(A thank you is in order to Ben Preiser, who was originally scheduled to deliver this sermon about the hard-working ant and the lazy slug. On short-notice, when Ben Preiser became unavailable on Sunday afternoon, he shared the manuscript so Pastor Devon Rossman could still deliver the message to the church body in Mount Pleasant.)
Introduction
The Proverbs are an interesting book to preach. You’ll find little to nothing in Proverbs that speaks openly and directly about the atoning sacrifice of Christ, justification by faith, the resurrection of the dead, or many other theological topics that we hold dear as Christians. But one issue of great importance that Proverbs speaks clearly and often about, is the matter of our sanctification. Sanctification simply refers to our growth or progress in godliness. It’s one of the things God saves us into. And sanctification is a beautiful concept for Christians, because it tells us that when we’re saved and adopted into God’s family, we don’t stay as infants, but we grow up. It’s not as though God welcomes us, only to leave us by ourselves, but he gives us help through his Holy Spirit so that we progressively grow into holy men and women. And one aspect of this is that we learn to no longer be lazy, but to have a healthy, cheerful work ethic.

So this sermon is not primarily about how to become saved. The whole book of Proverbs, and this particular text we’ll read from chapter 6, instead gives us guidance from God on how to live wisely. Go ahead and turn with me all the way back to the beginning of Proverbs – because I want to make sure you notice: the speaker of the Proverbs presents himself as a wise father giving advice to his child. Notice how often it says “my son” or something similar (1:8, 10; 2:1; 3:1, 11, 21; 4:1, 10, 20; 5:1, 7; 6:1, 3, 20; 7:1, 24). This is a book of instruction from a mature father seeking to give useful principles to his son, to help him grow into a wise man who brings honor to his father’s name. And in light of this, we should recognize that when the book of Proverbs speaks, what we’re hearing is the voice of our Heavenly Father. He has taken us into his family in order to lead us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

So with that preface in place, please open your Bibles to Proverbs, Chapter 6. I’ll be reading verses 6-11. But before I do, please pray with me:

[Pray and Read Text]
The Example of the Hard-Working Ant
It’s no mystery why God chooses the ant out of all the creatures in the world to teach us about diligence. You don’t need to sit and watch ants for very long to see how hard they work. It’s hard to even imagine what it would look like for an ant to “take it easy.” If you looked down and saw an ant not moving on the ground, you would most likely assume, if you inspected more closely, that the ant would be dead. For an ant, to be alive means to be moving and working. This is even reflected in the way we describe types of ants. Some ants are queens, but the vast majority of them we call “workers.” An ant, in other words, is identified by the name “worker.” Working – it’s what ants do, and it’s who they are.

Picture, on the other hand, the creature that a lazy person most resembles: a slug. The word “sluggard,” we can clearly see, comes from the word “slug,” just as the word “dullard” comes from “dull” or a “Spaniard” comes from Spain. A lazy person is a slug person. It’s just as impossible for us to conceive of a lazy ant as it is to think of a speedy slug. If I were to see my son outside yelling at a slug, saying “hurry up!” I would have to tell him he was wasting his time. A slug is just slow; that’s who a slug is.

But this leads to an interesting question. You may already identify yourself as more of a crazy busy person, always making lists and checking them off. You view yourself as an ant-type, a diligent and responsible worker. But others of you perhaps identify more with the slug. You like to lay around and do nothing much at all, or perhaps to do a few things at a very slow pace. And the question this raises is this: is this just who we are? does it make any sense for us to try to be different? Can we really change how we operate?

And this question gets at the core of the issue behind this proverb. We might correctly observe that some people don’t struggle with laziness and some do. But then we might make the incorrect assumption that this means that the lazy types need God’s help more than the good workers. I would suggest that this proverb is meant to suggest something else entirely. When the sluggard goes to the ant, to consider her ways and be wise, he is certainly not meant to conclude that the ant is a good worker and he is not, and therefore to give up ever being diligent. Here is the three-step lesson the sluggard is meant to learn from the ant: (1) the ant is a hard worker, (2) God made the ant that way, (3) if God could do that for the ant, he can do it for me too.

The busy, responsible, hard-working ant — just like the busy, responsible, hard-working human — is able to live a busy, responsible, hard-working life because that’s the way God made her! Sluggishness doesn’t come from God, because God is not the author of sin. But every good and perfect gift comes from God in heaven, and having a strong work ethic is an example of one of those good gifts that comes from above. It’s not that some people are born good workers, and others are born lazy. Hard workers shouldn’t boast as though they’ve made it all happen themselves, and sluggish people shouldn’t be paralyzed with shame. No, both types of people should recognize that hard work comes from God. God is the one who worked to create the world in the space of six days, and all very good. God is the one who put Adam and Eve in the garden and hired them “to work it and keep it.” Good work comes from God. And so people who are inclined toward diligence must say, “thank you God for making me this way!” while people inclined toward laziness must say, “help me God to be that other way!” So we can see here that the sluggard ought to come home from his ant-watching field trip with a list of practical steps. The title of the sluggard’s to-do list is “I Learned Some Things from the Ant and Here’s What I’m Going to Do About It.” But contrary to what we may assume, step one on his list is not “work harder.” Step one is “pray to the God who made the ant, that he would make me a hard worker too!” Step two is then, “try to work harder in the strength that God has given me.”

And this illustrates an important point about sanctification more broadly: it depends on God’s work within us even more than our efforts. Yes, we must strive to be holy and we honor God when we do so. But never believe that your growth in the Christian life is purely a result of your struggling and trying harder. Our salvation is built on faith, and that includes our sanctification. We are made holy insofar as we are trusting God to produce holiness in us, even as we work diligently to put into practice what we learn about God’s holy character.

But now that we have put this very important foundation into place, what else can we learn from the ant?

There’s one more important lesson: good workers work without the need for extra accountability. Look at verse 7. The ant works “without having any chief, officer, or ruler.” In other words, the ant doesn’t need someone looking over her shoulder in order to work hard. Now, of course, those who study insects will tell us that ants do, in fact, have queens. But the function of an ant queen is actually to serve the colony by bearing young. The queen plays her part, just as the workers do. And any mother you ask will tell you that giving birth to children isn’t the opposite of hard work. There’s a reason it’s called labor!

So we see that a colony of ants consists of many individuals pursuing their God-given tasks with zeal and single-minded effort for the sake of the good of the whole group, and in obedience to what God has created them for. Don’t you think that this kind of diligence sounds good! Isn’t that how you’d want our church to be described? “Fellowship Reformed Church consists of many individuals pursuing their God-given tasks with zeal and single-minded effort for the sake of the good of the whole group and in obedience to what God has created them for.” It’s a beautiful image. And to our point, it’s a lot more efficient for a group of self-motivated people to work together than it is for most people to lay around waiting for someone to get them moving.

But there’s another truth beneath the surface here. It’s not simply that working without an overbearing boss is more enjoyable and efficient. It seems that God is also saying that a lazy person can sometimes be a hard worker, but only when they’re being forced to work. So don’t miss this – it’s possible to work, and even to work hard, yet to still be a lazy person according to Proverbs. We’ve probably all seen examples of this in daily life. I know as a husband, I’m sometimes guilty of telling my wife, “I’ll be over here on the couch if you need me.” In my mind, I feel that I’m a good worker because I’m available to help out. But the ant would rebuke me and say, “do you really need a chief, officer, or ruler (or a wife!) to give you explicit and specific instructions before you can be useful?” If there’s something that needs to be done, a good worker does it without being asked or needled or managed. Faithful and hard workers, who have learned their lesson well from the ant, know that their job doesn’t start when someone tells them to get to work, but it starts as soon as they’re responsible for doing something.

First Timothy 5:8 says that those who neglect their responsibilities are “worse than an unbeliever.” God gives us certain tasks, and part of fulfilling them diligently is making a plan to complete them, being proactive in our work rather than waiting for someone to check up on us. Again, if you struggle with working hard, God offers you his grace. He who made the ant to work hard can help you learn how to work hard too. But there is a warning for those who will not seek to be diligent through the help and strength God provides. And that’s the warning that we’ll look at next.
A Stern Warning for the Lazy
After having encouraged the sluggard to learn what he can from the ant, the father figure of Proverbs turns to him directly with some pointed questions. These are questions that the sluggard doesn’t consider very often, questions about “how long?” and “when?” In response, the sluggard will probably reply, “in just another minute.” Somehow “a little more sleep” always turns into an hour of hitting the snooze button. But the insistent voice of wisdom isn’t content to have the sluggard answer with a vague, non-committal sort of response. Wisdom asks for a definite answer: “how long” until you’re going to get up? “when” will you start working? And saying “just a little more relaxation – just a little more sleep” – it’s not a good answer.

Procrastination happens little by little, but leads to great disadvantage. And here’s the stern warning issued in these verses: a little sleep, a little rest can go on for too long, and leave you ruined. A lazy person doesn’t see the danger in a gradual putting off of the task at hand. He doesn’t make one huge error, but many small ones day after day. In the words of Derek Kidner, “the sluggard is no freak, but, as often as not, an ordinary man who has made too many excuses, too many refusals and too many postponements. It has all been as imperceptible, and as pleasant, as falling asleep.”

Now the point isn’t that we can’t rest at all. Because there is clearly and happily a place for rest in the Christian life. In Genesis 2:3, we see that God himself rests after creating the world. And we’re positively commanded to rest in the fourth commandment, which tells us to honor the Sabbath day, the “festive day of rest.” So a holy and wise practice of rest isn’t the problem. What the proverbial father has no patience for is using rest as an excuse for laziness.

There are many practical ways to approach the question of how to balance work and rest. It may be most helpful to point out that we are given six days to work and one to rest. Work is the larger part of God’s purpose for us here on earth, approximately 85% of our purpose, if we want to calculate it. This suggests two guardrails. First, we should beware of resting a lot, since we are called mostly to work. And second, we should beware of the sluggard’s excuse-making and his constant refrain: “just a little more.”

The ultimate warning here is that the sluggard will come to financial ruin through no one’s fault but his own. It’s terribly ironic: the lazy person only thinks about himself and his own needs, rather than the work God has prepared for him to do. And yet, in the end, he will be the one who suffers. Poverty is inevitable for the sluggard. He will be forcibly driven to the poorhouse. The outcome of his inaction will be action against him; poverty will “come upon him like a robber, and want like an armed man.” Ultimately he has decided to become poor, though he doesn’t want to be. His poverty is the unavoidable consequence of his earlier decision to be lazy.
Conclusion: A Lazy Life Isn’t Worth It
The call of this Proverb is therefore to consider the direction and quality of your life. Do you think of life as an opportunity to maximize your self-indulgence and leisure, or to maximize your effectiveness and usefulness? Do you begin each day looking for the good work that God has called you to do, or looking for ways to finish that work as soon as possible, with minimal effort? When you come up against your own laziness, or even your own hard work, do you see God as the one from whom all blessings flow? Do you ask him for help in becoming a good worker? Do you give him thanks for the work ethic he’s already given to you?

This Proverb speaks to Christians who are struggling to act and live as God commands. Remember the ant and listen to Romans 13 “the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” To those who are having trouble with sluggishness in following Christ, Proverbs 6 says, “how long will you lie there? The day is at hand. Let us cast off the works of darkness.”

And yet this Proverb also speaks to those who aren’t trusting in Christ. There are many callings God gives to his creatures, but none is more important than the call to repent and believe in Christ. Many people have heard this call, and they know themselves to be sinners. But then they respond with the words of the sluggard, “just a little more rest first. I’m feeling a bit too lazy right now. I will run to Christ tomorrow. I will repent tomorrow. I will cry out for mercy tomorrow.” Like the sluggard, who loves his sin too much to turn away from it, some wrestle with being spiritually lazy. And to these people, Proverbs 6 also says, “how long will you lie there? When will you arise from your sleep? Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” So let’s run from laziness, of all kinds. And let’s learn from the ant, to rely on God and to labor whole-heartedly in every good work set before us. Let’s pray: