Monday, July 7, 2025

AfterWords: "Seven Deadly Sins - Sloth"

 

Ephesians 4:11-15

The Scriptures have plenty to say about this week’s “deadly sin”—sloth or laziness. Proverbs 6 captures the sentiments of Scripture clearly:

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?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
11 and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.

The message comes through loud and clear—no room for the lazy among the people of God. Paul echoes the same message in his writing: “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat’” (2 Thess. 3:10). We get the message—don’t be lazy loafers.

Today, we’ve taken lazy to new places—mainly to our minds. We have become lazy thinkers; we allow others to think for us. Paul has something to say about that as well. In Ephesians 6, Paul is concerned that “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.”  When we have that unity and knowledge, “then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Rather, we must be a people who insist on “speaking the truth in love.” Knowledge, truth--these we need to seek.

Today, we tend to be lazy thinkers. We tend to believe or accept anything that appears enough times on social media. We start to believe something if someone simply says it often enough. People still believe cracking our knuckles will lead to arthritis (not true). Folks believe “sugar free” is better for us (not true, unless one is an insulin dependent diabetic). Christians believe that God causes the suffering of this life (false—God is the Author of life and joy). After the horrific tragedy of the Hill Country Floods this past week, already hundreds (if not thousands) have posted on social media that the floods are “the wrath of God” or “God’s call for repentance” (not true—the floods are a symptom of our sin-broken world.)

Paul says we are to pursue knowledge and truth. That means we read, we study, we search for real answers. Jesus says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). When we really and truly know what Jesus teaches, we will find freedom…freedom from fear, freedom from the lies of the world around us. So, when ‘lazy’ creeps up on us, let us throw it off and do something—read, write, draw, cut the grass, help a friend. We reject and replace laziness with a life of creativity, productivity, activity…and when we do, our sleep is sweeter and the world is a better place.

Sunday, July 3, 2025
Seven Deadly Sins Life-Giving Virtues
Watch/Listen: HERE

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