Sloth

Well, in our series on the seven deadly sins which we've been dealing with these last few weeks, we've dealt with the sin of pride, the sin of envy. Last week, the sin of anger. Next week, we will deal with the sin of gluttony. Some of you might not want to come, but we want you particularly to come. And today, the subject is sloth.

The very word sounds kind of repulsive, doesn't it? Sloth. We're going to read about the sluggard, the slug, the slothful slug. We're going to read about it. A few years ago, Goody and I were on a cruise in the Caribbean, and we stopped over at the beautiful country of Costa Rica, and we signed up for one of these trips.

You always feel you've been ripped off by the cruise line. I don't usually go on these, as an aside, showing my Scottish prejudice. But we went on this, and they showed us a lot of sloths. We've got a picture of one of them. Here is a picture of a sloth. You think it looks cute? Someone says it looks cute.

It doesn't. It looks very slothful. And I learned that sloths are slothful. They just sit around all day, and they are, that's why we call them slothful. Now you ask, is sloth a sin?

Is it really a deadly sin? Well, I want us to think, first of all, what comes to mind when we think of sloth. But then I want us to think a little deeper of the attitude of the problem behind sloth. And of course, finally then, the spiritual solution. We're going to read, first of all, in the New Testament. Open your Bibles, please, to 2 Thessalonians.

If you didn't bring a Bible, there's one in the pew in front of you. 2 Thessalonians, written by the Apostle Paul, and we're reading from chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 6.

Here is the word of God to us this morning. Paul writes, we command you brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness, there it is, people who are walking in idleness, and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you. Nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labour we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you. Paul is saying, myself and the fellow apostles, we were not lazy, we worked when we were with you, you know that. It was not because we do not have that right, as apostles, they had that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. That is an example of hard work.

In verse 10, for even when we were with you, we would give you this command. Here it is, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy buddies. You met people like that?

They are busy in other people's business, but they are not busy at work. Verse 12, now such people we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. As for you brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed.

Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. A clear exhortation to work hard. We are going to see, first of all, sloth is laziness, laziness. Turn in the Old Testament to the book of Proverbs, there is a book of Psalms, the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs 6, and we are reading in verse 6. Proverbs 6, verse 6. Proverbs has a lot to say about sloth, sluggardly people.

Here it is. Proverbs 6, verse 6. Go to the ant, O sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.

If you are wise, you will listen to this. Without any chief, without having any chief, officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. You watch ants, haven't you? They are the very opposite of being slothful. They are always scurrying about.

They work hard. Verse 9, how long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. Here is a man who doesn't work, he just lies in his bed all day and very quickly poverty comes and he wakes up and thinks, oh what's gone wrong?

He is a sluggard. Proverbs chapter 26. Proverbs 26 and verse 13. Something more about the sluggard, the lazy person, the slothful person.

Here it is. Chapter 26 of Proverbs verse 13. The sluggard says, there's a line in the road.

There's a line in the streets. As the door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. Very graphic, isn't it? The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.

That's how lazy he is. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. One of the characteristics of the sluggards, you try to speak to the person, he knows it all, she knows it all wiser than the seven men who answer sensibly.

These are graphic pictures of the slothful person, someone who is too lazy to cook what they have caught in hunting. Now if you're familiar with the book of Proverbs, you know at the end of Proverbs there's a wonderful example of the opposite of being sluggard. It is the virtuous woman in Proverbs chapter 31.

She is praised because she's the very opposite of sloth. Verse 13, she works with willing hands, not grudgingly, this woman. Verse 15, she provides food for her household. Verse 16, she considers a field and buys it.

She's involved in real estate. Verse 16, she plants a vineyard. Verse 24, she makes linen garments and sells them. Verse 27, she looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. That is a woman who is to be praised. She is busy. She is virtuous. She is hardworking.

An example of the very opposite of the sluggard. Hard work, please hear me, is commended in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. We heard these rather striking words, rather solemn words by the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Let's read further about this in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 4. You understand why I want you to bring your Bible. One of our goals at Calvary Church is that we read our Bible, that we understand our Bible, and that you learn to read it on your own and so grow more like Jesus.

Ephesians chapter 4, just one verse, verse 28. Paul again is writing, verse 28, let the thief no longer steal. That's one way to get money, isn't it? You steal.

Sometimes the lazy person, that's exactly what they do. They turn to crime. No, let the thief no longer steal but rather let him labor, work hard, doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with someone in need. There's the transformation of the Gospel. Here's a man before he comes to Jesus Christ and he's a thief. He doesn't work, he steals. Now he comes to Christ. His life is changed. He works hard with his own hands so that he can give to the person in need.

How wonderful. Colossians chapter 3. You've got Ephesians, then Philippians, then Colossians. Colossians 3, verse 23. This is a couple of verses we use with our staff here at Calvary. Colossians 3, verse 23. Whatever you do, work heartily.

Do you hear that? Whatever you do, work heartily, enthusiastically with your whole heart, not just doing a job, as for the Lord and not for men. You say, well, you don't know my boss.

He is terrible. She's very demanding. That may well be the case. You're still to work hard because Paul is elevating work. It's an act of worship. When you're working hard, you're doing it as for the Lord. You're doing it as if you were working for Jesus. You are working for Jesus. So whatever you do, verse 23, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You're serving the Lord Christ. I've said before, I learned that very early on in my legal career when I was toiling over doing a particular legal work, and my senior partner who was a very strong Christian, he said to me, remember John, you're doing this as an act of worship to the Lord. And I thought, well, I'm just doing it to make money, and I'm just doing it because you told me to do it. No, I'm serving the Lord Christ.

What a wonderful thing. Whatever you do, you're drying dishes, you're flipping burgers, you're doing heart surgery, you're working in IT at home away from everyone. You're doing it as for the Lord. Scripture tells us here in 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 8, we have a responsibility to our family to work. 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 8, if anyone does not provide for his own relatives, and especially for members of his household, he's denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. See, the slothful person is so lazy, he doesn't even provide for himself, far less for his family, far less for the person who is poor. Do you ever think of work like that? You're able to work, you're able to make money, yes, so you can take care of yourself, so you can take care of your family, but also so you can give to that person in need. No, the lazy person is so laid back that nothing is accomplished. Now, in this subject clearly, but for the voidings of all doubt, I'm not referring to those who are unable to work, perhaps suffering from clinical depression or some other disability.

We're not talking about that. The assumption is that we are healthy and that we're physically and mentally able to work. We live in a society, don't we, of entitlement. Some people almost boast that they don't work.

They know the system, and they seem to think this is good, that they don't need to work, and the government are just going to give them money. You know, the common caricature is of the 29-year-old single man who doesn't work. You heard about this fellow? Lives in the parent's basement, spends all of his time on the internet playing video games, shows little initiative, dependent on his parents, and he wonders why he never gets a second date.

I just wonder if he gets a first date, far less a second date. And you say, well, this is a caricature. This is a reality of modern life here in the United States that we have some young people and older people who are able to work but refuse to do so or are enabled by their parents to do so where they laze around. This is clearly contrary to Scripture. Laziness.

It's a sin. You know, I thought about this during the week. Now, here we are, and companies spend millions, perhaps billions of dollars in getting people motivated to work.

There are these motivational speakers that companies bring in and they get you all pumped up to work. I thought, that's an indictment of our society, isn't it? I thought, did our great grandparents or our grandparents need motivational speakers to get them to work?

I don't think so. My own father left school at 14 to go to work. His father had died, large family. You know why they went out to work? In order to eat. In order to put food on the table. It was a necessity for survival. And in the world today, I would dare to say that the majority of people have to work in order to survive. Not to buy the extras, but actually to survive. How spoiled we are, aren't we?

In this wonderful country of America. Paul says, the person who doesn't work shouldn't eat. Assumption being this person is able to work, they're lazy, they lay around, it's sinful, and if you're in that category, if you're a lazy person, please hear the Word of God.

Sloth is displeasing to the Lord. God expects us to work. In the Garden of Eden, yes before the fall, the Lord took Adam, Genesis 2 verse 15, took Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden, the Scripture says, to work it and keep it.

It's a perfect garden. You say, well there's no weeds, no, but they were expanding the Garden of Eden. He had work to do. God takes this man, this perfect man, prior to the fall in Genesis 2, puts him in the garden and he's to keep it, he's to tend it, he's to look after it. What's the point? Work is honorable.

This is condemned in Scripture. We are to work hard. Children, students, what are you to do at school, college? You're to work hard. You're to study hard.

Don't be lazy. God's will for you is to work hard. I'm sometimes asked by college students regarding God's will for them, is God calling them to be a missionary, who are they going to marry, what a career. You know, if you're in college, here's God's will for you.

Work hard, study. That's where you are. That's where God has put you. In the sphere where you are, you are to work hard. In our homes, children can and should be taught to do minor chores around the house. As they grow up, they're given more responsibility.

They are being trained to work. That's the way I was brought up as a boy. I worked for a farmer at a time picking potatoes.

Hard work, let me tell you. During a summer vacation when I was about 11 or 12, my brothers and I, we worked again for a farmer picking strawberries and raspberries in the summer holidays. I remember with the money I earned, I had to give some to my mom, but the money I earned, I bought a bicycle, and then I bought a speedometer for my bike.

I thought, well, here I am. It was a second hand bike, it was a new bike, it was a new speedometer, put it on my bike, took the bike to school. You know, I was amazed when we first came to the United States, we're in Dallas, and we see these 16-year-old girls driving these beautiful new Cadillacs to school. This is amazing.

Only in America, right? Anyway, I bought a speedometer for my bike. During my summer as a university student between high school and Edinburgh University, I worked as a tours guide. For one summer, my first time I came to North America, I came to Canada, worked in a building site, building houses. I was not very good at that. My boss came and they very kindly said, John, you seem to have difficulty.

I mean, have you ever tried with a hammer to put nails up on the ceiling like that? It was horrible. And I decided then that this was not going to be my career. But he was very kind to me. He said, John, I'm going to put you as a general labourer. I said, that sounds very, very good. I said, am I going to keep on the same hourly rate? He said, you are.

I said, thank you very, very much. But I worked hard for two summers when I was studying law. I worked in a dockyard laying reinforced concrete, hard, hard work.

But I was well paid. Hard work. It's good for us, isn't it? It's good for us to work hard. I'd also say that during COVID, our attitude to work has changed. People have become more demanding about compensation, about time off, about working conditions. We now have this phenomenon of quite quitting, is it?

I think if you do that, you should be out the door. I mean, what a thing. Are we kind of saying how little we can work? Followers of Jesus are to have a strong ethic.

Where you work, brother, sister, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you should be known as a person of integrity, as a person who works hard. All of us have worked with people. I have worked with people who seem to do as little as possible. Do you work with someone like that? They're always looking for someone else to do their work. They never really volunteer and they know the system. They shuffle papers or whatever it is they do and they're always the first to leave. Long lunch breaks and they do as little as possible. Christians shouldn't be like that. Isn't that a form of stealing from your employer? Don't be lazy.

Don't be a sluggard. Work hard. This doesn't mean that we become workaholics.

Balance is important. Integral to the week in Israel was the Sabbath. It was a day of rest.

Even the animals rested on the Sabbath in Israel. We need a time, a time particularly to worship God, a time of rest, a time to recharge. We're not machines. We're human beings. But laziness is sinful.

I've talked about physical work, but there's another kind of work, isn't there? Are you spiritually lazy? Oh, it's very easy to be spiritually lazy. Here in the Lord's day, instead of coming to the house of the Lord, you just laze around.

It's amazing. People say, well, I didn't come to church. I was tired. You think, tired doing what? Tired? You're a follower of Jesus Christ.

Think of what He did. And you're too tired. You're too lazy. You can't get out of your bed. You can't get organized on the Lord's day to come and worship.

You say, well, I watched my live stream. I'm not talking about people who are ill. I'm not talking about the elderly. I'm talking about those of you who are quite able to come to the house of the Lord on the Lord's day, but you are just too lazy. That is not honoring to the Lord. How about your spiritual disciplines? You're too lazy to read this book? Spiritually lazy to pray? Spiritually lazy to serve, to boo, encourage us to volunteer in certain areas of outreach?

You say, I'd like to do that, but not really. What are we doing? We're spiritually lazy. God wants us not to be lazy, but to be vibrant and to serve the Lord. So first of all, sloth is laziness. But sloth, secondly, is more than physical laziness.

I want you to understand this. See, at the heart of the deadly sin of sloth is a life without purpose. Sloth is not merely someone who doesn't work or who is idle. The problem is deeper. The slothful person cares for nothing, enjoys nothing, lives for nothing, finds purpose in nothing. I'm talking about the extreme.

Asked about spiritual apathy, the person says I don't know and I don't care. Some of you of my advanced years will remember the Beatles, who had a wonderful song called Nowhere Man. He's a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land, making all his plans for nobody. Doesn't have a point of view, knows not where he's going to, isn't he a bit like you and me? Mr. Nowhere Man. Mr. Sloth is a bit of a nowhere man.

The slothful person may turn up for work, but has an attitude of I couldn't care less. Her favorite word is whatever. Can't be bothered with anything. Doesn't want to do anything. Doesn't enjoy anything.

Doesn't seem to believe in anything. An individual in life with no purpose. Sloth then is an attitude to life which produces a listlessness, a lethargy, a complacency, a lack of motivation, a dejection, an indifference, an apathy. What's the point of it all? What's life all about? The slothful person finds no joy or pleasure in anything.

An extreme case, this individual has given up in life. Peter Kreeft writes, how do we explain the irony that the very society which for the first time has conquered nature by technology and turned the world into a giant fun and games factory, a rich kid's playroom, the very society which has the last reason to be bored is the most bored. Isn't that very insightful? Think of all that we have here in the United States with our technology, all that we can do, all of the efforts of the entertainment world to entertain us, to amuse us in all of the variety of it. Yet Kreeft is saying, and I think he's right, we're having more and more people who are bored and who are also boring. Mr. Slothful is a very boring person.

He's bored and we're bored if we ever speak to this character. How about you? Has that enticement of all of this technology with our iPhones and with innumerable streaming services and our television and all that goes on, the wonderful technology that we have and much of it is so wonderful and yet, how is it? Particularly with a younger generation, we have more and more depressed, anxious young people. More and more attempted suicides, more and more suicides of young people in effect who give up in life. How's that? How about laziness in your relationship?