Proverbs 24:31

The slothful man deserves pity as well as blame. He might be respectable in this way or that, but his field and his vineyard announce his fault and predict his ruin. Thorns and nettles hold the field where the good grain should be waving, and the wall is so broken down that it invites harmful men and animals in. Is this not a plain lesson to anyone who looks at it with the least attention? It is certainly no example to follow, but a serious warning. The outward discloses the inward.

Here we see "thorns," the emblem of God's displeasure, instead of the "trees of His own planting." We see "nettles" instead of fruitful branches. And "the stone wall" of separation, once so definite and solid, is now "broken down." So evil associations are easily found inside, and evil intruders are not shut out. All of this traces back to spiritual laziness.

The field and the vineyard were all overgrown with thorns, the sign of the curse. The stone wall was broken down — that is, the wall of separation from the enemy's ravages. In fact, this state of ruin developed very soon in Israel after Solomon himself took the throne. His marrying many foreign wives began the breaking down of the wall and let evil religions in. It went so far, so brazenly, that Solomon was carried into the dreadful practice of worshipping idols! Though he warned against this in this chapter, he failed to follow his own instruction, just as mankind generally does.

After Adam sinned, the Lord God cursed the ground, and told him that only hard work would make it yield food: "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread." Man has found it so ever since… This observant passer-by must have noticed the sluggard's field in summer, while the thorns and nettles were growing strongly. It was a poor outlook for its owner as harvest came near. His neighbour's field looked very different. A fine crop of grain covered its face… The slothful man had missed his season. In winter he should have been up and ploughing his field. Then the frost and cold winds could break up and soften the clods and prepare a good seed bed. When he should have been rooting out the nettles and thorns, he had been folding his hands to sleep.

It is always like this. Sloth says, "Put the work off till tomorrow. Another time will do just as well." So things are allowed to drift. No weeding. No digging. No sowing. But all the while the nettles are growing. The thorns are silently creeping over the flower beds, and the stone wall is toppling a little further every day. Then suddenly there is a crash. You rush out to see what happened, and you find your neat garden has become a wilderness. All around you are the results of your own sheer neglect.

I went to the house of young Mr. Slothful. His Bible was completely hidden by many other books. Thick dust covered its back and sides, and his regular habits of daily prayer were quite broken down. I saw all this and thought it over, and I knew the reason. He had been indulging in a little more sleep in the mornings, a little slackening off with the usual duties, a little more self-ease in all things. And now spiritual poverty has come upon him like a robber.

Idle, inactive habits in a Christian breed a lot of trouble. For if you do not work hard to cultivate the ways of goodness and truth, the opposite will spring up on its own.