📖 Biblical Definition
Time freed from labor for restoration, worship, and contemplation. The biblical pattern is rhythmic rest within work, climaxing in the Sabbath. Christ's explicit instruction to His disciples in the press of ministry: Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat (Mark 6:31). Hebrews 4:9-10 extends the principle theologically: There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Modern Western culture has both worshipped leisure (the weekend, retirement, recreation industry) and destroyed it (always-on smartphones, the merger of work and home, hustle-culture). The biblical pattern reorders both: leisure is real, commanded, and necessary; but it is leisure for something (worship, family, restoration, contemplation) not leisure as ultimate goal. The Christian works hard and rests well, both as parts of one ordered life under God.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Time freed from labor for restoration and worship.
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Time freed from labor not for indulgence but for restoration, worship, fellowship, and contemplation; the biblical rhythm is six-and-one (six days work, one day rest) — leisure built into creation order rather than seized as escape.
📖 Key Scripture
Mark 6:31 — "And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat."
Genesis 2:2-3 — "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work."
Hebrews 4:9 — "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Reframed as the goal of life ('weekend living') instead of as restorative interlude woven into vocation.
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Leisure for the Bible is not the point of the week — work is. But leisure rightly used (Sabbath, fellowship, worship, rest) makes the work fruitful. Modern life often inverts the order: work is what we endure to fund leisure. Recover six-and-one rhythm.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek anapausis — rest, refreshment.
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['Greek', 'G372', 'anapausis', 'rest, refreshment']
['Hebrew', 'H7676', 'shabbat', 'sabbath, rest']
Usage
"Build leisure into the week, not at its expense."
"Rest is restoration, not escape."