What does the Bible say about procrastination?
Answered from the commentary of Arno Clemens Gaebelein, Leslie M. Grant, Numerical Bible Notes and 11 others
The Bible treats procrastination as folly and as a danger to the soul: its opening warning in Proverbs 27:1, "Boast not thyself of tomorrow," is read as a warning against putting off what ought to be done now. The ground is that no one knows what a day may bring forth, so tomorrow may never come; only the present is ours, and nothing should be left undone that can be done today. James 4:13-14 gives the same lesson, since life is a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes. James adds that knowing the good and not doing it is sin, a "negative evil" of neglect that often springs from self-indulgence or timidity.
The Proverbs make the same point in ordinary work. The sluggard says, "Put off work till tomorrow. Another time will do quite as well," until his field in Proverbs 24:30-34 is overgrown and its wall broken down. His poverty comes like a robber, and he who will not plough in the cold begs in harvest and has nothing. The same slow drift lays waste the spiritual life: one missed habit of prayer and Bible reading is repeated more and more often until the soul grows cold. So Christians are told to "redeem the time" (Ephesians 5:16), that is, to seize each opportunity as it comes, because it is "ours to use or to abuse then gone for ever beyond recall".
Above all, these writers apply the warning to the salvation of the soul, because "now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). There is "no folly like that of putting off the salvation of the soul". Delay hardens the heart, and death, illness or the Lord's coming may make the case hopeless. Felix is their standing example: he trembled under Paul's preaching and said, "when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee" (Acts 24:25), but that season never came. Hence procrastination is called "the thief of souls" and "the recruiting officer of hell," and Christ's call to "make haste" (Luke 19:5) means that to delay is "positive disobedience". The rich fool of Luke 12:16-21, who counted on "many years" and was taken that night, shows the same peril.
These authors also mark a limit to the warning. James does not forbid all thought or planning for the morrow; he condemns only the self-confidence that plans without God. Nor is patient waiting for the Lord's time the same as procrastination, for faith waits in dependence on God. What Scripture condemns is putting off what one already knows ought to be done.
Verses: Luke 19:5, Luke 12:16, Luke 12:17, Luke 12:18, Luke 12:19, Luke 12:20, Luke 12:21, Proverbs 6:6, Proverbs 6:7, Proverbs 6:8, Proverbs 6:9, Proverbs 6:10, Proverbs 6:11, Ecclesiastes 11:4, Proverbs 27:1, James 4:13, James 4:14, James 4:15, James 4:16, James 4:17, Proverbs 20:4, Proverbs 24:30, Proverbs 24:31, Proverbs 24:32, Proverbs 24:33, Proverbs 24:34, Ecclesiastes 9:10, Colossians 3:23, Ephesians 5:15, Ephesians 5:16, 2 Corinthians 6:2, Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 3:15, Proverbs 10:4, Proverbs 10:5, Proverbs 13:4, Proverbs 26:13, Proverbs 26:14, Proverbs 26:15, Proverbs 26:16, Proverbs 19:15, Proverbs 21:25, Proverbs 12:24, Proverbs 3:27, Proverbs 3:28, Matthew 25:14, Matthew 25:15, Matthew 25:16, Matthew 25:17, Matthew 25:18, Matthew 25:19, Matthew 25:20, Matthew 25:21, Matthew 25:22, Matthew 25:23, Matthew 25:24, Matthew 25:25, Matthew 25:26, Matthew 25:27, Matthew 25:28, Matthew 25:29, Matthew 25:30, Luke 9:59, Luke 9:60, Luke 9:61, Luke 9:62, Romans 12:11, Hebrews 6:11, Hebrews 6:12, 2 Thessalonians 3:10, 2 Thessalonians 3:11, 2 Thessalonians 3:12, Ecclesiastes 5:4, Ecclesiastes 5:5, Deuteronomy 23:21, Psalms 119:60, Psalms 90:12, Acts 24:25, John 9:4, Proverbs 18:9, Ecclesiastes 10:18, Proverbs 15:19, Matthew 6:34
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
The opening proverb warns against procrastination. No one can be sure of what the next day may bring forth. True wisdom is not to trust the future day, for it may never come, nor are we to dwell in the past. While it is today we must live and act and leave nothing undone which can be done today. How true this is of salvation which is offered for today--now is the day of salvation. How many have been lost forever by procrastination, by thinking a more convenient time would come. Well has one said, "The thief which cheats us of our days and beggars us of our wealth is the specious thought that tomorrow belongs to us." The illusion is as old as the world, but is today as fresh and powerful as ever. James 4:13-14 gives the same lesson. In the second verse we find a warning as to self-praise. Self-praise is one of the worst forms of pride, that pride which another proverb states (16:18-19) "goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
How common is this spirit of procrastination! We so easily neglect what ought to be done now, assuring ourselves (or others) that we shall do it without fail in the future. But tomorrow comes and goes, and it is still undone. The honest energy of faith is needed to strike sharply at this lax indolence, to put us on our feet; to have done now what ought to be done. Only the present is ours: the future we know nothing about: let us act while we have the time.
Certainly we know this is of supreme importance in regard to the salvation of the soul. The child puts it off: as a young man he puts it off: in the middle age the same: in old age he is hardened beyond concern, in great numbers of cases. But if we neglect but one day, how can we know what may transpire to render our case hopeless? What of the Lord's coming; or death; or the possibility of incurable illness which could leave the mind unable to make such decisions? This then is a case where one must take himself firmly in hand, and at least rule in the sanctuary of his own heart.
"I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I beheld, and considered well; I saw and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep; so shall thy poverty come as a robber; and thy want as an armed man" (Prov. 24:30-34, R.V.).
It is ever so. Sloth says, "Put off work till tomorrow. Another time will do quite 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 further day by day. Presently there is a crash. You rush out to investigate, and you find your trim garden has become a wilderness. All around you are the consequences of your own sheer neglect.
Can you apply the apologue to yourself in any way? Or shall I put it more plainly? Is it quite clear in this form, for instance? I went to the house of young Mr. Slothful; and lo, his Bible was altogether concealed by many other books, and thick dust had covered the back and sides thereof, and his regular habits of daily prayer were quite broken down. I saw all this and considered it well, and I knew the reason. Young Mr. Slothful had been indulging in a little more sleep in the mornings, and 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. He is cold in heart and estranged in ways. But it is all the fruit of his own simple neglect. There was first of all just the leaving off the regular habit for once, then the same thing was repeated; and then again, and between each repetition the interval was shorter, until now the well-ordered Christian life has become a disorderly wilderness of evil weeds.
But you may ask, What do you mean by procrastination? I daresay you read it when you were a child at school. Procrastination simply means putting off until tomorrow, what should be done today. Its meaning was burned into me by a copy slip I used in my school days. Hundreds of times I wrote it "Procrastination is the thief of time." I should like a similar copy slip to be put into every school today, and I tell you how I would alter it — "Procrastination is the thief of souls." There is not a man in hell tonight that meant to be there. There is not a single soul lost that ever meant to be so. Each meant to get right with God some day, but put it off just one day too long, and died suddenly in sin. And you mean to come to Jesus some day. Why put it off, then?
Rowland Hill was perfectly right when he labelled it "Procrastination — the recruiting officer of hell." What? "Procrastination the recruiting officer of hell!" Yes. There is nothing leads a man to perdition like procrastination — putting of till tomorrow what should be done today. That is what it means. And what should you do today? Bow at the feet of Jesus. Make up your mind for the Lord. Decide for the Lord. You have thought on many a previous occasion that you would be a Christian; but you could not make up your mind. Oh! tonight, be the Lord's. May the Lord's mercy meet you, as it met Lot. "And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful to him." The infinite mercy of that God has spared you till now, and again gives you the opportunity of salvation through this simple message. I wish from the bottom of my heart that I could draw you to Jesus, and get you morally outside this doomed world, as God's angels eventually led out Lot and his family.
Some who read these words may be still in their sins, and not reconciled to God. If you cannot be contemplated in a warning to believers, you have an especial danger in putting off to the morrow the call of the gospel which God makes to you today. "Behold, now is an acceptable season, behold, now is a day of salvation." Delay will only increase your sins, and harden your heart to resist the Spirit to your imminent danger. Be not like the naughty and foolish child, so quick to say, I will never do it again; I will be good tomorrow. Be honest with God today, and own the sin, and yourself a life-long sinner, and confess the Lord Jesus the only Saviour, counting on God's grace to save you in His name. How many have put off to a morrow that never came! So perilous is it not to own the sins today to Him who waits to be gracious, and can keep as truly as He forgives.
DO IT NOW, for God says, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3). The road to hell is paved with good resolutions. Many a man and woman is there, we fear, who never intended to get there. Delay, indecision, is a habit that grows with years. The most favourable opportunity for decision is NOW. Now you have opportunity; tomorrow you may have none. Today you are in the land of the living; tomorrow you may be in eternity. You have everything to gain by decision; everything to lose by delay.
Perhaps you are saying, "I must wait a more convenient season." Take care, lest it never come. Take care, lest, like Felix, your faith may be in a convenient season which never comes. He trembled once, and you may have trembled once in your history. There are moments when God puts the gospel before a soul in such a way that it is almost constrained, almost persuaded to believe; but the soul puts it from him, does not decide, and the moment never recurs again.
But Felix is not prepared to give up his sins, and take sides with an earth-rejected Christ. He will dismiss the troubler; he will stay the soul-arousing address. So he says, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Thus the procrastinator cries. In his words lay for him the death-knell of eternity. No doubt the apostle left the court that day with a heart big with sorrow, as he knew how the trembler welcomed Satan’s false peace back to his heart, and clasped his chains tighter to him—soon, alas! to bind him for all eternity.
Beloved reader, has this not a voice of warning to you? Have you not sometimes trembled as you thought of God’s righteousness—of the punishment of sin—of the judgment to come? Do not stifle these God-given questionings of heart. Do not, like poor Felix, put off. He lost his grand golden opportunity. What an awful power Satan wields over souls!
The Lord guide you … it is ever good to wait on Him, and not be in a hurry, or let our own will work. "I waited patiently for the Lord" is a word of Christ's Himself, and He cares for us and directs in everything.
Be afraid then to stay away from the Saviour of sinners, lest tomorrow find you in a more hardened state than today. All delays are dangerous; but what is so dangerous as to put off bowing to the Son and accepting God's free salvation?
Verses
- Luke 19:5And when he came up to the place, Jesus looked up and saw him, and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for to-day I must remain in thy house.
- Luke 12:16–2116And he spoke a parable to them, saying, The land of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. 17And he reasoned within himself saying, What shall I do? for I have not [a place] where I shall lay up my fruits. 18And he said, This will I do I will take away my granaries and build greater, and there I will lay up all my produce and my good things; 19and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much good things laid by for many years; repose thyself, eat, drink, be merry. 20But God said to him, Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; and whose shall be what thou hast prepared? 21Thus is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
- Proverbs 6:6–116Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise 7which having no chief, overseer, or ruler, 8provideth her bread in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest. 9How long, sluggard, wilt thou lie down? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 10A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest! 11So shall thy poverty come as a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man.