What does the Bible say about working too much? Read or listen to this chapter from Work and Rest God’s Way to learn many bible verses for workaholics.

Table of contentsThe Danger of WorkaholismThe Bible Says Our Relationship to Work Can Become Sinful“Physician, Heal Thyself!”The Consequences of WorkaholismPhysical ConsequencesEmotional ConsequencesRelationship ConsequencesPerformance ConsequencesThe Bible Says Working Too Much Has Spiritual ConsequencesThe Danger of BurnoutLearning from the Mistake of a Great Leader in the Bible Who Worked Too MuchLearning from the Example in the Bible of the Twelve Apostles Who Wouldn't Work Too MuchExpect Negative ResponsesThe Bible Says Working Too Much Requires RepentancePutting Off Idolatry and Putting on WorshipFootnotes

The Danger of Workaholism

Picture a young father, Brian, whose parents made him work hard when he was growing up. Although he didn’t like it at the time, now that he has a family of his own, he appreciates the way they raised him. To provide for his family, he’s been putting in more hours than ever before. Over time he begins to value his work hours more than his family time. Church attendance has become infrequent because he’s convinced his paycheck can care for him better than God. Most of his thoughts are consumed with accumulating wealth and securing a reputation for himself.

He’s anxious, exhausted, and his health is suffering, but he can’t stop checking emails, returning phone calls, and sending text messages. Every communication, project, deal, sale, and offer is important. He stays awake at night worried about the next review, promotion, or deadline.

Productivity is so important he’s critical of others who make mistakes or don’t achieve as much as him. What his boss thinks is more important than what his wife, children, or God think. He pursues his job with the same passion with which he used to pursue Christ.

Brian’s job became an idol. He turned a good thing into a god thing. Like Brian, we have the potential to ruin even the blessings God gives us because of our sinfulness. One such example took place with the bronze serpent. Israel complained, and as a judgment, God sent poisonous serpents into the camp:

Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived” (Numbers 21:7–9).

Tragically, over time, people began to worship the bronze serpent. When Hezekiah reformed the nation and destroyed the idolatry, he had to include the bronze serpent, which by then had developed its own name:

[Hezekiah] removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan” (2 Kings 18:4).

The object that brought miraculous healing became an idol. Nehushtan is a reminder that we must be on guard against taking any of God’s blessings—such as marriage, children, homes, relationships, money, or jobs—and letting our relationships to them become sinful. Scripture doesn’t forbid any of the above, but we are forbidden from making them idols. Brian’s job, and our jobs, are no more sinful than the bronze serpent; however, when we worship them, they become Nehushtan.

The Bible Says Our Relationship to Work Can Become Sinful

Their land is also full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made (Isaiah 2:8).

The people in Isaiah’s day worshiped their work, and we can worship our work too.