Also, to help a lazy person could actually be harmful to the individual, contributing to further idleness and leading, perhaps, to other derelictions on his part. To the Christian congregation at Thessalonica, Paul had to write: “‘If anyone does not want to work, neither let him eat.’ For we hear certain ones are walking disorderly among you, not working at all but meddling with what does not concern them. To such persons we give the order and exhortation in the Lord Jesus Christ that by working with quietness they should eat food they themselves earn.”​—2 Thess. 3:10-12; compare Ephesians 4:28.

‘A Way Like a Brier Hedge’

● Proverbs 15:19 speaks of the lazy man’s way as being like a “brier hedge.” This may mean that he imagines difficulties and thorny problems in every undertaking and, on this basis, excuses his inactivity.