Should Christians Have a 6-Day Workweek?

We all are accustomed to a 40-hour, 5-day workweek being the norm, even though it is common for people to exceed that. But this workweek is very new.  In the mid-1800s, working 70-plus hours a week was common with 6 days being typical. There was a steady decline from then through World War II. In 1926, the Ford Motor Company famously instituted an 8-hour-a-day, 5-day workweek. The 6-hour-a-day workweek came into focus during the Great Depression due to high unemployment. In 1930 a bill aiming to temporarily institute a 30-hour workweek passed in the Senate but failed in the House. In 1933 President Roosevelt signed into law the National Industrial Recovery Act, which employers entered into voluntary agreements to institute 35- to 40-hour workweeks. However, two years later, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional. Finally, in 1938 FDR signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established that employers must pay overtime to employees working more than 40 hours a week. In short, the idea of a 5-day workweek is incredibly new in regards to the history of mankind.

What Does the Bible Say?

There is seemingly no getting around it, God instituted a 6-day workweek. It was established as part of the law in accordance with the Sabbath:

^{9 “}Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

Exodus 20:9-11

The workweek implemented by God is in direct correlation to the example He put forth in creation. This law is repeated two other times in Exodus 31:14-17 and 34:21. There were even laws based on this idea where the Israelites were to work their fields for 6 years and let them rest on the 7^th:

¹⁰ “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, ¹¹ but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.”

Exodus 23:10-11

In Context

Given that the root of six days of working stems from the creation account it is hard to get around whether we as Christians should be working 6 days or not. What we should factor in is that “work” encompassed much more than your vocation in those times. Things today considered as “chores around the house” would have been considered work. Most people tend to do their vocation at least 5 days and use Saturday to do errands/choirs. I do not think the Lord purposed us to sit in front of a computer screen for 6 days. On the opposite side I do not think the Lord purposed us to sit in front of a tv screen all day Saturday and Sunday. I love sports. In the fall it is easy to spend most of Saturday and Sunday watching football. Is that a sin? After reflecting on this topic, I think it can be. The Lord seems to value work and condemns idleness. For most, especially if you have kids, you might not find this to be an issue but rather honoring the Sabbath might be difficult (should Christians honor that today?).

Takeaway

To answer the question, should a Christian have a 6-day workweek, I would say no in regards to your vocation. However, if somebody told me they were convicted that they and their families need to work 6 days a week and honor the Sabbath then I would completely see the reason behind it. I also do think it is important to note that the 5-day workweek is extremely new in human history. I mention this since for theological debates people appeal to church history. However, most adults probably do some level of work on Saturdays since that is usually delegated as chore day. It’s hard to know whether spending time with family or friends on a Saturday is ultimately not God’s design. Is taking your child to their baseball game or going on a hike with friends on a Saturday instead of responding to more emails not pleasing to God? It seems a little crazy to say that but I wouldn’t be 100% confident in saying that it’s completely wrong. Paul said he labored day and night in Thessalonica, but it is not clear whether that was the norm for him. What I feel certain that we can take from this is that the Lord does not want us to be lazy. The number of entertainment options at the tip of our fingers allows us to be lazier than any time in human history and it should be something we should be mindful of. We should at least strive to be “productive” for six days. Stewarding our time and honoring God with it is equivalent to our stewardship of money. It would be prudent of us to take it to the Lord and ask Him to convict us where we need convicting. May the Lord give you wisdom.