Back |  |  |  |  |  | Contents |  |  |  |  |  | Next

###### Little Employment and Slothfulness of Spirit about Heavenly Things

{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…

Cause for Lamentation, Repentance, and Labor

Symptoms of the Decay of the Heavenly Trade

Little Employment, Slothfulness of Spirit about Heavenly Things}

Lack of employment is a sign of depressed commerce. When business is good, everyone has plenty of work. But when people are out of work, have no work to do, and are idle in the marketplace, this shows that commerce has declined. And is it not so with wisdom’s laborers now? People who profess God were once active in Christianity but have now grown slothful in spiritual business. Where are the works of faith, the labors of love, and the fruit of the Spirit among Christians today? Who is fervent is Spirit (Romans 12:11)?276 Who strives in prayer, watching277 with all perseverance (Ephesians 6:18)?278 Where are those who labor even to weariness for the food that endures (John 6:27)?279 Who runs even to fainting the race that is set before them (Hebrews 12:1)?280 Who serves God day and night in His temple (Revelation 7:15)281 and is diligent that they may be found in Him in peace (2 Peter 3:14)?282 What Pharaoh accused the Hebrews of when they sought liberty to serve God (Exodus 5:17)283 may, with much justice, apply to those who profess to know God: “You are idle, you are idle.” They are able to serve God, but do not. And thus it is that people’s hearts go whoring after the world, the flesh, and their lusts. It is because they are slothful in spirit. They are dead in their hearts, so the work of God ceases (Nehemiah 4:11).284 It is only a little work that most do for God today. How cold,285 dead, formal, and cursory are many in duty! They do the work of God deceitfully and their own consciences are judges (Jeremiah 48:10).286 Few labor with their hearts to prepare to hear a sermon, during hearing, and afterwards in order to profit from it. People are usually pleased with a lamp without oil with it. People are not content without some holy duty, but are well content with a perfunctory holy duty. To be nothing in Christianity troubles them, but just a little Christianity satisfies them. And if this be Roman Catholicism to rest in the works done, how many [effectively] Roman Catholics do we have among us today?287 Certainly, in the case of most, professors of Christianity are asleep or slumbering. They do their [spiritual] work so badly and heartlessly that their work falls out of their hand as things do from the hands of those who fall asleep. They are active for the world as if they could never do enough, but they are soon tired of the work of God. They complete only a little heavenly work from day to day and from one Sabbath to another. Little heart-searching or soul-watching (1 Corinthians 16:13)288 work is done. Little in-heart employment is carried on; the exercise of faith, hope, humility, patience, zeal, and self-denial seem strange things to a great many today. This is not because there are no occasions or encouragements to work. The Lord is still calling on His laborers to work hard, but people lack hearts for the work. And this spiritual sloth shows that much heavenly trade is lost.

276“Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord” (Romans 12:11 ESV).

277 To watch is a common command in Scripture. The meaning in such contexts is far from what is meant by, for example, watching television, a passive activity. Rather, what is meant is the kind of watching that a security guard will do in a parking lot or store in a bad neighborhood. By being alert he may prevent harm or trouble. If a criminal perceives that he is inattentive, harm will come. If we do not keep watch over our souls, the devil or our own indwelling corruption will gleefully take advantage and surprise us into sin.

278“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18 NASB).

279“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him” (John 6:27 NKJV).

280“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 NKJV).

281“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence” (Revelation 7:15 ESV).

282“Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14 NKJV).

283“But he said, ‘You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, “Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord”’” (Exodus 5:17 ESV).

284“Our enemies said, ‘They will not know or see until we come among them, kill them and put a stop to the work’” (Nehemiah 4:11 NASB).

285There are many whose worship is outwardly warm and lively, but the warmth is for the entertainment value of the worship service, not for God for Whom they are cold.

286“Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully, And cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood” (Jeremiah 48:10 NKJV). NASB and ESV translate רְמִיָּה [rem-ee-yaw´] negligently and with slackness, respectively, instead of deceitfully. The word may have either meaning, and with slackness would seem to fit the context better in Ashwood’s text. Considering that lazy people often hide their negligent work when nobody is looking, the meanings are not unrelated to one another.

287Roman Catholic doctrine effectively teaches that justification is the result of faith plus good works. But the Scriptures teach that saving faith produces both justification and works that are truly good in God’s eyes. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8–10 NKJV). For brevity, this footnote simplifies the matter, but not in any fundamental sense.

288“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13 NKJV).

Back |  |  |  |  |  | Contents |  |  |  |  |  | Next