All men judge one another by the quality of their work. Except for sloppy, lazy men. And they aren’t even worth talking about.”
–John Deacon (Conn 2)
“Making the very most of your time [on earth, recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence], because the days are [filled with] evil.”
–Ephesians 5:16(Amplified)
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The verse for the thought today you can feel. Oh, what vivid imagery! My jaws ache when I read it. “Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.” (Proverbs 10:26, ESV). The sluggard, not one who is just tired, but the person who is habitually lazy, the couch potato, the one who has no ambition and wants everything handed to him. “Work” to them is a four-letter word.
Vinegar! I remember tricking my cousin one time into drinking a small glass of vinegar with her thinking it was apple juice. All kinds of expressions appeared on her face. Lazy people cause many kinds of expressions on peoples’ faces just like vinegar. Hire a sluggard and soon you will be making faces, soon you will be gritting your teeth. Perhaps, if they stay around they will even fray your nerves and cause the bile to rise. Perhaps you have had to do group work, either in school or in a crew on the job. There’s always the slacker–the sluggard–the person who allows everyone else to do the work. Sometimes, just to get rid of him, he is the one sent on an errand. These lack-luster individuals just make you jerk your jaws.
I love to camp, but I don’t much care for the smoke that gets in my eyes around the campfire. Annoying to say the least, but it also burns and reddens the eyes. “The eye is the light of the body,” J.L. Flores reminds us, “if vision is in any way obstructed or impaired, delay and vexation must ensue.” That’s what the sluggard does. The sluggard’s employer and colleagues become the victim of perplexity and annoyance. Trust is gone for the sluggard is not dependable. They delay in the performance of their duties, if they do them at all, and to carry their part in the workload is a hindrance and greatly affects the attitudes of other workers.
Where are they? “The want of punctuality sometimes is as disastrous as not doing the thing at all.” (Flores) You wait and wait for them to show up. Then after the work starts you wait for them to show up again. Oh, he might be physically present, but he is a slug. His presence not only hinders production, but hurts quality as well, and often, if he does any work it has to be redone. This person deserves the “right foot of fellowship” as I often put it.
Attitudes are soured, often to the point of anger. Plus a crew can lose good workers if the sluggard is allowed to stay too long. There is a key Scripture which we should all take to heart where the Master asked, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?” (Matthew 20:6, NIV) It is very dangerous to remain idle, to be a sluggard not only in work, but in the mind. What is the old saying, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”? The sluggard is without purpose, without productivity. Look at the rolls of the unemployed. I have had business owners and managers tell me several times, “there’s a reason they’re unemployed.” Could it be that they are sluggards? Wanting pay for work not done? Forbid! Listen, there’s work to be done! There is a war going on, a battle to be won. Why waste the opportunity in front of you? Why waste your gifts, talents, and abilities? Are you a good and faithful servant–or a sluggard? William Arnot states, “Sluggishness is a cutting vexing thing.”
Good question then, are we an integral and valuable part to the kingdom or do we cause God to grit His teeth? We are to be living letters, what then does your resume say? Sluggard! I trust not. That would be a poor testimony for the cause of Christ. See, it is a sin to waste another person’s time, as well as the time the Lord has given to you. Think of this: Now is the day of salvation, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, do not be weary in well-doing, work while it is light. Get the picture? In other words, avoid the path of the sluggard. Eternity is in view; will Jesus say “well done” or “go away”?