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What does the Bible say about work?
Work is given before the fall, frustrated after it, and redirected in the Lord — neither idol nor accident.
Scripture context and classic commentary notes below. For a live, retrieval-grounded conversation, Ask Bible.
Garden, thorns, and wisdom
Genesis 1–2: humanity is to fill, subdue, and keep the garden before any sin. Genesis 3: toil and thorns arrive as judgment, not as the invention of work. Proverbs praises diligence and warns the sluggard (Proverbs 6:6–11; 26:13–16). Ecclesiastes names the vapor of toil “under the sun.”
Matthew Henry’s Commentary · Matthew Henry
Henry on Genesis 2–3 distinguishes the dignity of the original calling from the sweat that now attends it.
Work in the Lord
Paul tells slaves and free — in a first-century household world we must not romanticize — to work “as unto the Lord” (Colossians 3:22–24; Ephesians 6:5–9). 2 Thessalonians 3 rebukes idle busybodies. 1 Corinthians 15:58: labor in the Lord is not in vain. Modern questions about vocation and rest should be reasoned from these texts, not forced into a proof-text.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary · JFB
JFB on Colossians 3 note that “unto the Lord” relocates the audience of work, without erasing earthly masters or the gospel’s deeper critique of the age.