Is The Church Guilty Of Laziness While Waiting For God?

Certain individuals in the Thessalonian church were dishonestly instructing that since Christ would return quickly, individuals ought to save their obligations, quit work, do no future preparation, and simply just stand by and wait. Be that as it may, their absence of action just drove them into wrongdoing. They turned into a weight to the congregation, which was supporting them. They sat around idly instead of helping other people, and they became “busybodies” (3:11). They might have felt that they were in effect more spiritual by not working, however Paul advised them to be mindful and return to work. Being prepared for Christ does not mean that we sit on our stool of do nothing, it implies that we should be obeying him in each everyday issue. Since we realize that Christ is returning, we should live so that our confidence and our day-to-day practice will satisfy him when he returns for us (Proverbs 12:27; Proverbs 13:4; Proverbs 18:9).

In verses six - ten:

Paul was talking here about the individual who is sluggish and lazy. Paul made sense of that when he and his partners were in Thessalonica, they really buckled down and worked hard, buying what they required instead of turning into a lead weight to others. The standard they adhered to was, “if any would not work, neither should he eat.” There is a distinction among relaxation and being lazy. Unwinding and entertainment give an important and absolutely necessary equilibrium, yet when the time has come to work, Christians ought to be mindful. We ought to take full advantage of our ability and time, giving our best to accommodate for ourselves and our family. Rest when you ought to rest and work when you ought to work.

Notice how Paul starts this passage with a command to the people? He does not sugar-coat it because this is a serious situation. He is stating that believers need to be careful with the people with which they are associated. Unhealthy habits can start to rub off onto others and good people can be influenced by others if they are not always on their guard (2 Corinthians 5:9-10; James 1:22; James 4:17; 2 Peter 3:14).

Paul is referring to lazy people. Have we ever witnessed any lazy people within our church congregation? I have a sermon titled “A Pound of Tators” from the book of Luke, chapter 19, where I discuss the Tator Family. Here are a few of its members:

Dick Tator, he tries to always be the boss by telling everyone what to do because he wants to be in charge.

Emma Tator, she worries more about what to wear than what goes on and she copies things and other people’s actions.

Agi Tator, likes to stir up things and does more to contradict people than keeping the peace.

Speck Tator, does not get involved, just sits back, watches everyone else do the work and is the first to criticize, lazy.

The last member, Speck Tator, is the lazy one. How many people like them are there in our church?

We read on how Paul states that if people do not work, they should not eat. We can take that two ways, one way is the natural. People who are physically able but are too lazy to do an honest day’s work, should not be supported by others (welfare, government assistance). The other is spiritual. There may be people that are too lazy to work in the church in some form or fashion because it may not be a high-profile position within the church. Well, we know that there is plenty of work to do behind the scenes. There comes a time for relaxation and recreation. We must have that balance of work, stress, and down-time. Take time for leisure activities but do not get lazy. We must make effective use of our time for the Lord. Rest when needed but work as required.

In verses eleven - fifteen:

What do we call a person who gossips all of the time? A “busybody.” A lazy individual who does not employ themselves in the service of the Lord winds up investing energy doing less supportive exercises, such as gossiping. That is the thing that a “busybody” or a 'snoop' does, they gossip or tattle, and that is what tears church members down. These sorts of people are not keen on getting the Gospel message out for God. They make aggravations of themselves and start mischief inside the congregation body. On the off chance that we discover our noses in different people groups business, we might be underutilized in the work of the Lord (1 Timothy 5:13; Romans 12:11).

We should abstain from interacting with troublemakers in the church, other than to witness to them. Unfortunately, some believers may entertain socially with the busybodies just so the busybodies will not talk bad about them. We all have met these types of people, the ones that complain and decide to put their two-cents worth of opinions into and about everything, grasping for attention and just wanting to stir something up.