LAZINESS
DEFINITION: A lazy person is one who is resistant to or refuses to work and is disposed to idleness and worthless pursuits. The Bible refers to a lazy person as a “sluggard.”
FACTS ABOUT LAZINESS:
Work was instituted by God. When He created Adam and Eve: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15).
The Bible condemns laziness, slothfulness, and idleness. For examples see Proverbs 15:19; 19:24; 22:13; and 26:13-16.
If you refuse to work when you are physically and mentally able to do so, there should be consequences. The Bible teaches that if a man does not work, he should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
Failure to provide for your family is equated with denying the faith. First Timothy 5:8 warns: “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
DEALING WITH LAZINESS:
Pray about your laziness. Laziness is a habit and/or a learned behavior that can be corrected. Ask God to forgive you and to help you be an example of industriousness.
Provide for yourself and your family. If you are physically and mentally able, get a job and provide for yourself and your family. Don’t borrow money, steal, or live off of other people.
Do everything as unto the Lord. Any legal, legitimate job is something to be proud of and you can do it as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:17).
WHAT GOD’S WORD SAYS ABOUT LAZINESS:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15).
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. (Proverbs 6:6-11)
Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. (Proverbs 10:4)
As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a sluggard to those who send him. (Proverbs 10:26)
Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor. (Proverbs 12:24)
The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. (Proverbs 13:4)
All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. (Proverbs 14:23)
Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry. (Proverbs 19:15)
A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing. (Proverbs 20:4)
Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare. (Proverbs 20:13)
The fool folds his hands and ruins himself. (Ecclesiastes 4:5)
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, (Ecclesiastes 9:10)
If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks. (Ecclesiastes 10:18)
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and who does not live according to the teaching you received from us. (2 Thessalonians 3:6)
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12)
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Hebrews 6:12)
