As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
…
But we are urging you, brothers, to abound more and more, 11and to
make it [your] ambition to be quiet, and to mind your own [business], and to
work with your hands, just as we commanded you, 12that you might
walk becomingly toward those outside, and [that] you might have need of nothing
[or no one].
Without a doubt, this idea of quietness is the bombshell I’ve
learned from this passage. As I look at the rest of vv11,12, I think everything
else these two simple verses say is of monumental importance, but nothing more
jumps out at me personally right now. I didn’t catch this helpful idea of
quietness the first time I studied through this book, so probably if I live
long enough to ever study through it again, something else will be particularly
helpful. Even though nothing else jumps out at me personally, before I leave
the passage, I’d like to record some thoughts that might be helpful to my grandchildren
or anyone else who might stumble across these feeble scratchings.
“Mind your own business.” What a simple, almost cliché thought,
yet, if people took it seriously, it would transform the world overnight, would
it not? Somehow, early in my Christian life I learned to constantly ask myself,
“Yes, but what are you doing, Don?”
Everywhere one looks, at work, at home, at church, it is so easy to see
everything everyone else needs to change. “Yes, but what are you doing, Don?” “Mind your own
business.” The truth is every one of us has more than enough to do if we’d just
mind our own business – be what we should be, do the things we should do, get
done the things we should get done. It is a waste of our energy to spend any
time at all stewing over what everyone else should be doing. The Bible often
condemns people who are meddlers and gossips and tersely informs us, “So then, every
one of us shall give an account of
himself to God.”
“Work with your hands.” Some people think this is some kind
of call to “manual labor.” I’d like to suggest otherwise. I would like to
suggest that, no matter what you do, you use your hands. Even the wealthiest
CEO makes phone calls, signs papers, etc., etc. I would even suggest it is
almost always true that, if we’re working, our hands are probably doing something. People who are doing nothing
with their hands probably are doing nothing.
Nothing any good, any way. One could almost ask the question, what has the Lord
given my hands to do? And then make sure I’m about doing it. I think about the
verse in I Cor 7:24 where we’re told, “Each person, as
responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called
them.” The issue in that context is whether people are slaves or free,
but I think it applies in general, that we are where we are, doing what we do,
because that is what the Lord has given us. The point then is, when a person is
saved, most likely they should just continue doing whatever they did before,
only now of course do it for the Lord. The question for each of us is “What is
that?” “What is it I do?” Once again, it will be one way or
another something that engages my hands – and the Lord would tell us, “Get busy
doing it.”
I very much like the verse in Col 3:23: “And
whatever you do, do it with your whole heart, as for the Lord, and not for men.”
“And whatever you do.” “Whatever you
do.” One of the wonderful things about Biblical Christianity is that it ennobles
every man’s occupation. The king on his throne and the garbage collector alike can
read Col 3:23 and know that what they do is important to God. And if it is important
to God, then it is important to do it well.
It matters.
“Just as we commanded you.” In Paul’s short
time at Thessalonica, he had instructed these young believers about the importance
of their work. It’s too bad the subject doesn’t even get mentioned from the
pulpit today. Which leads into the first thought in v12:
“That you might walk becomingly toward
those outside.” The NIV translates it, “So that your daily life may win the
respect of outsiders.” There is only one thing the Bible specifically
says “adorns” the Gospel, and that is our work. In Titus 2:9,10, it says: “Teach
workers to be subject to their bosses in everything, to try to please them, not
to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully
trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior
attractive.” The old KJV put it, “… that they may adorn the doctrine of
God our Savior in all things.” Based on this Biblical admonition and my
own personal observations, there is nothing that either commends or disgraces the
Gospel like believers’ work. I would suggest it’s true that people may care
nothing for Heaven or hell, may care nothing about morality or truth, but they
will highly value a person who simply does good
work.
It is an interesting observation that, even
in the most debased cultures, still the principles of good work are Christian principles. Everything a
worker should be is something any thinking Christian should be: hard-working,
honest, dependable, obedient, considerate, etc., etc. With or without the Bible,
everyone knows those are the things a good worker should be. When, then, a
person calls himself a Christian and isn’t
those things, it brings the Gospel into great disgrace. On the other hand, when
a person is those things and others see it, it often gives them pause. I heard
once how, during one of the Roman Christian persecutions, a commander was
ordered to execute his soldiers who were believers. “But they are my best
soldiers!” he objected. I heard once how a church in the old Soviet Union
wanted to build a building but could not get a permit since they weren’t an “approved”
church, so they went ahead and built anyway. A local magistrate was asked why
he didn’t stop them and he replied, “They are the best workers in our
community. If they want a building, I certainly won’t stop them.”
That is the effect God wants our work to
have – that it should “adorn the Gospel” – that it should gently, quietly break
down people’s opposition to Jesus’ message and make them willing to at least
give it a hearing. That is the effect it would have, if only believers
everywhere could just quietly go to their jobs and do good work.
“…and [that] you might have need of nothing
[or no one].” This is an interesting twist. We’re so used to the Gospel being
about helping people, we probably don’t think enough that Jesus actually puts a
premium on each of us being people who don’t
need help! I have found in life one of the difficult lessons to learn is
the grace of receiving – of being willing to let people help me when I do need
it. But I don’t know that I’ve ever thought much how it is actually God who
wants me to live in such a way that I don’t need others’ help, that that should
be my intent. It’s very American of course to be independent and not want others’
help, but that is not what we’re talking about. This is God stuff. In God’s
world, it’s like “Okay, if you do need help, be humble enough to let others
help you, but, in general, be a good worker, manage your own life, and be a
person who doesn’t have to depend on others." I think if we let it be a
God-thing, then we’ll have the humility to accept needed help while at the same
time being people who are sincerely trying not to need it to begin with. That
thought is probably worthy of a few hundred applications, but perhaps having
said it is enough for today.
What an awesome two verses. No one but our
God could pack that much genuinely helpful, practical guidance into two simple
verses. I pray that somehow, having pondered them, they’ve infused something of
God’s truth into my heart and made me better.
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