A Contrast Between Diligence And Laziness

Many years ago there was a pastor who was visiting a very large church in Marietta, Georgia. This pastor was there to try to find out why this church had grown to be so large. The pastor of this large church was very gracious and was giving this visiting pastor a tour of his faci … More

Work

A simple contrast is made between the ability and inability to  keep quiet (v. 23). A fool is prone to blurt forth all that he knows (which may not be much) while a wise man is careful to practice silence in the presence of others. Next we see a contrast between diligence and laziness (v. 24). A person  who  is too lazy to labor at the appropriate time will often be forced at a later time to labor as a slave to earn the bare necessities of life. In contrast the diligent, who take opportunities to work industriously will one day rule over the sluggards.

We find the sluggard pictured as a lazy hunter (v. 27). Even if he does muster up enough energy to get out and kill some game he will run out of gas before he builds a fire and roasts it. In other words, he is just too lazy to cook his own meet. Diligence, however, leads a hunter to value what he works to get. He knows the price of the labor he has invested and appreciates the preciousness of that which he now possesses. Laziness is not a joke as some may picture it to be. It is sin for us to fail to invest our God-given abilities in a productive way for his glory. It is like having a million dollars in our checking account while we let our family starve to death because we refuse to write a check and buy some food.

Application

What Biblical principles have I taught my family concerning work?  (II Thess. 3:10) says, “that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

Proverbs 12:20-28 (English Standard Version)


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