Genesis 3: Why Work Became So Painful

Introduction

Why is work, which is a gift from God, so often painful and frustrating? That is the question Joe Macnamara asks at King's Church London in the second message of the eight-week series "Good Work."

The week before, Andrew had widened the discussion beyond paid employment alone. Employed or not, with a job or without one, everyone works in one way or another at different stages of life. We often spend nearly 60% of our waking hours at it, and many people struggle to connect their faith to their work.

In that message, Andrew also laid two foundations from Genesis 1 and 2. Genesis 3 shows what happened next: what began as a gift from God became a place of frustration, conflict and even pain.

Message Outline

1. Work Is Good, and It Is a Gift

Work is not bad. It existed before the fall, when everything was good.
God works and rests. Made in his image, we do the same: we work and we rest. Jesus works, and God will still work in the new creation.
Work is also a grace. We were not created only to rest: true rest comes after work. "If we rested all the time, we would not flourish."
The heart of the passage is Genesis 3:16-19. The preacher draws three things from it: the consequence of the fall, the curse of sin, and the way it touches our work.

2. Thorns and Thistles: Work Made Painful

The ground is cursed: "It will yield thorns and thistles to you" and "By the sweat of your face will you eat bread" (Genesis 3:18-19).
Joe Macnamara describes a farmer who works the land from early morning until late at night. He comes home covered in dust, sits in front of the television, eats a light meal, drinks a little water, sleeps, and starts again. "Work was not designed to be this hard."
This is not only about manual labor. Volunteer work and paid work can both be sources of frustration: boredom, exhaustion, injustice, exploitation, conflict, jealousy, anger.
Even when things seem to bear fruit, work remains painful: a project's funding is cut, an athlete is injured at the peak of his career, a colleague gets the promotion instead of you, you are laid off from the company you helped build.
He invites us to think back over the last three or four days: the garden, raising children, the job, volunteering, commuting, housework. All human effort bears the mark of frustration and futility. This is not because work is bad in itself, but because it is the consequence of sin in a fallen world.

3. Shame and Guilt at Work

With the fall, sin, shame and guilt enter the world. Adam and Eve hide from God. Genesis 3:7 contrasts with Genesis 2:25, where they were naked "and were not ashamed."
The preacher quotes the author David Atkinson: shame is that unease with oneself in the depths of one's being. You sense that something is wrong, without being able to name it.
At work, this shame shows up in two ways: the desire for independence, doing things "my way" and seeking yourself; or the need to please others and win their approval.
Contemporary Western culture tries to explain these problems without talking about sin, by pointing to childhood trauma or a parent's neglect. Joe Macnamara does not downplay the devastating effects of trauma or of a lack of love. But the Bible is clear: the root cause of our problems, and of frustration at work, is sin and our separation from God.

4. Loving and Working: Two Tasks Touched Differently

The two greatest challenges of human life may be loving others and working. In the text they are linked: the pain of childbirth and the toil of working the ground (Genesis 3:16-17). The preacher notes that we even call childbirth "labor."
He carefully approaches what he calls a "thorny" subject: "pink jobs" and "blue jobs." Stereotypes are no help. At his house, he takes out the trash and his wife cooks, not because she is a woman, but because she cooks far better than he does.
With humor, he tells of his progress as an apprentice: he now seasons chicken with something other than salt and pepper, and he has learned that his wife wants her meat well done, with no trace of blood. She, on the other hand, is in no hurry to become an apprentice at taking out the trash.
In Genesis 1 and 2, the man and the woman are created to rule over creation together, in partnership. The text does not say that the man will do all the physical work while the woman stays at home.
The idea that most work happens outside the home is very modern. In biblical Israel, everything was done at home: the man handled the heavy work, the woman the household tasks. It is only in the last seventy or eighty years that the man gets dressed, leaves the house for all of his work, then comes back. For centuries, the home was the center of everything: education, production, care, medicine. Today it looks more like a rest stop where we come back to sleep, eat and recharge.
Hence our expressions: "When are you going back to work?", as if a mother at home were not working. Many young parents say that going back to work is almost a break: with small children, it is more demanding physically, mentally and emotionally.
Sin touches the woman in childbirth and family life, and the man in working the ground, though not exclusively: many women farm the land and do hard manual work, and the reverse is true as well. The only task reserved to one sex is carrying a child. In both cases, the tasks God entrusted to us are distorted by sin.

5. First Danger: Laziness

Sin brings two dangers that Christians face constantly in their work: laziness and idolatry.
Laziness means not giving work its proper value, not having a biblical view of it, and devaluing it to the point of apathy. We live in an age of comfort and entertainment, where people let themselves go like the Homer Simpson caricature.
God has called us to act. "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (Colossians 3:23). Paul also asks us to warn those who live in disorder (1 Thessalonians 5:14).
"The devil finds work for idle hands": this is not a Bible verse, the preacher points out, but the principle is sound. If you do not do what God is calling you to do, the enemy will find something to keep you busy.
The lazy person needs to be told over and over what to do, and does it reluctantly. He wants the Sabbath without the work. Yet the Sabbath is a response to work: you worked hard during the week, then comes rest. "You cannot say: I live in a permanent Sabbath. God did not make it that way."

6. Second Danger: Making Work an Idol

The opposite of laziness is the idolatry of work. It becomes the core of your identity, the source of your worth, the object of your devotion.
The danger lies in wait for the pastor as much as for anyone else. Joe Macnamara asks himself whether his identity as a pastor takes up more of him than his identity as a son of God. "What if I never preached again?" What we do flows from who we are.
No one on their deathbed says: "I wish I had worked more." Instead they say: "I wish I had had more time for my family, for the community, for the things of God."
That is why God reminds us in verse 19: "you are dust, and you will return to dust." What you do with your life matters. Examine your motives: are you trying to prove something, to serve the idol of power, money or yourself?
A modern idol is added to the list: the "dream job." The generation of his grandparents, and even of his parents, worked to pay the bills and make a living. Today we want a fulfilling job, suited to our gifts and our dreams. Many look for the job that will fulfill their destiny and discover that it does not always exist. The preacher says he feels very privileged to have a job he feels made for, but that is not the case for everyone, and that is not a problem.

7. Jesus Redeems Our Work

The comfort of the Bible is that Jesus came to save us from everything. He did not come only to pay for our sins, although he did: he came to redeem all things for himself, including work. In the new creation, it will be completely different.
Starting now, the first way to redeem work is to live it as worship: "do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). Whether you stock shelves, perform open-heart surgery, lay bricks, sweep streets, teach children, create content, raise your children, help with household chores or volunteer at a local charity, everything can be done for the Lord. "Everything I do today is worship to the Lord."
The second is to make work a mission field. The preacher's mother became a Christian while she was a teaching assistant at a school: a Christian colleague offered to pray for her, invited her to church and led her to the Lord.
For most of us, the workplace is where we spend the most time with non-believers. God has placed you there. Be a thermostat, not a thermometer: a thermometer reflects the temperature of the room, while a thermostat sets it. Do not take part in gossip or slander: you set the tone, through your integrity, your diligence, your relationships, your generosity and the way you share the love of Christ.
Our hope is not in a job. Our days will remain marked by sin, frustration and conflict. But we look to Jesus, who comes to free us from the curse, according to the promise given as early as Genesis 3:15: the offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. He conquers sin, death, guilt and shame.
The preacher closes with the Christmas carol "Joy to the World": let sin and sorrow grow no more, let thorns no longer infest the ground; he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

Key Takeaways

Work is good and is a gift from God: it existed before the fall.
The thorns and thistles of Genesis 3 explain the frustration, fatigue and futility we experience at work.
The root cause of our difficulties is not first our personal history, but sin and our separation from God.
Two dangers lie in wait for Christians: laziness, which devalues work, and idolatry, which makes it our identity.
Jesus redeems our work: it can become worship and a mission field, and our hope rests on him, not on a job.

Personal Application

What "thorns and thistles" have you met in your work in recent days, and how did you bring them before God?
At work, are you more tempted by independence ("my way") or by the need to please others?
Do you lean more toward laziness or toward the idolatry of work? What would you say about yourself if you could no longer do your job?
What would change tomorrow morning if you said: "Everything I do today is worship to the Lord"?
At your workplace, are you a thermometer or a thermostat? Which person could you carry in prayer this week?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Is work a consequence of sin according to Genesis 3?

No. Joe Macnamara reminds us that work existed before the fall: God works and rests, and humans, made in his image, do the same. Work is good and it is a gift. What Genesis 3 introduces are the thorns and thistles: the frustration, fatigue, injustice and futility that now touch our work.

What are the two dangers that Christians face in their work?

Laziness and idolatry. Laziness devalues work and wants the Sabbath without the work that comes before it. Idolatry makes work the core of our identity and the source of our worth. The preacher reminds us that what we do flows from who we are in Christ, and not the other way around.

How does Jesus redeem our work?

Jesus did not come only to pay for our sins: he came to redeem all things, including work. Starting now, we can live our work as worship, for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31), and as a mission field. Our final hope rests on the one who crushes the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15).