Introduction:
One of the things we must recognize is that work does not exist in the world because of the Fall. Work got a lot more difficult because of our sin, and it labors under a curse, but God gave the cultural mandate to mankind, a mandate which involved an enormous amount of work, before the entrance of sin. We therefore need to recover a distinctively Christian work ethic. It is an essential part of the process of salvation and sanctification. It points, like every faithful thing does, to Christ.
The Text:
“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; He shall not stand before mean men” (Prov. 22:29).
Summary of the Text:
As we will see in a number of texts from Proverbs, work has consequences. And laziness also has consequences. This is because God gave us the ultimate “gold standard” called time, and everyone has exactly the same amount of it, and it is a resource that the government cannot print. This means that work over time signifies, and no work over time signifies. This is why Scriptures say: “He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster” (Prov. 18:9). Laziness is a destroyer. But how, when it didn’t touch anything, didn’t consume anything? It did consume something—it burned daylight.
In our text, a man is set before us, a man who is diligent in his business. The word for diligent is mahir—experienced, skilled. Do you see a man who is on top of his vocation? The word rendered business is a broad term, and trade, craftsmanship, wares, are all included. That man will stand before kings. This is simply Solomon’s way of saying that cream rises. Taking one thing with another, all things considered, diligence is recognized and honored in the world and laziness is recognized and shunned.
Hurt Christian Feelings
We are involved in building community. This means that we do business with one another, and so one great challenge is the cheap grace approach to work, the one that constantly argues that “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.”
Contractors who can’t even come close to their estimate. Wives who manipulate their husbands into doing half of their work. Husbands who fail to provide wives with the wherewithal to do their work. Students who dither at their assignments. Entrepreneurs who risk all the wrong things. Web designers who flake. People who write and sign contracts they don’t know how to read. People who don’t write contracts at all, on the assumption that regeneration somehow makes everyone’s memories perfect. And so on.
And in case any of this stepped on any toes, there is no solidarity between a competent contractor and an incompetent one, or a competent wife and an incompetent one. There is spiritual solidarity between a competent contractor, web developer, and auto mechanic. Draw the lines of solidarity in the right places.
A job evaluation is not gossip. It is part of the cost of doing business, and we have to learn how to provide honest feedback without quarreling, and that feedback must not be fanatically over-precise, and neither may it inflict a terrible craftsman on the next unsuspecting saint. If you get together with a friend and talk about how so-and-so is having trouble in his marriage, and you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. You are a gossip. But if you tell a friend who asked about it that your brother in Christ installed the cabinets upside down, that is not gossip. People who do not want public evaluation of the quality of their work are people who have no business being in business. They should just buy a shovel and dig where they are told to.
The point about solidarity is an important one. Those who are walking in honesty have unity in that honesty. Those who drift in their slackness have unity in that drift. One of the ways that people try to keep pointed exhortations at bay is by misconstruing the point of the exhortation.
Suppose the sermon were about stealing stereos. Smith has a stereo he bought and paid for. Murphy stole his stereo. The sermon is not about having a stereo. It is about stealing them. And so if Smith comes to see me with tears in his eyes and offers to show me the receipt, he has missed the point. And if Murphy attacks me for my bias against stereo ownership, he is diligently trying to miss the point.
The Hard Way is the Easy Way:
There is a way of avoiding work that multiplies work, and there is a way that embraces work that saves work in the long run. “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: But the way of the righteous is made plain” (Prov. 15:19).
Work and Desire:
The right kind of work, because a particular result is desired, quenches the wrong kind of desire. “A worker’s appetite works for him; his mouth urges him on” (Prov. 16:26, ESV). A refusal to work enflames the wrong kind of desire. “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: But the soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Prov. 13:4). “The desire of the slothful killeth him; For his hands refuse to labour. He coveteth greedily all the day long: But the righteous giveth and spareth not” (Prov. 21:25–26).
Diligence and Laziness Are Visible:
Professionalism begins in the heart, but it does not remain there.
“He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: But the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: But he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame” (Prov. 10:4–5).
Lotsa Talk
Lazy men are good talkers. “In all labour there is profit: But the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury” (Prov. 14:23).
Part of the reason is that he has to be ready with the excuses. They are on the tip of his tongue. “Aliens kidnapped me. What year is it?”
“The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; A lion is in the streets. As the door turneth upon his hinges, So doth the slothful upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; It grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason” (Prov. 26:13–16).
What Salvation Looks Like
Remember that proverbs are proverbs, and that they do not give us truths about triangles having three sides. But they are still true, overwhelmingly true. And the book of Proverbs talks about laziness and work a lot. We may be justified in thinking that it is a perennial problem.
“I went by the field of the slothful, And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, And nettles had covered the face thereof, And the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; And thy want as an armed man” (Prov. 24:30–34).
The issue not whether we are saved by works. Of course not. The issue here, rather, is what salvation looks like. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you to will and to do for His pleasure (Phil. 2:12).
Thanks for all these. I find the comment barrage on political posts in comparison with the dearth on the theological ones saddening—though not surprising. Last weeks’ was especially useful. If all the Christian men could sort out that one issue the state of the US church would be much better. I would like to hear more about this: “Wives who manipulate their husbands into doing half of their work.” What does this entail? While I do think that all things being equal, husbands should provide for their families and wives nurture*. We are increasingly told that intimacy in the bedroom… Read more »
My hubby is awesome, he does his own laundry, takes care of the garbage, and cooks a lot. He likes to cook. With the influence of feminism and culture however, there are women who have been taught that house work must be divided 50-50, even if she is not working. Helping around the house is awesome,but it can also become a real power struggle, one complete with color coded flow charts and little gold stars. I know a hubby that has a chore chart on the fridge and his wife is more like his mother. One thing we do know,… Read more »
So there is a question as to how much? (Your comment about 50/50 from some quarters). Does the wife get to say that the home is her domain (not too unreasonable) then demand that chores be done her way and to her standards? Seems reasonable when working with kids, possibly far less so when getting your husband to help. Men try and be efficient but some wives know how to expand housework into a 24/7 task and will complain that the husband is not doing his share. Are dividing up chores a useful way of dealing with this (rubbish versus… Read more »
“If men work 40 hours and provide a good income how many chores are reasonable? If a wife works because she chooses to (not has to) does this change things? Or should she just use her income to pay for domestic help (I think this is more reasonable).” Reasonable questions. First, if a man works doing what is possible to provide income our bias should be that he is providing a good income; he doesn’t have to provide a better one before his wife is obligated to treat him with respect. In that case no *chores* are reasonable, though a… Read more »
(Well a wife should respect regardless, though a man can make this task easier or harder). Some women work because they find it challenging. If a wife is intelligent then domestic work can be much harder for her than for another woman. Now that jobs can be (not always though) less toilsome an occupation for a woman can be more fulfilling. Now I think that a woman should nurture so I don’t think that choosing work over caring for her husband and children (stimulating or not) is helpful. So paying for childcare is usually not such a good idea (in… Read more »
There is nothing inherently wrong with paying for house cleaning any more than paying for any other service. Maids and gardeners are something outside my realm of experience. I guess if you call it cleaning service and landscaping service I can better relate to it :) – though as it happens I don’t pay for any of that either. I’m not entirely sure what money neutral means. She makes enough income for it to be worth it? Two things that tend to make me scowl a bit, though directly they’re none of my business: Women who flit from one hobby… Read more »
I don’t think you should scowl in the second case unless you know that the mother does not view staying home as a temporary investment in her children, with the degree to be used in the potentially many years remaining after the children no longer need full time nurture. I know what you mean about the first, but even that I think is a judgment that should be slow to be made unless you know the circumstances. What is your metric for judging whether they are “pretending” they are doing something of equal value to his breadwinning job, and on… Read more »
In the second case a specific example of the kind of thing I have in mind is a woman earning an M.D (though it can apply to other fields as well) and then effectively saying “never mind”. For one thing, the program into which she was accepted was surely a competitive one, with limited openings. Who didn’t get accepted because she did? Then too, even though she presumably worked hard for her success, and perhaps spent/borrowed a small fortune, by the time that degree has been conferred a great deal has also been invested in her, and entrusted in her.… Read more »
Why his laundry? Why not the family’s?
LOL! I don’t know why he likes to do his own laundry. He likes to cook too, but I’m not sure he’s ever cleaned anything. Certainly not the kitchen after cooking in it.
Something that makes it work is that he is choosing what he wants to do, not looking at a chart and dividing things up as if there is some kind of formula to be found.
Wilson is right, there can be a lot of manipulation going on around chores, power plays people may not even be aware of.
“We are increasingly told that intimacy in the bedroom begins in helping around the house.”
Whoever is saying that is ultimately the manipulator.
I hear this in articles by Christian men who are genuinely trying to encourage husbands not to be so clueless. I don’t mean it from the wife, I think that may be unhelpful.
My point was what does Doug allude to here.
(A secondary question would be does this advice really help?)
I think there’s two things going on here.There are the complete lunkheads who won’t lift a finger to help their wife because they think it’s beneath them, which is not good. They could really benefit from becoming part of the family in some other way then their work outside the home. But then there are the men who fall victim to women’s need for control, and that is not good either, because the more he complies, the unhappier she will get. For the most part I’d say anything relating chores for men as a way to entice or encourage intimacy,… Read more »
I think the advice is as much to thoughtfulness as it is to helping with chores.
No, I didn’t think you meant from the wife. The thing is, the advice is coming *from* the clueless. Or perhaps from preachers who find it profitable to ingratiate themselves to women. It doesn’t help anyone. It mostly hurts men who’s wives listen to it. I suppose you could say it’s not doing wives any favor either. Exactly what Doug was alluding to I’m not sure. In this day and age women are as likely to browbeat their husbands into doing their will as they are to manipulate them. On the other hand a lot of males are conditioned to… Read more »
“We are increasingly told that intimacy in the bedroom begins in helping around the house.”
Nah, this is just one part of Mohler’s Complex Calculus of “earning” sex. A man could do the work of a maid service with a 5-star Angie’s LIst rating, and it still may not be enough.
I don’t think the term “earning” is helpful. Moore’s position is common though. I suspect it comes from responding to brickhead husbands. I do not have strong views but it seems that the men arguing for this are correct about wanting men to be more considerate in general but wrong in how considerate should work out. Doug always says that men need to be soft on the inside but strong on the outside. In trying to make men soft this type of advice can make them soft on the outside which leads to frustration (for both the man and the… Read more »
I rarely comment on these posts because I find little to disagree with and little to add. :-)
How do we know we are lazy? The more virtuous we become the less virtuous we think we are. For example, I know that I struggle in this area, but I also know that I have worked hard (or at least long hours) often. Do we judge it based on how much we provide for our families? What if we are efficient and do all that is required of us? Should we do more in the time than another who is paid the same amount? And because the structure of the freemarket and the advent of electricity we can do… Read more »