2nd Epistle of St Paul to the Thessalonians

Chapter 3 – 7 For yourselves know how you ought to imitate us: for we were not disorderly among you;  8 Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nothing, but in labour and in toil we worked night and day, lest we should be chargeable to any of you.  9 Not as if we had not power: but that we might give ourselves a pattern unto you, to imitate us.  10 For also when we were with you, this we declared to you: that, if any man will not work, neither let him eat.

Work: Verb

1. 1. be engaged in physical or mental activity in order to achieve a result; do work.

Worker: The root of the word “worker” is **”work.”** The suffix “-er” is added to the root word “work” to form “worker,” which denotes someone who performs or engages in work.

Work and the one who does it are not defined by receiving pay from an employer.

When Paul, in his letter to the church in Thessalonika , wrote about work he did not refer to being employed, nor did he differentiate between work that made money versus work that resulted in loaves of bread. But this bit of scripture from the New Testament is regularly used as an excuse to refuse financial help to the poor, the disabled, and women with children. The modern misuse of this passage creates a false inference that the Christian religion values only the work that is paid for by an employer and that all other work is somehow volunteering, or a default work required by living.

Since I bake bread at home, I work part-time as a baker. Not that long ago, I was paid by an employer to cook for their business. I worked as a cook. From the sweat covering me in the summer from the oven, to the flour dusted across my work area and apron, I can vouch that there is little difference in the work. I turn out lovely loaves of bread that would cost around 5 US Dollars a loaf at any bakery. I work with exact measures, quality ingredients and with the same attention to cleanliness standards I used as a cook. But, because I do not have a taxable income from my work, it is not considered work.

Back in 2007, I spent over 11K for childcare so that I could work. My work only paid me 14K for the year. In a world that makes sense, I should have been either paid 11K to stay home or had the childcare reimbursed. Because taking care of children was obviously work that was worth at least 11K a year. But we don’t do that. Somewhere in history it was decided that the definition of work would favor certain types of work over others. It also was decided that society would pursue as much work that could be gotten for free as possible and the worst jobs would usually pay the least.

This might have come from the apprentice to master pipeline. The master would rely on the apprentices to do the labor and unpleasant tasks. The master could then focus on their craft without having to spend time on menial labor. The restaurant industry still works this way today, along with many other fields that require years of experience to master. But this vision of jobs requiring low wage earners to support the labor of higher wage earners is abused by many. The minimum wage is a glaring example.

When it was created, President Franklin Roosevelt, was quoted as saying,

“It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By “business” I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.”

Many today spread a myth that the original intention of the minimum wage was that it was starting pay and not meant to be lived on. In other words, it was apprentice pay. But it was apprentice pay for non-apprentice work without the benefits associated with an apprenticeship. Those that take a minimum wage position are now seen as lesser human beings doing labor that isn’t important. That leads to workers who are working but are relegated to a class that doesn’t have a ‘real job’. The definition of work keeps being redefined to the detriment of all those who labor. We need to appreciate all work as being valuable.

In the early church, women’s work and men’s work overlapped. That loaf of bread that Paul referenced didn’t have any mention about who baked it but it was considered evidence of work. Paul didn’t expect everyone to be tent makers or carpenters in order to have their labor be valued. Work is not lessened by profit, but it is also not glorified by profit. The labor of our hands and minds is our work. Our neighbor’s labor might look different than ours but it is no less valuable. Raising children is hard work. Digging ditches is hard work. Biochemistry is hard work. Flying a helicopter is hard work. Teaching is hard work. It’s all important work. We need to uplift our neighbor and celebrate each other’s contributions.

Happy Labor Day.