These posts on the SE7EN are coming from my “quiet times.” Things have gone along as I expected, but this one (sloth) threw me. It has taken me a while to get it online, because I not only had to understand it, but at least begin to work through my own conviction and shortcomings concerning it. I was surprised at how hard it has been. Here are some of my thoughts.
Sloth is a form of laziness; a way of living characterized by wastefulness and fruitlessness. The proverbs of Scripture speak of the sluggard, the one who sleeps or wastes his time and opportunities and who, in the end, looses what God has offered to him as a gift (Pr. 9:15; 20:4).
The mistake we make, I have made, about sloth is that we consider it too narrowly. We imagine the person who won’t get up in the morning and go to work. We think of it in terms of simple laziness. While this is a classic picture of sloth, it is only one picture, and it misses the principle behind the action. Sloth is not only manifested in a refusal to go to work, but in the refusal to engage in all that God calls us to. Sloth emerges when we will not give ourselves wholly to the tasks and opportunities God has set before us. This includes one’s employment, education or duties at home. Consider your calling; husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord, children obey your parents, when working – work hard in the name of Jesus Christ, et al. These are not simply commands, but amount to the calling of God on the lives of men and women. Sloth leads us away from diligence in these things and into a state of complacency. When we are not loving, serving, sacrificing, submitting, obeying or working we call it sin, but more specifically it is sloth. It is a disregard for God’s will.
In the end sloth makes the will of God subservient to our own, as we fit his ways in where they are most convenient to us. But we don’t even talk about sloth anymore. Not in our conversations, not in our churches. The word is virtually dead. Often we use the antiseptic term “procrastination;” a much kinder word that has shed any real stigma. I’m willing to bet most don’t even think procrastination is a sin. When my wife used to challenge me about my procrastinating ways during college, I would justify the sin by claiming it was simply a different form of time management (I know, I’m an idiot). The truth is procrastination is a compounded form of sloth because it neglects the things God has given us to do today, in order to do something else. This is a sin that rejects our duties and presumes upon God’s grace – as if he has given us tomorrow. Of course we have to manage our time, choose to do some things before others, and schedule some things for another day. Planning is good. But sloth and presumption are wrong. In the end sloth makes the will of God subservient to our own, as we fit his ways in where they are most convenient to us.
Sometimes we convince ourselves that we cannot be characterized by sloth because we are busy. But sloth is not absolute inactivity; it is the intentional neglect of the duties God calls us to do. In fact much of our busyness is the result of sloth, for we have given up on the more important responsibilities He sets before us in order to pursue things more comfortable or enjoyable.
Sloth even goes beyond this. Paul commands that we should not be slothful in zeal (Rom 12:11). Have you ever considered that? Sloth can be present in your life while you are working hard, even in ministry, due to the absence of a passion for Christ. As much as Christians wish it was true, zeal is not extra credit. It is the expectation of God for each of us, and when we dismiss it as an ideal unlikely to be experienced – sloth is present. Do we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength? If not, what should we call our sluggish response to love God in the ways he commands?
For many of us it will come down to evaluating our days, and being honest with how we spend our time and engage in our work. Are we doing what matters most in our context for the glory and enjoyment of God, or are we doing what is easiest and most pleasant, putting things off without proper justification. Poverty is said to await the sluggard, but poverty is not always financial. It is often spiritual (Prov. 6:11). That’s the danger of this much neglected sin.
Helpful reading:
The Sin and Folly of Procrastination by Jonathan Edwards
Brothers We Are Not Professionals by John Piper
I am the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship; husband to Jen; Dad to Katherine, Elias, Madeline, and Kilian. If you're in town you can probably find me in the local coffee house or running through the neighborhoods.
{ 12 comments }
Ouch. The Father has been reminding me of this lately. I’ve been really “busy,” but have not been effective in getting done what I know He wants done.
Yes, procrastination is only a five syllable word for sloth.
I truly appreciate this post. Sloth is something I have always struggled with and in most of the ways you have described it in this post.
I plan on reading at least one of the suggested books.
Thanks Joey!!
I recognized over the past few months that this is an easy sin for me to fall into and I need to fight against it. You have helped put my “battle” into clear words. Thanks Joe. I’m gonna go reread it.
I’m with you Steve. Thanks to Joe’s timely post, I did something today I’ve been putting off for 8 months.
Joe, Keep up the encouragement…
now this is helping me in my sanctification,
I don’t mean to blow my own shofar!
Thanks guys. I’m still working through it, but wanted to put what I am thinking so far.
Joe:
I know you’re writing from a “guy’s” perspective (what else could you do??) but this is particularly meaningful (and helpful) stuff for women, too. Often we excuse not doing certain things because the demands of wife-and-motherhood make it easy to choose NOT to do them.
It doesn’t appear to look the same for everyone either — for some, stepping out of the ordinary routine is easily pushed aside for the more comfy, cozy, familiar of any given day. For others, keeping up with the ordinary is easily pushed aside for the exciting, exhillarating unknown of “out there”– ordinary is boring and tedious.
But in either case, we do just as you have articulated — make God’s will subservient to our own.
“Ouch” was my initial response, too, but righteous pain is a good thing, right?? Think I’ll get off the computer and get some stuff done that should have been done already! Perhaps in getting these things out of the way, God is already making room for more fruitful pursuits!
Thanks for the willingness to write as you think — I think it helps us think, too.
>>When my wife used to challenge me about my procrastinating ways during college, I would justify the sin by claiming it was simply a different form of time management (I know, I’m an idiot).
hmm…got clipped off there. Anyway, I wanted to say that I loved that line…but don’t you realize that that is the exact point to exercise your headship over your wife?
(sigh) This is probably my biggest battle. I confuse wise productivity with busyness which I then use to justify my laziness. Interesting timing on this post. I’ve been getting worked over in the same area as I prepare for this Sunday’s sermon on Eph 5.14-21.
Good stuff, bro. I continue to appreciate your thoughtfulness as well as your willingness to be transparent to all. Keep up the good fight.
Great post, Joe. I appreciate you challenging us in the areas in which we are so weak and susceptible. Here in the US we are so conditioned to think that everything should be so easy, and we are so focused upon our leisure.
Glad I stumbled across your website!
Ironically, I saw the subject line the other day, and decided to read the post later. I am painfully aware of what is piling up on my “to-do list” and these aren’t just household chores. I have spiritual “to-do’s” as well, and this post addresses the problem exactly. I’ve not been laying around doing nothing, I’ve just been distracting myself with other things. Thanks for the kick.
An insightful post, nevertheless it does raise the question of “waiting on God.” There have been times when I was slothful and the results were costly. But there have been other times that I have been “slothful” and the requirement for action disappeared or a better solution appeared. So, how can one discern from Scripture to which category any circumstance belongs? I say “from Scripture” for we certainly cannot trust our heart. You write “But sloth and presumption are wrong. In the end sloth makes the will of God subservient to our own, as we fit his ways in where the are most convenient to us” If I am correct in assuming that you’re not speaking of God’s preceptive will (Anyone who’s a thief obviously should not be slothful in ceasing to be a thief.) or His will which can be deduce from his preceptive will by good and necessary consequences, then you must be speaking of his decretive will. That being the case, how does one objectively discern what is God’s will for their future action (considering that if the event is not in the past, all we can speak of is the future since the present is but a vapor)?
I hope you will consider this a serious and practical inquiry. Right now, what started first in the SBC, but has now spread across denominations and internationally, there is a program which teaches that believers who are in the center of God’s will (whatever that cliché means) will receive new special revelation from God (what God has decreed for the future). In addition, Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology teaches that believers can discern new special revelation. In the first case, whose responsible would deny my assertion, but when they insist that they know God has told them to take certain specific action (which canot be confirmed from Scripture), what is that but prophecy and special revelation? I don’t deny that believers can have a sense that God would have them act in a specific way regarding specific circumstances, but who can claim certainty of such a sense? In Grudem’s case he disallows that the new revelation of which he speaks is equal to Scripture, but what is the net effect if we act on it with the confidence that it is of God?
I hope this is not viewed as a disgression from the subject of slothfulness, because, as you point out, it is a serious sin (but then again is all sin serious). But rather it will lead to how one can objectively discern between when they are being slothful and when using godly wisdom in not taking action. Of course, all written from a perspective of secondary causes. In the end, since God controls our every thought and action, whatever we do is in accordance with his decretive will.
Gordon,
I, with you, appreciate the distinction between God’s will of precept, and God’s will of decree – as the best systematic theologians have articulated. But some of what you seem to be saying confuses the term sloth.
Sloth is never, anything but sin. I defined it this way: “Sloth is a form of laziness; a way of living characterized by wastefulness and fruitlessness.” I also explained that sloth “is the intentional neglect of the duties God calls us to do.” It cannot be a form of spiritual waiting – a very important thing God calls us to do. In fact, one is slothful when busying themselves so much they have no time to be still and wait.
We cannot know God’s will of decree 1) unless he has revealed it in Scripture (the second coming of jesus, etc) or 2) until after the fact. Here I am speaking of the neglect of the “prescribed” duties found in Scripture. To use your analogy; the stealing is a sin. God does not call us to be slothful about stealing, but to repent of the sloth connected to stealing. Think of it this way. Stealing is the fruit of sloth. One is not willing to work, so he/she steals. Their disregard for God’s prescribed duties (work) is the problem here.
How can I know if I am in/out of God’s will? Sola Scriptura.
I wont have time to engage much, since my family is in the middle of moving.
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