As preached by Timothy O'Day.
1) Proverbs warns us against laziness by telling us that it is:
-Neglect
-Fraud
-Failure to Plan
2) Proverbs exhorts hard work by telling us that it is stewardship of God's gifts for his glory and the good of others.
Wisdom and Work
Proverbs 10-31
July 21, 2024
Did you know that a gift can feel like an uppercut? I remember getting such a gift from a friend I had in college. As we were eating lunch together one day, I was relaying to him how tired I was. Then, he just spit out the words, “You’re lazy.” I at first objected but then he proceeded to lay out his case for a pattern of laziness he had seen in my life: I didn’t follow through with commitments, I constantly stayed up to late and slept in, I said things would be different next time and then did the same things, and I typically had an extenuating circumstance that I could hold up as a reason. Sure, I got good grades and did what I needed to do but often right at the deadline. That conversation redefined how I viewed myself. It was an uppercut of truth which came to be a precious gift to me.
Laziness is a common sin, which means we are ready to excuse it away by saying, “Everyone is like that.” While this may be true, it doesn’t excuse laziness. Yet laziness is a sin we are ready to excuse and explain away with phrases like, “But it has been a hard week,” or, “I just need some rest.” But rest and laziness are polar opposites as I hope you will clearly see by the end of this sermon.
But before we go any further, I want you to consider this question: Are you lazy in labor or are you diligent in your duty? How can you even know?
Approaching the Topic of Laziness
As you recall, Proverbs 1-9 acts as an introduction to the whole book and to wisdom itself. It was a series of lectures and sermons exhorting us to heed the call of wisdom that would be coming in the rest of the book of Proverbs. The rest of Proverbs is mostly sayings of wisdom that are now grouping thematically. Last time, we looked at how to use our words in accord with wisdom and thus use our words for worship. This week we will look at how to use our labor in accord with God’s wisdom and thus enter into proper worship through our work and the practice of duty.
I want to use the rest of our time this morning to ask questions and use the wisdom of Proverbs to give us answers. Here are our questions:
What is laziness?
What is hard work?
What should we do with this wisdom?
What is Laziness?
There are many ways to define laziness. If you look it up in a dictionary, you will find entries like,
“Disinclined to activity or exertion” or “not energetic or vigorous” or “sluggish.”
But all of those definitions don’t hit the mark of absolute disdain with which Proverbs addresses laziness. Can you feel the attack on laziness in the Proverbs we read earlier? Here are a few again,
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and property will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man” (Proverbs 6:6-11).
“Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys” (Proverbs 18:9).
“A sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!’ As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly” (Proverbs 26:13-16).
Proverbs is harsh on laziness because laziness is not mere inactivity; it is destruction.
Here is my definition of laziness according to the book of Proverbs:
“Laziness is draining God’s gifts for momentary ease and comfort.”
Let me show you why laziness is a sin that must be rebuked and not a fault to merely laugh at. Laziness drains God’s gifts for ease and comfort through neglect, fraud, and failure to plan.
Laziness Drains God’s Gifts Through Neglect
Laziness is neglect in many ways. First, it is neglect of property and possessions. Listen to Proverbs 24:30-34,
“I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.”
Laziness looks at the gifts you’ve been given and does not treasure them. It sees your property and possessions not as items given into your possession for your care. Rather, it sees them as items for your exploitation. Instead of asking how you can steward your possessions for the glory of God and the good of others, laziness puts on blinders and considers only yourself.
Second, laziness is neglect of yourself. This might sound odd because we have defined laziness as seeking your own comfort and ease, but it doesn’t seek ease and comfort in a wise way and healthy way. It prioritizes immediate pleasure to the neglect of your long-term and eternal pleasure. It says “yes” to the cigarette now because it is pleasurable, not even thinking about the fact that saying “yes" to the cigarette now is also saying “yes” to cancer later. Laziness says “yes” to sleeping in because it is immediately pleasurable, not willing to even consider that saying “yes” to sleeping in means saying “no” to getting all of your work done for the day.
Proverbs makes this point repeatedly:
“Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread” (Proverbs 20:13).
“The sluggard does not plow in autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing” (Proverbs 20:4).
“Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger” (Proverbs 19:15).
Do you get the picture? Laziness hurts you. It is destructive pleasure-seeking not through drugs, adultery, or violence. It is destructive toward you through inactivity: staying up too late watching media, scrolling, and then sleeping in; not doing things that build up your soul like reading the Bible, prayer, meditation on God’s word, and fellowship with others. Your inactivity is destructive because it is depriving you of what you need.
None of these things I just mentioned is evil (except for Tik-Tok. That might be evil) in and of themselves. The issue is that the desire for these pleasures is inordinate. The desire is too big and so it pushes out what should be there. Like a tumor growing in your brain, pushing out what belongs and filling your skull with death, laziness is immediate pleasure pushing out everything else that is good for your soul, your livelihood, and your health.
Third, laziness is neglect of your community. The Bible as a whole, and Proverbs is no exception, paints a radically different picture of life than we want to usually admit. We want to be individualistic, claiming that my choices are my choices in that they do not concern others or affect others. That simply is not the case. If I pursue wickedness, it will affect you. If I pursue virtue, it will affect you. If I am diligent in my labor, it will benefit you. If I am lazy, it will negatively impact you.
Back when Haley and I lived in Tennessee, we had an apartment completely infested with cockroaches. It was terrible. No matter what we did, we could not get rid of them. Why? Because we lived in an apartment building, and we had neighbors that didn’t care about roaches. Their filth spilled over into our space whether they wanted it to or not.
You are not an island. Your choices have an effect on me and others downstream of you.
I mention all of this not because you need to obsess over how others are negatively affecting you. I want you to consider how you are affecting others with your choices. Your laziness either directly impacts others or deprives others of what you could give through the gifts that you are neglecting to use for others. Consider what Proverbs says about this:
“Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him” (Proverbs 10:26).
“Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys” (Proverbs 18:9).
“The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!” (Proverbs 22:13).
That last Proverb indicates an excuse made by a sluggard to get out of an obligation to another person. Laziness is neglect, and this neglect does not simply affect you alone. Others will bear the burden with you and maybe even for you.
Haley’s family has a story that captures this point well. Once they were at a bike race and someone in their family was passing by a tandem bike, which is a single bike made with two handles and two sets of peddles so that two people can ride it at once. It was a father and daughter riding the bike and they were struggling on a hill. The father was peddling furiously while his daughter was just looking around. At first, he aimed to just encourage her by saying, “Come on Stephanie, I need you to peddle harder.” But as the bike slowed, desperation filled him and he cried out words that I won’t repeat, pleading with her to peddle hard before they fell over.
A silly story yes, but it captures the reality of our lives in God’s creation. You are not autonomous. You are not an isolated individual. People around you will bear the consequences of your laziness.
But laziness is more than just neglect. It is fraud.
Laziness Drains God’s Gifts Through Fraud
Fraud is dishonesty. While we spent much time last week reviewing the dangers of lying with our words, now we need to focus on the evil and danger of lying with our labor. Listen to what Proverbs has to say on this:
“Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death” (Proverbs 10:2).
“A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight” (Proverbs 11:1).
“The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward” (Proverbs 11:18).
“Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live” (Proverbs 15:27).
“Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice” (Proverbs 16:8).
“Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 20:10).
“‘Bad, bad’ says the buyer, but when he goes away, then he boasts” (Proverbs 20:14).
All of these Proverbs speak against the practice of lying with our labor. When you do not provide the service to which you agreed to give, you are effectively stealing from the one who pays you. Employers contract with you to work and accomplish certain ends and you can do nothing but then intimate that you have labored as you agreed to labor. That makes your laziness fraud. You are stealing.
Martin Luther writes on this helpfully,
“To steal is nothing else than to acquire someone else’s property by unjust means…Suppose, for example, that a manservant or a maidservant is unfaithful in his or her domestic duties and does damage or permits damage to be done when it could have been avoided. Or suppose that through laziness, carelessness, or malice a servant wastes things or is negligent with them in order to vex and annoy the master or mistress. When this is done deliberately—for I am not speaking about what happens accidentally or unintentionally—you can cheat your employers out of thirty or forty or more gulden a year. If someone else had filched or stolen that much that person would have been hung on the gallows, but here you become defiant and insolent, and no one dare call you a thief!”
Luther is making a point that we often do not like to admit: laziness is stealing from our employer, for we agree with our employer to complete certain tasks or work a certain amount of hours. While you may be able to not do the work to which you agree and not be caught, it is a form of stealing from your employer.
Such stealing is a view of work that places you at the center. “Time stealing” at work is an answer to this question, “What will please and honor me?” Not an answer to the question, “What will please and honor the Lord?”
Time stealing is not an act that arises from wisdom because it is not rooted in fearing the Lord. It is rooted in loving yourself more than God and thus seeking your ease and comfort above all else and acting like you have a right to it.
Laziness Drains God’s Gifts Through Failure to Plan
This is what is behind laziness. Laziness is responding to impulsivity. It is saying “yes” to the desire for immediate gratification and pleasure through inactivity. It believes the lie that says, “The benefit that comes through labor is less than the benefit that comes through inactivity and dereliction of duty.”
The more you practice laziness, the more ingrained laziness will feel. It is a habituated inactivity that can come over you. This is why it may feel impossible for you to escape laziness. The habit of laziness is the habit of failing to make plans in light of reality. It does not consider the future but prioritizes the moment.
Plans are designed to reach complicated goals. Impulsivity is not planning, but simply reaching the immediate goal of your own personal ease and comfort.
One reason laziness is so dangerous and pervasive is because the impulse to be pleased through inactivity requires no steps and no plan. It is inactivity.
Plans, however, require careful thought and action. Plans are hard and thus require wisdom. Impulsivity is easy because it requires zero input from others. Laziness is seeing yourself as wise in your own eyes and disregarding others to consider only yourself. Remember Proverbs 26:16,
“The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.”
The sluggard is defined by not considering the future, only the immediate present. This is presented comically in Proverbs 19:24,
“The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.”
He looks at what is in the dish and says, “That looks good,” but then once his hand is in the dish, he can’t even bring it back to his mouth because he does not want to exert effort.
So instead of planning, the sluggard makes excuses. “There is a lion in the street!” Or, “I’ll come later, I am just going to sleep a little bit more now.” It is excuse after excuse without any plan to change.
Why You Should Take Laziness Seriously
Do you see why laziness is not a small thing yet? Laziness will destroy your property, yourself, and your community through neglect. Laziness leads to robbing your employer which God hates, and it all comes from a failure to plan in accord with reality.
What is the solution? Hard work.
What is Hard Work?
Now that we have spent most of our time defining laziness, we can go a bit faster in understanding hard work because it is contrasted with laziness.
Here is my definition of hard work:
“Hard work is stewardship of God’s gifts for his glory and the good of others.”
While laziness is draining, hard work is sustaining, caring, and stewarding. What separates this understanding of hard work in Proverbs from a worldly understanding of hard work is the notion of stewardship. While many in the world would say that hard work earns you things, Proverbs tells us that hard work is stewarding the gifts that God has given you. If you steward well, you may receive even more gifts to steward toward the end of his glory. But the emphasis is not on your effort. The emphasis is on caring for what God has given you. Thus, there is a shift from considering yourself as the major character in your hard work. God holds that position.
Hard work is deeply contrasted with laziness. Laziness is neglect of your property, your person, and your community, but hard work is stewardship of your property, person, and community. While laziness asks, “What can I get from this?” Stewardship asks, “How can I give through this?”
While laziness is dishonesty with your employer that results in stealing from them, hard work is stewardship of the job that God has provided for you. Laziness hates the gift of work and seeks to avoid it. Hard work is grateful for the gift of labor that God has given and seeks to build through it. Hard work results when you see your job and your duty as gifts from God that he has entrusted to you rather than burdens that are forced on you.
While laziness lives in the pleasure of the moment and so fails to plan, hard work demands the stewardship of planning in line with God’s goals.
The Fear of the Lord
Remember what we read in Proverbs 9:10?
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is instruction.”
Laziness is rooted in forgetting God and inserting yourself as the highest priority. But when you see God for who he is, then your view of yourself, creation, and even your labor changes. You are created to imitate God in looking at creation and saying, “It is good!” You are wired to see injustice and say, “That is wrong.” You are designed to take up tasks and steward the creation that God has made and your stewardship is meant to act as a highlighter, pointing out the beauty and goodness of God.
Seen like this, hard work is worship because it is delighting in what God has given you. Laziness is idolatry because it rejects what God has given and says “It is not good,” and seeks to find other pleasures.
The Beginning of Hard Work: Planning in Accord with God’s Wisdom
If you want to practice hard work and escape the snare of laziness, then you need to learn how to plan. What is the difference of the sluggard and the hard worker? Proverbs 21:25 tells us,
“The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.”
The issue is not simply disposition. The issue is desire. We chase our desires. Or, if you are given to laziness, you lay down for your desires. A person struggling with laziness is a person overcome with a specific desire for ease and comfort. That is his top priority. He so desires ease and comfort that he will not make plans for the future for how he will eat or where he will live. He doesn’t think about 10 years from now, 5 years from now, 1 year from now, 3 months from now, or even 1 day from now. Why? Because that has nothing to do with his desire to have immediate and present comfort and ease.
The reason the sluggard makes no plans is because he does not need to make a plan in order to have immediate comfort and ease. He just has it. But when it goes away, he is driven into action, as Proverbs 16:26 tells us,
“A worker’s appetite works for him; his mouth urges him on.”
But don’t confuse this with hard work. Do you find yourself in this cycle of being lazy until the last moment and then necessity snaps you out of it and you go into a frenzy? But then, after you have satisfied your appetite, you jump right back into laziness?
How do you escape this pattern? The Lord shows you the way by his wisdom. Let’s examine the wisdom of planning in the fear of the Lord. There are three elements:
Commit your work to the Lord and no one else. That is to say, seek his goal and not your own personal goal. Proverbs 16:3 says “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” Work for his glory and his pleasure. As Paul writes in Colossians 3:23, speaking to slaves, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Commit all of your labor to the glory of God, seeking to make it conform to his will and his ways. You are not working for yourself. You aren’t building your own kingdom and you are not your own king. You are not living for yourself. You are not working or living for any other man or woman. You are working and living for Christ. See your labor in that way.
Plan your labor, making use of all honorable means to accomplish your goals. Goals are accomplished through plans. So you can start with a generic goal of saying, “I want to glorify God in my workplace,” or “I want to glorify God in my home.” Until you make a plan, that goal is only ever going to be an idea. Proverbs 24:27 says, “Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.” In other words, make a complete plan so you can prepare. If you just try to start, you will lose motivation because things won’t work. You’ll try and get discouraged and then quit, falling back into the pit of seeking immediate pleasure through inactivity. But what if you hit a roadblock or feel stuck?
Plan your labor through the gift of God’s word and his church. If you want to have discipline and motivation to follow through with your plan, you need to have a good plan. If the plan is not good, then you will give up on it. So how do you have a good plan? You vet it through Scripture and the counsel of others. Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” Did you catch that? You need to labor over your plan and not just use the first thing that you throw together. You will need to tinker with it, expand it, change it. That’s hard work, but it is worth it. And you can and should get the help of others. Listen to Proverbs 11:14, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” If you have others helping you make your plans and they are saying, “That’s a good plan,” then you will be motivated and disciplined to execute it. If you are not sure of your plan, then you will not feel motivated to do the hard work to execute the plan.
The Next Step of Hard Work: Commitment
But don’t let the laying out of these steps deceive you. This is still hard work. Laziness is easier, but it gives you nothing. Hard work is difficult, but it is absolutely rewarding.
Start by taking the next step. Do you need to commit your life to living for God’s pleasure instead of your own? Do you need to come up with a plan of how that would actually change the way you live? Do you need to tinker with that plan? Do you need to get some counselors to look over your plan? Wherever you are, take the next step.
The Path of Hard Work: Seeing Christ
But as you do this, don’t lose sight of the fact that hard work is not about your effort. It is about God’s pleasure. This isn’t a TED talk on productivity calling you to do more things and giving you clever tricks for getting more done. The key to escaping laziness is to find a superior pleasure to ease and comfort, and that is found in Christ himself because through Christ you have eternal life and pleasure beyond compare.
Do you remember Psalm 16:11? Speaking to the Lord, we can say with the Psalmist
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Hard work is not saying no to pleasure. It is setting your eyes on the greater pleasure, which is God himself.
So don’t leave here with your eyes set on your effort. Set instead your eyes on Christ. He calls you to come to him and to take off the yoke of self-effort and replace it with his yoke of glory and care. His yoke is easy and his burden is light because it comes with treasure that cannot be taken away. Hard work, which is delighting in and stewarding God’s gifts for his glory and the good of others, is not saying no to pleasure. It is saying no to immediate ease and comfort and yes to eternal glory.
Set your eyes on Christ. Christ practiced stewardship in all his labor. His life was marked by a desire to obey his Father, no matter the cost. The church is his possession, and from heaven he came and sought her to be his bride. He worked hard.
Though he was tempted by Satan to find another way to glory, he did not consent but kept the course his Father had set for him—thus remaining honest in his labor. The Father entrusts the church to Christ, and Christ labors so that he will not lose one that the Father has given to him.
He did not live for his immediate pleasure, but for the joy set before him, he endured the cross so that he could bring many brothers and sisters into glory with him. Join him by faith and walk in his way with joy.
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