You can’t begin to talk about what it means to live a slothful Christian life until you understand what the purpose of Christianity is.  Many have made the decision to be Christian out of a heartfelt desire to do good and live a morally acceptable life.  Religion has taught people that this is what Christianity is all about.  But this is not what the Bible says about receiving Salvation and becoming a Christian.

For the purpose of this article, I am not going to be able to go in depth on what true Christianity is except to share that Jesus came and delivered us from sin so that we could be reunited in fellowship with God, and have an intimate and personal relationship with Him (John 17:3).  To understand more about what takes place at Salvation, see my article, Salvation Christ in You

For those that have this understanding and seek God’s ways and purposes through His Word, He reveals Himself and His will.  Therefore, slothfulness is directly related to this relationship, not your performance.

The writer of Hebrews says, “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”  (Hebrews 6:11-12)

Vines concise Dictionary defines the word “sluggish” as being in contrast to confident and constant hope.

This word “sluggish” is also translated as slothful (kjv).  Both these words, “sluggish/slothful” come from the Greek word “nothros” and means blunt or dull and in this case, spiritually.

However, this is not saying that you quit believing or lazy.  Slothful speaks of someone who has lost his zeal or his intense conviction, his confident and constant hope and has nothing to do with the amount of energy you put out to do the job, instead it refers to an inward condition.  (adapted, Sparkling Gems 1, Rick Renner).

This is very important because sometimes Christians that truly love God and maintain a commitment to read their bible and pray, can still become slothful in their relationship with God.

Have you ever lost your zeal for the Word of God?  How many times do we even open our bibles with no expectation to receive from God?  Are our daily prayers more routine than relationship?

We can even begin with great hope and expectation for something we’ve prayed for, only to lose it, and not see what we were believing for.  This happened to the Apostle Peter.  The disciples were in the boat against a great storm.  Then Jesus came walking on the water toward them.  After Peter requested that he come to Jesus out on the water, Jesus told him to come.  Peter stepped boldly out of the boat and began to walk on the water to Jesus!  However, his faith was short-circuited by taking his eyes off Jesus and looking at the wind/waves.  He began to sink.

If we’re slothful in our relationship with God, we won’t experience His presence as we should-and it can feel like he is a thousand miles away even though He has promised to never leave us and His spirit lives within us.  We also won’t consistently experience all the benefits of our salvation.  We may be putting in the effort technically speaking, but still not partake of His nature and promises experientially.

Let’s go back to verses 11-12 in Hebrews: “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

There is a fight to our faith.  Faith is not static (fixed or stationary).  You don’t build your faith up like a balloon and walk around inflated forever.  If you are not careful, circumstances, time, unbelief can come in and deflate your faith.  We can’t live off yesterday’s bible study or prayer time.  We must continually feed our faith-keeping in consistent and strong.  (for more on faith and patience, see my article “faith and patience.” 

Again: being slothful has nothing to do with the amount of energy you put into it, instead it refers to an inward condition.  However, slothfulness can lead to laziness and eventually unbelief.

So what is the opposite of slothfulness?  Fervency

James 5:16 says, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

Fervent (gk) means: To show great zeal; be ardently passionate (literally "boiling" with interest or desire); to be deeply committed to something, with the implication of accompanying desire – (commitment and desire) to be earnest, to set one's heart on, to be completely intent upon.

In other words, you must hunger for and intensely desire and focus on the things of God in order to experience them.   If you can live without it, you will!  This could be for something specific you desire in your life, or healing, peace, prosperity, etc.  We can’t afford to become sluggish or slothful in any area of our lives!

For more on Faith and Patience