Am I commiting the sin of idleness, or not?

[Struggling]

Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ!

Since I still don't have any access to the other forums, I guess I'll have to post here.

I have to confess to all of you that I feel like that I committed the sin of idleness so many times. However, I often 'commit' this sin when I literally have nothing to do. As in, nothing to do. I always have the feeling that I have to do something, even though I know that I have finished what must be done. So I'm quite confused whether I committed the sin of idleness or not.

So in short, do I commit the sin of idleness even though I finished doing my work?

Thanks! - Struggling

[Ezra]

19 minutes ago, Struggling said:

However, I often 'commit' this sin when I literally have nothing to do. As in, nothing to do.

Welcome Struggling,

If you find yourself in situations where you literally have nothing to do, then you do indeed have a very serious problem. If you are a Christian, there will always be more to do than you can handle. And idleness is indeed a sin according to Scripture. What you probably should do is sit down with someone who knows you well, and ask them to give you some insight into this issue. Without knowing you personally no one can bring you face to face with your problem.

[MorningGlory]

4 hours ago, Struggling said:

Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ!

Since I still don't have any access to the other forums, I guess I'll have to post here.

I have to confess to all of you that I feel like that I committed the sin of idleness so many times. However, I often 'commit' this sin when I literally have nothing to do. As in, nothing to do. I always have the feeling that I have to do something, even though I know that I have finished what must be done. So I'm quite confused whether I committed the sin of idleness or not.

So in short, do I commit the sin of idleness even though I finished doing my work?

Thanks! - Struggling

You aren't committing a sin if you have completed the work your employer expects of you and done all the personal things one has to do.  Goodness, give yourself a little time to relax and think.  No one can work all the time.  And welcome to Worthy! 

[Vendtre]

There is no sin of idleness.

[Omegaman 3.0]

5 hours ago, Struggling said:

I have to confess to all of you that I feel like that I committed the sin of idleness so many times. However, I often 'commit' this sin when I literally have nothing to do. As in, nothing to do. I always have the feeling that I have to do something, even though I know that I have finished what must be done. So I'm quite confused whether I committed the sin of idleness or not.

So in short, do I commit the sin of idleness even though I finished doing my work?

Sounds like your heart is in the right place, work as if Jesus it your boss, because He is! I do not know what you can do when you finish your assigned task, but in my experience, there is always a floor that need sweeping, a desk that needs tidying, something! Have you asked your supervisor if there isn't something additional you could be doing? 

I understand  the problem though. Before I was a Christian, I was working in a machine shop. I had pallets of part that I needed to perform an operation on. It was a pretty boring task, so to entertain myself, I worked on improving my output, by improving my motion efficiency. I made a game of it, seeing if I could not do each pallet of parts in less time than the previous one. About 3/4 of the way through my shift, my supervisor came buy and asked me how many part I had completed, and I told him. He then looked at the work order and noted that I had already finished more part, that was expected for the whole shift.

He told me to spend the rest of the day, hiding in the bathroom or something. I asked him: "Why?"  He said that the PPS (part per shift requirement) is determined by the number of part people do, they expect a certain number of parts, based on what has been accomplish in the past. So, he told me that now, because of me, the office will see these numbers, and increase the expected part per shift, and that will make it that much harder that before, for everyone else.

Sometimes, idleness can actually be expected of a worker, unusual, but possible. I would say, that if you are feeling guilty, then yes, you should seek to busy yourself. If that is not practical for some reason, then I suggest you drop the guilt, if you are doing all you can do. In your situation, is does not sound as though you are robbing your employer, or being lazy, in those cases, yes, that would be a sin. God looks on the heart though, try to examine your own heart, and if you are doing what you can, then there is no sin.

[Ezra]

5 hours ago, Vendtre said:

There is no sin of idleness.

Check the Scriptures again, especially with reference to the sluggard.

[Ezra]

11 hours ago, Struggling said:

I know that I have finished what must be done.

Could what you have done be improved in way? Everything can be done more efficiently, less expensively, with added value, etc. So when one is finished with a task, one can always sit down and work on ways to improve what could be improved.  Or some innovative idea could be introduced.

[Vendtre]

6 minutes ago, Ezra said:

Check the Scriptures again, especially with reference to the sluggard.

Being idle is not the same as being a sluggard or slothfulness.  

Idleness is akin to anger, neither is a sin but both can lead one to sin.

[JTC]

Probably not. I accept your word that you finished working for the day. You do whatever is your responsibility on your way home. You get home and take care of what needs to be done. Finally, you sit and relax before it starts again tomorrow. If this is what you mean there is no sin. We all need to rest and recharge ourselves. Even the Lord Jesus did this while on Earth. He had to eat, rest and sleep too. We know for a fact Jesus was without sins. There's your answer.

[Struggling]

Add to my previous reply: Now I have access to other forums, I'll start posting here. Thanks for giving access.