What is “putting up security” or “giving your pledge” for someone else? It is cosigning a loan. It is putting yourself up as collateral. It is underwriting someone else’s speculative risk. It is getting into a partnership when your partner’s default can bring you down. God is saying in verses 1 and 2, “If you’ve done this, you’re not in danger of becoming ensnared, you’re already ensnared.”

What is a sluggard? Think of the way syrup oozes slowly out of a bottle when it is cold. That is the sluggard—sluggish and slow and hesitant when he should be decisive, active, forthright. His life motto is, “Don’t rush me.” The Bible says, “As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed” (Proverbs 26:14). He is lazy, constantly making the soft choice, losing one opportunity after another after another after another, day by day, moment by moment, until he lies there helpless in his wasted life. Let’s all admit it—there is a sluggard deep inside each of us.

The sluggard reappears throughout the book of Proverbs.6 What does Proverbs say about the sluggard? Three things. First, the sluggard will not make up his mind. There is a direct question in verse 9: “How long will you lie there? When will you arise from your sleep?” But that is too definite for the sluggard. He has no answer. He will not give an honest refusal, but he deceives himself by an endless sequence of little compromises.

Second, the sluggard will not finish things. On the rare occasions when he finds the motivation to get going, it is too much for him, and the impulse dies: “The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth” (Proverbs 26:15). He does not stick with a task all the way through to a strong finish. He is a shallow person.

Third, the sluggard will not face things as they are. Rather than embrace the challenge of life, he dreams up excuses: “The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!’ ” (Proverbs 22:13). A lion down on Main Street? I doubt it. What’s really out there is a life, a job, a mission to fulfill for Christ.

What should the sluggard do? Go to the ant and take notes. How humiliating! The sluggard would not mind learning from John Calvin, maybe. The sluggard likes to debate and speculate and bandy highfalutin ideas around with his buddies. But wisdom is saying, “Go watch an ant!” I do not know anyone with a PhD in Antology. We all want to study big important things. And it is doubly humbling to go to ant school, because the Hebrew word for “ant” is in the feminine gender. But we guys need this, because we are too often passive. We are so accustomed to being wait-and-see, hang-back, and critical and guarded that we do not even feel the shame of it anymore. A church filled with men energized, men working, men engaged, men with intensity, men of conviction and action—that is exactly what the world needs to see in us today. But to display Christ that strongly, we need to humble ourselves and admit our need and accept God’s simple remedy. It is so humbling that we, whom God created to rule over creation, need to go learn how to live from an ant. What then can we learn from an ant? Three things.

First, inner motivation. Verse 7: “Without having any chief, officer, or ruler …” There is no Boss Ant standing over the others with a whip. Ants do not report in to anybody. No one has ever seen a foot-dragging ant. An ant has within herself all the motivation she needs to make something of her life, and she never lets up.

First, inner motivation. Verse 7: “Without having any chief, officer, or ruler …” There is no Boss Ant standing over the others with a whip. Ants do not report in to anybody. No one has ever seen a foot-dragging ant. An ant has within herself all the motivation she needs to make something of her life, and she never lets up.

The gospel shows us such glory in God, and in ourselves because of Christ, that gospel-people become accomplishment-hungry. A Christian family should be like an anthill, everyone busily accomplishing something. A healthy church is like an anthill, everybody actively achieving together. Wise people love goals and strategies to leverage their present into a better future. Sluggards are like Charles Dickens’s Mr. Micawber, “waiting for something to turn up.” It won’t.

The sluggard procrastinates. He treats each precious moment of God-given life as no big deal. He is not astounded that the grace of God is giving him one more moment to live for Christ. What is the sluggard thinking? Verse 10: “ ‘A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.’ ” Just a little more, always just a little more. But “a little” is not a little. Verse 11 foresees the eventual cascade of consequences crashing into his life with inescapable force. There he is, a tragic buffoon, helpless and worthless. In his book Lord, Make My Life a Miracle, my dad concludes this way:

Your danger and mine is not that we become criminals, but rather that we become respectable, decent, commonplace, mediocre Christians. The twentieth-century temptations that really sap our spiritual power are the television, banana cream pie, the easy chair, and the credit card. The Christian wins or loses in those seemingly innocent little moments of decision. Lord, make my life a miracle!8

Maybe some of us have been settling for “a little,” and not even noticing it. If so, how long will you lie there? When will you arise from your sleep and accomplish something great for Christ? Stop telling yourself you are a loser. Stop telling yourself your dad let you down. Stop making excuses. God has given you Christ, his very best. What are you going to do with your huge advantage, Jesus Christ?

As we get traction in this new way, we can expect counterattack. One of the devil’s favorite strategies is to disrupt church unity:

The Bible looks at a sneaky, disruptive person and calls him “worthless” in verse 12. The Hebrew is beliyyacal, meaning “without benefit or profit or use.” That Hebrew word comes over into the New Testament as a name for the devil himself: “What accord has Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). It

When the Old Testament uses this literary device (x // x + 1), as in “three // four” (Proverbs 30:18–19, 29–31) or “six // seven,” it is the last item in the list that matters most. The seventh thing the Lord hates, “one who sows discord among brothers,” is the key to understanding the other six things the Lord hates. What he hates about haughty eyes is that their arrogance sows discord among brothers, what he hates about a lying tongue is how its gossip and slander sow discord among brothers, and so forth. God hates all discord with a passion. That’s what “abomination” means. It turns his stomach.

The Devil’s Strategy

The devil and his cohorts were devising plans to get people to reject the Gospel. “Let’s go to them and say there is no God,” proposed one. Silence prevailed. Every devil knew that most people believe in a supreme being. “Let’s tell them there is no hell, no future punishment for the wicked,” offered another. That was turned down, because men obviously have consciences which tell them that sin must be punished. The concave was going to end in failure when there came a voice from the rear: “Tell them there is a God, there is a hell and that the Bible is the Word of God. But tell them there is plenty of time to decide the question. Let them ‘neglect’ the Gospel, until it is too late.” All hell erupted with ghoulish glee, for they knew that if a person procrastinated on Christ, they usually never accept Him.