The king answered, "You are lazy and don't want to work, and that is why you ask me to let you go and offer sacrifices to the LORD.

Lazy people should learn a lesson from the way ants live.

but they store up their food during the summer, getting ready for winter.

Never get a lazy person to do something for you; he will be as irritating as vinegar on your teeth or smoke in your eyes.

No matter how much a lazy person may want something, he will never get it. A hard worker will get everything he wants.

A lazy person is as bad as someone who is destructive.

Show me someone who does a good job, and I will show you someone who is better than most and worthy of the company of kings.

I walked through the fields and vineyards of a lazy, stupid person.

I looked at this, thought about it, and learned a lesson from it:

but while you are asleep, poverty will attack you like an armed robber.

Why don't lazy people ever get out of the house? What are they afraid of ? Lions?

Some people are too lazy to put food in their own mouths.

Work hard at whatever you do, because there will be no action, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom in the world of the dead---and that is where you are going.

He says, "All the leaders, who are supposed to warn my people, are blind! They know nothing. They are like watch dogs that don't bark---they only lie around and dream. How they love to sleep!

'You bad and lazy servant!' his master said. 'You knew, did you, that I reap harvests where I did not plant, and gather crops where I did not scatter seed?

You yourselves know that I have worked with these hands of mine to provide everything that my companions and I have needed.

I have shown you in all things that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, 'There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.' "

If you used to rob, you must stop robbing and start working, in order to earn an honest living for yourself and to be able to help the poor.

Make it your aim to live a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to earn your own living, just as we told you before.

In this way you will win the respect of those who are not believers, and you will not have to depend on anyone for what you need.

Our friends, we command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from all believers who are living a lazy life and who do not follow the instructions that we gave them.

We did not accept anyone's support without paying for it. Instead, we worked and toiled; we kept working day and night so as not to be an expense to any of you.

While we were with you, we used to tell you, "Whoever refuses to work is not allowed to eat."

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we command these people and warn them to lead orderly lives and work to earn their own living.

They also learn to waste their time in going around from house to house; but even worse, they learn to be gossips and busybodies, talking of things they should not.

God is not unfair. He will not forget the work you did or the love you showed for him in the help you gave and are still giving to other Christians.

Our great desire is that each of you keep up your eagerness to the end, so that the things you hope for will come true.

Such will be the spread of evil that many people's love will grow cold.

He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord, and with great enthusiasm he proclaimed and taught correctly the facts about Jesus. However, he knew only the baptism of John.

Greetings from Epaphras, another member of your group and a servant of Christ Jesus. He always prays fervently for you, asking God to make you stand firm, as mature and fully convinced Christians, in complete obedience to God's will.

I can personally testify to his hard work for you and for the people in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect.

Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart.

Above everything, love one another earnestly, because love covers over many sins.

But this is what I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first.

I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other!

But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth!

For a slave who has been called by the Lord is the Lord's free person; in the same way a free person who has been called by Christ is his slave.

Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling; and do it with a sincere heart, as though you were serving Christ.

Do your work as slaves cheerfully, as though you served the Lord, and not merely human beings.

Slaves, obey your human masters in all things, not only when they are watching you because you want to gain their approval; but do it with a sincere heart because of your reverence for the Lord.

Remember that the Lord will give you as a reward what he has kept for his people. For Christ is the real Master you serve.

Masters, be fair and just in the way you treat your slaves. Remember that you too have a Master in heaven.

Slaves are to submit themselves to their masters and please them in all things. They must not talk back to them

or steal from them. Instead, they must show that they are always good and faithful, so as to bring credit to the teaching about God our Savior in all they do.

Let us be thankful, then, because we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please him, with reverence and awe;