"The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and keep it" (Genesis 2:15).
Laziness is a vice that clenches every mans heart. Laziness is more than weariness or a lack of energy. Laziness is far more insidious than tardiness or preferring sleep over activity. Laziness is rebellion against God's mandate that we should work. In every lazy heart an argument rages indefinitely. The lazy heart argues, "Lord, I know you have placed me on this earth to get certain works done, but I have a better idea. I'm going to sit this one out instead. I need my beauty sleep." Imagine the punishment Adam would have deserved if the God who had created him and put him in the garden for the sole purpose of toiling and tending to it had found the garden unkempt because Adam had spent the week fishing. That would have defeated Adam's reason for existence in the Garden.
We have been created for work. Humans are created to work. Christians are created in Christ for good works (Eph. 2:10). Life is work. That's why we're made. Our modern sensibilities tell us that we shouldn't work too hard, and that life is too short to be spent working all the time. We should take some time off work and 'live a little.' But if life is work then working a little is living a little and working a lot is living a lot. Yet our cultural workaphobia teaches us that workaholism is the unpardonable sin. When we hear that someone works 70 hours per week our assumption is that he has a serious problem, rather than assuming he is an incredible example of someone who glorifies God by devoting 70 hours each week to his divine mandate, while we may only give 40-50 hours each week to that same noble purpose.
Our heart's inbred laziness has no shortage of creativity in the multi-faceted attacks it levies against us.
Laziness will convince us that our shallow relationships are other people's fault, even though we're sitting around and not reaching out either.
Laziness will fools us into thinking that grace will overcome our sin without us fighting against it tooth and nail.
Laziness will trick us into thinking that spiritual growth can occur without the spiritual disciplines.
Laziness makes us susceptible to believe the false gospel of easy-believism, that we can follow Christ without counting the cost of radical discipleship.
Laziness tempts us to focus on the easier doctrines of cheap grace rather than the difficult doctrine of the love of God which expressed itself in killing his Son for our depravity. Laziness prefers cheap grace because it doesn't make us wrestle to discover the true extent of our indebtedness to real grace.
Laziness tells us not to say anything that might be misunderstood, nor correct anyone who might react against correction, nor argue points of disagreement persuasively in order to prove opponents wrong. These things will only create messes to clean up, something the lazy heart cannot tolerate.
Laziness is everywhere. Fortunately for the Christian it is being defeated by the grace of God in us. Jesus Christ never failed to accomplish a single work that God had given for him to do. Every promise about Jesus was fulfilled. His work at Calvary was completely done. Jesus did not say "It is almost finished, and would be finished if I had got up a little earlier today." No, he said, "It is finished." He drank the cup of wrath for the laziness of the world, so that he could create a church in his image that also finishes the job we are put here to do.
Paul expressed confidence that God is not lazy when he told the Philippians that the work God began was going to be completely finished in his original and perfect timing (Phil. 1:6). God doesn't start a project and quit half way through. He finishes what he starts. By the power of his grace in us we can mortify laziness and do the works that God has created us in Christ to do.
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