What Does the Bible Say About Work? 12 Verses

The Bible treats work as part of God's design, not a punishment: Adam was put in Eden to tend the garden before anything went wrong. Scripture asks us to work heartily, as for the Lord, to rest one day in seven, to pay workers fairly and to share what we earn. Jesus himself worked as a craftsman in Nazareth.

Here are twelve verses from the King James Version, in Bible order, with a line on where each was first spoken or lived. Several of those places can be visited in Bible Labs, starting with the builder's yard in Nazareth → ↗ (opens in a new tab)

From the Law and the Writings

1. Genesis 2:15. “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). Work comes before the fall. The curse in chapter 3 makes it hard; it does not invent it.

2. Exodus 20:9. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work” (Exodus 20:9). Spoken at Sinai in the fourth commandment, which goes on to command the seventh day's rest. You can stand before the two tablets in the Exodus lab ↗ (opens in a new tab).

3. Exodus 31:3. “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” (Exodus 31:3). Said of Bezalel, the craftsman who made the Tabernacle's ark. More in Who Was Bezalel?

4. Psalm 90:17. “establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it” (Psalm 90:17). The close of a psalm headed as a prayer of Moses, after a meditation on how short life is. A good prayer for a Monday.

5. Proverbs 14:23. “In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury” (Proverbs 14:23). Wisdom for anyone with a plan they keep describing but never try. Our Equip lesson Design a test that can fail turns talk into a small piece of work.

6. Ecclesiastes 9:10. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). The Preacher's reason is sober: there is no work in the grave. Do today's work while you can.

From the Gospels and the letters

7. Mark 6:3. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary” (Mark 6:3). The people of Nazareth knew Jesus by his trade. The Greek tekton means a builder or craftsman, in wood and often stone; the Nazareth lab rates that meaning Strongly supported and shows roof beams, a bench, ploughs, yokes and dressed stone.

8. Luke 10:7. “the labourer is worthy of his hire” (Luke 10:7). Jesus said this when he sent out the seventy, and Paul quotes it again in 1 Timothy 5:18. Fair pay is a biblical concern, not only a legal one.

9. Acts 18:3. “And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers” (Acts 18:3). Paul in Corinth, making tents with Aquila and Priscilla while he preached. More in Was Paul a Tentmaker?

10. Ephesians 4:28. “let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Ephesians 4:28). Paul gives work a purpose beyond earning: having something to give.

11. Colossians 3:23. Whatever you do, “do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). Written first to servants in Colossae, people with no say over their work. If it held for them, it holds for any job.

12. 2 Thessalonians 3:10. “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Written to Thessalonica, where some had stopped working. It is about those who will not work, not those who cannot.

Where to go from here

Two more lives fill in the picture. Lydia, a seller of purple at Philippi, opened her house to the first church in Europe. Nehemiah and the builders of Jerusalem's wall worked because “the people had a mind to work” (Nehemiah 4:6).

If one of these verses has stirred an idea, our free Equip lessons are short exercises for turning it into something real. And to see where Jesus worked before his public ministry, step into the Nazareth workshop in 3D → ↗ (opens in a new tab)