Jul 8, 2010
Killing Sin: Laziness
Sloth is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It is deadly, because it doesn't appear to be deadly and therein lies its power to destroy. Satan loves to tempt our youth with ambition and arrogance. But in the process, he lures them into beds of ease. I was thinking this week how hard it is to find a diligent work ethic among our youth. It is almost expected in America that our children will play harder than they will work. Growing up, however, means putting away childish things (1 Cor. 13:11). Those who will be useful to God must be prepared to work hard for him, which will include suffering.
Paul told Timothy, "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Tim 2:3). Paul suffered and did not expect that things should be any different for Timothy. After all, it was Jesus who said, "A servant is not above his master". If the master suffers, the servant better. In fact, it was Paul who said after he was beaten senseless and left for dead in Lystra, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."
I love the book of Proverbs. I have made it a habit for years to regularly read it. It has no shortage of council for the lazy man. I was challenged in college to take laziness seriously. Though I was raised with a work ethic, laziness was still very much a part of my life. Finally, a dude discipled me for the first time and began to challenge my laziness head on. We read through the Proverbs. Many of them make the point clear. The lazy man finds is difficult to get up in the morning. He turns over and over as though hinged to his bed (Prov. 26:14). He refuses to go outside and work, insisting that there is a lion waiting for him! Ask this man, "When are you going to rise from your bed?" and he has no answer: "A little sleep a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest" (6:10).
If being confronted with that is not humbling enough, God uses an ant to rebuke us. "Go to the ant you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest" (6:6-8). The reference here to the ant is probably a reference to the type of ant found in the desert. We call them harvester ants. According to scholars, their colonies can consist of up to a millions ants, the vast majority being workers and soldiers.
What is it that these ants can teach us? Well, among other things they teach us unquestioning obedience and hard work. That's life. Life is work. When we look through the pages of church history we can find hundreds of examples of people who labored through sweat and blood their whole lives (some to be martyred) for the sake of the Gospel. One such man is Polycarp, a disciple of John (the disciple of Jesus). I have been reading about Polycarp in the Apostolic Fathers. After serving Christ for eighty-six years, he was finally burned alive for refusing to deny his Lord. He said, "How can I deny him who has never done me any harm?"
I feel motivated by that. Unfortunately, today's Christianity is about success and glamor. The "health, wealth and prosperity" gospel has made major strides and we are suffering as a result. But the "health and wealth" gospel is not just the problem of a christian t.v. evangelist, it has infiltrated itself into all streams and denominations of those who profess Christ. But it's flabby, anemic, and sickly Christianity. In fact, it's worse. At times, depending on how is it expressed, it is another gospel all together. Bonhoeffer was right when he said, "When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die." Eight years after that statement he was hanged by the Nazis.
I want to kill laziness in my life. I will leave you with the words of Jim Elliot to fuel your passion to rid laziness from your life. Just his example is instructive. From his journal, December 31, 1955 it reads,
"A month of temptation. Satan and the flesh have been hard on me. How God holds my soul in His life and permits one with such wretchedness to continue in His service I cannot tell. Oh, it has been hard...I have been very low inside me struggling and casting myself hourly upon Christ for help. Marriage is divorce from the privacy man loves, but there is some privacy none can share. It is the knowledge of a sinful heart."
Four days later he was speared to death by the Auca Indians. He was indeed a man of great discipline and hard work.
As Christians, we all long to be useful and yet we struggle. So what should you do? Run to Christ today for help. In him there is not only forgiveness, but power to live the way God has called you to live. The strength comes from outside yourself. Lean hard on the gospel and then work hard through the strength and power of God's Spirit.
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