In a close and final sense no one can do God's work. Nor does He turn His work over to others to do. He works in His people and through them, but always it is He who works. Jesus said, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working" (John 5:17); and Paul said, "It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:13).
This is not to teach that men should not work. One has but to run his eyes over the pages of the Bible casually to become convinced that God intends His people to work. He put the man in the Garden of Eden "to work it and take care of it" (Genesis 2:15). Our Lord was a carpenter and He chose active men for His first disciples. The book of Proverbs has some scathing things to say about the sluggard who loafs away his days in careless indolence only to have poverty come upon him at last like an armed man (Proverbs 6:11).
