Work to Eat or Eat to Work?
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Introduction
I think it is safe to say tonight that none of us are financial wealthy or from old money. We are the working class. We are people who have to work in order to eat. We are the folks who live from paycheck to paycheck. Or if we don’t work now, because we are retired, we did at one time. We are or were the people who have had to work in order to eat.
Or, again, if we don’t work now, because we are too young and are in school, well, may I be the one to tell our young people the news? The news is, guess what, that when you finally finish your education, somebody will expect you to work! When you get your High School Diploma, your B.A., or your M.A., or your Ph.D., someone will tell you to get your J.O.B.! Work is a part of life. We work in order to eat.
The Bible has another point of view, to this point as well. The Bible puts another spin on reality here. The Bible will tell us that life is more than working so that we can eat. The Bible will teach us how to eat in order to work.
I raise this question to you: do you work to eat or do you eat to work? Let me repeat that for you, do you work to eat or do you eat to work? There is a difference.
The Christians of Thessalonica had gotten the wrong idea about work. Having heard that the Lord might be returning soon, they decided that all they needed to do was sit down and wait. Jesus is going to return, the end of the age is coming, so, hey, why work up a sweat? Let’s sit down in the old rocking chair and let it happen! The Christians of Thessalonica figured that God would take care of everything, so why bother to work?
It is to these lazy people, that Paul delivers a stinging word of rebuke: Please read 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 with me.
“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we heart that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.”
There are three points here in this text that I believe we need to see:
I. The Right Ethics and Witness (v. 7)
• What has happened to the work ethic in our time?
o Why is it that employers complain that workers do not want to work?
• I wonder if people get lazy because they never got a witness about work.
o Is it, in part, because no one ever shared with them the meaning of work?
• Paul says that we work as an example to others.
o Our work is a part of our witness.
o Look at verse 7 again, it reads: “For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, an we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate.”
• I’m thought of my father as I was preparing this sermon, because, if he were still alive, he would be 72 years old.
o I was thinking of my father and his witness about work to me.
o As a very young man, he experienced some tough times.
o His father had passed away when he was still in elementary school, so to help his mother out, him and his siblings would go out into the farms around Caldwell and pick cotton.
o He graduated school and then moved up to Michigan were he worked in the automobile industry on the assembly line for awhile.
o Then in the early 60’s he signed up for the U.S. Air Force to serve his country during the Vietnam war.
o There was one key element in all of that work, he never saw it as pointless and he never allowed it to drive him to despair.
o His work was his witness.
• My father taught me the dignity of work.
o When he served in the Air Force he worked in the public affairs office and it was his job to notify the family members of a love one passing away in service to their country.
o But he would never complain about it.
o Instead, he would tell us that it was a chance to serve that family in need and be there for them.
o His work was his witness.
• If you want to now what has happened with the work ethic in our day, then ask what you and I are doing with our witness about work.
o Find out what legacy we are leaving to others.
o What do we do?
o Think about it.
o Some of us complain constantly about our jobs.
o We have nothing good to say.
o The boss is demanding, the people are nasty, the work is hard, the pay is small, the commute is tiring, and nobody down there appreciates me!
o And that’s just on Mondays!
o Our witness today is negative.
• Another aspect of that negative witness is that we work obsessively.
o We can’t quit.
o We don’t know when to stop.
o We feel guilty unless we are toiling away at something, anything.
o Some of us have taken the drive to accomplish and have made it demonic; there is nothing else in our lives but work, work, and more work.
o No wonder why we burn out.
o No wonder no one wants to follow us.
o There’s no grace in it.
• What I’m trying to say is that many of us just work to eat.
o We work because it’s a necessity.
o But there’s no joy in it, no power in it.
o The witness is not one that others want to imitate.
o We need to work in a way that inspires others.
o We need to work as a witness.
o But how can we do that?
II. Focus on the Kingdom of God (v. 11)
• The scripture teaches us that if we focus on Kingdom work, we will make all our work meaningful.
• If we focus on how to use all that we do for Kingdom purpose, our daily work will have power and joy rather than drudgery and despair.
• You see, sometimes work is just not exciting, is it?
• Sometimes the things we have to do are just plain boring.
• Like the fellow whose job it was, as the cars rolled by him on the assembly line, just to tighten up the nuts that hold on the wheels. All he did, day after day, was put on wheels and tighten up nuts. One day he threw down his wrench and screamed out, “If I have to tighten one more nut, I’ll be the next nut.”
• Sometimes our work is so dull, that it bores us, and we lose our motivation.
• We want to quit.
• But did you know that when that happens, sin lies at the door?
• If you are working to eat, and that’s all it is, and that work gets boring, it won’t be long before you will begin to focus on something destructive.
• Listen to what Paul says in verse 11: “For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.”
• Don’t you like that phrase? “Mere busybodies, not doing any work.”
• It means that once we can no longer find any meaning in our own work, we start messing in other people’s business, we criticize, we grumble, we try to control.
• Once we lose our motivation, we will focus on the wrong things and become destructive of others.
• Let me try to make it a little clearer for you.
• Once we take our eyes off of Kingdom work, all of our work will go sour.
• Once we forget that our basic calling as believers is to be redemptive, everything will mess up.
• We’ll begin to point fingers, we’ll begin to accuse, and we’ll begin to complain.
• Once our work becomes blah, we will become chronically unhappy, and will decide to make everybody around us unhappy too.
• “Mere busybodies, doing no work.”
• It’s not that busybodies are not busy; they have plenty to do.
• But it isn’t constructive.
• It’s destructive.
• But I tell you, mark this down: those who invest in Kingdom work are the most satisfied people in the world.
• Those ho use their time and their resources to build up others have neither time nor energy to become controllers and complainers.
• If you focus on Kingdom work and give yourself to something redemptive, you will find the time to do it, you will discover the energy to do it, and you will not be interested in griping.
• Friends, get on board the ministry wagon, and get on board with Kingdom work, or else face the possibility that in your won spirit you will degenerate into mere busybodies.
• Working to eat, but souring in the spirit.
• What a tragedy that would be, when we know full well what the remedy is!
III. Don’t Grow Weary (v. 13)
• Now, I do know that even when you are doing Kingdom work, you will get tired.
• I do know that even the best of us lose our way.
• After all, we are human, and we get tired, or frustrated, or disappointed, or discouraged.
• Let me tell you, it is hard for the preacher to get his motivation going during the summer weekends; when half the church is on the highway on vacation and the humidity is a 110%!
• You almost want to throw away a Sunday like that!
• It’s easy to get tired even of Kingdom work.
• And that is why Paul ends his admonitions with a pointed phrase in verse 13, “But as for you, brethren, do not be weary in doing good.”
• Do not be weary in doing good.
• You know, that sentence has been in my prayers so many times.
• I have prayed that in scores of hospital rooms and in multiple counseling sessions with various people who have felt that they just cannot keep up with the demands of life anymore.
• I have prayer that, despite aching bones and anxious hearts, they would not grow weary in doing what is right.
• God refreshes us and restores us.
• He takes us beyond working to eat and gives us something to eat so that we may work.
• Here in God’s word we can taste and see the meaning and the power of work.
• It is in the word of God that I am reminded that there was one who labored in order to accomplish the Father’s will, one who pressed forward and completed that work.
• Despite how we might become frustrated, the Bible reminds us that there was one who was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
• We complain about Him.
• Yet He did the Father’s will, even unto death; and now god has highly exalted Him, God has given Him life; god has refreshed Him, here in His word.
• I find nourishment and strength to do what I am called to do, because here in God’s word I see that Jesus was obedient, He worked, and, though he died; now He lives.
• That redeems my work and refreshes me.
Closing
Friends, God has given us the food of life right here in His word that we might eat in order to work. That we might work in a way that serves as a witness to a lost and dying world. Friends, what is your witness, saying about you today. Brother John Morgan would you close us in prayer, please sir.
