10. Summing Up the Spiritual Sloth

10. Summing Up the Spiritual Sloth.

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Spiritual Sloth: (Greek, “Acedia”); spiritual laziness; indifference and apathy at the deeper levels; lack of spiritual ambition; joyless in sacred pleasures; spiritual ennui; careless attitude toward spiritual matters; a dispassionate lack of mindfulness and soul-care; a listless ignorance of what is eternally important; empty of the energy to escape self-centeredness; a lack of motivation to follow through on spiritual duties and activities; a spiritual sluggard; a sickness of the soul that results in boredom with God; a vague sense of dissatisfaction with anything spiritual; a cold sin of omission that drifts away from any hope of locating life’s true purpose and meaning; the unwillingness to be a diligent seeker of God and His Kingdom; a strong temptation from the evil one to remain spiritually empty and unfulfilled. A spiritual sloth is content to, spiritually speaking, follow the pace of the real sloth by moving at ten feet per minute, 1/9th of a mile per hour, and sleep twenty hours a day.

Descriptions of Spiritual Sloth: 

1. “It is like dying in advance.” (Pope Francis);
2. “It is a deflation of the soul that hinders spiritual resolve.” (anonymous);
3. “It renders a person idle and useless for every spiritual work.” (John Cassian);
4. “It is a sort of heavy, oppressive sadness that presses down on a person’s mind in such a way that he wants to do nothing and no activity pleases him.”  (Thomas Aquinas);
5. “It is a joylessness when faced with God as our supreme joy.” (Peter Kreeft);
6. “It is a supernatural torpor that doesn’t want to take the trouble at asking the great spiritual questions.”  (Blaise Pascal);
7. “It is the sin that is so dead that it doesn’t even seem to rise to the level of sin; a sin so sinful that it isn’t even sin.” (Peter Kreeft).

The Context: The Seven Deadly Sins. Going way back in Christian history to around 600 AD, the Church began putting together lists of what they considered the worst of the sins of which we are capable. These sins were soon catalogued as the “deadly sins” because they were seen as fatal to the soul; they were commonly accepted as those vices that killed the human spirit if ingrained into a person’s character; they were thought to bring death to the spiritual life; they were seriously avoided because they strangled any hope of a relationship with God. These seven sinful qualities of character that led to the demise of the Christian life were:

1. PRIDE. Self-conceit; a complete anti-God and pro-self state of mind; embracing the dictatorship of the self; a life entered on self-fulfillment; the belief in one’s self-sufficiency leading to self-glorification.
2. GREED. A zeal for more because of an ungrateful discontent with what one has.
3. LUST. An impure craving for the desires of the flesh that will never be satisfied.
4. ENVY. The self-centered and jealous desire for what another person has, coveting and possessing.
5. GLUTTONY. The overwhelming and excessive desire to consume more food than one needs.
6. WRATH. The unrighteous anger that easily loses self-control.
7. SLOTH. See above and below.

(A.) A Spiritual Sloth Does Not Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6). Another way of saying this beatitude might be... It’s time to celebrate! Now that you are working up an appetite for God and starving for His righteousness, you will soon enjoy full satisfaction. Congratulations! You are just like a desert pilgrim in a desperate search for food and water, and God is about to bless you in a special way! You are to be envied, because now that you have developed hunger pangs for true righteousness, God won’t let you go hungry for long, and you have shown Him that you are ready for a delicious meal of genuine goodness, a hearty serving of God Himself!

Spiritual Laziness Brings Starvation of the Soul. A spiritual sloth does not gather up within himself the energy to crave for anything to do with God. A sloth does not know what it means to be desperate for God or His way of doing things, and that fatal ignorance doesn’t even motivate him in the least. So those who hunger and thirst for God and His profound goodness are supremely blessed to be in that position. The spiritual eager-beavers are never satisfied with the current spiritual state, they continue to have an emptiness and a hunger to want more. They want to do what it takes to go deeper with God, to reflect His righteous character more completely. Those with spiritual ambition ache for more of God’s presence in their lives, to be filled full of God. To search for a human righteousness apart from God, though, is merely an urge to follow an excellent ethical system, a moral program. Every society needs such a system for survival’s sake, but that’s not good enough at a personal level. That Godless pursuit of goodness will get us nowhere in terms of satisfying our spiritual hunger. Social justice indeed reflects a desire of God’s, but it is not an end in itself. Goodness is necessary in society, but it doesn’t transform your heart or save your soul.

(B.) A Spiritual Sloth is Lukewarm and Turns God’s Stomach. “I know who you are, inside and out; I know your works. You are neither cold with apathy nor hot with passion. It would be better if you were one or the other, but you are neither. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth… Those I love I also correct and discipline. Therefore, be shamelessly committed to Me and turn back. Be diligent and turn from your indifference.” (Rev. 3:15, 16, 19).

Spiritual Laziness Nauseates God. Jesus stated that the believers were just like the water being delivered by their famous aqueduct… lukewarm in faith, undrinkable by God, indifferent during worship, stagnant in spiritual growth. They are just like that distasteful water, unacceptable to God, unsatisfying, worthy to be spit out. The believers are tepid, they have no passion for God, they have no fervor to live the Way of Christ. They are satisfied with a lukewarm faith. They meet no resistance from their highly secular neighbors because they don’t stand for anything spiritual in value, they offer no alternative lifestyles or world view. They would never have to pick up their cross and suffer indignities and be thus refined in God’s fire of suffering. They were content with how their comfortable life unfolded. Jesus made the point that the cold springs from nearby Colossae were refreshing and delicious, and the hot springs from nearby Hierapolis were perfect for soothing and healing. But the lukewarm water in Laodicea was neither here nor there, it tasted badly, it couldn’t be used for cooking or cleaning, and so was basically worthless. The Laodicean church had no passion or zeal, but were instead halfhearted and relatively indifferent, so it was worthless just like the lukewarm water. The self-satisfied faith of the believers was repugnant to the Lord and gave Him spiritual nausea to the point of vomiting them out of His mouth.

(C.) A Spiritual Sloth Refuses to Explore God. “Will God really live with human beings on earth? Behold, the heavens and the Heaven of Heavens, the highest heavens to their uttermost reaches, cannot contain you, O Lord!” (1 Kings 8:27). There is a visceral excitement and satisfaction when exploring a frontier: Investigating uncharted territory; seeking something where settled territory is at the edge of wilderness; searching the extreme outer limits of something for knowledge and understanding; detecting something unknown or unexplored; leads to discovery of something new and finding something unexpected. WANTED: Adventurers who want to explore the Final Frontier in the universe, the greatest Wonder of the World; must be extremely curious about the nature of God’s Being; motivated to know more about God than you know presently; inspired by the thrill of discovery;  need to be challenged and changed in the process of exploration; have the courage to step into a safe unknown; able to invest considerable mental energy to pursue life inside God, even if only with a mustard seed of trust in Him; be comfortable with the certainty of endless exploring; have the patience to pursue the quest one step at a time for as long as it takes; must explore with the vision of C. S. Lewis in his Narnia tales, “Further Up and Further In!” Spiritual sluggards need not apply.

(D.) A Spiritual Sloth is an Unfruitful Garden. “You must think of yourself as of one setting out to make a garden in which the Lord is to take His delight.” (St. Teresa of Avila). The spiritual sluggard does not maintain a fertile ground in the garden of his heart. “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across the field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” (Matthew 13:3-9; Mark 4:1-9; Luke 8:4-8). Jesus is explaining to them in this familiar story that He is the Sower, and His job is to sow seeds of God’s truth in the world. He is to broadcast seeds of Kingdom life, of God’s message, into people’s hearts as He continues in His ministry. In fact, sowing IS His ministry. The sad truth is that in the heart of the spiritually lazy, the sown seeds often meet with resistance, the growth process is often frustrated, and the seeds are lost or taken away or made unfruitful. Jesus the Sower rejoices when He finds fertile soil in the heart of the listener, but He isn’t surprised when He finds His purposes thwarted. One type of garden soil He finds is the common footpath, the hardened soil that is not open to the truth, the ground that is so hard that the seed cannot penetrate beneath the surface. On the footpath of the hardened heart, the truth cannot grow roots and can be easily blown away by the wind or eaten by the birds. The spiritual sluggard doesn’t take the trouble to soften the ground to make it fertile. Then there is the gravel, the ground that has no topsoil, is covered with little rocks that might seem to invite the truth, but is not nearly deep enough for the truth take grow root and grow. The spiritual sloth doesn’t lift even a finger to rake off the graveled topsoil and provide a deeper soil ready to help the seed flourish in his garden. The third type of infertile soil is the presence of weeds in the garden, which point directly to the laziness of the farmer who doesn’t even bother to maintain the garden, to tend it in such a way that weeds don’t overwhelm the fertile ground. The sluggard here ignores the ongoing needs of the garden and allows the harmful weeds to overrun the plot that is designated for life and vitality and growth. The spiritual sloth is not motivated enough to care for the heart-garden, and allows his life around him to choke out the garden-life and render his spiritual life unfruitful. The industrious gardener of the heart works hard to keep the ground soft and open to the sown seeds; will rake away the gravel and stones in order to provide much more than mere shallow topsoil; will carefully tend the garden and keep clearing it of weeds and other unwelcome plants that would keep the garden from flourishing. The fruitfulness of the garden of the heart depends on God’s grace and human effort as we cooperate in providing fertile soil for the seeds of God’s truth.

(E.) A Spiritual Sloth Is Not Interested in Becoming a Saint.  “If you consult your own soul with complete honesty, you will see that there is one and only one reason why you are not even now a saint. You do not wholly want to be.” (William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life). The basic meaning of the term saint is “holy one,” which is from the Latin word “sanctus.” A saint is one who has been anointed by the Holy Spirit, enabled to grow in “set-apartness” for God’s special purposes. A saint is one who is officially dedicated to God in order to increase one’s usefulness to Him. A saint is a willing member of the holy priesthood of all believers; someone who is determined to be in the Lord’s sanctification process; a follower of Jesus who is intentionally living into holiness, set apart for service to God; an apprentice to the Anointed One who accepts being assigned by God for a sacred purpose; a humble student of Jesus who wisely reminds others of God’s presence in the world; an imperfect person who is designated to represent a perfect God; a spiritually anointed one whose behavior is increasingly separate from the sinful and worldly; a Christ-follower who is engaged in the process of being cleansed and purified in order to increase one’s usefulness to God; a believer whose life is marked by growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Messiah. The problem is that sainthood has a P.R. problem. There are so many myths and counterfeits and misconceptions, the world wouldn’t know a true saint if it tripped over one. A typical image of a saint is a holier-than-thou, self-righteous, fun-hating stiff. A saint is viewed as a domesticated, tamed, lifeless person who loves to heap guilt on others. People make the mistake of believing that sainthood is reserved for the super-spiritual, the hyper-Christian, the pious mystic untainted by the world. With impressions like these, who would ever want to be anointed, who would choose to be a saint?

(F.) A Spiritual Sloth Ignores the Greatest Commandment. “Just then a religious scholar stood before Jesus in order to test His doctrines. He posed this question: ‘Teacher, rabbi, what requirement must I fulfill if I want to live forever in heaven?’ Jesus replied, ‘What does Moses teach us? What do you read in the Law?’ The religious scholar answered, ‘It states, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor as yourself.’ Jesus said, ‘That is correct. Now go and do exactly that and you will live.”(Luke 10:25-28). Jesus gave the best answer possible, of course… the Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6:5. The Shema is the first prayer taught to children in a Jewish household, and it is prayed twice daily by every believing Jew, every sunrise and every sunset. Love your God, with everything you got, heart, soul, strength, mind, everything. The lawyer then adds Leviticus 19:18 to the Shema, something that Jesus himself said many times. Love your neighbor as yourself.

SHEMA (sh’ma): The first Hebrew word in the essential prayer of the Jews in the Hebrew Bible, found in Deuteronomy 6:4; is usually translated “Hear!” but actually means hear and do, listen and obey, hear and respond, listen and take action, take heed; there is a traditional Jewish saying that “to hear God is to obey God, and to obey God is to hear God.” Hearing and doing are two sides of the same coin of faith, and is a vital aspect of biblical spirituality. Jesus praises the lawyer in this story and says, “That’s it! Good job! Now go and do what the Scripture says.” In other words, Jesus is saying that it is not enough to simply believe the right words, to include those words as a part of the law. You must also demonstrate through action that those words are true in your life. His literal response to the lawyer reads, “Do this, and you will come alive,” or “Do this, and you are living.” In other words, eternal life starts now, as long as you’re not a spiritual sluggard who can’t lift a finger to actively obey the Lord.

(G.) A Spiritual Sloth Neglects Heavenly Rewards. “For we must all stand in front of Christ at His judgment seat, that each one may receive what he is due, paid back for the things that he did here on earth, whether they were good or bad. Everyone will receive the consequences, good or bad, of what he did, and will receive what rewards he deserves for his actions in this life.” (2 Corinthians 5:10). It seems abundantly clear throughout the Bible that the sins of each person were dealt with on the Cross by the Son of God. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  So for those who have accepted that divine forgiveness, there need be no worry about standing in judgment for our sins. Nonetheless, the spiritual sluggard will not earn any honors for the simple reason that he has decided not to work for them. We will all be rewarded with how we lived our lives, and Jesus will grant these honors to those who deserve them upon entering the Kingdom in heaven. So it appears that there will be some who are saved and highly honored and some who are saved and not as highly honored. There will be the greatest in the Kingdom down the spectrum to the least in the Kingdom. These rewards are like the icing on the cake, though, since the main dessert is being in the Kingdom in the first place.

(H.) A Spiritual Sloth Does Not Have the Energy or Will to Stand Firm, Put on the Armor, and Fight the Good Fight.  “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For this struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:10-20).