One concept that stuck out that we talked about is Sloth. I've always thought of Sloth as laziness and I think that is a good idea but it is quite vague. What he described Sloth as was much more specific.
Sloth of the spirit being a sort of spiritual laziness that results from being overly concerned with external things. Ouch. You live where you are always concerned with the 1,000 pressing things of life and not looking into what is actually going on inside of you.
Some signs he described as people who live out of social conformity and duty. They know and believe the Gospel but don't live by it. You may get excited about a spiritual concept for awhile but soon after the fog rolls back in making hazy what was before so clear. I might come back and expand on these ideas here.
I think there is truth here and also need for a distinction. All of us by nature are struggling to live a certain way which is unnatural to us. What Paul speaks of in Romans 7. We struggle mightily to live by the teachings of Jesus, whether we admit it or not.
But as we fight to become what we are currently not, if we find ourselves overly concerned with the external things of life and not the deep causes of sin in our hearts, I think we become guilty of this Sloth. Another way to put it: If we're too concerned what others think of us, we're not going to have energy or time to deal with what is on the inside. I can think of many situations where I was fully consumed with hiding or playing down something sinful, instead of sitting down and trying to understand what lie, what presupposition I must believe to continue acting out in this way. I think this is a central part of community, bearing with another in these. But when we try to begin to perform, we overpower the chance to turn inward.
Bonhoeffer called this Acedia. Quite challenging and convicting teaching.
