30 Bible Verses about Useless Labour

Since I will be found guilty,
why should I labor in vain?

Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.

Is it not from the Lord of Hosts
that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire
and countries exhaust themselves for nothing?

David had just said, “I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good.

ע AyinAll the while our eyes were failing
as we looked in vain for assistance;
we watched from our towers
for a nation that refused to help.

and your strength will be used up for nothing. Your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

This is what Yahweh of Hosts says:

Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished,
and her high gates consumed by fire.
The peoples will have labored for nothing;
the nations will exhaust themselves only to feed the fire.

In vain you get up early and stay up late,
working hard to have enough food—
yes, He gives sleep to the one He loves.

then I will do this to you: I will bring terror on you—wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it.

It is foolish to spread a net
where any bird can see it,

The bellows blow,
blasting the lead with fire.
The refining is completely in vain;
the evil ones are not separated out.

And you, devastated one, what are you doing
that you dress yourself in scarlet,
that you adorn yourself with gold jewelry,
that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
You beautify yourself for nothing.
Your lovers reject you;
they want to take your life.

I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.

But I myself said: I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and futility;
yet my vindication is with the Lord,
and my reward is with my God.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

Egypt’s help is completely worthless;
therefore, I call her:
Rahab Who Just Sits.

I have struck down your children in vain;
they would not accept discipline.
Your own sword has devoured your prophets
like a ravaging lion.

and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?

He is to rededicate his time of consecration to the Lord and to bring a year-old male lamb as a restitution offering. But do not count the previous period, because his consecrated hair became defiled.

They will bring you consolation when you see their conduct and actions, and you will know that it was not without cause that I have done what I did to it.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason.

I went up according to a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles—but privately to those recognized as leaders—so that I might not be running, or have run the race, in vain.

For this reason, when I could no longer stand it, I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing.

Did you suffer so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing?

They will not labor without success
or bear children destined for disaster,
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord
along with their descendants.

But I sent the brothers so our boasting about you in the matter would not prove empty, and so you would be prepared just as I said.

Hold firmly to the message of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.

Therefore I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air.

Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our visit with you was not without result.