Work-Life Balance and the Sabbath

Most people probably work way more than 40-hours a week even if that is all they are paid for. With cellphones you have to make a concentrated effort to “turn work off”. Stress from work has permeated our society which has led to work-life balance being something most would feel is essential. However, is this idea biblical? The negative impact from “overworking” are evident. For example, there are studies that show that overworking or lack of work-life balance can lead to higher divorce rates. As a husband and father I am called to:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”

Ephesians 5:25

“Train up a child in the way he should go”

Proverbs 22:6

Doing those things by inference requires spending quality time with them. When factoring in the negative impacts that can come from not having an appropriate work-life balance along with the time needed to be a godly spouse and parent in addition to being a good Christian, the appropriate delegation of time between work and personal should be biblical? Right?

What Does the Bible Say About Work-Life Balance

There are more verses dealing with the “good” of hard work as well as the “bad” of laziness. There are a few verses that indirectly touch on work-life balance even though they are not explicitly referring to it. In the cheerful book of Ecclesiastes we find maybe the best passage on it:

⁴ “Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.⁵ The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.⁶ Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.”

Ecclesiastes 4:4-6

The passage is ultimately contrasting between laziness and overworking, more specifically, overworking from a place of envy. Those two ideas, laziness and envy, are more prevalent in Scripture. Proverbs 23:4 also touches on not overworking to become rich. Verse 6 in the Ecclesiastes passage does mention that a dose of quietness is superior to constant toiling and striving. It probably paints the best picture of a balance between work and life in Scripture but it is not perfect.

Application

Without any verses that directly touch on this issue it is hard to say for certain how we should balance our lives. We need to piece together other scriptures. What we can say with confidence is laziness is not good and work was established by God and is good. We are also called to certain actions in marriage, as parents and toward fellow believers. Again, we can infer that in order to do those things properly there needs to be a certain amount of time directed toward those efforts. Where the line is drawn as being too much or too little focus on work is difficult to know. We do know that the Lord explicitly desires us to rest from our labors at least one day.

Should We Still Honor the Sabbath Today

The Sabbath was instituted as part of the Ten Commandments. The law itself was reiterated by God multiple times. Exodus 35:2 lays forth the severity of the punishment for not honoring it.

² “Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.”

As we saw when we looked at a six-day workweek, the introduction of the Sabbath was in relation to God’s example put forth in the creation account. It was also meant to be a sign of the covenant between God and His people. Honoring the Sabbath as holy to the Lord was so imperative that the punishment to not do so was death. Even though it was a law for the old covenant we are still in covenantal relationship with God today. The punishment should resonate with us and highlight the importance of taking a day to worship and honor God.

Parallels Between the Old and New Covenant

The connection of the Sabbath to the rest of God is evident. He set the example for how He desires His creatures to spend a day of rest from our labor. Yet, the rest He offers through Jesus Christ is eternal rest with Him. Israel labored to make themselves acceptable to God by works. Their work on the Sabbath as being punishable by death is a foreshadow of the penalty for our lack of rest in Christ and trusting our work(s) to save ourselves.

Takeaway

There is wisdom in finding a balance between laziness and tirelessly working due to a desire to be rich. In regard to the appropriate balance between working and taking time for family, friends, ministry, etc. it is unclear what is the best allocation. There are no clear passages on that. It is prudent of us to be productive for six days and be cautious of laziness. We can be sure that the Lord in His wisdom desires for us to have a Sabbath day to rest and worship Him. At the bare minimum it would be wise of us to do the same even if it is not “mandated” for today. However, our ultimate rest should be in Christ’s finished work. May the Lord give you wisdom.