What Does the Bible Say About Employment?

Colossians 3:23 ESV / 28 helpful votes

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

Colossians 3:22 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

1 Timothy 5:18 ESV / 16 helpful votes

For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

1 Peter 2:18 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 14 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Proverbs 22:7 ESV / 14 helpful votes

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Colossians 4:1 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Matthew 25:14-28 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. ...

Luke 10:7 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.

2 Chronicles 26:5 ESV / 9 helpful votes

He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

Exodus 20:8-10 ESV / 9 helpful votes

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

Matthew 5:16 ESV / 8 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.

1 Timothy 6:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Let all who are under a yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Proverbs 6:6-8 ESV / 7 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.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 4 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.

Ephesians 6:1-24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, ...

Proverbs 25:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters.

Psalm 128:1-2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A Song of Ascents. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Psalm 127:2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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.

Genesis 3:17-19 ESV / 4 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.”

Genesis 1:26-28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Philippians 2:7-8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Romans 13:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

Psalm 75:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.

Matthew 20:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So the last will be first, and the first last.”

26 Bible Verses about Employment