What does the Bible say about workaholism?

Yet another "lives in his business." Not the love of money, but the love of getting it, dominates him. He dreams of it at night, and even on Sunday he is making his plans for Monday. He is never so miserable as when he is "enjoying" an enforced holiday.

While work, in its place, is generally commendable, yet there are those who overwork themselves in order to be materially wealthy (v. 4). This may be very dangerous, and one should have personal understanding sufficient to lead him to cease from selfish aspirations. Setting our eyes on greater things than we have will in the end issue in disappointment (v. 5). "For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven." On the other hand, it is possible that riches will increase without overwork. In such a case, "If riches increase, do not set your heart on them." (Ps. 62:10).

And yet the two things may be very unlike in their outward development. The former, that is, the desire to get more, may often be found in connection with a readiness to spend; the latter, on the contrary, is generally linked with an intense spirit of hoarding. There, for example, is a man of great business capacity — a thorough commercial genius — in whose hand everything seems to prosper. He has a real zest for business, an unquenchable thirst for making money. His one object is to get more, to add thousand to thousand, to strengthen his commercial foundation, and enlarge his sphere. He lives, thrives, and revels in the atmosphere of commerce.

These grave warnings of Wisdom are especially needed at the present time in England and America, when the undisguised and the unrestrained pursuit of riches has become more and more recognized as the legitimate end of life, so that few people feel any shame in admitting that this is their aim; and the clear unimpassioned statements of the result, which always follows on the unhallowed passion receive daily confirmation from the occasional revelations of our domestic, our commercial and our criminal life. He that is greedy of gain, we are told, troubleth his own house. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich (and consequently cannot by any possibility be faithful) shall not be unpunished. He that hath an evil eye hasteth after riches, and knoweth not that want shall come upon him. "Weary not thyself," therefore, it is said, "to be rich;" which, though it may be the dictate of thine own wisdom, is really unmixed folly, burdened with a load of calamity for the unfortunate seeker, for his house, and for all those who are in any way dependent upon him (Expositor's Bible).

In contrast with godly contentment there is the restlessness of those who desire to be rich. Wealth has its snares as the Apostle shows a little later, but it is not necessarily the possession of wealth that ruins the soul, but the “desire to be rich” (N.T.). It has been pointed out that this word “desire” includes the idea of purpose. The danger is that the believer, instead of being content to earn his living, may set himself with “purpose” of heart to be rich. Thus riches become an object instead of the Lord. Better for us to cleave to the Lord “with purpose of heart” (Acts 11:23).

Verses 7-12. Another vanity is observed. Some are misers, heaping up riches and treasures untold. He has no relations, no children, no brother, even companionship and friendship are unknown to him. He lives his solitary life. His ambition is to labor and gather riches, but his eyes are never satisfied with riches; he wants more and more all the time. This also is vanity and is a sore travail.

"He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance with increase: this also is vanity. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what advantage is there to the owner thereof, save the beholding of them with his eyes? The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

Some persons most diligently addict themselves to a money-making system. Money is their heart's object. Gold is their god. Every thing with them is valueless, except it increase their wealth. Oh, how many in this forest-like world have selected for themselves a tree which may be called money! They strive for rest, but never obtain it. They are said to be rich, but they often feel very poor. Others may think them satisfied, but they know nothing of true contentment. They often painfully exemplify that "the love of money is the root of all evil;" and prove the truth of the inspired writer, that "he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase."

Of wealth he speaks. It has its use. Money is a defence (Ecc. 7:12), it is God's gift; yet how often do men feel the vanity of it all. Coveted, toiled after as the one great good, the man acquires wealth, fills his coffers, and yet is unsatisfied. If childless, we may desire offspring, but children are God's gift, not to be purchased by money. If he loves silver, he will not be satisfied with it. (Ecc. 5:10.) How can things of earth really satisfy an immortal spirit? If he feasts his eyes with his money today, it may vanish away shortly, and he be left with an heir — his own child — born to inherit beggary. (Ver. 13, 14.) Again, if he has been prospered to the last, and his riches have not fled away, he must leave them; for as he entered the world, so must he leave it. Death summons him but not his goods with him. All that he has remains behind him, whilst he, naked as he entered the world, passes out of it by the portal of death. Riches cannot satisfy the soul, they cannot buy off death, nor can their owner insure their retention for the morrow. So Solomon admonishes his fellow-creatures, "What profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?"

"What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" He takes up the diligent, well-occupied man, toiling away; the man who finds plenty to do and is happy in doing it, thoroughly engaged in the business of life. But why this cry of the Preacher, who "sought to find out acceptable words?" (Ecc. 12:10.) And why does he view things so mournfully? The secret comes out. "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever." The earth abides, man does not; hence the question that needs no answer, "What profit," etc. And here we are furnished with a view of death, of which it is well for man to be reminded. Death is the wages of sin; but it is not viewed in this aspect in Ecclesiastes. It is not the reason of its entrance into the world that Solomon dilates on, but its presence here as a worm at the root of the tree of pleasure. (Ecc. 2:15; Ecc. 3:19-20; Ecc. 5:15; Ecc. 6:6; Ecc. 9:3.) It mars pleasure, it chills enjoyment; for it cuts off man just when he would sit down after years of toil to reap the fruit of his labour. How different was the prospect of Adam ere he fell! How different will be the experience of saints during the millennium, and of men on the new earth! But now to man, feeling the consequences of the fall, death is the great marplot, blasting all his hopes. What takes place after death is another matter: other scriptures set that forth. This book regards death from this side of the grave, and shows how it effects a severance between man and the fruits of all his labour, which he thinks he is just about to reap. And the misery of it is just this: man has laboured for years, and looks naturally to enjoy what he, not others, has amassed; but finds death comes in and takes him away, whilst he leaves all the fruits of his labour to be enjoyed by another. "There is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity: yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil." (Ecc. 2:21.)