1. The Spiritual Sloth – Defining Our Terms

1. The Spiritual Sloth – Defining Our Terms.

“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep seeking and you will find. Keep knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who continues to ask receives, and the one who continues to seek finds, and to the one who keeps knocking the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8).

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.

The Antidote: The Four Cardinal Virtues. (Latin for “cardinal” means the hinge of a door); These are the internal qualities of character that are pivotal, the hinges on which all the other virtues turn. These four virtues are seen as foundational to the other virtues and will oppose the tyranny of the deadly sins. These virtues have God as their source and are dimensions of God’s perfectly virtuous character.

1. WISDOM. Understanding; insight; prudence; discernment; moral intelligence; thoughtful application of knowledge and practical common sense.
2. JUSTICE. To righteously give to others what they are due as being made in God’s image; the fair treatment of all people while holding everyone accountable; the vision of eventual reconciliation and restoration of relationships and social structures; the harmony of all human life fitting together as intended by God.
3. COURAGE. The inner fortitude to bravely endure hardship; the heroic decision to act on one’s righteous convictions; to overcome fear and uncertainty to do what is right and good.
4. MODERATION. The ability to exercise self-discipline and temperance; to know when to stop, when to refrain from going to extremes; to show self-control in decision-making.

The Final Word: The Three Greatest Virtues in the World. These three qualities of God’s essence are supernatural graces that can only be present in us when divinely given to us by His Spirit.

“Now there are three things that will endure forever: Loyal Trust, Patient Hope and Agape Love. And the greatest of these is Agape Love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13).  

On the One Hand: There is what Wendell Berry called “the mysterious interplay of grace and effort.” We don’t know where to draw the line between God’s grace and our human effort. But God gave us bodies and a will and a brain, and expects us to work at our spiritual growth. No one can grow into a saint unless they put some elbow grease, sweat and our best efforts into our faith development. As Peter Kreeft once said, “Being saintly is our response to being saved. We can’t do either without God. But He won’t do either without us.” Another way of saying this is from William Law in his book, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life:  “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.” 

Faith, Hope and Love are all Gifts of God’s Grace. The most powerful description of love, and thus the greatest love chapter in Scripture, is 1 Corinthians 13. To wrap up his discussion of love, and agape love in particular, Paul finishes with an unforgettable bang… his short list of what is often called the Three Christian Graces, also known as the Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, and Love. These eternal qualities are called Theological because God is the whole point… He is the source and origin of these graces; He is the main object of these qualities; He is the primary target of these virtues from us; and God through His Spirit offers us these gifts by infusing them into us who trust and hope and love in Him. These three divine gifts, or graces, form the very foundation of the Christian life. God knows that we can’t manufacture these qualities on our own. These virtues are not human achievements. We can’t simply demonstrate them through our strength of will, or natural giftedness, or our superior genes. Trust, hope and love are supernatural gifts in the Holy Spirit. We are given in God’s mercy the ability to be faithful to Him, to hope in Him, to love Him. And it’s clear that in Scripture these gifts are offered to us on a silver platter in Christ, because God knows we are helpless to develop these godly qualities under our own steam. Do we want a stronger trust in God? A more patient hope in whatever circumstance? An unconditional love for our neighbors and enemies? Only God can make that possible in us, and as Father Cantalamessa says, “The Holy Spirit is the well-spring and the power of all three Theological Virtues. All three have their origin in the Spirit.” (Come, Creator Spirit). Paul clearly lays out all three graces being given through the Spirit in Galatians 5:5-6: “Through the Holy Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope… For in Christ Jesus, the only thing that really counts is faithful trust as brought to perfection through agape love.” 

Faith Defined – (Hebrew, enumah; Greek, pistis); a relationship word regarding covenant faithfulness to the Faithful One; loyal trust; consistent reliance; steadfast commitment; confident belief; active faith; firmly persuaded; persistent loyalty. “Without trusting fully in God, it is impossible to be well-pleasing to Him.” (Hebrews 11:6).

Hope Defined. (Hebrew, tikvah; Greek, elpis). The biblical words for hope point to being able to anticipate the future with pleasure, to welcome whatever comes next, to have confident expectations of good in one’s life. Hope is faith in the future and a deep assurance of God’s hand in whatever is coming around the corner. The root word in Hebrew is “qavah” which means to wait, literally to weave together the strings to make an unbreakable cord. So in Scripture we find that occasionally the words hope and wait are somewhat interchangeable. The Greek word is “elpis,” and means much the same thing. As has been said by many, hope is faith in the future tense.

Love Defined – (Hebrew, ahavah; Greek, agape). Affection, loyalty, care, the aspects of compassion, mercy and grace. Love wants what is best for the other person, and desires the highest good for another. Love is not a feeling or emotion but an act of the will that realizes what is best for someone else and then follows through and does what is needed for that person’s benefit. Agape love is the supreme of all the loves, “the highest level of love known to humanity,” (C. S. Lewis), and thus can only come from above with God as its source. Agape love is the ultimate expression of God’s nature, the essence of His character. Agape love is not Eros, which is romantic love. It is not Phileo, which is brotherly love. It is not Storge, which is family love. Agape love is the divine love that can only come to us from the heart of God through His Spirit. Agape love is the love shared between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is truly the source of all these other loves, but it is only agape love that is poured into our hearts from the Holy Spirit to those who trust in Jesus (Romans 5:5). Agape love is an eternal virtue outlasting all the other virtues. Agape love is the primary fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Agape love, the sacred love of God, is universal and worldwide in its scope; it is an unearned gift of God’s grace; it is highly active as it fleshes out God’s heart and makes His love visible; it is sacrificial as it demonstrates self-denial for the benefit of others; it is unconditional and freely offered to others with no strings attached, no demands, nothing required of the person being loved.

Jesus is the Author of our Faith, our Hope, and our Love. Not only that, but He is also the Perfecter of our Faith, our Hope, and our Love. Yes, the Spirit of Christ is clearly both the originator and the finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). And the same principle holds true for the other two Christian graces of hope and love, with Jesus being the both the founder and the completer of hope and love. The Greek word for “author” of our faithfulness means originator, primary source, creator, initiator, one who causes something; the same Greek word also means pioneer, trailblazer, captain, pathfinder. Yes, in terms of Jesus and the three Christian graces, He is all that more. Christ is also the “perfecter,” which means finisher, completer, consummator. Jesus is in charge of the whole process, from planting the first seeds of faith, hope and love in us, to the crucial role of bringing these graces to their fulfillment in us. Jesus is all in all, from beginning to end

Christ Originates the Three Graces. “It is by grace that you have been saved, through faithful trust; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.”  (Ephesians 2:8, NJB). Jesus is the author of our faith story. Our faith is of His creation. He began it by drawing us to Him, by dropping a mustard seed of faith into our hearts to get things started. God’s gift. The believer didn’t start the faith. We have no reason to boast about whatever kind of shape our faith is in. We don’t have the right to pat ourselves on the back for walking down the aisle to be saved. We didn’t open the door to a life of faith, hope and love. We didn’t put ourselves into the position of becoming followers of Jesus. Christ gave us the seeds of His perfect character, which perfectly trusted in the Father and steadfastly finished the race. He completed what He started in His faithful life. So, Christ has the kind of faith we want. If we have to choose between the faith of Christ or the feeble faith that we manufacture on our own, we will choose Christ’s faith. It makes perfect sense that we would want to participate in and be shaped by His perfect faith, not our imperfect faith. We would naturally want Christ’s faith to live through us. We would want to adopt the virtues of Christ as our own. Since we have a choice in the matter, we want to be hid in Christ. We have done nothing to be especially proud of in our life of faith, hope and love, have we? It has been the virtues of Christ that are triumphant. It is the graces of Christ that we have been living into. The graces are free, unearned, unworked-for gifts, and we owe it all to Him who started the whole process. We will find that the more deeply we recognize our lives in Christ and His life in us, the easier it will be to disengage our ego in our spiritual development. Let’s face it, our own faith is a house of cards. The faithfulness of Jesus within me is a solid house built on a foundation of immovable rock. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God.”  (Galatians 2:20).

Christ completes our faith. As we participate in the faith of Christ within us, as we live into Christ’s faith, we will notice that our faith depends on Him from beginning to end. Just as Jesus finished what He started in His own life, He wants to finish what He started in each of us as well. He has a strong desire to bring our faith, our hope and our love to full maturity. He wants to perfect His qualities within us, to make our divine virtues complete. The three graces continue to be gifts from God, and Jesus wants them to be full of life and growth. The job of Christ’s Holy Spirit is to transform us until He consummates our faithful life at the end of the race, to finish our faith, our hope, our love as we reach the finish line. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6). God promises to sustain His good work in us. We didn’t originate our spiritual life, and we won’t complete it. We didn’t start the race of trust, hope and love, and we won’t finish it on our own. Christ’s perfect faithfulness finished His race as He now sits at the right hand of God, and His graces infused within us will enable us to run until we also get the prize. This is how we share the life of the risen Christ. We imperfectly participate in His perfect faithfulness. This takes the pressure off, doesn’t it? We don’t have to somehow magically manufacture perfect trust, perfect hope, perfect love. Christ’s perfect faith is already within us. We need to instead mature in our participation in His character and life, by feeding it, following it, submitting to it, studying it and growing in it. We don’t have to possess our own version of a perfect faith. We instead imperfectly live into Christ’s faith within us. And He will be sure to perfect our faith, hope and love at the finish line.