Slouthfulness
Scripture
Despite their desires, the lazy will come to ruin,
for their hands refuse to work.
Proverbs 21:25, NLT
Quote
The slothful man wants all kinds of things but he is not willing to work to get them.
~John Phillips
My Thoughts
I got a strong affirming text from a friend yesterday: he really liked the blog on Paul’s command to the Thessalonians: “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Then last night I picked up John Phillips commentary on Proverbs and it was 21:25, a warning against laziness. Don’t read Proverbs in the KJV. If you have never read Proverbs in the NLT, you have no idea what you are missing. What I want you to know is that John Phillips is in agreement with myself. The following are his words:
The welfare state tends to encourage slothfulness {laziness} by taking money from the pockets of the industrious and successful and putting it into the pocket of the indigent and slothful. God does not do this. Scripture attaches no stigma to being poor, but attackes every stigma on being lazy. I am not talking about a person who cannot work; I am talking about a person who refuses to work. {John Phillips Exploring The Proverbs, page 144}
In the old days, the community took care of the lazy: they tied them to post and gave them a lashing. That may be a little extreme but unfortunately, we have gone to the opposite extreme by sending them funny money in the mail. I heard the story about the man that wouldn’t work and his family was starving. His wife and kids did everything they could but they just couldn’t make ends meet. So the men came and got him and laid in the back of a wagon, they were taking him to the grave yard to bury him alive. As they crested a hill on the way to the cemetery, they met a man who was tender hearted; he hollowed “Wait! I’ve brought them a load of corn.” The lazy man didn’t even raise up but they heard him say, “Is it shucked?”
Just wanted you to know that John Phillips and David {got run over by a car} Wood agree with me.
Extra
The 49er fellowship is today at 11:30. I can’t wait. We will be in John 4 Sunday, Jesus and the Woman at the well. I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for reading the blog.
Extra/Extra
I hate that Christmas song, “Grandma got run over by a reindeer.” I was thinking we could change the words and make it interesting…David got run over by a yankee on his way to get ice for his dad. You could say there is no such thing as Mercy, but Bill let the snowbird go and that aint bad! Years ago, I wrote an additional verse to a song and Bro. John Tucker used it several times. For the life of me, I can’t remember what song it was.