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Sloth is also a deadly sin.

What makes you think slothfulness is any more a deadly sin then hate, greed, lust, theft, covertness, or even anger? In reality no one sin is worse then another. We were born in sin because we have the Adam gene, and until we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we are all lost in our sin.

If one could, and I know that it is impossible, but if one could live a life where they never ever sinned, they would still fall short of the perfection of God because they were born in sin. Without Christ all sin is deadly, regardless of how minor or insignificant it may seem.

Now as for the question of the main post. If a person is willing to confess that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior then Jesus will stand in the breach for them. regardless of how or what we may seem to think. However I also believe that if a person does not attempt to work and provide for their family they probably are not saved. You shall know them by their works. We are not saved by our works but our works are the evidence of our faith. What God fearing Christian would not want to do as Paul advised, provide for their family?

In giving Timothy advice on being a pastor he told him in his first letter to him.
1Ti 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1Timothy 5:8

Not my words but Paul's. So I must come down on the side that one who takes from anyone whether it be the government or a friend and does not attempt to return the favor is worse then an unbeliever.

"1Ti 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1Timothy 5:8"

Glad you posted that verse.

"if anyone does not provide for his own"

Someone who does not provide for their own....(accepting stolen goods???...living off welfare???) has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever!"

“What makes you think slothfulness is any more a deadly sin...?”

Nothing.

I was framing the argument on his terms. Reference to deadly sins raises the probability that the gentleman to whom I commented is a follower of the Church of Rome. You seem to reject Roman Church thought with your comments, which makes the following a bit surprising:

“We were born in sin because we have the Adam gene...”

This is VERY Roman Catholic dogma, which assumes each person is born with individual guilt as a consequence of Adam’s fall. Many Protestants choose to reject the notion that Protestantism splintered from the Church of Rome in the 16th Century and thus is left with a LOT of genetic material from that relationship.

“...and until we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we are all lost in our sin.”

Personally, I reject the notion that a merciful God can be accepted alongside the simultaneous notion that babies are born with a sinful stain, from which it follows logically that if they die before “accepting Christ” they go to hell. Do you (accept that notion, that is)? That would be an awfully cruel state of nature in which to live.

My family and I have begun the journey into Eastern Orthodoxy, which now colors my frame of thought and has a different view of the concept of Original Sin. This is among many differences, frankly that Western Christendom chooses to ignore - in many cases turning its back on 1500 years of Church history that occurred between Pentecost and 1. The Reformation, 2. The Mennonite Anabaptist movement.

Not ranting, just speaking my heart.