SLOTH

Oh Lord, this is not a good time for me to do the study on lazy, also known as slothful. But then again, yes it is! This was placed heavily on my heart to do this study and I must not be lazy and disobedient but to be obedient to the Lord!

There are so many verses, especially in Proverbs, that talks about lazy. I will use lazy because we are more familiar with that word and it means the same as slothful. Here are all the verses dealing with it that you can read for yourself and I will touch on some of it. Prov 10:4, 26; 12:24, 27; 13:4; 15:19; 18:9; 19:15, 24; 20:4; 21:25; 22:13; 24:30; 26:13-16. That's just proverbs only. Not talking about the other scriptures.

The thing that really stood out for me was not the physical lazy but the spiritual lazy. There are spiritual lazy people in the world who have no idea that they are lazy! That's where I come in. I am here to bring awareness to the things that Christian may have no idea what they are "suffering" from. This is what we can consider a self diagnoses. If you happen to follow under any of these things that the Lord is sharing with me, than it's time for you to change your ways. Remember, we are in the world but we are not of the world. That means that our lives should not be so consumed with worldly responsibilities that will cause us to neglected our spiritual responsibilities. I will not focus on the physical slothful because we already know what that is. We know what it means to be lazy and I gave you a few scriptures to back it up in proverbs. What I am going to focus on is the spiritual laziness because most of us have no idea that there is even a such thing as spiritual laziness.

Let's look at the parable in Matthew 25:14-46. Believe it or not this parable is dealing with the spiritual and physical life of a servant. Jesus is explaining what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.
A man was going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted each one his money to take care of while he was gone. One of the servants he gave 5 bags of silver, another he gave 2 bags of silver and the last he gave 1 bag of silver and then he left. He gave them the monies based on their abilities. No one had more or less than what they can handle.

The first man began to invest in his boss money and as a result, he ended up with 5 more bags. He doubled what he started out with. The second man also went to work and earned two more bags. He doubled what he started out with. But the third man dug a hole in the ground and hid the boss's money. He did absolutely nothing with the money.

When the boss returned, he called for his servants to see what they did with the money he had entrusted them with. The man who had 5 bags said boss, you gave me 5 bags and I have earned 5 more bags. I can picture the 1st guy feeling good about what he had done for his boss. The boss was full of praise! Well done my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful (continually) in handling a small amount (even though he had more than the others, the boss considered it a small amount) I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together! (he was testing his faithfulness)

Same thing happened with the second servant, he had 2 bags of silver and presented 2 more bags to the boss. He said, Well done my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful (continually) in handling a small amount, I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!

With both servants, God was testing their faithfulness. He gave them portions based on their ability so it's not how much you receive from God that counts, it's what you do with what you receive that counts. Both men received different amounts and began working on taking care of his money. It was his money not theirs and they understood that. They WORKED and EARNED double as a result.

Now last and least, the lazy servant. He came with the one bag and presented the bag to his boss. He said to his boss, I knew you were a harsh man. Harvesting crops that you didn't plant and gathering crop that you didn't cultivate. CAN YOU BELIEVE THE NERVES??? He is basically saying to his boss, you want me to do all the work and you get to keep the stuff that I did. I have to grow this stuff, I have to take care of it while you are gone somewhere and than while I slave and work, all you have to do is come back and get what I have done. Than he said, I was afraid I would lose your money, (just in case I didn't do it right is his excuse) so I hid it in the earth, look, here you can have it back. LAZY! 

This man has more than laziness going on but he didn't even take the time to try. He did not want to work for his master. He did not want to do all the work so that someone else can take it back all the hard work he has done so while the other two where out working and earning and reaping and doubling the money, he sat and did absolutely nothing!!!

The boss replied. YOU WICKED AND LAZY SERVANT! You knew I harvest crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate. Why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it. Than the boss said, take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the 10 bags of silver. vs29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

31-40 summarizing The Son of man will come in His true glory and sit on His throne with the Angels and He will separate his sheep from the goats. He will say to the ones who are His sheep, come who are blessed by my Father's inheritance that was prepared from the beginning of the creation of the world. (MEANING BEFORE HE EVEN CREATED MAN, THIS WAS ALREADY SET UP IN HEAVEN FOR US) This is the reason you will enter into this place, when I was hungry, you feed me, when I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was in prison, you visited me. When I was sick, you cared for me. When I was naked, you clothe me. And when I was a stranger, you showed me hospitality. You did these things. 

Now this is where people get confused about salvation and I will explain after I give what the Lord said about this. 37"Then these righteous ones will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing?39When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?'40"And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'. BUT TO THE GOATS OR UNRIGHTEOUS Skipping to 45"And he will answer, 'I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.'46"And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life."

When Jesus said then the righteous will reply: He is referring to those who are saved. The others were like the pharisees and the Sadducee who put up this righteous front but their actions have proven differently. The clue is in the verse where Jesus said He separated the sheep from the goats. The sheep where on the right side of Jesus and were saved. The goat, the unsaved, are the ones who were domed to hell. So this verse does not prove that one can lose their salvation. Those who are saved are separated. 

Jesus is making a distinction between those who worked and harvest and those who did absolutely nothing, the lazy ones, with the gift that was given to them but thought of God as mean and a boss who asked for too much from them and who hated the thought of doing all the work and receiving nothing for it but have to give it back to the master. Jesus made the note that the boss will say, you already knew how this work. You already knew that you will go and do the work that I have given you. You knew that when it comes to the Kingdom of Heaven, that there is work that my people must do while I am gone and when I come back, I will expect that you would have done something with the thing that I have given you. In this example He is using money and he called him wicked and lazy.

Everyone is given a task to do. What is it that God has given you to do? Have you even picked it up and used it? How many people did you bring to the Lord? Did He drawn men unto you to witness to or are there people that need help that you are supposed to help out? Are you spiritually lazy? These are things that you can only answer yourself. If you know what it is that you should do and you are not doing it, as long as you are alive and as long as Christ have not come back again, you have time to do those things that you are responsible for doing. Do not get caught in the end where you have absolutely nothing to present to God. Those who are saved will be faithful but I want to encourage you if you find yourself being stagnant without a cause to go and server the Lord. 

Laziness is a great sin that God loathe. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by the way you live. If you need to make a change, do it now. There is physical laziness as well as spiritual laziness and we don't want to fall under either one of these. Do a self check.

As always, I love you and God bless you.