My topic today is spiritual laziness. Spiritual laziness. Now we are all familiar with physical laziness. Physical laziness is like spring fever, when the warmth of the air and the sound of the birds is far more attractive than the piles of paper on your desk or the lectures in your classroom. We just don’t want to do anything; we want to sit and dream a while. That’s physical laziness. Just can’t get down to earth to do anything but daydream.
And there is, of course, mental laziness. We don’t want to have to think. Mentally lazy people don’t want to do the work of thinking their own thoughts. Give it to me spoon-fed. Make it easy for me. I’m going to vote in the Maryland primary on Tuesday, so just give me some sound bites, tell me whether to beat the bush or raise the mcCain or should I gore the bradley! But don’t ask me to think. That’s mental laziness.
We know about physical laziness and mental laziness. But do you know that there is also spiritual laziness? Did you know that a person can mimic being a servant of the Lord, but in reality that person is spiritually lazy? Looks good, sounds good, maybe even smells good. But is nonetheless spiritually lazy?
I want to show you today, from the Scripture, where spiritual laziness comes from. I want to help you diagnose spiritual laziness. This message, by the way, was inspired by one of our deacons, who has said to me on several occasions, “Keep these people busy. Don’t let them have time to do anything negative. Keep them busy.” I’ve thought about that. And I’ve read the Scriptures about that. I’ve prayed about that. And the result is this message on spiritual laziness.
The apostle Paul confronted the disease of spiritual laziness in the church of Thessalonica. He discovered that some of the believers there were sitting back in the old rocking chair, enjoying all the comforts of salvation. But they didn’t think they needed to do anything as a result of being saved. They didn’t imagine that being a Christian had any practical implications. The Christians of Thessalonica had all kinds of ideas, but they hadn’t come down to earth to do anything real.
I confess, I see a lot of these folks in me. I feel this thing of not being down to earth. Why, I’ve got all kinds of dreams and visions running around my head. Coming up with ideas is never a problem! On any given day, I can come up with six impossible ideas before breakfast! The fact that they are too expensive, too time-consuming, or just too much work never seems to enter my mind. I like to live up in the clouds! But it’s another matter to come down to earth and do something real for the Kingdom. So I need to find out what Paul tells us about spiritual laziness. I suspect you do too.
II Thessalonians 3:6-13
I
First, Paul tells us that spiritual laziness is tied to poor theology. Spiritual laziness comes from poor theology. When we don’t understand what the Christian faith is all about, we do some things that actually point to laziness. But of course we would never admit that. Nobody ever admits to being lazy. Instead we invent what look like “spiritual” ideas to give ourselves an excuse for what is really spiritual laziness. Paul says:
Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you.
Paul says that some of the believers had picked up the wrong theology; they were not living according to the tradition that they had received. Now you need to know just a little bit more about the background here. If you were to read the rest of this letter, you would find out that in that church there were a whole bunch of questions about when and how the Lord would come again. As I mentioned last week, they were up in the air, full of questions, about how and when and under what circumstances the Lord would return. Some of them had concluded that it was going to be next week, or maybe the week after that – soon anyway. And if the end of all things was going to be soon, then why should I sweat and strain now? If it’s all coming to an end, then I might as well just sit in the old rocking chair, sipping my sassafras and singing, “What a fellowship, what a joy divine”. Why worry about doing anything concrete if the end of all things is coming? If I know there’s going to be a flood next week, I don’t take out a thirty-year mortgage, do I?
Does that make sense? Sure; it sounds plausible! Except that it is a bad theology acting as a cover for laziness! It is a misunderstanding of God’s will, and, more than that, it’s a cover for laziness. It’s an excuse not to do God’s work. Bad theology masks spiritual laziness.
So Paul punches a hole in it. With pointed language he skewers this idea. These believers are not living according to the tradition they received! These folks are not living in agreement with what they were taught, and, besides that, didn’t they see Paul’s example? Didn’t he work night and day when he was in Thessalonica? Didn’t he put in long hours and stay by the stuff? Of course he did! Why, he says, I even paid for my bread while I was with you, because I wanted to set an example of diligence and down-to-earthness. I didn’t want anybody to get the notion that being a Christian was just a free ride to heaven.
You see, some folks invent theologies that get them off the hook of doing Kingdom work. But God’s word says that’s just a mask for spiritual laziness! That’s just a cover for not coming down to earth.
A couple of centuries ago, certain Christians held the idea of double predestination. The doctrine of double predestination said, “God has chosen some for salvation, and has chosen others for damnation. And since God has made His choice, there is nothing we can do about it, nothing we need to do to reach others for Christ. Either they’ve got it or they don’t, so why should we put ourselves out to teach anybody anything?
And so some Christians refused to support missions. When a young shoemaker stood up in a meeting of his Baptist brothers and spoke about taking the gospel to other lands, they shouted him down, “Sit down, young man, sit down. When God wants to save the heathen, He’ll do it without your help or mine.” Thank God William Carey didn’t accept that bad theology, but got down to earth and started the modern missions movement.
But some folks will not come down to earth and do anything real for the Kingdom; they will pretend to have spiritual reasons for what they do not do. But I tell you, it is a form of spiritual laziness.
“Oh, pastor, I don’t believe in this thing of going out and sharing my faith. I don’t believe we should disturb other people when they are sincere in what they believe. After all, isn’t God in every religion and in everyone’s heart?” Sounds nice; sounds sweet. But it is a bad theology, and it is a cover for spiritual laziness.
“Ministry groups? New ministries at Takoma? I don’t see why we have to do all of that. I don’t see why we should tutor children or run an employement1 group or focus on substance abuse. Just preach the Gospel, just sing exuberant music, and, deacons, just get out there and deac, and people will come to the Lord.” Have you heard that? I’ve heard that. But I lovingly insist that when we inventing reasons not to come down to earth, when we scour our Bibles, looking for reasons not to serve the last, the least, the lost, and the lonely, we are covering up for spiritual laziness.
Spiritual laziness is tied to poor theology. Poor theology says don’t do anything, God will do it all. But God’s word will not let us remain spiritually lazy. God’s word brings us down to earth.
“Keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us.”
II
But then Paul goes deeper. His insight about spiritual laziness penetrates to another level. He has a one-word label for our spiritual laziness. Does this word hit home? Busybodies. Busybodies. I think he is about to tell us that spiritual laziness is tied to busy-ness, but that there’s some busy-ness that is not Kingdom business. Watch this: the busier people are, the more they may be spiritually lazy. It may not look that way, but watch for it! Because, you see, it is the spiritually lazy person who gets off on distractions that have nothing to do with Kingdom work; but boy, are they busy! Now Paul says:
For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.
Man, does that say a mouthful! Busybodies, but idle, not doing any work. Now, you see, some of us know that the world values busy-ness, doesn’t it? The world is impressed with people who can look frantically busy. I had a supervisor once who said that he wanted on his staff people who could be sitting at their desks in their chairs and still raise a cloud of dust! He wanted workers who looked busy! Well, it’s no problem to look busy! It’s no problem to be a busybody. The issue is, of course, busy at what? Busy with Kingdom business or just busy with busy?
Paul knows that when we are really scared of doing Kingdom work, we manage to look as involved as we possibly can! Did you hear that? If we are truly scared of doing real Kingdom work, our strategy is to look as busy as we possibly can! To create the illusion of busy-ness – but it’s really just being a busybody!
Don’t tell me you’ve never done this. You get out on that street and you drive lickety-split to your next appointment, and when you get there late, you pant and puff, and they all say, “What a busy person you are! You’ve got so much to do. You are so much in demand.” And you say, “Oh, not really. I’ll be all right. I don’t need sleep. I don’t need to stop for lunch. I can’t stop to talk to you. But, I’m all right. I’m okay.” Of course, what you really want is for them to sing the chorus one more time, “What a busy person you are! You’ve got so much to do.” We choose to be busybodies, frantically doing it all, but it’s off the mark. It’s really spiritual laziness; it’s avoidance of doing God’s will, down to earth.
I have a pastor friend who arrives late at every meeting, he complains about how many things were crowded into his day, and then, toward the end of the meeting, when we are about to make assignments, he looks at his watch, clutches his chest, and says, “Gotta run; if there’s anything you need for me to do, let me know.” And we all say, “Yeah, right.” We’re on to him. We know that he never intended to do one blessed thing. We know that his busy-ness is a mask for spiritual laziness.
Since this is Transfiguration Sunday, I think of that mountaintop experience that Peter, James, and John had with Jesus. Up there on that mountain, with the light all around them and the great figures of Israel’s past – Moses and Elijah, now standing there with Jesus. Wow! Fabulous! Exciting! Wonderful! Do you remember what Peter wanted to do? Peter said, “Lord, let’s build three tabernacles here! Let’s build one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for you.” Oh, Peter wanted to get busy. He wanted to do a nice religious project. Not one, not two, but three tabernacles. Wow, that could keep you busy for a long time!
But the story tells us that Jesus disappeared from their sight, and, guess what? The next time they saw Him, He was down in the valley healing wounded people and lifting battered spirits! Kingdom work has nothing to do with building monuments, and everything to do with healing humanity’s hurts! I’ve got to get you back to something we did several Sundays ago. Remember this? Repeat after me: It’s not about me. It’s not even about you. It’s about Jesus. And it’s about hurting people.” Again --
I’m afraid there are a lot of us who are real good at religion, but not so good at service. There are a whole lot of us who would be perfectly happy doing our religious thing, singing and praying and going to church and all that – but when it comes to the nitty-gritty, the tough stuff, the down to earth stuff -- when it comes to actually dealing with the hurts of humanity, then we want to bail out. We don’t have time for that. We can’t be bothered with that. But that, friends, is spiritual laziness. That is merely being busybodies. And it is not worthy of Kingdom people.
III
Now, in the end, do you know what spiritual laziness finally leads to? Do you know what the end product is if we pursue the pattern of spiritual laziness? I’ll tell you where you end up. You end up in burnout. In burnout.
Burnout comes when we have so focused on mere doing that we have turned loose of why we are doing anything. Burnout comes when we have gotten so busy on what we feel that we spin out of control and burn up our own energy. And Paul pleads with us not to let this happen:
Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
Do not be weary in doing what is right. One day this week I had a little conflict episode– nothing much, really. But someone who was watching how I handled it said, “I don’t know how you do what you do.” I answered, “It’s not how I do it, but why I do it that matters.” I thought I was telling her that I did what I did for Christ and for the Kingdom.
But – time to tell the truth -- I went home that afternoon and kind of spun out of control. I slammed the door, threw down my brief case, snapped at my wife, and almost kicked the dog! And Margaret caught it; she said, “You have to stop this. You have to slow down. Now.” In fact, I think she said I ought to take six weeks and do absolutely nothing! Well, of course I shrugged that off, and informed her I had no intention of doing any such thing – these folks need me, I have to be about my Father’s business, I’ll be all right in the morning – you know the drill. You’ve used it too, come on, you know you have.
And then it hit me, I am asking for trouble. I could be a candidate for burnout. It would be very easy to grow weary in doing what is right. It would be easy to be lazy, for spiritual laziness is not letting God do what God does! Have I been too lazy, have I been too invested in my image, in my control, too spiritually lazy just to let the grace of God flow over me and around me and through me?
Spiritual laziness, in a nutshell, is doing everything in the world except prayerfully, faithfully, thoughtfully working in the down to earth business of serving others. Anything other than prayerful, faithful, thoughtful, down-to-earth service is laziness and will lead only to burnout.
For when the Son of Man came down to earth to live among us, he told us that whoever would be great among us must be the servant of all. Anything else is spiritual laziness.
When the Son of Man came down to earth to live among us, he taught us that his bread, his very sustenance, came from doing the will of God and accomplishing God’s work. Anything else is spiritual laziness.
Indeed, when the Son of Man came down to earth to live and to die among us, He broke bread, the bread of honest toil, and shared it with us, reminding us that in His body there was grace enough for all. We do not have to impress Him; He loves us enough to die for us. Down to earth He loves us.
Oh, and when the Son of Man came down to earth to live and to die among is, He shed His very life’s blood, taking into His heart our weariness, our burnout, our brokenness, so that by the power of His risen life we might never again, never again, grow weary in doing what is right.
