Sloth (deadly sin)

Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, 1624, by Abraham Bloemaert. The "lazy peasants" sleep instead of work, representing the sin of sloth.

Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins in Christian moral tradition, particularly within Catholicism, referring to laziness.

Sloth is defined as spiritual or emotional apathy, and being physically and emotionally inactive.

Religious views concerning the need for one to work to support society and further God's plan and work also suggest that, through inactivity, one invites the desire to sin. "For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do." ("Against Idleness and Mischief" by Isaac Watts).

In the Philokalia, the word dejection is used instead of sloth, for the person who falls into dejection will lose interest in life. Laziness is not considered becoming in many traditional customs. The demon of sloth is Belphegor.

Laziness in the Bible

Although, as defined above, sloth is more akin to apathy and inactivity, many English speakers narrow it to mean simple laziness,(Proverbs 10:4, Proverbs 12:27, Proverbs 15:19, Matthew 25:25-30) about which the Bible makes many comments. (Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Romans 12:11; Lazy people consider themselves smarter than seven wise counselors. Proverbs 26:16; Lazy people irritate their employers, like vinegar to the teeth or smoke in the eyes. Proverbs 10:26)

Lazy person falls prey to poverty

Ridiculously indolent^[1] and a lover of sleep,^[2] the lazy person sees lions all over the street^[3] his desires ″kill″ him^[4] because ″his hands refuse whatever to labour″,^[5] and his path becomes a ″hedge of thorns″...^[6] while he is wiser than seven sensible men in his own eyes....^[7] His household becomes a real ruin^[8] and he falls prey to his ″want″ (scarcity) coming like an armed person and in the end to poverty, coming upon him like a robber.^[9] The sluggard (lazy person) will share this fate with the talkative persons, with dreamers that ″watch the wind″ or ″regard the clouds″^[10] and with those who ″chase fantasies″ (follow worthless pursuits).^[11]

The employed lazy person and the rich lazy person

If, however, this lazy person is the type that, eventually, ″takes his food to mouth″^[12] (because there is a type of lazy person who doesn’t even take his food to mouth^[13]) and has a job, he is like ″vinegar to the teeth″ and ″smoke to the eyes″ for those who send him with any task.^[14] If the sluggard is rich, he should avoid getting that lazy insensitiveness of the chief people of Zion, that delight themselves in every way possible, and whom the prophet Amos predicted they would become slaves.^[15]

The lazy person leaves God's gifts unused

The wicked,^[16][17] worthless servant,^[18] that buries his talent in the ground, instead of investing the money with the banker, i.e. one who disregards God's gift , leaving it unused, is also lazy.^[17] His talent will be taken from him and will be given to the one who has 10 talents and the worthless servant is thrown into the darkness of hell, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.^[19] (See the parable of the talents.)^[20]

The lazy person breaks again the commandments of God

Whoever is lazy (slack) in his work becomes brother to one who destroys^[21] (meaning The Evil-One, the devil because the devil is murderer^[22]) for the second time^[23] He breaks again the command of God, Who sent him to work this time, for not obeying God, Who forbids them to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.^[24]

The growth of the virtues is the enemy of laziness

The Christian must not become sluggish (lazy), but be a zealous follower of those who ″inherit the promises″^[25] because the growth of the virtues makes the laziness go away.^[26]

Bibliography

• Bible, English Standard Version Revised, 1971, Biblegateway.com, http://www.biblegateway.com/
• Catholic Encyclopedia, Sloth, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14057c.htm
• Thomas Pynchon: The Deadly Sins/Sloth; Nearer, My Couch, to Thee, New York Times, June 6, 1993

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sloth.

Look up sloth in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• "Sloth" at Catholic Encyclopedia
• St. Thomas Aquinas on sloth

Seven Deadly Sins Lust Gluttony Greed Sloth Wrath Envy Pride Persons who categorized and described the Sins Evagrius Ponticus John Cassian Pope Gregory I Dante Alighieri Peter Binsfeld Representations in art and culture Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatorio (Dante) The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things (Bosch) The Seven Deadly Sins (Weill) The Seven Deadly Sins (Autant-Lara, Allégret, Dréville, Rossellini, De Filippo, Rim, Lacombe) The Seven Deadly Sins (de Broca, Chabrol, Demy, Dhomme, Douy, Godard, Ionesco, Molinaro, Vadim) The Seven Deadly Sins (Suzuki) The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (Henson) The Seven Deadly Sins of Modern Times (White) Seven (Fincher) House of Anubis: The Re-Awakening Fullmetal Alchemist (Arakawa) Jack Related Seven Heavenly Virtues Sin Christian views on sin Christian views on the Old Covenant Hamartiology