What Does the Bible Say About Laziness?

2 Thessalonians 3:10 ESV / 21 helpful votes

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

Proverbs 18:9 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.

Colossians 3:23 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Proverbs 13:4 ESV / 14 helpful votes

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Proverbs 20:4 ESV / 12 helpful votes

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

Proverbs 10:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes

A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Proverbs 24:30-34 ESV / 7 helpful votes

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

Hebrews 13:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Proverbs 19:15 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.

John 21:1-25 ESV / 5 helpful votes

After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” ...

John 7:17 ESV / 5 helpful votes

If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

James 1:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

2 Thessalonians 3:11-12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

John 3:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jeremiah 24:1-10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.” Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ...

Proverbs 26:13-16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!” As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.

Proverbs 21:25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

Proverbs 12:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

Proverbs 10:26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.

Proverbs 10:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

2 Peter 3:15-16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

James 1:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

James 1:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Ephesians 4:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Luke 16:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

Matthew 7:21-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Judge not, that you be not judged.

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Matthew 7:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Jeremiah 15:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Genesis 2:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

1 John 2:27 ESV / 1 helpful vote

But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Colossians 3:17 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Matthew 11:25 ESV / 1 helpful vote

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;

Job 23:12 ESV / 1 helpful vote

I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

Bible Verses about Laziness