Idleness is a sin
"SIX days shall you labor." God would not have any live without
working. True religion gives no warrant for idleness. It is a
duty to labor six days, as well as keep holy rest on the seventh
day. "For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: 'If
a man will not work, he shall not eat.' We hear that some among
you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such
people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle
down and earn the bread they eat." 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12. A
Christian must not only mind heaven—but his vocation. While the
pilot has his eye to the star, he has his hand to the helm.
Without labor the pillars of a commonwealth will dissolve, and
the earth, like the sluggard's field, will be overrun with
briers. Prov 24:31. Adam in innocence, though monarch of the
world, must not be idle—but must dress and until the ground. Gen
2:15. Piety does not exclude industry. Standing water putrifies.
Inanimate creatures are in motion. The sun goes its circuit, the
fountain runs, and the fire sparkles.
Animate creatures work. Solomon sends us to the ant to learn
labor. Prov 6:6; 30:25. The bee is the emblem of industry; some
of the bees trim the honey, others work the wax, others frame
the honey-comb, others lie sentinel at the door of the hive to
keep out the drone. And shall not man much more labor? That law
in paradise was never repealed. "In the sweat of your face shall
you eat bread." Gen 3:19. Such professors are to be excluded,
who talk of living by faith—but live without working; they are
like the lilies which "toil not, neither do they spin." Matt
6:28. It is a speech of holy and learned Mr Perkins, "Let a man
be endowed with excellent gifts, and hear the Word with
reverence, and receive the sacrament—yet if he does not work—all
is but hypocrisy." What is an idle person good for? What benefit
is a ship which lies always on the shore? What benefit is armor
which hangs up and rusts?
To live without working, exposes a person to temptation.
Melanchthon calls idleness "the Devil's bath," because he bathes
himself with delight in an idle soul. We do not sow seed in
ground when it lies fallow; but Satan sows most of his seed of
temptation in such people as lie fallow, and live without
working. Idleness is the nurse of vice! Seneca, an old heathen,
could say, "No day passes me without some labor." An idle person
stands for a cipher in the world; God writes down no ciphers in
the book of life! We read in Scripture of eating the "bread of
idleness," and drinking the "wine of violence." Prov 31:27;
4:17. It is as much a sin to eat "the
bread of idleness," as to "drink the wine of violence."
An idle person can give no good account of his time. Time is a
talent to trade with. The slothful person "hides his talent in
the earth;" he does no good; his time is not lived—but lost. An
idle person lives unprofitably, he cumbers the ground. God calls
the slothful servant "wicked." "You wicked and slothful
servant." Matt 25:26. Draco, whose laws were written in blood,
deprived those of their life, who would not work for their
living. In Hetruria, they caused such idle people to be
banished. Idle people live in the breach of the commandment,
"Six days shall you labor." Let them take heed they are not
banished from heaven! A man may as well go to hell for not
working—as for not believing!
