'Not slothful in business' suggests, by reason of our modern
restriction of that word 'business' to a man's daily occupation, a
much more limited range to this exhortation than the Apostle meant to
give it. The idea which is generally drawn from these words by
English readers is that they are to do their ordinary work
diligently, and, all the while, notwithstanding the cooling or
distracting influences of their daily avocations, are to keep
themselves 'fervent in spirit.' That is a noble and needful
conception of the command, but it does not express what is in the
Apostle's mind. He does not mean by 'business' a trade or profession,
or daily occupation. But the word means 'zeal' or 'earnestness.' And
what Paul says is just this--'In regard to your earnestness in all
directions, see that you are not slothful.'
The force and drift of the whole precept is just the exhortation to
exercise the very homely virtue of diligence, which is as much a
condition of growth and maturity in the Christian as it is in any
other life. The very homeliness and obviousness of the duty causes us
often to lose sight of its imperativeness and necessity.
Many of us, if we would sit quietly down and think of how we go about
our 'business,' as we call it, and of how we go about our Christian
life, which ought to be our highest business, would have great cause
for being ashamed. We begin the one early in the morning, we keep
hard at it all day, our eyes are wide open to see any opening where
money is to be made; that is all right. We give our whole selves to
our work whilst we are at it; that is as it should be. But why are
there not the same concentration, the same wide-awakeness, the same
open-eyed eagerness to find out ways of advancement, the same
resolved and continuous and all-comprehending and dominating
enthusiasm about our Christianity as there is about our shop, or our
mill, or our success as students? Why are we all fire in the one case
and all ice in the other? Why do we think that it is enough to lift
the burden that Christ lays upon us with one languid finger, and to
put our whole hand, or rather, as the prophet says, 'both hands
earnestly,' to the task of lifting the load of daily work? 'In your
earnestness be not slothful.'
Brethren, that is a very homely exhortation. I wonder how many of us
can say, 'Lord! I have heard, and I have obeyed Thy precept.'