100 Bible Verses about Working Hard

Proverbs 13:4 ESV / 242 helpful votes

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Proverbs 14:23 ESV / 169 helpful votes

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.

Colossians 3:23 ESV / 162 helpful votes

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Proverbs 12:24 ESV / 129 helpful votes

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 127 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Proverbs 16:3 ESV / 122 helpful votes

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 118 helpful votes

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 ESV / 117 helpful votes

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

Proverbs 12:11 ESV / 109 helpful votes

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV / 107 helpful votes

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

2 Timothy 2:6 ESV / 102 helpful votes

It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV / 102 helpful votes

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Genesis 2:15 ESV / 91 helpful votes

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Colossians 3:23-24 ESV / 85 helpful votes

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.

Colossians 3:17 ESV / 83 helpful votes

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Psalm 90:17 ESV / 78 helpful votes

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Luke 1:37 ESV / 76 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Galatians 6:9 ESV / 75 helpful votes

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Colossians 3:24 ESV / 72 helpful votes

Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Proverbs 6:6-11 ESV / 72 helpful votes

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. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, ...

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 ESV / 71 helpful votes

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.

Philippians 2:14-15 ESV / 70 helpful votes

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

Proverbs 6:6-8 ESV / 68 helpful votes

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 13:11 ESV / 67 helpful votes

Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

Acts 20:35 ESV / 64 helpful votes

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Titus 2:7-8 ESV / 62 helpful votes

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Psalm 128:2 ESV / 59 helpful votes

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Ephesians 4:28 ESV / 53 helpful votes

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 ESV / 49 helpful votes

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

Romans 12:11 ESV / 49 helpful votes

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

John 5:17 ESV / 49 helpful votes

But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Colossians 3:1-25 ESV / 47 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ...

Proverbs 21:25 ESV / 45 helpful votes

The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

Proverbs 20:13 ESV / 44 helpful votes

Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.

John 6:27 ESV / 43 helpful votes

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

Matthew 5:16 ESV / 43 helpful votes

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Proverbs 6:10-12 ESV / 42 helpful votes

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,

Romans 12:11-12 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Proverbs 18:9 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.

Proverbs 10:4-5 ESV / 38 helpful votes

A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 37 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Proverbs 10:4 ESV / 37 helpful votes

A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

Genesis 2:3 ESV / 37 helpful votes

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Ecclesiastes 10:10 ESV / 36 helpful votes

If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.

Ephesians 6:7 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,

1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Revelation 2:2-3 ESV / 29 helpful votes

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.

Philippians 4:1-23 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ...

1 Corinthians 4:12-13 ESV / 28 helpful votes

And we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

Proverbs 18:9-10 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

Colossians 2:1-23 ESV / 27 helpful votes

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ...

1 Corinthians 4:12 ESV / 27 helpful votes

And we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;

Romans 15:1-2 ESV / 26 helpful votes

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Proverbs 24:30-34 ESV / 26 helpful votes

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

2 Timothy 4:7 ESV / 25 helpful votes

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Deuteronomy 24:14 ESV / 25 helpful votes

“You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.

Titus 2:7 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,

2 Timothy 2:1-26 ESV / 24 helpful votes

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. ...

Genesis 1:31 ESV / 24 helpful votes

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Proverbs 21:5 ESV / 20 helpful votes

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Proverbs 10:22 ESV / 18 helpful votes

The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV / 17 helpful votes

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Genesis 3:17-19 ESV / 17 helpful votes

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.”

Romans 16:12 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord.

Leviticus 23:22 ESV / 16 helpful votes

“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”

2 John 1:8 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

1 Peter 3:13 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?

Hebrews 6:10 ESV / 15 helpful votes

For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

John 4:38 ESV / 15 helpful votes

I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

John 3:16-17 ESV / 15 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 ESV / 15 helpful votes

I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.

Psalm 37:5 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.

1 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

Ecclesiastes 5:12 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

Proverbs 26:13 ESV / 14 helpful votes

The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!”

1 Corinthians 9:8 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?

Ecclesiastes 4:9 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.

Deuteronomy 15:10 ESV / 13 helpful votes

You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 12 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Hebrews 6:1-10:39 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ...

Hebrews 4:9-10 ESV / 12 helpful votes

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Titus 2:9-10 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 12 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

1 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

1 Corinthians 16:14 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Let all that you do be done in love.

Acts 20:24 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Acts 20:1-24:27 ESV / 12 helpful votes

After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, ...

John 14:12 ESV / 12 helpful votes

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

John 4:34 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Matthew 6:26 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Matthew 6:1-26:75 ESV / 12 helpful votes

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ...

Ecclesiastes 5:19 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 5:18 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.

Ecclesiastes 4:1-16 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. ...

Proverbs 12:1-24:34 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he condemns. No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved. An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful. ...

1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

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