A sluggard's soul desireth and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
This proverb sets two souls side by side. Both want something. Only one ends up with anything. Older translations say the diligent soul is "made fat" where the ESV says "richly supplied." The verse does not ask whether you have desires. It asks what they have cost you.
Desire Is Not the Dividing Line
The sluggard is not a man without appetite. He wants things like anyone else. He just will not work for them.
A lazy man has a soul, like everyone else, and he wants things. But since he will not work for them, he ends up empty. The diligent man has a soul too, and his hard work satisfies what it wants (v. 4).
The same contrast runs through every part of life, and it holds most of all with God.
Then we have the sluggard, the person too lazy to take trouble for good or ill. "A sluggard's soul desires, and has nothing." It all begins and ends in wishes. The Apostle dealt sharply with that in 2 Thessalonians 3:10. How different is the lot of the diligent! They shall be made fat, says the wise man. This is true in the main in every area of life. It is always true in the things of God, who lifts a person above many a mistake, and values purpose of heart and ways.
Desire That Turns Into Pursuit
What the sluggard lacks is not feeling but purpose.
But there is a kind of desire that never comes to anything: "The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing." I have known people who had great desires, but who still never came to anything. Their souls had no bottom to them, no foundation. They never said, I will make this the one simple purpose of my life. I think the reason we know so little of the Lord is because there is so little purpose to know Him. If a man of the world purposes to have a future here, do you think he dreams his life away? His pursuit is as earnest as his desire to reach his goal.
Desire on its own does not stand still. Drop purpose and prayer, and something else sets in.
Even in the sluggard's soul there is desire, but he "desires and has nothing"; on the other hand, the soul of the diligent is made fat. Purpose, prayer, and progress go together. But if a believer becomes purposeless and prayerless, paralysis will soon creep over his spiritual life.
What Diligence Actually Costs
The older rendering "the diligent soul shall be made fat" pictures a soul well-fed and thriving. That richness has a price tag.
Take this as a basic principle of your inner life. You gain the practical virtues that the Scriptures urge on you only at the cost of constant self-denial and work. It is the diligent soul that is "made fat." To make progress in the divine life, you must be ready to give up a good deal of ease, pleasure, and worldly advantage. The spiritual sluggard shuns all these things for the sake of self-ease.
The Proverb Applied to Knowing God's Word
The clearest everyday test of this verse is how we treat the Bible we say we long to understand.
Most people who have come to faith in Christ would be glad to know the Holy Scriptures better. Perhaps we have cried to God about it, and asked Him to lead us into a deeper knowledge of the thoughts of His heart. But we may not have used the means He has put before us, so that we can lay hold of the treasure we long for. We are told that "the soul of the slothful desires, and has nothing." How often we feel the truth of that saying! But "the soul of the diligent shall be made fat." In His great grace and love to us, God has made the thoughts of His heart known. We have a record of them. If we want to know them, our study of them will match the strength of that desire.
The Sluggard's Deadliest Delay
The same principle carries a warning for anyone not yet saved, where the thing merely wished for is salvation itself.
"The soul of the sluggard desires and has nothing" (Prov. 13:4). Desiring the salvation of your soul is not enough; you must lay hold of it at once. "Behold, now is the favorable time." Do you think lost souls in hell expected ever to be there?
Summary
- Desire — both men in the verse want something; wanting is never the difference between them.
- Purpose — desire without a settled aim has no floor. Your pursuit will only be as earnest as your wish.
- Cost — the "fat" soul is paid for in self-denial and lost ease; the sluggard buys comfort instead.
- Means — God has put His thoughts on record. The diligent take up what He has placed within reach; the slothful leave it lying there.
- Now — the deadliest form of wanting and having nothing is a salvation put off till later.