Encouraging Christians to Get into The Word of God
Proverbs 6:6-11.
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
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.
The words slothful and sluggard are the same Hebrew word, and meaning, and which means to be idle, lazy, and indolent. God warms Christian of not being sluggard several times in the Bible, because of its bad effect in the lives of people. We are not to be indolent in every thing we do, but there is a specific area in the lives of Christian that so many Christians do not care whether they are lazy or not, and that is when it comes to the Bible. A lot of Christians are so slothful when it comes to the Word of God. And that is why it shows in our spiritual productivity.
The specific command “to study to shew yourself approved” in 2 Timothy 2:15 was not given to the unbelievers because they are spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins, but to the believers who are alive unto God. And those believers who have been quickened by the Spirit of God are those who are not reading and studying the Word. It is because we are moving away, and not spending time in the Word is the reason why there are false doctrine, false preachers, and false Gospel that abound in Christianity today. We should not only read the Bible, but we should think on it. The more you peruse the Word, the more you will begin to discover the mysteries in the Word.
It is a sin to be slothful, and definitely it is a sinful to be slothful in the Word of God.
1. Slothful in the Word will lead to Emptiness of the Word.
Proverbs 6:10-11
“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.”
Someone wisely declared, “Leaders are readers”. The statement is found to be true. If you are sluggard, and you will not move an inch to do what you are supposed to do, you will not know beyond what you have known, and accomplish what you have already accomplished. Therefore, being slothful in the Word of God will make you an empty barrel. Sluggish in the Word will lead to spiritual poverty. So many Christian are poor spiritually, and so are ready to go bankrupt because they ignored the reading of the Word.
2. If you are slothful in the Word, you will always be deceived by the “smart ones”
Proverbs 12:24 The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.
“Slothful shall be under tribute”
During the Bible time, if country A conquers country B, then country B will be paying country A tribute to show that country A is superior, and to express country A’s power.
Now, there are many Christians who are paying spiritual tributes to false preachers, pastors, and prophets because they are dull of hearing, and indolent in the Word. And they will continue to pay till Christ comes back.
And that is why there is warning against being lazy from the Word of God. it is so hazardous to your Spiritual life.
3. If you are slothful in the Word, you will not be able to see the right way.
Proverbs 15:19, “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.”
Bible is compares to a light that shows us the right direction that we need to go, it tells us the warnings, dangers, and the go lights of Christian life. If you ignore the Word, you really open yourself to destruction, and you will not be able to see the right way at all. May God’s people run away from being sluggard in the Word, start being diligent about the Word.
4. If you are slothful, you will let other people do the thinking for you.
Pro 26:15 The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth.
This problem is common among pastors, they are looking for a place where they cut corners and not doing diligent study of the Word of God. That is why some pastors will pay huge amount of money to buy sermons online when they can go to the people and find the truth in the Word, and then give their people the truth. And other way round is to parrot what their GO’S are saying without doing diligent study of the Bible of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it is wrong to listen to other preachers preach, and get truth from their messages, and you also preach the same truth. What I am saying is, don’t do copycat, study thoroughly.
5. Slothful in the Word brings pain to you.
Joshua 23:13 Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.
The children of Israel has been given the land to posses, and the only thing they need to do is to there and conquer it, but they slack, and refused to do it. And God said, those people that you refused to drive out because of your laziness will be a pain in your eyes.
Many Christians are going through religious pains due to their negligence of the Word of God. God’s Word is powerful, and we need more of His Word than ever.
Slothfulness is a cancer that destroy everything that it touches. God wants us to stay away from it. Christian life is not for lazy, but for those who want to get the job done for Christ. God appreciates and blesses diligence- labor, study of the Word.
2 Peter 1:1:5
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
If our lives depend on the Bible, we should do diligent search of it, and be Berean Christians. Don’t be slothful to take this opportunity to grow in your Christian walk.
Hebrews 6:12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Jude 3-10
It is Satan’s plan to infiltrate the church of Jesus Christ with false teachers whenever and wherever he can.
A Christian minister once had a member of a well-known Jehovah’s Witness cult in his audience who constantly interrupted the meeting by shouting and heckling. “You cannot prove that Jesus is the eternal Son of God,” he said. “He was the FIRSTBORN of every creature; so He could not be deity. The eternal Father must therefore be older than His Son; and if Christ is not as old as His father, then HE is not eternal, if HE is not eternal, HE cannot be God.”
The preacher carefully considered the statement, “A father must be older than his son”; then he [gave] this withering reply: “While you might make such a point concerning an earthly parent, it certainly does not apply when we speak of God. I will prove that [to] you by your own words.
“You have just called God the eternal Father. But how can God be the eternal FATHER (not just God) without having an eternal Son? Eternal FATHERHOOD demands eternal SONSHIP! When did your own paternal parent begin to be your father? At the very moment you became his son, and not before! While time must elapse before one can become a human father, this is not true of God. He is the eternal Father, and therefore He must have an eternal Son!” The critic fell silent as he pondered the preacher’s words.
Since false teachers will creep into the church, the best way to protect yourself is to study the truth about Jesus Christ and the truths of God’s Word. If you are faithful in the study of God’s Holy Word, He will protect you from error.
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