<Snipped quote by DarkwolfX37>
Reading the article, he seems to have provided sound Biblical evidence for each main point. The second paragraph is slightly obscured, because the logic for the main idea is provided near the end of the paragraph.
See, the thing is, God commands us to "take captive our thoughts" and provides us with the help of the Holy Spirit. So, though the sight and the tendency for any chronic sin are constantly there, God wants us to resist those temptations. So, if one has chronic laziness--that is, the tendency to be lazy--God wants us to resist that, and provides us with the strength to do so. The first article I sent says why it's a problem; the second article I sent says what God thinks about it (and at the end, what God wants us to do instead); the third article provides a proper attitude on work.
Which article? The first?
- "Wicked, lazy servant." I already pointed out how this isn't evidence. It's out of context and therefor doesn't have the weight that the writer assumes it has. Take my earlier example.
- Second paragraph is actually the only somewhat sound one because he's defining laziness.
- Third paragraph, that people who are lazy are also untrustworthy is a baseless claim. The quote isn't given context and at face value states that all non-christians are untrustworthy, and in context of the paragraph, are all lazy. He then states that the motivation is to impress non-believers, not to do it because it's something you should do in and of itself. That's not very christian of him.
- He ends it by saying "oh by the way this only applies to work you do for money/someone else." That's points off.
The second?
- A) That's wrong, the only sense of purpose the bible says humans were made with is to reproduce. B) If we take that to mean "us" as in "everyone after the garden" then that's even worse, because in that case he also made us with the sense of laziness and apathy. It's MORE inherent in a human than "a sense of purpose" is. It also claims that all laziness is a choice, which again, isn't the case.
- He states that all lazy people only care about themselves. He says this flat out. It also doesn't address the problem at hand, like I gave that example for. There is no other person involved in the problem, so claiming that it's bad because of how another person is affected isn't a feasible response.
- This is not even talking about laziness. A negligent attitude is not the same thing as being lazy at all. Then he goes on to give personal experience and what his mom told him. This has nothing to do with the problem, it has nothing to do with scripture, and worst of all, it's TERRIBLE advice. "I learned it from my mother who worked in a textile mill for 40 years and never complained." First off, bullshit. That's nearly impossible. I know it's not literal but now that I've re-read it I'm pissed at how bad this is. Secondly, that example is a horrible thing. Textile mills a generation ago for 40 years means horrid working conditions, and not standing up for yourself at all? Thinking that statement through makes it terrible advice on how to live. "And never complained" is a saying synonymous with "and accepted it even though it was bad." For fuck's sake.
- Again, if that was said by god, then that's a horrible thing to add to the list, because the only way that would fly is if it was said by someone at the time. Knowing what we know about ants makes that a terrible thing to say to say. It's not even necessarily the quote that's bad, it's what he says about it, because he should KNOW BETTER now that we know about how ants are. It's saying to be, literally because we're talking about ants here, a drone. That's horrid. And then the message he gives from it is totally unrelated to. "The ant works, prepares, and provides. In other words, we are to work with diligence in all that we do." No? That's not a logical connection, it's missing some connecting thread. "The ant... It gives its whole self to its work. In other words..." Something that would make that an actual related statement.
The third?
- This is straight up saying "be a slave." I really shouldn't have to explain why that's bad. It's also contradicted by the quote. "Obey your "master" on earth no matter what but god is the ultimate authority and he wants to see you be obedient." Okay so your "master" says to stop X christian thing. Well, god's the higher authority but he also says directly "obey in ALL things." You could take it to mean "whoever your "master" is in each aspect, obey them," but again, there's no fucking context to it.
Like, bro. I'm sorry. Really, because I'm sure you think this is fine, but find a new source of daily devotions, because this one sucks.
