Take it Easy or Get Stuck in?

This morning we are carrying on with our series of sermons called THE BIG TEMPTATIONS. It’s about the Seven Deadly Sins – a list compiled for biblical teaching in the early Christian centuries. And they are: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony. We’ve already thought about pride. This morning we are to think about the sin of sloth. Some say it is the next most serious after pride. But today it seems to be the most ignored of all these deadly sins.

In my youth, adults in churches and children in school assemblies sang Bishop Ken’s hymn:

Awake, my soul, and with the sunthy daily stage of duty run.Shake off dull sloth, and joyful riseto pay thy morning sacrifice. Redeem thy mis-spent time that’s past and live this day as if thy last.Improve thy talent with due care;for the great day thy self prepare.

Few know that hymn today. So what is “sloth”? It certainly includes the classic example of a man lying on a sofa, consuming six packs of lager, watching violent videos, and doing little else than going out to get more six packs and more videos, all while on social security! But it also includes more respectable versions of sloth – for example, the paralysis of indecision.

An example for today, St Valentine’s Day, Feb 14, and in church, would be that of the Christian man who never gets round to proposing to the Christian woman God wants him to marry! St Valentine was not slothful or a man of indecision. The St Valentine (most likely) some are celebrating was a clergyman of the 3rd century AD. He defied the emperor’s prohibition on marriages, so was eventually imprisoned for marrying young couples secretly. However, before he was executed he declared his love for the gaoler’s daughter. The letter was signed, “from your Valentine” – or so it is reported.

Sloth is all to do with how you spend your time. It has to do with Bishop Ken’s “mis-spent time”. It is fundamentally not doing what God wants you to be doing. It is not spending time in doing your duty whatever that is. So to help us think about this temptation, I want to look this morning at our Old and New Testament lessons (from Proverbs and 2 Thessalonians) but also at a short passage from the epistle of James.

And you will see that my headings this morning are first, THE REALITY OF SLOTH; secondly, THE SERIOUSNESS OF SLOTH; and, thirdly, THE ANSWER TO SLOTH.

First, THE REALITY OF SLOTH;

The sluggard – that’s the translation in our Bibles - is the classic example of sloth. He (or she) will never begin anything - Prov 6.9-11:

9How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - 11and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.

Nor will the sluggard face the urgency of situations - Prov 20.4: “A sluggard does not plough in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.” But he (or she) justifies all they do not do - Prov 26.16: “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly.”

So 1000 years before Christ – the time of Solomon and the first proverbs – sloth was a reality. But were things different 1000 years later? Certainly not. Look at 2 Thessalonians 3 and verses 11-12:

11We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.

And sloth was a reality at the time of the Reformation 1500 years later still, as we heard from Bishop Ken. But gradually the Reformation gave rise to what is called the “Protestant Work Ethic” and better time management. The Reformers not only rediscovered Paul’s teaching as you have it, for example, in Ephesians 2.8-9:

8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - 9not by works, so that no one can boast.

We are not saved by anything we can do – for it is never good enough. We are saved absolutely and freely by God’s grace, seen in the price paid by Christ for our sins on the Cross. However, Luther, Calvin, Richard Hooker and others, unlike some modern Christians, took seriously the next verse of Ephesians 2, verse 10, which says:

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So the Reformers also taught, because the Bible teaches, that, while we are not saved by good works, we are saved for good works. And these good works are evidence our salvation. Yes, this side of heaven we will still fail. But we can move forward. As Paul says in Philippians 2.12:

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and act according to his great purpose.

And that is one reason why, on average, this “Protestant Ethic” of hard work over the past five centuries has brought social and economic success to Protestant nations. That in turn has given rise to the things we enjoy under the label of “liberal democratic capitalism”. But such “liberal democratic capitalism” requires the Christian faith for its democracy to be truly free and for the capitalism to be humane. Many, however, of the so called Protestant nations are now becoming more and more secular and anti-Christian. It should be no surprise, then, that liberal democracies are giving way to creeping totalitarianisms. And it should be no surprise that capitalism without a Christian work-ethic of hard, honest, moral and socially serving work is giving way to economic libertarianism in which anything goes. And, as we have been seeing recently, it can go down and result in economic collapse. But this is a consequence of sloth. For the sluggard – the slothful person - thinks there is a quick fix to the making of millions or billions.

This sort of sloth has motivated not only some bankers but also the millions of people who spend millions of pounds (or dollars or whatever) buying lottery tickets or standing at fruit machines for hour after hour - Prov 13.4 says:

The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

It is long-term hard work that leads to material desires being satisfied. Well, that has brought us to the modern day. But we should not just be talking about sloth in economic terms. We must make four distinctions.

One, of course, in this time of economic difficulty we need to distinguish those who genuinely can’t work from those who won’t work.

Two, we must distinguish work as an ideal from work as an experienced reality. On the one hand, work is God’s creation mandate for human fulfilment given to Adam and so to all. It was “to work [the garden God had planted] and take care of it” (Gen 2.15). On the other hand, because of the Fall (man’s sinful ignoring of God), creative work will, this side of heaven, never be ideal, as Gen 3.17 reminds us: “Cursed is the ground because of you [sinful Adam]: through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” And for some that can mean periods of no paid work or doing paid work that is less than ideal for you.

But, three, work is not limited to paid work. Mothers at home work; so do retired people - most obviously in volunteer work; and, of course, it includes all work for God’s kingdom in the world, in the church and in the home – both sacred and secular.

So, four, sloth is not just to do with physical work and physical sloth. There can be mental sloth. This is one reason for the collapse of confidence in some modern science. Mental sloth results in good science being tarred with bad science. The University of East Anglia not playing it straight over climate change is just one recent example. Yes, always you have had good and bad, honest and dishonest scientists. With the Protestant Work Ethic came the rise of modern science. And the first philosopher of science from that Reformation period, Francis Bacon, spoke about sloth in study (which for him meant scientific study). His advice for good, honest study was, I quote:

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

But with the loss of Christian integrity do not be surprised at more people being dishonest in science and denying results which do not fit in with their politically correct prejudices or their scientific programmes which earn them significant money and offer them good career prospects. This form of sloth – mental laziness that avoids facing, or massages, facts - is notoriously evident in the field of sexual health, sexual ethics and moral behaviour. And the results there are disastrous and damaging. As Proverbs 18.9 says: “One who is slack in his work [in this case scientific work] is brother to one who destroys.” So that brings us to …

Secondly, THE SERIOUSNESS OF SLOTH

With regard to these “idle” people in Thessalonica, Paul is very firm. In 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 6 he “commands” other Christians:

to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.

And in verse 12 he commands again (as we have seen):

such [idle] people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.

But sloth is especially serious for James. Look at James 4.13-17:

13Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.’ 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

The essence of sloth is not spending time fulfilling your basic duties – and a primal duty (from Genesis) is the human calling to engage in creative and caring work of all sorts. So an alcoholic lounging aimlessly with six cans of lager, the sluggard in Proverbs, idle people in Thessalonica and sloppy scientists today are examples of sloth.

But here you’ve got slothful workaholics. For they are neglecting God. These business people left God out of all their planning. James, of course, is not saying it is wrong to plan. Verse 15 says you ought to think about the future. It says,

you ought to say … we will live and do this or that.

But that must be prefaced with, “if it is the Lord’s will [we will live and do this or that].” You see, when you don’t live with reference to God, you can let your business life or other paid work dominate your life. Then there will be so much you ought to be doing that you fail to do – and not least in the church and in your family. This, too, is sloth.

But look how James summarizes what he has been saying, or how he develops it, in verse 17:

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

This is such an important verse. This is the real nub of the sin of sloth – failing to do good. James is talking about the sin of omission. This aspect of sloth is very serious because sins of omission are so easily ignored. So here is a standard of perfection that catches every one of us. Even the best of our efforts at doing good fall short by this standard. None of us take every opportunity of doing good. Jesus taught about the sin of omission so clearly in his parables.

In the parable of the Talents, the man who received the one talent and did nothing with it was strongly condemned. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite did nothing positively wrong to the injured man. They just did nothing to help him. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man was not guilty of breaking any law, but of simply ignoring the poor beggar at his gate. In the parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders, the foolish builder who builds on the sand, says Jesus, is like “everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice”. That was Jesus’ first parable in Matthew’s Gospel. The last parable in Matthew’s Gospel is that of the Sheep and the Goats. This is the clearest of all. There, those who are condemned “to eternal fire” have done nothing positively wrong. They have just ignored Christ’s followers who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick and imprisoned.

Who then is not a sinner on this count? “For all [will] have sinned and fall[en] short of the glory of God” (Rom 3.12). That is why no one can stand in judgment on others, ever. Yes, Christians have to tell others about the holiness of God and positive human sinfulness, but never as “holier than thou”. Jesus said in Luke 17.10:

So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’

Old Archbishop James Ussher prayed so wisely as he was dying, “Lord forgive my sins, especially my sins of omission”. He was a man who understood the seriousness of sloth. And all that is why you can know that the Cross of Christ and his death, where he paid the penalty for our sins in our place, is so relevant to every single person, educated or uneducated, rich or poor, blatant sinner or moral crusader. For all sin through omission. The Cross is so relevant to all.

Who this morning has never seen that? Well, thank God for what Christ has done for you. Then by faith follow Christ and pray for his Spirit to work in your life so that you live and work as God wants you to and not slothfully. But what is…

Thirdly, and finally, THE ANSWER TO SLOTH?

Let me give you seven short answers.

One, you need to be a believer like these Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 1.9-10 we read they…

9…turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead–Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

If you are serving the living and true God, you will work for him and not be slothful out of gratitude for all he has done for you, and because you know he is good and wise.

Two, be confident, as 2 Thessalonians 3.3-4 reminds us, that the Lord is faithful. If you trust him, he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one as you try to do the things God commands – like combating sloth and all it means.

Three, if you are able, talk directly, but gently, with any who are obviously not pulling their weight in church or anywhere – we may assume this was going on in Thessalonica.

Four, encourage those who are not slothful. Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 3.13: “never tire of doing what is right.”

Five, generate a culture of God-honouring hard work. That will negatively mean, in so far as you can, verse 6, “keep way from every [one] who is idle.” People who don’t pull their weight can be so demoralizing to others in any group. In a church such a person, however, needs to be regarded not “as an enemy but warn[ed] as a brother,” verse 15.

Six, if you are in any leadership, make yourself a good model to follow, like Paul and his friends tried to do (verse 9).

Seven, keep Sunday special. This isn’t in 2 Thessalonians 3, but we know that the early Christians followed Jesus’ example of keeping one day special for coming together to worship God, to hear his word and to pray. As you regularly do that, it ensures your work on the other six days is in a proper perspective and with the right balance.

I must conclude.

Above all as you fight against this temptation to sloth. And you could do worse than to pray in the words of the last but one verse of Bishop Ken’s hymn:

“Direct, control, suggest, this day,all I design or do or say,that all my powers, with all their might,in thy sole glory may unite.”