Work Hard

      There was a time when I thought I might go through Proverbs and underline the ones that really hit me in order to find them more easily. I quickly learned that when I underlined nearly every other proverb I could not find them any more easily than if none of them were underlined.

      However, there are some proverbs that just step up and slap me every time I read them. That happened recently as I read Proverbs 18:9.

      “He also who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys” (NASB).

      That is a governing principle. No doubt, there are some people who are on an active campaign to destroy. Maybe they are destroying their relationships, their families, their jobs, their companies or, regrettably, Christ’s church. We can look at these and see their error easily.

      However, this destroyer’s brother is one who is subtler. His brother is not actively seeking to destroy or kill; he simply is not trying very hard to accomplish anything positive.

      He is slack. He rolls along lazily and apathetically, never putting his hand to the plow or his back into the labor. He is not looking for ways to sabotage things, but since he is not looking for ways to make things better, he sabotages them anyway.

      The long and short of this is we must all work hard. We must work hard on our jobs, whether we are employers or employees, supervisors or the supervised, management or labor. Whether we are salesman, teachers, factory workers, accountants or janitors—we must work hard.

      We must work hard in our homes. Certainly, none of us is trying to destroy our home, but are we working to build it up. Whether husband or wife, parent or child, brother or sister, we must work hard to build those family relationships, otherwise they will be destroyed.

      We must work hard in our congregation. As far as I know, nobody within the Franklin congregation is actively trying to destroy this body. However, what are we each doing as individual members to make it grow? The slack are brothers to the destroyers. What Christ wants is hard workers that help build this body.

      We must work hard in Christ’s kingdom. I can confidently say that everyone reading this article wants Christ’s kingdom to grow. What work are we doing to accomplish this? Remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:30, “He who does not gather with me scatters.” If we are slack in gathering, we are brother to him who destroys.

      The fact remains, we must work for the Lord and we must work hard. Keep up the good work.

Edwin L. Crozier