I Peter 1:13

We are all capable of being spiritual sluggards; we do not want to mix with the rough and tumble of life as it is, our one object is to secure retirement. The note struck in Hebrews 10 is that of provoking one another and of keeping together - both of which require initiative, the initiative of Christ-realization, not of self-realization. To live a remote, retired, secluded life is the antipodes of spirituality as Jesus Christ taught it.

The test of our spirituality comes when we come up against injustice and meanness and ingratitude and turmoil, all of which have the tendency to make us spiritual sluggards. We want to use prayer and Bible reading for the purpose of retirement. We utilize God for the sake of getting peace and joy, that is, we do not want to realize Jesus Christ, but only our enjoyment of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things are effects and we try to make them causes.

The slothful man saith, There is a lion without.—Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's passover.

Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest.—Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.—There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.

It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.—Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

For they that sleep sleep in the night: and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.—Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.