Look at the apostles in the New Testament, from Peter to Paul. Can we find one lazy bone in them? They did not have any trace of laziness. They had no thought of wasting their time. All of them labored diligently and sought for every opportunity to serve the Lord. Paul said, "Proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2). The proclamation of the word must be done in season and out of season. One has to labor diligently, whether in season or out of season. A worker of the Lord has to work in season and out of season. This means that he has to be very diligent. All the apostles were extremely diligent. Think of the colossal amount of work Paul accomplished. We may be eighty years old before we have done one tenth of what he did. We must realize that all servants of the Lord are diligent. In considering Paul's work, we can see that he was truly diligent. There was no laziness in him whatsoever. He was either traveling from place to place, preaching the gospel wherever he went, or reasoning intently with individuals and teaching them. Even when he was in prison he was still writing his Epistles. The Epistles which touched the peak of spiritual revelations were all written in his prison cell. Although he was bound within the cell walls, God's word was not bound. Paul was truly a diligent man. He was like his Master, who was never slothful.

In the original language of the New Testament, there are three Greek words for slothfulness. The first is argos, the second is nothros, and the third is okneros. All three words mean slothfulness. They are translated differently in the New Testament (1 Tim. 5:13; Rom. 12:11; Heb. 5:11; 6:12; Matt. 12:36; 20:3, 6; 2 Pet. 1:8; Phil. 3:1; Titus 1:12). Whether the words are translated as idle, slothful, sluggish, irksome, or dull, they all mean a refusal or reluctance to work or do things. To be slothful means to ignore the work or to reduce the work until it becomes no work. There is a joke about a doorkeeper whose responsibility was to open the door whenever visitors rang the bell. One day the bell rang, but he did not open the door. When asked why he did not open it, he answered, "I am hoping the bell will stop ringing!" Visitors were waiting to come in, yet he was hoping the bell would stop ringing. Brothers and sisters, what kind of person is this? Unfortunately, this is the way many behave in God's work. They hope that things will go away. Even when things do not go away, they hope that they will not become a burden to them. In their mind they are saying, "How I would thank the Lord if these things went away and I did not have to deal with them!" What is this? This is slothfulness!