Refers back to Proverbs 6:10-11.Slothfulness is a subject which Solomon returns to repeatedly, but the particular emphasis here is the subtle way in which it creeps up on us.
This is the way that Satan seeks to neutralise the people of God in their service for God and in their progress in sanctification. He gets us to tell ourselves that every neglect is exceptional and it will be a simple matter to catch up next time. We need to know ourselves and not listen to this voice within us. We need to throw off the covers of comfort and ease, and make ourselves to do what needs to be done. The Christian life is a life of discipline, and without constancy in this we will sink into self-justified inactivity. It is necessary therefore to be stricter with ourselves than seems necessary at first. For this reason Paul says, ‘Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3:13-14). Like a watchman on the walls of a city under attack we must stay awake while all around sleep.