“Make Every Effort”

In Romans 12:11, the Apostle Paul says: “Not lagging behind in diligence [but] fervent in spirit, serving the Lord“. Maintaining wisdom-guided zeal for God, His person and purposes, is sometimes very difficult for us, living in this broken, conflict-filled world, with its numbing and sometimes deadly distractions. The Greek word Paul used here for fervent means “hot”, i.e. a more or less burning inner passion to know God deeply and serve Him fully. This mindset is reflected in Paul’s comment in Philippians 3:10-“that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings…”.

Some of the early church fathers considered a lack of zeal for God, or an indifference to Him as a form of sloth, that is, a carelessness about knowing and serving Him. They even called this a “deadly” sin-deadly meaning a serious and great hindrance to one’s spiritual progress. Sloth meant more than laziness, and the term as used then, captured the idea of a ho-hum, could-care-less, and indifferent mindset to the things of God perhaps even applicable to a Christian who was “burned out” so to speak. Perhaps it is somewhat equivalent to “lukewarm-ness”, a description of the attitude of the Christians in the church at Laodicea [Rev 3:16 HCSV] who left a very “bad taste” in the mouth of Christ, so much so that at least one translation says in Christ’s letter to that church that He will “vomit you” out of His mouth.

The Greek word Paul used for diligence, means to ” hasten to exert oneself“. Taken together, diligence and fervency can be perhaps described as an “eager, undeterred mindset to passionately seek after and serve the Lord”. Peter uses the same Greek word for diligence as Paul and is translated in the HCSV as “make every effort” in II Peter 1:5-9] when he writes: …” make every effort [be diligent] to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self control, self control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

“Make every effort” is a sharp contrast to indifference, lukewarm-ness, and carelessness in our spiritual life and walk with God. This contrast is clearly visualized in watching the strenuous “all-out” runner in an Olympic race for the gold, versus the many spectators sitting and observing from the stands. Would you describe yourself as an “alert servant” or an “aloof spectator” when it comes to your Christian life?

Will you “make every effort” in 2021 to pursue knowing Christ more deeply and serving Him more fully and consistently?

For further reflection there is a “self assessment of sloth” in the articles section of this blog.

CJS