Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Proverbs 23:4‭-‬5

It is easy to read a passage like Proverbs 23:4-5 and think, ‘This does not apply to me.’

Sadly, this is exactly why Christians wear themselves out to get rich — inadvertently and on a daily basis.

It all starts with one’s personal definition of the word rich. If we don’t consider ourselves to be rich, then we simply blow past this passage and move on. And there’s the rub. Very few people in this world consider themselves to be rich. In fact, almost everyone considers rich to be orders of magnitude — richer — than they are.

In other words, anyone earning minimum wage would consider those who earn the median USA salary of $4,600/month, at time of writing, rich. Of course, people who earn the USA median don’t consider themselves to be rich; they consider millionaires to be rich.

So, it should come as no surprise to learn that a survey showed that the vast majority of millionaires don’t consider themselves to be rich either.

How can this be? The simple truth is that people in all these various walks of life simply don’t have quite enough money. They have debts and living expenses that consume all of their current income. They all need just a little bit more…

… so, as a result, they don’t feel rich.

It’s easy to point the finger at those who are far wealthier than we are and ask, ‘How much more money could they possibly need?’

But consider this; people in less fortunate circumstances than you or me are looking at us and asking the exact same question.

We say things like, ‘If I had as much money as that person, I would never need any more.’

The sad truth is, we would. It’s the human condition.

Ignoring the warning in this proverb is one reason why Christians wear themselves out to be rich. I’ve said it before; the love of money is a state of heart — not a bank balance. We don’t need to be rich to love money.

Why Christians Wear Themselves Out to get Rich

The average hard-working person spends 75% or more of their waking hours in pursuit of a paycheck. Every time we receive that paycheck, we acquire — riches.

And, just like the proverb says…

We cast but a glance at those riches, and they are gone! They sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

So we head back to the office each Monday in pursuit of the next paycheck — and most hard-working folk will do this for the forty to fifty most productive years of their lives. This is how and why Christians wear themselves out to get rich.

Meanwhile, we neglect the Kingdom of God in our lives. This is a brutal truth for hard-working believers to face. Can it be that we seek second the Kingdom of God and his righteousness — after we seek that eternal paycheck?

The only way to break this cycle is to be intentional about seeking God’s kingdom first in our lives — and we can only achieve this by being equally intentional about how we earn and spend our money.

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

Proverbs 24:33‭-‬34

Is laziness a sin?

I have, of course, heard Proverbs 24:33-34 bandied about in modern Christendom many times over the years. Pastors don’t necessarily devote entire sermons to this proverb but I have certainly heard it mentioned as a preacher’s side-note as well as in Christian conversation.

The gist of the message is generally, ‘Don’t be lazy! If you don’t work, you won’t eat.’

No argument from me on that count. A good work ethic is a worthy virtue just as sure its opposing vices — sloth and laziness — are destructive character flaws that will lead to a lifetime of financial struggle.

However, this passage goes beyond the question, ‘Is laziness a sin?’

The proverb actually starts at verse 30 — and to simply focus on the final two verses of the whole passage loses some of the impact and context inherent in the message. Yes, one point of this proverb is to highlight the fact that, if we do not work, then we can expect to go hungry…

But when we read the full passage, it becomes clear that the writer is referring to a very specific type of work and, by extension, a very specific type of laziness. Furthermore, laziness is only one of the accusations levelled at the field’s owner. The second is not that he is lazy but that he has no sense.

I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

Proverbs 24:30-34

Is Laziness a Sin?

When Solomon penned this proverb, it wasn’t because he saw a lazy person kicking his feet up. What he observed was a field and / or vineyard. And it was from the state of that field that Solomon inferred that the owner was a sluggard — or, at the very least, someone who had no sense.

It is easy to read the last two verses in isolation and surmise that laziness leads to poverty. However, I believe it is equally important to note where the sluggard was lazy in his life.

For instance, I know a man who competes in triathlons. To that end, he trains eight hours a day. In this respect, he is one of the most diligent and motivated people I know. However, it is fair to say that he earned substantially less than the rest of his peers.

I recall time when his employer demanded some extra shifts from him. For my friend, the athlete, this was a road too far. ‘I can’t do this,’ he moaned. ‘My boss wants me to work sixteen hours a week!’

When you consider that most hard-working folk spend between forty and fifty hours a week at the office not to mention the ten to fifteen hours spent on their commute, I can understand why many might consider my friend’s grievance as something bordering on laziness. But this is simply not the case.

Is laziness a sin in my friends life? Absolutely not! He simply prioritized his physical training over his career.

However, hypothetically, what if he had ever found himself in a place where his money ran out and he was unable to pay his rent or put food on the table? Then one might argue that such a harsh stance on the number of hours he was prepared to work made no sense.

Turning back to Proverbs 24:30-34, the field’s owner had acquired an asset either through outright purchase or, more likely, as an inheritance from his father. This inheritance was a piece of land that he could tend and on which he could sow seeds or plant vines. More importantly, it was from this land that the owner would reap a bountiful harvest each year to feed his family.

However, instead of tending his field and vineyard, the man allowed them to fall into neglect. The net result? Poverty came upon him like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

Is laziness a sin in this man’s life? Not necessarily. It is possible that this man simply had no sense, as the writer asserts.

What is a man to do in such circumstances? Having allowed his means of support to come to ruin, such man might be forced to seek full-time employment in order to put food on the table. Ironically, he would probably end up doing this work in another man’s field. And adding insult to injury the sluggard would have to work just as hard — only for far less money — on a neighbor’s field as he might on his own.

However, what choice would he have? Since he had not diligently maintained his own asset, he has no choice but to tend someone else’s asset instead. The up-side is instant gratification; every day this man goes out to work on someone else’s land, he gets paid a day’s wage. Conversely, the person for whom he works will not receive their reward until the next harvest — but then they will receive it in bucket-loads. Thirty, sixty or one-hundred-fold, as the Bible says. In other words, the field’s owner will earn back all the money he spent on laborers, seed and equipment three to ten times over.

The sluggard, meanwhile will have to eke out a living for the rest of his days, grabbing work when he finds it, surviving from paycheck to paycheck. His only alternative is to starve. All because he lacked the good sense to maintain his own field or vineyard.

So it is with many believers in the modern economy. All too often hard-working believers do the daily commute to the office. There they do the daily grind for eight to ten hours, followed by another grueling hour’s commute back home.

All they want to do when they get home is kick their feet up and relax in front of the television for a few hours before bed. The last thing they want to do is ‘tend their field or vineyard’, so to speak. By field or vineyard, I mean the assets in which they invest their time and money in order to reap a future harvest.

Is laziness a sin in this context? Not to my mind.

However, there is really no way of getting around this. Anyone stuck in this rut is, by omission, neglecting their own field or vineyard . What would Solomon say if he observed that person’s field?

I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense. Sadly, this is the only conclusion he could draw from his observation. And his conclusion brings with it a frightening truth; poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

This is a hard message to hear, especially if you are a hard-working believer who diligently heads into the office each and every day. The problem is that job to which you devote the vast bulk of your waking hours is little more than someone else’s vineyard. It is not your own.

And anyone who neglects their own vineyard is someone who has no sense, according to Proverbs 24:30

However there is a way out of the predicament. Tend your fields and vineyards. When you do you will reap the reward come the harvest.