Diligence Not Laziness
"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant!... throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:26).
• Therefore from now on, you are to see laziness and slothfulness as SIN. For you would be punished just as much for laziness and not working hard with the talents and potential God has entrusted to you, as you would for lust.
• Merely studying scriptures, as a monk profits nothing, but going out and doing and diligently working is honorable to God.
Passages:
-But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8).
- Do not love sleep or you will grow poor, stay awake and you will have food to spare (Proverbs 20:13).
-The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied (Proverbs 13:4).
-Whatever you do, work diligently, as for the Lord and not for men (Colossians 3:23).
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well (Ecclesiastes 11:6).
A lazy hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich (Proverbs 10:4).
One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys (Proverbs 18:9).
The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work (Proverbs 21:25).
Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger (Proverbs 19:15).
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17).
The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor (Proverb 12:24).
For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work and to earn their own living (2 Thessalonians 3:11-12).
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy).
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Genesis 2:15).
In all work there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty (Proverbs 14:23).
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin (James 4:17).
A good person leaves an inheritance for their children's children (Proverbs 13:22).
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:17).
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord (Romans 12:11).
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11).
Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need (Ephesians 4:28).
Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth (Proverbs 12:27).