Jesus My Lord and My God   Ajit Leons Ministries

Is it true that man had to work only after he committed the original sin?

Gen 2.8-10, 15: Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put
the man he had formed. The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to …”

On the basis of the above verses in the Bible, all Christians are taught from their childhood that, in the Garden of Eden, God provided man a life of all comfort and rest. Man could live in Eden particularly without having to do any work to live because everything was provided by God.
This picture of man and his life in Eden is what has been given to the whole world and it is what everyone believes. In fact, there are great paintings, drawings, etc., old and new, depicting the wonderful life man had in Eden.

This may have had an influence on how Christians imagine their heaven to be; an existence with all comfort and rest. Eden is seen as a glimpse of what life in heaven could be. Yet, the angels in heaven are said to be working all the time. Moreover, Jesus says in Jn 5.17: … “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” All Christians are taught from their childhood that after man sinned (the original sin) he lost the life of bliss he had in Eden. (Gen 3.17-19)

Gen 3.17-19: To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Furthermore, from this verse, all Christians were and are made to believe that only after man sinned (the original sin) did he have to start working to live for the first time ever. Also, the faithful are convinced that if they live in obedience to their respective Church teachings/rules; and of course, God, you will become eligible for heaven where you will have the kind of life you had had in Eden; in comfort and rest without having to work, and maybe more. Maybe, this is why the prayer at the funeral of a Christian includes the plea for giving the dead person “eternal rest.”
Nothing could be further than the truth in the light of God’s Word. Let us look at the following verse, Gen 2.15, given in various Bibles:
NIV (New International Version): The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
GNT (Good News Translation): Then the LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it.
KJV (King James Version): And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition): The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
CEB (Common English Bible): The LORD God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it.
In all the Bibles, Gen 2.15 says that God told man to cultivate the Garden of Eden and to protect it. God gave man these responsibilities, both of which required man to work. Therefore, even from the time man was created, he had to work. Thus, in Eden, man did not have a life of total comfort and total rest but had to do his part of work that God entrusted him with.
Of course, God planted all the trees in the Garden of Eden, which were good to see and good for food. God provided for man. (Gen 2.8-9)
When man sinned, in His judgment, God cursed the earth/ground/soil. Whereas there were no thorns and thistles in Eden, now the cursed ground had them. So only through hard/painful work and by the sweat of his brow would man be able to grow the food he needs to live. (Gen 3. 17-19)
So, the work that man had to do in Eden, comparatively, would have not have been hard/painful or needed the sweat of his brow to live.
Yet, the stark truth revealed to us by the Word of God, that man had to work to live even when he was in Eden.