The Lazy Christian Series

The Lazy Christian

If you have your Bible, please open it to Proverbs Chapter 6 and when you get there, mark it, and turn to 2 Thessalonians Chapter 3. A preacher attended a conference designed to help encourage and better equip pastors for their ministry. Among the speakers were many well-known and dynamic speakers. One such speaker, boldly approached the pulpit, gathered the entire crowd’s attention, and said, “the best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman that wasn’t my wife!” The crowd was shocked! He followed up by saying, “And that woman was my mother!” The crowd burst into laughter, and he delivered the rest of his speech, which went quite well. The next week, the pastor decided he would give this humor thing a try and used that joke in his sermon. As he approached the pulpit that sunny Sunday morning, he tried to rehearse this joke in his head. It suddenly seemed a bit foggy to him. Getting to the microphone, he said loudly, “The greatest years of my life were spending in the arms of another woman that was not my wife!” The congregation inhaled half the air in the room! After standing there for almost 10 seconds in stunned silence, trying to recall the second half of the joke, the pastor finally blurred out, “…and I can’t remember who she was!”

Today marks the third of this four-part series on the state of many Christians today. We have had The Unsaved Christian, The Dead Christian, and today we have The Lazy Christian. A Lazy Christian is best described as someone who is defiantly a Christian, but they are lazy in their faith and lazy in their walk with Christ. If you really think about it, a Lazy Christian is an Oxymoron. A Pastor by the name of David Dykes said this:

“An oxymoron is the combination of contradictory words linked together. The plural of oxymoron is oxymora, so here are a few of my favorite oxymora: (1) jumbo shrimp; (2) pretty ugly; (3) working vacation (4) tight slacks; (5) Microsoft works; (6) humble Texan; and (7) Lazy Christian.”

The term “Lazy Christian” is nothing more than an Oxymoron. The two words contradict each other. How can someone who is a true, born-again Christian be lazy in their faith? How can someone who is a true, born-again Christian do nothing with their faith? Let us look now at 2 Thessalonians Chapter 3 starting in verse 6.

READ 2 THESSALONIANS 3:6-15

Here, Paul warns the Christian Thessalonians about becoming idle. In fact, he told them to stay away from the Christians who were idle so it would not rub off on them and cause them to become idle as well. Paul knew that some of the Christians there had become lazy in their faith and have stopped doing the things that they had once did and he is writing to them to encourage the ones who were still spiritually active and warn those who had become lazy. In this passage of scripture, Paul is referring to Christians needing to work to purchase their own food instead of relying on wealthy Christians, but we can still apply this to the Christians who are spiritually lazy. Meaning, they do very little or nothing to advance the Kingdom of God. They are what we call The Lazy Christian. Listen, God does not call us to idleness, He calls us to go and make His name known. Working and making money to provide for yourself and your family yes, that it is important, but it does not compare to how important it is that we tell other people about Jesus. It is nowhere near as important as telling someone about the love of Christ. Proverbs 6:6-11 says this:

“Go to the ant, O sluggard;

consider her ways and be wise.

Without having any chief,

officer, or ruler,

she prepares her bread in summer

and gathers her food in harvest.

How long will you lie there, O sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest,

and poverty will come upon you like a robber,

and want like an armed man.”

Here, we are called to be like an ant. It may seem a little crazy or weird at first, but the more you think about it the more it begins to make sense. Here are 5 Characteristics of an Ant:

1. An Ant is Dependable

An ant is one of the most dependable creature God made. Think about it. You can depend on an ant to do their jobs and they do it consistently. They build colonies, gather food, lay eggs, and protect one another. You can depend on an ant to do that. Are you dependable like an ant? Can your brothers and sisters in Christ depend on you to do your job? Now, I do not mean your job as far as what you do for a living or what you do to make some income. Rather, can we count on you to do your spiritual job? The job that God has called all of us to do. To spread the Gospel, things within the church that needs to be done, or using the gifts and abilities that God gave you. Can your brothers and sisters in Christ depend on you to do those things or, are you undependable and wasting what God has gifted you Colossians 3:23-25 says this: