Gospel Principles
Unit 7: Perfecting Our Lives
Chapter 27: Work and Personal Responsibility
Concept 7: The Blessings of Work
"God revealed to Adam, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat gen/3/19b">bread " (Genesis 3:19). In addition to being a temporal law, this was a law for the salvation of Adam's soul. There is no real division between spiritual, mental, and physical work. Work is essential to each of us for growth, character development, and many satisfactions that the idle never know.
"The happiest man is he who has toiled hard and successfully in his life work. The work may be done in a thousand different ways; with the brain or the hands, in the study, the field, or the workshop; if it is honest work, honestly done and well worth doing, that is all we have a right to ask" (Theodore Roosevelt, A Nation of Pioneers, quoted by Richard L. Evans, Improvement Era, Nov. 1963, p. 984). President David O. McKay said, "Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that the power to work is a blessing, that the love of work is success" (quoted by Franklin D. Richards, "The Gospel of Work," Improvement Era, Dec. 1969, p. 103).
"Men are, that they might have joy." (2 Nephi 2:25). Work is a key to full joy in the plan of God. If we are righteous, we will return to live with our Heavenly Father, and we will have work to do. As we become like him, our work will become like his work. His work is "To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39).
Discussion
List the blessings that come from work.
Discuss the blessings that we enjoy because of honest labor.
Additional Scriptures
moses/4/23-25#23">Moses 4:23-25 (Adam told that he would work all his life for his food)
23 And unto Adam, I, the Lord God , said: Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the fruit of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying Thou shalt not eat of it, moses/4/23a">cursed shall be the ground for thy sake; in moses/4/23b">sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
24 Thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
25 By the moses/4/25a">sweat of thy moses/4/25b">face shalt thou eat bread, until thou shalt return unto the ground for thou shalt surely die for out of it wast thou taken: for moses/4/25c">dust thou wast, and unto dust shalt thou return.
dc/56/16-17#16">D&C 56:16-17 (God warns the rich and poor against greed, envy and laziness)
16 Wo unto you dc/56/16a">rich men, that will not dc/56/16b">give your substance to the dc/56/16c">poor, for your dc/56/16d">riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation: The dc/56/16e">harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!
17 Wo unto you dc/56/17a">poor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men s goods, whose eyes are full of dc/56/17b">greediness, and who will not dc/56/17c">labor with your own hands!
D&C 58:26-29 (men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause)
26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.
27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;
28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.
Matthew 25:14-30 (parable of the talents)
Ephesians 4:28 (steal no more but rather labor)
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (work with your own hands)
11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
2 Nephi 5:17 (Nephi taught his people to work and be industrious)."
17 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people to be industrious, and to labor with their hands.