The fruits of our labours generally involve two things: time off and money. Leisure and gain. If from nothing else, the six‑to‑one proportion of the fourth commandment, I would suggest that the relation of leisure to work is this: our leisure—our time off—is not an end, it is a means. It is a means whereby we are recuperated, reinvigorated, and refreshed to get back to our work. Vacation is not an end in itself.
Then there is the matter concerning the fruit of one’s work—material gain. The one word that describes how we are to manage material gain is contentment. Not envy; not envy of others; not resentment of what we do not have, but contentment. One who claims to be a follower of the Lord Jesus should stand out in his or her work, with the attitude that work is a blessing and a duty. That person should stand out in the matter of his or her working diligent, honest, and competent. They should stand out with a clear sense of the aims of work: to provide materially, to please God. And with a view and use of the benefits of labour: leisure, a recuperative blessing to refit you to work, and wealth in some measure; contentment.
In our views and our manner of work, the aims for which we work, and in the handling of the fruits of our labours, it ought to be apparent that we are disciples of Jesus Christ, whose work ethic is informed by the Word of Christ. It ought to be obvious that we are driven and regulated by higher principals than those that prevail commonly around us; that we are motivated and governed by the Word of God, seeking the glory of God and the good of our fellow mortals in our respective vocations.
J.B. Philips, in his paraphrase of Romans 12:2, he says,
George McDearmonDo not let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within.Take that, and connect it to what we have been considering. Do not let the world around you squeeze you into its mold. It has a mold for vocation, for labour. Do not be squeezed into it, rather let God himself remold your minds from within.1
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.