Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.
He that does not work, they say, shall not eat. Welfare programs intercede in this process, with much more waste and much less virtue than Christian charity, for it seems a cruel dictum. But such peripheral interventions conceals a more dangerous pit: he that does not work does evil against himself. The lazy man may be upheld by the labor of others; he may even be sufficiently industrious to maintain himself, physically. He rots nonetheless.
The most obvious effect of sloth is loss of productivity and the consequent lack of profit. We all know what happens to the grown man who decides his best course of action is to sit on his rear end mainlin TV (possibly with pharmacopeia as an aid). That’s right, the government comes in and hands him a check to keep doing just that (maybe). This sort of laziness, taken to the extreme, is obvious, and so is its cousin, the laziness which simply neglects to work more than absolutely necessary to comfort, which avoids all hope of a meaningful legacy.
Another, more insidious form of sloth is that which conceals itself in the trench-coat of diligence. This laziness does not say ‘Sit and do nothing.’ It says ‘Do this instead.’ Duties are put off or set aside; entertainments are preferred. Rightness with man (Matt. 18:15-20) or with God (22:36-40) is delayed; much more important is worldly advancement, getting that job promotion or opening a new location or receiving adulation. Such industrious laziness comes well-furnished with excuses, but as long as duty is neglected, it is sloth nonetheless.
God made man to take dominion over all the earth (Gen. 1:28). The drive and desire and need to steward creation is part of us from birth, from the first breath of our father Adam, and rebirth in Christ only intensifies that responsibility and proclivity (Dan. 7:18-22). Such stewardship takes a thousand forms, but it calls us all to vocation. For one, the call is to be a believer-husband-father-bricklayer-churchman-voter-barbecue expert. For another, the call is to be a believer-husband-mother-teacher-family accountant-churchwoman-voter-and-more (because people’s lives are complex). At some points one vocation predominates; at many points, multiple vocations call; at all points, duty to God is preeminent (Deut. 6:5).
Laziness is turning away from these for a path more congenial to the flesh, to sin. Laziness is a denial of this call to dominion stewardship. Thus, while laziness is most evidently destructive on the outside, to our eyes, and while we can apparently mitigate that damage (if only by damaging the industrious), its greater damage to the lazy man is levied inwards. Laziness tears out and refuses a fundamental purpose of mankind, and that has consequences—just like beating a pair of salad tongs against a brick wall has an effect on the tongs.
But here we must make clear a distinction: physical incapacity and self-preservation’s necessity are not laziness. God does not call us to act beyond our physical limits (though He calls us always to act righteously, which is natively beyond our volitional limits (Gen. 6:5)). God does not call us to ‘work’ when it violates a higher duty, including when that violation is by consequence rather than directly. So self-destruction, such as overwork which is physically, spiritually, or relationally damaging, should be undertaken only by verified necessity of a truly great duty, a duty greater than those whose fulfilment the self-destruction impedes (so it is moral to maintain the faith despite resulting martyrdom, but it is also moral, without any sloth, to refrain from entering a church building whose mold wreaks havoc on your nervous system, despite the damage that refusal does to your ability to participate in church services).
In distinguishing between justified inaction and laziness, we must be careful and act in steady prayer. We are a people eager for an excuse to sin. Careful consideration should be set to discover whether the inaction is born of devotion to the duties given by God, in their proper hierarchy (duties, as given by God, do not clash; they are eclipsed and outweighed by their greaters, not destroyed). If it is born of proper restraint, it is righteous; if it is born of flinch from responsibility or God’s call, it is wicked.
A useful point here to consider is what it is replaced by, whether the replacement is emptiness, idleness, work with less value, whether it is such righteousness as is possible, a greater duty fulfilled. Care must also be taken that ‘greater’ duties are not twisted to demand sacrifices of lesser duties which are not in fact required. In all, His word and His Spirit must be our counsel.
God bless.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Colson Potter writes copious fiction and nonfiction, including a weekly Proverbs post and his blog at Creational Story.
