What I want to take issue with, however, is Mr. Gutting's assertion that, according to Genesis, "work is punishment for Adam's sin." That characterization represents a distorted reading of the scripture.
Anyone who has ever trained and worked in something they truly find interesting can attest that work is not punishment. Work and labor can be among life's most rewarding activities. Even people laboring at something they have ambivalent feelings about can experience a genuine satisfaction in a job well done.
That is because work predates "the Fall'' of Adam and Eve, when the couple turned away from God by disobeying Him. When they decided to try to be their own gods, they inadvertently set humankind on the long course of finding its way back to a healthy relationship with the Almighty, a journey that continues to this day.
Go back to Genesis, Chapter 2, verse 15: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.'' The garden is described as an abundant oasis of fruit trees and all sorts of animals. I've always imagined it as hot too, from a verse in Chapter 3: "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day...." In fact, it sounds a bit like a jungle where the man, Adam, was in charge. This conception of man as steward over the earth has been a common theme in faith-based environmental ethical thinking for centuries and stands in stark contrast to what happens after the Fall.
When Adam and Eve choose to eat from the one fruit tree the Lord has put off limits, they commit the first act of separating themselves from God by asserting that they know better than their Creator what is beneficial for them. It is a tragic and fatal decision, reflected in the way labor and work change for them after their disobedience. Indeed, it is only after the Fall that God curses the ground, so that Adam must toil to bring food forth from it, and Eve will endure pain in childbearing. The work they took pleasure in before the Fall becomes bittersweet and much more difficult.
The difference in the nature of work before and after the Fall draws an important distinction that is relevant and timeless for all workers. Work is often laborious, difficult, and performed in order to meet life's basic needs. But work (paid or unpaid) can also be done in the way it was before the Fall. When we are harnessing our talents and gifts to improve or bring forth something that was lacking before, we fulfill the original purpose of work.
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