The Greek argos means idle, lazy, or ineffective — literally 'without work' (a + ergon, work). It describes what does not produce fruit or what remains unemployed and unproductive.
Argos appears in several significant New Testament passages. In Matthew 20:3,6, workers standing idle in the marketplace are called to work in the vineyard — a parable of divine grace that invites the unproductive into purposeful service. James 2:20 uses it in the phrase 'faith without works is dead' (some manuscripts read argé — idle/ineffective). In 1 Timothy 5:13, idle widows are described as learning to be gossips. Titus 1:12, quoting a Cretan poet, calls Cretans 'lazy (argoi) gluttons.' The word is a call to purposeful, fruit-bearing engagement in God's work.