What’s the Difference Between Sloth and Rest?
00:00:00.000 | Welcome back to a new week on the podcast.
00:00:06.720 | Well, last summer in episode 1500, some of you may remember that we talked about personal
00:00:12.320 | productivity.
00:00:13.320 | And there, Pastor John, you said it was essential that we learn the difference between sloth
00:00:18.640 | and rest.
00:00:20.640 | And you pointed us to the poem that you wrote titled, "Pilgrim's Conflict with Sloth."
00:00:25.720 | I commend that poem and your reading of it, all available right now at DesiringGod.org.
00:00:30.720 | But in APJ 1500, you said that everyone knows that there is a place, an absolutely crucial
00:00:36.240 | place for rest and for leisure because the Sabbath principle still holds.
00:00:42.560 | But then you warned us that we must know the difference between sloth and rest.
00:00:46.920 | You didn't really explain that difference there.
00:00:49.680 | You pointed us to the poem.
00:00:51.840 | And I hate to say it, but I think a lot of listeners will resonate more with plainly
00:00:55.960 | stated principles than a poem.
00:00:58.960 | So can you, in principle, distinguish for us the indulgence of sinful sloth from the
00:01:05.000 | virtue of true rest?
00:01:07.440 | Yes, I think we can.
00:01:10.200 | And that's because the Bible does pretty clearly.
00:01:14.320 | So let me use biblical terms.
00:01:16.440 | Let's use the terms sluggard and diligent because those terms are used in the Proverbs.
00:01:23.720 | For example, Proverbs 13.4, "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while
00:01:32.960 | the soul of the diligent is richly supplied."
00:01:37.740 | So the question we're asking then is, what's the difference between the restfulness of
00:01:45.720 | the diligent and the laziness of the sluggard?
00:01:50.800 | Because at any given moment, restfulness and laziness might look the same if you're just
00:01:56.960 | looking at somebody sitting in a chair or lying in a bed or sleeping, but they're not
00:02:01.680 | the same.
00:02:02.680 | So what's the difference?
00:02:04.600 | One other clarification before I state the difference.
00:02:08.600 | I'm not interested here in unbelieving diligence.
00:02:12.960 | The kind of diligence I care about is the kind that sees the cross of Christ as the
00:02:18.960 | ground of all grace and the Holy Spirit as the key to all holiness and the glory of God
00:02:28.360 | as the goal of all reality, which would include the goal of all diligence.
00:02:34.760 | So I'm not just talking about any diligence, but the diligence rooted in the glory of God,
00:02:41.840 | the cross of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:02:45.720 | So let me state now my summary of the difference between laziness and the sluggard and restfulness
00:02:56.400 | and the diligent, and then we'll dig down into the roots.
00:03:00.400 | The laziness of the sluggard is owing to his overpowering aversion to work, and the restfulness
00:03:09.840 | of the diligent is received as a gracious reward for the gift of God-glorifying work
00:03:19.400 | and a pleasant preparation for renewed productivity.
00:03:25.920 | Or let me say it another way.
00:03:27.760 | The laziness of the sluggard is a capitulation to his disinclination to exertion, and the
00:03:37.080 | restfulness of the diligent is a sweet compensation for God-honoring exertion and thankful renewal
00:03:47.920 | for more usefulness.
00:03:50.060 | So those are my summary statements.
00:03:51.880 | Now let's go down now to the roots and take just a moment to focus on the problem of the
00:03:59.880 | sluggard and then spend most of our time on the biblical vision of work that makes the
00:04:07.920 | restfulness of the diligent so sweet.
00:04:11.040 | Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, 12, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are
00:04:18.040 | helpful, useful, beneficial, accomplish some good purpose."
00:04:23.240 | He continues, "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered, dominated,
00:04:31.880 | controlled, ruled by anything."
00:04:36.160 | Now there's the test that the sluggard fails.
00:04:40.880 | You can devote your life to things that are helpful, useful, beneficial, accomplishing
00:04:46.080 | some good for the glory of God, or you can be mastered by bodily disinclinations to work.
00:04:55.480 | It's called laziness or sluggardness, if that's a word.
00:04:59.680 | Paul says, "I will not be mastered, enslaved, dominated, ruled by anything.
00:05:06.160 | I belong to Christ.
00:05:08.200 | He alone is my master.
00:05:10.240 | Therefore I will put to death the bodily impulses that tend to enslave me, and I will walk as
00:05:17.680 | a free man, devoting myself to things that are helpful, useful, beneficial."
00:05:24.160 | But the sluggard, not so.
00:05:27.040 | The sluggard is mastered by his bodily aversion to exertion.
00:05:34.080 | He's a slave.
00:05:35.960 | Therefore his rest is not the sweet reward for doing good.
00:05:42.640 | It is the selfish resistance to doing good.
00:05:47.480 | Now let's turn for a moment to the amazing roots of the diligent and the restfulness
00:05:55.200 | that they enjoy.
00:05:58.160 | At root, the basic difference between the sluggard and the diligent is that the sluggard
00:06:05.720 | feels work as a misery to be avoided, and the diligent sees work as a God-given, life-giving
00:06:15.560 | privilege.
00:06:17.760 | Now of course it's true that when sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, one of the
00:06:25.720 | effects of sin was to infect work with futility and burdensomeness.
00:06:34.720 | God said to Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you.
00:06:38.960 | In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
00:06:42.640 | By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread."
00:06:47.200 | That's not a very positive view of work.
00:06:50.880 | There will always be some of that burdensome, some of that futility in all of our work.
00:06:58.960 | As long as this sinful age lasts, there'll be some of that no matter what your work is,
00:07:05.000 | which is why the final rest that God offers in his kingdom is desired and longed for even
00:07:13.960 | by those who find their work here rewarding.
00:07:18.000 | But the grace of God has penetrated this fallen world order and enables the children of God
00:07:25.280 | to recover in part the rewarding significance of work which God intended from the beginning
00:07:34.400 | in creation.
00:07:36.520 | And that's what I think the diligent perceive, even if they don't articulate it, they sense
00:07:41.560 | it before the fall.
00:07:43.720 | God said to Adam and Eve, Genesis 128, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue
00:07:51.320 | it, and have dominion over every living creature that moves."
00:07:56.800 | That subduing and having dominion over creation would not happen while you're sitting in your
00:08:04.280 | long chair with your feet up.
00:08:07.600 | In fact, in Genesis 2.15, before the fall, it says, "The Lord God took the man and put
00:08:14.880 | him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it."
00:08:19.960 | In other words, the original plan was not laziness or sloth or inactivity or lack of
00:08:27.800 | productivity.
00:08:29.880 | Human beings are in the image of God.
00:08:34.440 | We are makers like God.
00:08:38.560 | Whether we make a meal or make a bed or make a computer program or make a straight piece
00:08:45.840 | of wood or make a ditch or a wall of bricks or a school lesson or a sermon, we are makers
00:08:54.000 | by nature.
00:08:55.240 | The diligent have discovered this.
00:08:58.160 | And by grace, the fall does not prevent the recovery by grace in Christ in some significant
00:09:08.300 | measure of the God-glorifying meaningfulness of work so that rest can be experienced as
00:09:18.380 | a sweet reward for a day's work and a pleasant renewal for a new day of purposefulness.
00:09:28.920 | Ecclesiastes 5.12 says, "Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much,
00:09:37.960 | but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep."
00:09:44.120 | What makes the restfulness of the diligent sweet is the peaceful realization that the
00:09:51.860 | success of all their work depends finally on God and not themselves.
00:09:58.740 | Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
00:10:03.940 | It is in vain that you rise up early, go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil,
00:10:12.820 | for he gives to his beloved sleep.
00:10:16.300 | Psalm 127.
00:10:17.900 | It is the grace of God pushing back the effects of the fall that takes away anxiety and makes
00:10:29.780 | labor meaningful and sweet and gives true restfulness.
00:10:37.420 | The New Testament adds to the motivations of the diligent that when we work, we will
00:10:43.260 | have something not only for ourselves, but to give others.
00:10:46.820 | Ephesians 4.28, that we will not be a burden to others.
00:10:51.620 | Second Thessalonians 3.8, that we will be a good example to unbelievers.
00:10:56.380 | First Thessalonians 4.12, we will let our light shine so that people see our good deeds,
00:11:02.500 | our exertions for the glory of God.
00:11:05.980 | Matthew 5.16, the sluggard finds none of these motivations compelling.
00:11:12.640 | So let me give my summary once more.
00:11:15.060 | The laziness of the sluggard is owing to his overpowering aversion to work, and the restfulness
00:11:23.660 | of the diligent is received as a gracious reward for the gift of God-glorifying work
00:11:32.420 | and a pleasant preparation for renewed productivity.
00:11:37.740 | Very good and helpful distinction, Pastor John.
00:11:39.540 | Thank you for that summary, and thank you for joining us today.
00:11:42.540 | You can ask a question of your own, you can search our growing archive, or subscribe to
00:11:45.540 | the podcast.
00:11:46.740 | Do all that at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:52.260 | We become like what we watch.
00:11:55.580 | The objects of our attention shape our becoming.
00:12:00.060 | Our potential as creatures is realized by what we behold.
00:12:05.460 | We're moldable creatures of clay conforming to whatever most attracts our gaze.
00:12:12.060 | What we behold shapes us for better or for worse.
00:12:15.260 | Obviously, this is a profound reality, and it carries with it massive implications for
00:12:20.220 | our media diets in the digital age, as we will hear next time from Pastor John himself.
00:12:25.940 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you back here on Wednesday.
00:12:30.300 | See you then.
00:12:30.620 | [END]
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