Marriage and Meaningful Work

Comments on R. J. Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law 

Today I read the first two sections of Chapter 7, the seventh commandment. The first was titled “Marriage,” and the second, “Man and Marriage.” In the first, the author started by discussing Ephesians 5 and submission. We are all commanded to submit ourselves to one another. However, none of us are absolute. We all owe submission to God. In Ephesians, Paul then proceeds to go through various examples of submission, including the wife to the husband.

In the second part, the author goes through the creation of Adam and Eve and the calling of man. God told man to take dominion over the earth and subdue it. This includes the command to be fruitful and multiply. Man’s calling consists of two parts, work and knowledge. Adam was commanded to take care of the garden, and he was also given authority to name the animals. He has a responsibility to work in the earth, and he also has a responsibility to learn about it and recognize its potential. The wife is the helpmeet of the husband and his partner in this calling. As much as a husband loves and tenderly cares for his wife, Rushdoony says, his main calling is to his work.

I was particularly interested by what the author said about man and work. God calls man to work, and when his work is meaningless or futile, he feels meaningless and futile. His response is often to work more and harder at this meaningless and futile task. The author talked about how, in past days, when work conditions were uglier, men would work 10-hr days, six or seven days a week, and still found time to rest and be satisfied in the fruits of their labors. There was an optimism, a meaning to their work. All the better work conditions in the world can’t save meaningless work. Another sad thing he talked about was that wives see the meaningless of their husbands’ work, and criticize it, but the husbands feel they are being criticized. They work harder, and do more futile work.

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