Restoring the old boat was a labor of love.
a labor of love
idiomWork done for the joy of it or out of devotion, rather than for money or reward.
Origin
The phrase comes from Paul, who praises the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 for their work of faith and labour of love — service undertaken out of genuine devotion rather than obligation or hope of payment.
The whole point of the phrase is the pairing of two things usually felt as opposites: labour, meaning hard and often thankless effort, joined to love, the motive that makes the effort willingly borne.
In English a labour of love is any demanding, time-consuming task carried out for its own sake or for the sake of someone or something cared about — the restored house, the years-long book, the family recipe — where the reward is the doing, not the pay.
The community garden was a labor of love, tended for years by volunteers who never asked for anything in return.
The dictionary had taken him the better part of two decades and earned him almost nothing, but it had been a labor of love from the first entry to the last, and he would not have traded a single one of those quiet, unpaid years.
Acts and the letters of Paul to the first churches.
- 01
reap what you sow (idiom)
Your actions produce their own inevitable consequences, good or bad.
- 02
the root of all evil (idiom)
The underlying source of much wrongdoing — most often applied to money.
- 03
fight the good fight (idiom)
To persevere with determination in a worthy and difficult struggle.
- 04
a thorn in the side (idiom)
A persistent source of irritation, trouble, or difficulty.
- 05
road to Damascus (idiom)
An important point in someone's life where a great change, or reversal, of ideas or beliefs occurs.
- 06
the wages of sin (idiom)
The inevitable painful consequences of wrongdoing.