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Toil as Curse and Grace
Toil as Curse and Grace
Sep 1, 2025 1:33 PM

Wasn’t toil introduced into human labor as a punishment from God? Yes and no, says Dylan Pahman in this week’s Acton Commentary.

Our life is plagued by imperfection and the tragedy of our mortality, but nevertheless God says to Adam, “you shall eat,” that is, “you shall have the means to sustain your life.” Work ought not to be so toilsome — toil, in that sense, is a bad thing — but given that our lives are characterized by sin, sometimes we actually need toil. Sometimes the curse is also grace.

The full text of the essay can be found here. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton News & Commentary and other publications here.

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