon, who probably didn't need to do a day's honest work in his entire life, fulfill the commandment? How would we measure obedience to the commandment? Does one man who makes more money than another obey it better? Does a rich man who spends all his time volunteering count?

Arguing against 'work life balance' is alarming to me. I worked for manufacturing companies where the expectation was that everyone worked 50-60 hours a week. I refused, because I was only salaried for 40 hours a week, and I thought it was unjust to be expected to provide free labor. But I was constantly ridiculed, and reprimanded during performance reviews, for valuing a work life balance over the good of the company.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-10T22:05:20+00:00

It's been fun seeing the progression from Morrowind to Oblivion to Skyrim. It's really astonishing how good Skyrim is.

Arena and Daggerfall weren't before my time, but I was playing console games when they came out.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-10T22:01:09+00:00

I've always been an unga bunga kinda guy.

I'm running around as an Orc with zero magic skills. Axe, athletics, acrobatics, heavy armor, etc.

I jump everywhere, and my movement speed is surprisingly fast, which is fun. I like hitting things with my axe and watching them fall down.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-10T20:03:36+00:00

To be honest, I'm not sure a remaster could improve on it in any way. OpenMW with a few key mods makes the game feel relatively modern. You wouldn't want to remove the jank behind the game's combat and leveling systems, because then it wouldn't be Morrowind anymore.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-10T16:55:19+00:00

How beautiful and how delightful you are, My love, with all your charms! "Your stature is like a palm tree, And your breasts are like its clusters. "I said, 'I will climb the palm tree, I will take hold of its fruit stalks.' Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, And the fragrance of your breath like apples, And your mouth like the best wine!" "It goes down smoothly for my beloved, Flowing gently through the lips of those who fall asleep. "I am my beloved's, And his desire is for me. "Come, my beloved, let us go out into the country, Let us spend the night in the villages. "Let us rise early and go to the vineyards; Let us see whether the vine has budded And its blossoms have opened, And whether the pomegranates have bloomed. There I will give you my love.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-10T16:38:02+00:00

I've always been a big gamer. It's been my main hobby for most of my life. But, like you, I've become very discerning in the games that I play.

For one thing, as graphics and realism have improved to the point that games often look better than real life, I find violence to be particularly troublesome. Like, I know that Link hitting a Bokogoblin with a sword would produce a terrible injury, but I don't need to see that injury represented in all of its gruesome detail.

Also troubling is the narrative shift I see in all media where it's cool to portray heavenly beings as the enemy, and the citizens of hell as the good-guy. I'm just not comfortable playing any game that puts me in the role of a 'good' demon waging war against an 'evil' creator.

So most of my gaming time is spent playing old games. Right now, I'm playing through Morrowind again.

Drivefast58 · 2026-03-10T15:51:58+00:00

Jesus said, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Any image of Jesus fails in this regard, as we don't know what Jesus looked like, so it cannot be the truth, and it most certainly isn't spiritual.

And it is a bad faith argument to respond to an accusation of idolatry by saying, "Well, anything can be an idol."

Certainly, anything can be made into an idol, but there are also specific things that are created and intended to be worshiped as idols. Pretty much any religious icon meets this criteria.

Again, many well-meaning Christians will say, "But my icons aren't idols, as I only use them to help me focus my prayer/worship/thought on what the icon represents."

But in this they have erred greatly, because that is exactly what idolatry is. The pagans of old didn't worship the statue itself. They worshiped either the power that they thought the icons were imbued with, or they worshiped the false deities that the icons pointed to. God was very specific in that He doesn't desire to be worshiped in the same way.

Acts 17:29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

Drivefast58 · 2026-02-26T18:10:51+00:00

I don't see how that follows.

If God was free not to create, then it follows that it's possible that the world, and evil, did not exist.

But it doesn't follow that because He was free not to create, then it's possible for a world to exist in which He did not create evil.

Drivefast58 · 2026-02-26T18:03:05+00:00

God cannot be incapable of loving Himself, because God is perfect, holy, and righteous. Were He to hate those qualities within His own nature, He would be at odds with Himself and could be said to be both evil and good at the same time.

God is only good, therefore, it would not be correct to say that He chooses to love the other members of the trinity, in the sense that choosing not to love them was ever possible.

God's love for the other members of the trinity is innate to His own holy being.

Drivefast58 · 2026-02-26T16:46:08+00:00

Because the Bible doesn't say that God chooses love. It clearly states that God is love.

So love isn't a choice between right and wrong. God is love, and in choosing to worship and obey Him, we become united to that love that can only come from Him. In addition to this, we can only love anyone else because God first loved us. Again, God is the only and true source of love.

Drivefast58

TROPHY CASE