Sloth Part 1: Confronting Our Excuses

I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ (Matthew 25:24-25)

In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), the servants entrusted with five talents and two talents doubled their investment, and the Master blessed them with more, saying ‘come and share your master’s happiness!’ But he responded to this servant who provided no return on the one talent entrusted to him by calling him wicked and lazy. He said, ‘throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ This is a terrifying response and can and cause us to ask questions like this: 

• How do I reconcile God’s tremendous love and magnificent grace (unearned favour) with his demand that we provide a return on his investment in us? Is God only concerned about ‘results’? 

• How can I be sure of the ‘talents’ God has given to me, and am I investing my talents in a way that pleases him, and won’t result in me getting ‘thrown outside’? 

• I’m not as fruitful as I believe I could be, but does God consider the challenges in my life legitimate reasons or excuses? 

At the Vineyard Leaders’ Gathering in April, I struggled with the message by Dr. Charles Montgomery about the sin of sloth (the video starts at 1:36:13). He spoke about the Parable of the Talents and didn’t pull his punches: ‘when the King of Kings returns, he is coming with the expectation that we invest the talents and gifts that God has given us… sloth is the voice that whispers in your ear, trying to get you to exonerate yourself from the expectations of God. God understands but does not accept excuses.’ 

We must be ruthless in confronting all the reasons why we believe we’re not as fruitful as we could be, which could include cynicism, disillusionment, fear, shame, and idolatry (giving other things or people our primary devotion). We may believe that our age, health, busyness, exhaustion, and lack of resources are holding us back, but must give God permission to ask us questions like these:   

• Why are you giving your time and energy to things that don’t produce life? 

• Why do you feel shame about not doing something I never asked you to do? 

Our excuses also reveal what we believe about God. The servant refused to invest his talent because he believed the master was a ‘hard man.’ Do we live our lives as a response to God’s love for us and his desire that we’re fruitul so that we can share in his happiness? Or do we live our lives as a response to our belief that he is a ‘hard man’: mean, judgmental, or apathetic? 

Let our prayer be Psalm 139:23-24: ‘Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ Next week we’ll explore the importance of godly diligence, which doesn’t mean busyness or working harder!