If your life was a garden and God called in the harvest today, how much produce wouldyou have to offer Him?Scripture indicates that we will be judged by our fruit (Matthew 

-23). This iscertainly a sobering reality if we must admit that our produce is rotten. But it’sdevastating if we must admit that our tree is barren and has produced no fruit at all.God reserves a special kind of disdain for laziness, apathy, and general inaction:“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of Mymouth.” (Revelation 3:16, NKJV)In a sense, negative action is better than no action at all.“Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those who sendhim.” (Proverbs 10:26, NASB)When we embrace a life of laziness, we become an irritant to the very God who createdus “in Christ Jesus for good works.” (Ephesians 2:10)Work Is Not EvilWork and labor are not the results of sin.Humanity has not been subjected to the rigors of productive activity as a backlashagainst and punishment for its sinful rebellion against God.Though the laziness in us would object to this sentiment, work is inherently good.Consider the fact that one of the main reasons God placed Adam in the garden of Edenwas to work: “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden tocultivate it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15, NASB)Yes, the work became much more difficult after Adam and Eve sinned (Genesis 3:17-20),but work existed long before sin entered the world. So, as Christians, we would do well to dispense with the delusion that work is theenemy.Our primary purpose in this life is not to eat, drink, and be merry. It is to be productive.“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31,NASB)That includes having put man in the garden to cultivate it and keep it.Rest Is Only Rest If......it is preceded by work.Otherwise, it’s laziness.“By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and he rested on theseventh day from all His work which He had done.” (Genesis 2:2, NASB)God rested, there is no doubt about that. But, He rested after He had worked. (Not justafter He had worked, but after He had created the universe. Maybe that raises the bar abit for what counts as work deserving of rest...)Scripture says that God rested one day out of seven. The majority of His time that firstweek was spent working.Not sitting around twiddling His thumbs. Not being busy just to be busy.The majority of the first week was spent being productive.Not only did God not spend His time the first week being lazy, He did not slog His waythrough the six days of work, simply living for the weekend when He could take a breakand relax.God took joy in His work, even while He was doing it. Seven times in Genesis 1 it ismentioned that God saw what He had done throughout the first six days and determinedthat it was good.The moral to the story?Work is good. Laziness is not.

150830  Vice-Virtue Week 8 - Diligence Lesson

At it's heart, this material is a study of the character of a godly individual. This should come as no surprise, since nearly all Bible study, at least in some respect, is a character study of the godly individual. One of the more fascinating qualities about the study of godliness, though, is its adaptability to a variety of study approaches. Only the base subjects of this life can be exhausted through a simple study that stems from one perspective. The more robust a subject is, the more times it can be studied and the more perspectives it can be looked at from...all without exhausting the subject.Take, for example, the kingdom of Heaven. In Matthew 13 alone, Jesus tells 6 parables, all of which start with, "The kingdom of Heaven is like...". The kingdom of Heaven is not a topic that can be described adequately with one analogy, one approach. In fact, were Jesus to have told a thousand parables about the kingdom of Heaven, He would not have said all there was to say about the topic, because its very essence surpasses our human comprehension.Godliness is similar in that it can withstand scrutiny from multiple perspectives. One can spend a lifetime--and indeed many have--studying what a Godly character looks like and still not learn every detail.