Was labor toilsome before the fall of Adam and Eve?

The answer

St. John Chrysostom says, “In the beginning, God gave us a life free from cares and exempt from toil. We did not rightly make use of the gift, but perverted our leisure and lost paradise. Therefore, He made our life thereafter a toilsome one … laziness has been active in corrupting us and causing us much trouble … If man had toiled from the beginning, He would not have inflicted toil as a punishment afterward. It is indeed possible both to work and at the same time not to labor hard, as is the case with the angels.”¹⁰²⁷

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty