Bible Verses About Work.
Work was part of God's good design before sin entered the story. Adam was placed in the garden to work it and keep it. Sin made work hard, but it did not make work meaningless.
Scripture calls believers to work with diligence, honesty, and a heart turned toward the Lord. It also warns plainly against laziness, and it reminds us that provision comes from God, not from endless striving.
God's Design for Work
Work came before the fall, and it still matters to God.
Genesis 2:15
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Genesis 3:17-19
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The curse falls on the ground, not on work itself. Work became painful after the fall, but it was good before it.
Ecclesiastes 2:24
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,
Psalm 127:2
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Work as Service to the Lord
Every honest job can be done for Christ.
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Ephesians 6:7-8
rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
1 Corinthians 10:31
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
Diligence and Laziness
Proverbs is blunt about where laziness leads.
Proverbs 6:6-8
Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
Proverbs 10:4
A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Proverbs 13:4
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
2 Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
Paul addresses believers who could work and refused, not people unable to work.
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The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
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Scripture quotations are from the ESV(R) Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version(R)), copyright (c) 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.