The Sin of Sloth
The Sin of Sloth
1 Timothy 5:13 While the other six deadly sins are sins of committing immorality, sloth is a sin of omitting responsibilities.
Original image - Abraham Bloemaert (1564 - 1651) - Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, from the collection of the Walters Art Museum.
“At the same time they also learn to be idle, as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention.”
1 Timothy 5:13 NASB1995
As I continue my exploration of the Seven Deadly Sins, the sin of sloth brings up the end of the list. No, I’m not talking about the slow-moving and sweet-dispositioned tropical creature with a great smile; instead, it’s the word defined as “habitual disinclination to exertion; indolence; laziness.”
Being lazy is a sin? Well, yeah… The Latin root of the word is “acedia”, meaning “without care” and referring to an “absence of interest or habitual disinclination to exertion.” Wow, that describes most people perfectly… I know I’m guilty of not wanting to exercise as much as I should!
Acedia originally referred to religious persons — monks, in particular — becoming indifferent to their duties and obligations to God. Mentally, it is a lack of feeling about yourself or anyone else, a state that turns into boredom, apathy, and passivity.
I think the best definition of sloth I’ve seen is “a failure to do things that one should do”. Evil exists when good people fail to act. While the other six deadly sins are sins of committing immorality, sloth is a sin of omitting responsibilities.
Doesn’t it seem that in today’s world sloth is becoming a much more common sin? It used to be that most people did their jobs, and did them well to serve others. It was a point of pride — in the good sense of the word — to treat others as you would want to be treated. You did that job to the best of your ability regardless of how tired or unmotivated you were. Now, the widespread focus on self rather than others exhibits itself in apathy and passivity to the point that good customer service is becoming a rarity.
A lot of this all points back to pride, the root of many sins. Rather than being humble and giving their all to others, so many people today think they’re too important to do things that they should do! Today’s verse points out another issue; those who find it more important to be “gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention” than to do their work and serve others. How many times have you seen a gaggle of employees at some public workplace standing around talking or sending texts and photos to each other instead of helping you?
At its worst, sloth can result in people not even caring about themselves! Sloth finds expression in an unfeeling attitude for the world, for other people, and for oneself. It’s an alienation from the world, and then from the self.
What’s the antidote for sloth? Just like any other sin, it takes the Holy Spirit convicting you, then confessing of the sin, and finally repenting — turning away — from that sin. Without the conviction of the Holy Spirit through a belief in God as the Holy Trinity, it’s impossible for this healing to take place.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Today, rather than compose my own prayer against the sin of sloth, I decided to go to a source who struggled with slothfulness during his life… Although he was a prolific writer who contributed to the standardization of the English language by producing A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, Samuel Johnson found sloth to be his constant enemy. He was also a devout Anglican, so he wrote several prayers on the topic. Here’s one of them:
“O Lord, in whose hands are life and death, by whose power I am sustained, and by whose mercy I am spared, look down upon me with pity. Forgive me that I have this day neglected the duty Thou hast assigned to it, and suffered the hours, of which I must give account, to pass away without any endeavor to accomplish thy will, or to promote my own salvation. Make me to remember, O God, that every day is Thy gift, and ought to be used according to Thy command. Grant me, therefore, so to repent of my negligence, that I may obtain mercy from Thee, and pass the time which Thou shalt yet allow me in diligent performance of Thy commands, through Jesus Christ. Amen.”