What does the Bible say about laziness?

The sluggard is one given up to laziness. He might well consider the object lesson of the ant. a creature so small, yet a willing worker. Without captain, overseer or ruler, she diligently uses the summer to provide sustenance, gathering food in the harvest to meet her needs for the winter. Certainly, God has so created her to be an object lesson for anyone who wants to live in idleness. The sluggard is asked how long will he slumber, for only a little slumber, that is, the hands desisting from work, will in the end bring poverty, like a prowler who steals one's living, or like an armed man who comes to deprive one of all defense (vv. 10-11). Let us be workers, not drones!

In full contrast with the earnestness enjoined here is the indolent folly which is next portrayed vividly. The sluggard is sunk so low, that Jehovah bids him learn of the tiny "ant" as his sufficient monitor; so the lilies of the field are made in the New Testament to rebuke anxiety for raiment. Not a word is said of hoarding store for winter, as in fact like many animals they are then torpid for the most part. But their unceasing industry and good order and even care for others in the summer and harvest while activity is open to them, may well put to shame the self-indulgent slumberer. If moral weakness in its easygoing has exposed its prey to the hunter and the fowler, so on the listless and lazy, poverty comes like a tramp or an armed man that will not be denied. What goodness on Jehovah's part to guard His people from both snares along their earthly pathway! How salutary for such as are called to higher things!

The ant's weakness is not made an excuse for laxity. Diligently they labor to prepare food for winter. Let us, too, have wisdom in our brief span of life on earth, to prepare for eternity. It is the fool who ignores this, while amassing "much goods" "for many years," - years on earth which he may not see at all (Luke 12:16-21). The ant rightly lives only for earth, and prepares for the only future she will have: man's preparation only for earth is folly, for his earthly future is nothing compared to the eternity he must face. But the ant is intended to teach wisdom in diligence, and to reprove laziness. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise" (Prov. 6:6).

Verses 6-11. The sluggard is commanded to go to the ant for a lesson. (See also 30:25.) The ant is a marvellous little creature. That which modern science has found out by close observation of the life of this little insect is here tersely stated by the words of the Lord, the Creator. They swarm in the woods and in the fields; they work day and night; they capture, train and nourish aphides, which they use as a kind of slave. They build vast and symmetrical mounds, which they use as homes and barns, and which are, relatively to the size of the tiny builders, three times larger than the Egyptian pyramids. They march and labor in unison, have their own wars, nourish their sick, and all is done without a chief, an overseer or a ruler. Yet man with a higher intelligence and a higher work to do can be a sluggard.

In verses 4 and 5, heedlessness is shown to work ruin, no less than more pronounced evil. It was not for such indifference that God made man in His image after His likeness; and when he fell, he got a conscience to know good and evil, as was not nor could be in a state of innocence. So we have, "He comes to want that deals with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent makes rich." As man, it is good for him to eat bread in the sweat of his face. An idler is open to evil as well as poverty; the diligent works not in vain. Again, when all is bright and abundant, folly takes its ease and enjoyment; but he is a wise son that gathers in summer. Thus, he that sleeps when he ought to reap diligently, must inevitably cause shame, whatever the love of those who are nearest.

A lazy man has a soul, as does everyone else, and is inclined to want something. but since he will not work for it, he is left empty. The diligent man too has a soul, and its desires will be satisfied through diligence in his labor (v. 4). It is only normal for a righteous man (a believer) to hate lying, for such is the character of the new life he has received from God; while a wicked man shows himself loathsome, and reduces himself to a shameful condition (v. 5). If one is blameless in his character, the very principle of righteousness is a guard for him against evil encroachments, while the wickedness of the sinner overthrows him (v. 6).

Then we have the person too indolent to take trouble for good or ill, the sluggard. "A sluggard's soul desires, and has nothing." All begins and ends in wishes, with which the Apostle dealt trenchantly in 2 Thessalonians 3:10. How different the lot of the diligent! They shall be made fat, says the wise man. In every sphere it is true in the main — unfailingly so in the things of God who raises above many a mistake, and values purpose of heart and ways.

Perhaps one of the earliest outward marks of inward decline in a Christian is the readiness to excuse oneself from devotedness and diligence in the Lord's service. Difficulties are spoken of not heard of before, and dangers too are feared; so that the manifest neglect is both accounted for and excused, when such "will not plow by reason of the cold," and say, "There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets." (Prov. 26:13; Prov. 20:4.) The human mind can easily imagine or invent obstacles to unselfish and God-honouring service, and when this is yielded to, instead of abiding in the truth at all costs, a place of ease is readily found. When we lose the authority of the Word on our conscience, that "it is given unto us, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake," we can easily think of our present temporal advantage and personal ease in this passing scene, glide away from wisdom's ways of pleasantness and peace, and become weak and helpless as to divine things. "The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth." (Prov. 26:15.) Such have not only left their first love, but turn away from those who stand for God's truth at all costs. A drowsy state has taken hold on them, so that their spiritual movements are little more than mechanical, "as the door turneth upon his hinges," and such become as indolent in caring for their souls' welfare, as a slumbering man who grieves at the trouble of bringing again his hand to his mouth. (Prov. 19:24.) He so slumbers that, while knowing all that is going on around him, he has no power to bestir himself. Yet, strange to say, with all this declension and indifference to the honour of the Lord, "the sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason." (Prov. 26:16.) What an appalling state! Such can only pride themselves on their desires, while their souls are dry and drowsy, so that the scripture is fulfilled that "the soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing;" and again, "The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour." (Prov. 13:4; Prov. 21:25.)

Another mark of a slothful man is that he roasteth not that which he took in hunting. (Prov. 12:27.) He may associate with God's saints, hear the Word ministered with freshness and power, and may be even struck with its blessedness and suitability to himself; but when he retires, he is so absorbed with earthly things that he takes no further interest in it. Like the huntsman's prize, it is of no real benefit to him, because he is too indolent to occupy himself with it by meditating on the truth for his present profit. How strikingly this describes the state of many in this day. To read or to hear the Word is one thing, but to "meditate on it day and night" for our soul's profit is another thing. A clean animal, under the law, not only gathered up food, but it chewed the cud - so that it was not only received but digested for renewal of strength and personal profit, and connected too with a walk suited to it. (Lev. 11:3.)

We are also told that "the way of a slothful man is as an hedge of thorns." A spiritual and earnest Christian finds something almost impenetrable in the endeavour to approach such. Greatly as those who care for their souls desire it, they find communion, in the things of the Lord to be out of the question, and conclude that God only can break through the "hedge of thorns." (Prov. 15:19; Prov. 12:24.) How truly, too, it is said, that "he also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster." We are familiar with it in earthly matters; but is it less true as to the things of the Lord, and our daily walk and testimony? Opportunities of honouring the Lord are missed, and never return, and the means entrusted to our stewardship are wrongly used; time is misspent, and health and strength wasted in the routine or amusements of this present evil age. "What is the harm of this or that?" saith the slothful man, little thinking that one who is practically alive unto God, and seeking His glory, would never ask such a question.

The truth is that, when we fail to enjoy the love of God to us in Christ, when Christ Himself is no longer the Object and Hope of our hearts, when meditation on the word of God becomes irksome, and closet prayer declines, when private praise and making melody in the heart to the Lord ceases, and we no longer overflow with love to our Saviour God, to His ways, His people, and His service, we begin to be slothful Christians; and, oh, how serious is this state! for "slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger." (Prov. 19:15.) Let it be noted that it is a deep sleep; alas! so deep, that ordinary means utterly fail to awake them. How humbling and depressing is this divinely-drawn picture of sleep, and yet how true! Can anything account for what we see around us associated with the name of the Lord but slothfulness touching the things of God? And if so, how solemn and searching is the warning, admonishing us to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. The thought of some is, "I know I am saved," "I know I have eternal life," and the like; but do we consider, as we ought, that if the Spirit of God is grieved or quenched by our life and walk, we may lose the comfort and enjoyment of such precious truths, and even forget that we were purged from our old sins?

Even when man was unfallen, he had responsibility. He was called to till and keep the garden, planted exceptionally by Jehovah Elohim with every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. When fallen, as the ground was cursed on his account, he had to eat of it all the days of his life with toil. Thorns and thistles it yielded unbidden, so that man had to eat bread in the sweat of his face all his diminishing life. Slothfulness therefore ill became his position, and all the more when he faced adversity through his own fault. The sun arises, and the wild beasts get away to their dens, but man goes forth to his work till the evening; and, as he is, it is well ordered for him. But slothfulness traverses all, and casts into a deep sleep while it is day, and pays the penalty. If any will not work, neither let him eat. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.