Today's culture has very nearly come to making a religion of slothfulness. Carried to the ultimate extreme, slothfulness separates us from God because it erases caring. Humanly speaking, apart from the mysteries of God's sovereign workings, more souls perish from slothfulness than from outright disbelief.
In the Parable of the Talents, the master says to the servant who did nothing with his talent, "You wicked, lazy servant!" [Matthew 25:26]. Slothfulness is intrinsically wicked! The master goes on to pronounce a withering condemnation over him, "Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw the worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." [vv. 28-30] From the very lips of Jesus, then, we have a linking of laziness and damnation. A lazy life can be an indication of a graceless life. True believers will persevere.
According to The Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute:
The USS Astoria was the first US cruiser to engage the Japanese during the Battle of Savo Island, a night of action fought from August 8-9, 1942. Although she scored two hits on the Imperial flagship Chokai, the Astoria was badly damaged and sank shortly after noon on August 9th.
About 0200 hours a young midwesterner, Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples, was swept overboard by the blast when the Astoria's number one eight inch gun turret exploded. Wounded in both legs by shrapnel and in semi-shock, he was kept afloat by a narrow lifebelt that he managed to activate with a simple trigger mechanism.
At around 0600 hours [after four hours floating in the sea], Staples was rescued by a passing destroyer and returned to the Astoria, whose captain was attempting to save the cruiser by beaching her. The effort failed, and Staples, still wearing the same lifebelt, found himself back in the water. It was lunchtime. Picked up again, this time by the USS President Jackson, he was one of 500 survivors of the battle who were evacuated to Noumea.
On board the transport, Staples, for the first time closely examined the lifebelt that had twice saved his life. It had been manufactured by Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, and bore a registration number. Given home leave, Staples told his story and asked his mother, who worked for Firestone, about the purpose of the number on the belt. She replied that the company insisted on personal responsibility for the war effort, and that the number was unique and assigned to only one inspector. Staples remembered everything about the lifebelt, and quoted the number. It was his mother's personal code and affixed to every item she was responsible for approving.
Sixty-eight years ago, a mother's unheralded diligence in an anonymous wartime job made sure her soon-to-be shipwrecked son's hope of survival. But how much greater are the stakes in eternal matters, and how much greater is the challenge to diligence in eternal matters! Those who work at their faith, make their hope sure! The Bible is clear that no one can be saved by works, but it is also clear that saving faith works.
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