Should You Be Easygoing?

MOST people would probably feel that it is a compliment to be thought of as an easygoing person, one with a relaxed, placid, tolerant nature. However, there is another side to easygoingness. The Bible says: “The easygoingness of the stupid is what will destroy them.” (Proverbs 1:32) What does that mean?

Other Bible versions render the original Hebrew word with such expressions as “careless ease” (American Standard Version), “smugness” (The New American Bible), and “complacency.” (The New English Bible) In this sense, easygoingness is linked to laziness and carelessness and thus to stupidity or foolishness.

In the first century, Christians in the congregation in Laodicea were blithely unaware of or complacent about their spiritual deficiencies. They smugly boasted that they “[did] not need anything at all.” Jesus Christ corrected them, calling for a revival of their Christian zeal.​—Revelation 3:14-19.

Easygoing complacency was also characteristic of the people in Noah’s day. They were preoccupied with the mundane things of life, “eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage . . . , and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away.” Jesus then added: “So the presence of the Son of man will be.”​—Matthew 24:37-39.

Fulfilled Bible prophecies indicate that we are living during “the presence of the Son of man,” Jesus Christ. May we never become complacent, careless, smug​—easygoing in the wrong sense.​—Luke 21:29-36.