A Biblical Look at Laziness

Laziness

What is laziness?

      Why do people buy lottery tickets? According to the NY times 69 billion dollars was spent purchasing lottery tickets in 2012. The chance to win millions of dollars for doing nothing has an appeal that causes millions of Americans.  But what is the appeal of that much money? Surely at one time everyone has fantasized about the life of luxury they would have if they didn’t have to work. If they didn’t have to earn money they could do whatever they wanted to.  For most people this would mean a life doing mostly nothing useful but pleasing themselves, maybe lounging on some exotic beach somewhere. We even have a name for this lifestyle: Easy Street. But this attitude, this desire, is basically nothing more than a socially accepted manifestation of the sin of laziness.  We don’t hear much about this sin, laziness, from the modern pulpit. In fact, to my knowledge I have never heard one, nor have I seen books written to counter it. Why is that?  Perhaps this sin is so pervasive and common few want to confront it in themselves, much less others.  In church history this has not been the case.  It was listed as one of the seven deadly sins by the monk Evagrius Ponticus as early as the 4^th century.  Puritan preachers like Jonathan Edwards preached that it was a vice that seemed sweet but deadly. But today laziness is seen as more of a benign foible, a quirk that most people have, rather than a serious sin.  But the bible presents a different picture.

     So what is laziness exactly? Laziness can simply defined as an avoidance of work or effort. Synonyms include: slackness, idleness, slothfulness, indolence, being a sluggard, etc. The Old Testament word for a lazy person is ‘atsel translated most often as sluggard. The first mention is in Exodus 5:8-17- The Pharaoh accused the Israelites of laziness because they desired to leave Egypt in order to sacrifice to the Lord.

     In the New Testament the notion of laziness is described by three different words: argos, ataktos, and okneros. Matthew 20:6-The word argos translated in this passage as idleness, standing around not doing anything. In this case it was because they did not have any work to do since no one had hired them. Elsewhere laziness if defined as leading an unruly or undisciplined life. 2 Peter 1:8-The word useless here is the same word that is translated as idle and lazy elsewhere in the NT. This word appears most often as idle.

What are the manifestations of laziness? What does this look like in someone’s life?                  

1. An avoidance of or resistance to doing work in the present.
2. Procrastination of tasks, putting off work for the future. I’ll do it later, right now I just want to (insert pleasurable activity
3. Only half doing a job or task because you find it unpleasant in some way (it’s too hard, boring, painful, etc.)
4. Seeking leisure activities or pleasure instead of taking care of basic and necessary tasks (like earning a living, household chores, spiritual disciplines like bible study, prayer, etc.)
5.  A love of sleep.

What is the fruit of laziness? SO what is the big deal? SO I procrastinate?  I underperform, no big deal, right? It doesn’t really hurt anyone. Well not so fast. Let’s look at what the Bible says about laziness and its consequences.

• Proverbs 6:6-11-The sluggard (lazy person) is advised to go to the ant for an example of how to work. The ant works without being commanded to (7-8). The sluggard is characterized by loving sleep, loving rest.  The end consequence of a life of laziness is poverty and need.
• Proverbs 10:26-A lazy man is irritating to those who send him.  The implication is that a lazy person does not get the job done or at least not done well and the person who needed the work done get aggravated with the situation and the lazy person.
• Proverbs 12:24-A lazy person will not rise to a position of authority but will often instead be forced to perform menial labor
• Proverbs 12:27-A lazy man does not even have enough to eat because he was too lazy to put forth the proper effort to secure his food. The word here is slackness, literally meaning to hang in the wind like a flag. Picture a limp sack with nothing to move it.  That is the picture of a lazy man.
• Proverbs 13:4-A lazy person wished he had the things other people have but he doesn’t because he is not willing to work for them.
• Proverbs 15:19-The life of a lazy person is filled with trouble. It is inferred that this is due to his laziness.  If he did things well as he ought to have his life would be much easier. A lazy person does not plan ahead or prepare so he is always faced with difficulty.
• Proverbs 18:9-A lazy person’s inaction and negligence can lead to destruction just as much as if a person intentionally set out to destroy something.
• Proverbs 19:15-Because a lazy man craves the comfort of sleep, he does not get his work done. As a result he suffers loss. No work, no food.
• Proverbs 19:24-A lazy person can often be so lazy that he will not even take care of his most basic needs. The picture here presents a man so lazy that he won’t even lift his hand up to his face to put food in it. There is no greater need than food, but the desire for no effort overrides that.
• Proverbs 20:4- A sluggard does not think how his actions now, his avoidance of work in the present, leads to problems in the future.  He does not plow his fields in the spring because that would be work, so when it comes time to eat in the autumn, he does not have any food.  He forced to beg because he has nothing.
• Proverbs 21:17- The idol of pleasure often results in poverty. This is because a person who seeks these things will do so instead of working, which is the God-ordained way of men providing for themselves and their families.
• Proverbs 21:25-26-It is the desire of a lazy man, his desire for pleasure, comfort, his desire for leisure, that results in actions (or most often inaction) leading to his own destruction. He doesn’t work so he has no food. He suffers hunger as a result, forcing him to beg of others who actually do work. (The righteous person does not withhold food from him who truly needs it, he gives anyway)
• Proverbs 22:13-Either this proverb speaks to the anxiety a lazy person feels as a result of the compounded suffering he heaps on himself because he didn’t get his work done and can’t make ends meet, OR it shows the extent that a lazy person will go to make excuses for why he didn’t do what he was supposed to do.
• Proverbs 24:30-34-The consequences of a lazy life will be evident to all. His failure to take care even of his basic needs will result in his personal destruction.  In this example, his fields are overgrown with hazardous weeds and the protective wall was torn down.  By not working hard to maintain his fields he opened himself up to danger.  Robbers could steal what little he produced. It is the day-to-day decision to avoid what needs to be done that inevitably leads to as much ruin as if an armed man had robbed the place.
• Ecclesiastes 10:18- A lazy person does not get the job done before it proves necessary.  Therefore when his house leaks in the rain because he never got around to it, his rafters sag because he thought he could put it off until another time.
• Matthew 25:26-The servant in this parable was described as wicked and lazy (okneros) because he did not use the talent that the master had given him to further the master’s estate. He hid it instead because he thought he knew better than the master. He didn’t even stick it in the bank where at least it would have earned money. This is a parable about being faithful and diligent with the opportunities and gifts that God has given you.

     To summarize, the fruit of laziness is often personal ruin. People avoid work at any cost leading to many bad decisions that have financial and personal repercussions. It can also manifest itself in anger any time the lazy person is forced to work. The lazy person can become anxious over the problems created by his own inaction. He irritates his employers who find his procrastination irritating. His life literally falls apart because he chooses his immediate comfort rather than the unpleasant notion of work.

What is at the heart of laziness? The heart of a lazy person worships of the idol of comfort or pleasure. Their God is their appetite.(Genesis 3) Work is hard and the lazy man seeks to avoid it at all costs. The root of it all is pride (being wise in one’s own eyes) I value me above all others. Don’t tell me what to do! Nothing stirs up the lazy person to anger than being forced to do something that they perceive as unpleasant (James 4 1-3).  We are commanded to work by the Lord (Colossians 3:23).  It is a refusal to work for the Lord but instead to serve your own perceived interests. Laziness exposes our selfishness like few other sins. 

    Proverbs 26:13-16- This section gets at the heart of a lazy person. Verse 12 in this section compares a fool (described in blistering terms in verses 1-11) to a man who is wise in his own eyes. He basically says a man who is wise in his own eyes is worse off than a fool. Then, in verse 16 he says that a sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer. Therefore there is more hope for a fool than a sluggard. What a stinging rebuke! He is compared to a door on its hinges.  The door turns and turns but never comes off the hinges, in the same way a lazy man rolls over and over in bed but never gets out. Again it says that he won’t even to bother to feed himself, even if food is in front of him, even if his own hand is in the food. There is more hope for a fool than a lazy man.  There is more hope for someone who says there is no God than the sluggard who is wise in his own eyes.

What is the cure for laziness?

A right view of God and a right view of Work.  Work is a gift of God.  It was created before the fall of man. We are commanded to work in scripture. Laziness is specifically addressed in 2Thessalonians 3:6-13-Paul writes to the Thessalonian church about a specific situation where people were leading unruly (ataktōs) (read lazy) lives.  They did not follow Paul’s example of hard work and laboring in order to pay their own way and not be a burden. They did no work at all, leading an undisciplined life, being busybodies. Paul commanded that such people ought to work with their own hands and eat their own bread. If a brother acts this way you are to not even associate with him in order that he may be put to shame and admonished by the church. Like all sins, it must be repented of. It must be seen as a destructive deed of the flesh that is to be put to death. It is a sin that Christ died to free you from and we should make no provision for it.

What are some practical steps?

1. Memorize some of these verses in order to remind yourself about the importance of diligence and the sinfulness of being lazy. Titus 1:12-13 A prophet among the Cretans called them lazy gluttons (among other things). The antidote was severe reproof in order that they be made sound in the faith.
2. Make to-do lists
3. On the to-do lists write out the consequences for avoiding the task. Ecclesiastes 11:6-Be diligent at all times, you cannot afford to procrastinate at any time because you don’t know what the future holds.
4. Learn to find joy in work by remembering whom you are serving. Most tasks that are odious to our lazy selves are ones that when done bless those around us. Think of how this task will be serving others and making their load lighter. Most importantly remember that it is ultimately Christ who you serve.
5. Don’t give the devil and opportunity. Put on good works. I Timothy 5:13-Paul teaches that some widows faced the temptation to idleness which in turn lead to gossip and being a busybody. The counter to this was for them to get busy having a family and serve them.

Creative Outlet

So I wanted to create a blog so that I could post stories and articles that I am currently working on.  I may also post artwork and such as well.  This will be my creative outlet.