Sloth (deadly sin)
Encyclopedia
In the Christian
moral
tradition
, sloth (Latin: acedia
, accidia, pigritia) is one of the seven capital sins, often called the seven deadly sins
; these sins are called sins because they supposedly destroy the charity in a person's heart and thus may lead to eternal death.
, neglecting what God has spoken, and being physically and emotionally inactive. Acedia
is a Latin word, from Greek
ἁκηδείᾱ, meaning "Carelessness".
Sloth can also indicate a wasting due to lack of use, concerning a person, place, thing, skill, or intangible ideal that would require maintenance, refinement, or support to continue to exist.
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.
Lazy person falls prey to poverty
Ridiculously indolent
and a lover of sleep
, the lazy person sees lions all over the street (overestimating the difficulty of getting a job or working); his desires
″kill″ him because ″his hands refuse twhatever
o labour″, and his path becomes a ″hedge of thorns″ ... while he is wiser than seven sensible men in his own eyes. .... His household
becomes a real ruin 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. The sluggard (lazy person) will share this fate with the talkative persons, with dreamers
that ″watch the wind″ or ″regard the clouds″ and with those who ″chase fantasies″ (follow worthless pursuits).
The employed lazy person and the rich lazy person
If, however, this lazy person is the type that, eventually, ″takes his food to mouth″ (because there is a type of lazy person who doesn’t even take his food to mouth) and has a job, he is like ″vinegar to the teeth″ and ″smoke to the eyes″ for those who send him with any task. 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.
The lazy person leaves God's gifts unused
The wicked, worthless servant, 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. 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. (See the parable of the talents
.)
The lazy person breaks again the commandments of God
Whoever is lazy (slack) in his work becomes brother to one who destroys (meaning The Evil-One, the devil
because the devil is murderer) for the second time 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
.
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″ because the growth of the virtues makes the laziness go away.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
, sloth (Latin: acedia
Acedia
Acedia describes a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world. It can lead to a state of being unable to perform one's duties in life. Its spiritual overtones make it related to but distinct from depression...
, accidia, pigritia) is one of the seven capital sins, often called the seven deadly sins
Seven deadly sins
The 7 Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of objectionable vices that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin...
; these sins are called sins because they supposedly destroy the charity in a person's heart and thus may lead to eternal death.
Definition
Sloth is defined as spiritual or emotional apathyApathy
Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical or physical life.They may lack a sense of purpose or meaning in...
, neglecting what God has spoken, and being physically and emotionally inactive. Acedia
Acedia
Acedia describes a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world. It can lead to a state of being unable to perform one's duties in life. Its spiritual overtones make it related to but distinct from depression...
is a Latin word, from Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
ἁκηδείᾱ, meaning "Carelessness".
Sloth can also indicate a wasting due to lack of use, concerning a person, place, thing, skill, or intangible ideal that would require maintenance, refinement, or support to continue to exist.
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
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
).
In the Philokalia
Philokalia
The Philokalia is a collection of texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by spiritual masters of the Eastern Orthodox hesychast tradition. They were originally written for the guidance and instruction of monks in "the practise of the contemplative life". The collection was compiled in...
the word dejection is used instead of sloth, for the person who falls into dejection will lose interest in life.
Laziness in the Bible
Although, as defined above, sloth is more akin to depression, many English speakers narrow it to simple laziness, about which the Bible makes many comments.Lazy person falls prey to poverty
Ridiculously indolent
Laziness
Laziness is a disinclination to activity or exertion despite having the ability to do so. It is often used as a pejorative; related terms for a person seen to be lazy include couch potato, slacker, and bludger....
and a lover of sleep
Sleep
Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and is more easily reversible than...
, the lazy person sees lions all over the street (overestimating the difficulty of getting a job or working); his desires
Lust
Lust is an emotional force that is directly associated with the thinking or fantasizing about one's desire, usually in a sexual way.-Etymology:The word lust is phonetically similar to the ancient Roman lustrum, which literally meant "purification"...
″kill″ him because ″his hands refuse twhatever
o labour″, and his path becomes a ″hedge of thorns″ ... while he is wiser than seven sensible men in his own eyes. .... His household
Household
The household is "the basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonymous with family"....
becomes a real ruin and he falls prey to his ″want″ (scarcity) coming like an armed person and in the end to poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, coming upon him like a robber. The sluggard (lazy person) will share this fate with the talkative persons, with dreamers
Dreamers
"Dreamers" is the second single from Jack Savoretti taken from his debut album, Between the Minds.It spent a total of two weeks in the UK Singles Chart, debuting at 123 then falling to 159 a week later. It reached number 23 on the UK Airplay Chart....
that ″watch the wind″ or ″regard the clouds″ and with those who ″chase fantasies″ (follow worthless pursuits).
The employed lazy person and the rich lazy person
If, however, this lazy person is the type that, eventually, ″takes his food to mouth″ (because there is a type of lazy person who doesn’t even take his food to mouth) and has a job, he is like ″vinegar to the teeth″ and ″smoke to the eyes″ for those who send him with any task. If the sluggard is rich
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
, he should avoid getting that lazy insensitiveness of the chief people of Zion
Zion
Zion is a place name often used as a synonym for Jerusalem. The word is first found in Samuel II, 5:7 dating to c.630-540 BCE...
, that delight themselves in every way possible, and whom the prophet Amos
Amos (prophet)
Amos is a minor prophet in the Old Testament, and the author of the Book of Amos. Before becoming a prophet, Amos was a sheep herder and a sycamore fig farmer. Amos' prior professions and his claim "I am not a prophet nor a son of a prophet" indicate that Amos was not from the school of prophets,...
predicted they would become slaves.
The lazy person leaves God's gifts unused
The wicked, worthless servant, that buries his talent in the ground, instead of investing the money with the banker, i.e. one who disregards God's gift
Gift
A gift or a present is the transfer of something without the expectation of receiving something in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many human societies, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may contribute to...
, leaving it unused, is also lazy. 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
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (See the parable of the talents
Parable of the Talents
The Parable of the talents or minas, , is one of the well known parables of Jesus. It appears in two of the Canonical gospels of the New Testament. The differences between Matthew and the Luke are substantial, and the two parables may not be derived from the same source...
.)
The lazy person breaks again the commandments of God
Whoever is lazy (slack) in his work becomes brother to one who destroys (meaning The Evil-One, the devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
because the devil is murderer) for the second time He breaks again the command
Command
Command may refer to:* Command , a statement in a computer language* COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS* Command , an organizational unit...
of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, 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
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
In the Book of Genesis, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or the tree of knowledge was a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden. . God directly forbade Adam to eat the fruit of this tree...
.
The growth of the virtues is the enemy of laziness
The Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
must not become sluggish (lazy), but be a zealous follower of those who ″inherit the promises″ because the growth of the virtues makes the laziness go away.
See also
- AcediaAcediaAcedia describes a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world. It can lead to a state of being unable to perform one's duties in life. Its spiritual overtones make it related to but distinct from depression...
- ApathyApathyApathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical or physical life.They may lack a sense of purpose or meaning in...
- Goofing offGoofing offGoofing off is a slang term in the United States for engaging in recreation or an idle pastime while obligations of work or society are neglected. Common obligations neglected in the course of goofing off include schoolwork, paid employment, social courtesies and the expectations of relations...
- IgnoranceVincible ignoranceVincible ignorance is, in Catholic ethics, a moral or doctrinal matter that could have been removed by diligence reasonable to the circumstances. It contrasts with invincible ignorance, which can not be removed at all, or only by supererogatory efforts Vincible ignorance is, in Catholic ethics, a...
- IrreligionIrreligionIrreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as...
- LazinessLazinessLaziness is a disinclination to activity or exertion despite having the ability to do so. It is often used as a pejorative; related terms for a person seen to be lazy include couch potato, slacker, and bludger....
- Melancholy
- SlackerSlackerThe term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....
- TorporTorporTorpor, sometimes called temporary hibernation is a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually characterized by a reduced body temperature and rate of metabolism. Animals that go through torpor include birds and some mammals such as mice and bats...
- Seven Deadly SinsSeven deadly sinsThe 7 Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of objectionable vices that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin...
- LustLustLust is an emotional force that is directly associated with the thinking or fantasizing about one's desire, usually in a sexual way.-Etymology:The word lust is phonetically similar to the ancient Roman lustrum, which literally meant "purification"...
- GluttonyGluttonyGluttony, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, intoxicants or wealth items to the point of extravagance or waste...
- Greed
- Sloth
- Wrath
- EnvyEnvyEnvy is best defined as a resentful emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it."...
- PridePridePride is an inwardly directed emotion that carries two common meanings. With a negative connotation, pride refers to an inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments, often used synonymously with hubris...
- Lust
- Seven Heavenly Virtues
- ChastityChastityChastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....
- TemperanceTemperance (virtue)Temperance has been studied by religious thinkers, philosophers, and more recently, psychologists, particularly in the positive psychology movement. It is considered a virtue, a core value that can be seen consistently across time and cultures...
- CharityCharity (virtue)In Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.The term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving.- Caritas: altruistic love :...
- DiligenceDiligenceDiligence is steadfast application, assiduousness and industry — the virtue of hard work rather than the sin of careless sloth.Diligent behaviour is indicative of a work ethic — a belief that work is good in itself....
- PatiencePatiencePatience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. Patience is the...
- KindnessKindnessKindness is the act or the state of being kind, being marked by good and charitable behaviour, pleasant disposition, and concern for others. It is known as a virtue, and recognized as a value in many cultures and religions ....
- HumilityHumilityHumility is the quality of being modest, and respectful. Humility, in various interpretations, is widely seen as a virtue in many religious and philosophical traditions, being connected with notions of transcendent unity with the universe or the divine, and of egolessness.-Term:The term "humility"...
- Chastity