budaatum:
Way before sin, God gave humans work when it is said, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground". I count five instructions to work right there, and it would be a rather odd argument to claim those who do those five things are not those God blesses.

I guess the argument is whom has God blessed? Check the average lifespan of people in UK (80.96 years), Japan (83.98) and even China (76.25) and compare it with that of Nigeria (53.43). Which would you claim is blessed? Or would your understanding of God give you a shorter more brutal existence on earth in exchange for eternal life? I'm sure we are all intelligent enough to determine which of these countries we'd rather live in.

Mere loving one's neighbour is immense work which those who promote a doctrine of no work would not do. My evidence for their not doing work is their unfruitfulness or the production of fruits which are bitter and sour and not fit for consumption. And I say mere, though love is the most essential of works, it is the most basic of works that one must do along with the immense work of loving one's God, an understanding of which requires immense work. For just reading Scripture is months of work and understanding it is a lifetime of work, and by the fruits of love we have for our neighbor and our God are we surely known. Those who work not are fruitless!

I am going to rely on the Holy Ghost, if it be in you, to determine if what I've said here is a lie. I'd also rely on your experience too. Just consider. Does your daily bread fall from heaven in accordance with your lack of work, or does your God show you what work to do to get your daily bread? Think too of the implications of your doctrines. Would you rather your very own child adopt a doctrine of non-essentiality of work? Would your child be fruitful if it works not?

You might claim that what you receive from God is way more than your daily bread or the fruitfulness of your child, and to be sincere, I'd argue not, for God so loved the world, and just consider how immense your poverty would be if you had not by Grace had the Gospel preached to you. But I'd have you consider if you have salvation or are righteous before the Lord if you have no daily bread or if your child is fruitless? Would you claim God has blessed and saved you and that you are righteous when you starve or when your child amounts to nothing? Is it not true that those who do the immense works listed in the 15^th Psalm that will dwell in the Lords tabernacle of Grace and Salvation?

A favourite argument of the no work brigade is to claim salvation is by grace alone. They bring up amongst other Scripture, the [url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+23%3A39-43&version=NIV]penitent thief[/url] who said “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong”, and say he did no work, when the truth is he was penitent, which is work according to the doctrine of the confession of sins. He also obviously had done work to know God despite failing to do God's will, for it takes the work of the use of the brain and mind to reason as he did, and for this work was he rewarded with paradise. However, you are not a penitent thief! Unless of course you are one who has not yet received God's Grace and studied the Word. And if you are a penitent thief, must you not then do work of repentance and after do the work of cross carrying by ensuring the [url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+5%3A22-23&version=NIV]fruits[/url] of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, against such things there is no law, and which are all work, not work in you? Can any fruits be produced without work? Is a fruitless person saved, or righteous or even of the Lord God Almighty?

Do note that we thrashed this out extensively in this thread, and my comment here is so we not be deceived on the mount by that which is an evil doctrine of perdition!

The doctrine of no work is a doctrine of death. It is the doctrine of stones and serpents instead of one of life. Those who work are fruitful and increase and fill and subdue and rule and are therefore blessed, while those who work not reap not and die!

Cc: OkCornel