8/15/18
Tom Lowe
Lesson 13: To Work With Their Hands (1Thessalonians 4:11)
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:11 (NIV)
“and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you,”
Lesson 13
Introduction
Thessalonica was a big city—a bustling metropolis with a lot of activity. Therefore Paul admonishes the Christians, “Make it your business and your ambition to live a quiet life.” The Greeks were very active people, who had a love for personal distinction—and Paul knew there would be danger of their being occupied with less important affairs, thus neglecting to give their best to spiritual matters. In 1 Timothy 2:1 and 2 Paul prays, “ . . . That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
A study of Paul’s life convinces us that he was very active; it was his nature to be “on the move.” Even so, he admired the quiet life and considered it an asset to the cultivation of Christian character and study. Christians, in their zeal, sometimes attempt to do too many things. It is possible to sin by trying to do too much, attempting so much that we cannot do anything the way it should be done to the glory of God. [I have found myself in this position twice in my life. I was doing too much, which caused stress between Sierra and I and between me and my children. It made me physically ill, so I chose to quit all my jobs, and eventually left that church. I should have heeded Paul’s warning, “to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.”]
This is the first indication we have had in this epistle that some of the Thessalonians we’re so excited by all the wonderful things in the Christian faith that day were not bothering to earn their living. But there are a number of indications in the Thessalonian correspondence that this was so (especially 2 Thessalonians 3:11). A number of possible reasons for this have been suggested, but it is most likely that it arose out of Second Advent speculations. The Thessalonian believers had learned very well that the Lord would be returning in mighty power, and evidently some of them felt that it would be very soon. Accordingly there was no point in continuing in some steady job. It was much more realistic, they evidently reasoned, to be about the business of proclaiming the soon return of Christ. If they had need of this world’s goods in the meantime, why, there were others, Christian brothers, who could be relied on to come to their rescue. This kind of thing can be done from a sense of serious purpose, but, human nature being what it is; it can easily degenerate into downright laziness and idleness. People can be so taken up with the spectacular that, with excitement over the near approach of the Lord, that they pass over the important things of everyday life. So Paul gives attention to such matters, and counsels these brothers to mend their ways.
Paul also warns the Thessalonians that they should be occupied with their own affairs and not with the affairs of others. Probably some of them were busybodies and gadabouts, meddling hither and yon. Paul did not want the believers to live such a life. In 2 Thessalonians 3:11 he said, “For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all but are busybodies.” You may rest assured that those who meddle in other people’s business always wreck their own! If we take care of our own affairs and remain alert concerning our own life, we have little time to metal in the affairs of others.
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:11 (NIV)
(4:11) and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you
Some of the new Christians remembered hearing Paul discuss the second coming of Jesus. They reasoned inaccurately that since Jesus was coming soon, they should quit their jobs and wait for His appearing. You can imagine the economic problems that practice causes for the Christian community with so many refusing to work and expecting to be supported by other believers. As you know, idle persons usually create problems for themselves and others. So Paul wrote, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.” Then he gave three words of advice about responsible living as Christians.
• Lead a quiet life: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.” In the excitement and expectancy about when Jesus would return, Paul urged them to, “Keep calm. God’s in control. Go back to work.” It’s good advice. A responsible Christian avoids embarrassing others or creating scenes. It’s tough for even the most committed soul winner to win a family to Jesus who live next door to a discourteous, inconsiderate, though prominent church member.
The word(s) that have been translated “Lead a quiet life” denotes tranquility of life, which of course does not mean inactivity. It is possible to be very active in the Lord’s service and still be at peace. It is clear that some of the converts were far from living the simple life, and Paul is very anxious for them to recall their former calmness and simplicity. If the Lord were coming soon, then the best way for Him to find them would be doing their ordinary work, but, as yet, they had not learned this.
• Mind your own business: That doesn’t sound very religious, but the message is crystal clear: “Mind your own business.” Or, “Don’t meddle in other people’s affairs.” Having given up their daily responsibilities of work, these unoccupied Christians involved themselves in everybody’s business. Paul is telling us, “The busybody and the meddler are as wrong as those who deny the deity of Jesus or the doctrine of salvation.” Don’t be a nuisance to others. Someone joked, “To do nothing is tiresome because you can’t stop and take a rest.”
Have you ever said to someone, “Mind your own business?” Or, has anyone ever said that to you? It’s a hurtful thing for anyone to say to another person. In Paul’s case, it perhaps points to a tendency to interfere in the running of the church by those who were not church officers. It does not seem excessive to suggest that, meeting trouble in their endeavor to be kept by the earnings of their brothers, some members had attempted to have the church officially support their demands. Or it may be that Paul is condemning taking undue interest in the concerns of one’s neighbors. It is not impossible that these are the people accused of being in busybodies in the second letter (3:11), though there again there is uncertainty about the precise meaning. At any rate, it is clear that Paul wants each to put his attention where it belongs.
• “Do your own work.” Paul was certain it would be better if, when Jesus returns, He found them productive and working. In a culture built on slave labor, Paul was teaching Christians that work is never beneath the dignity of any man. Paul wrote later, “If any one does not provide for his relatives and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).
It is very probable that the majority of Thessalonian believers had learned some trade or other, and even considering that some were financially well-off, Paul believed that Manual labor would be good for them, so he commanded them to work with their hands. The Apostle challenged them to remember how he worked hard to support himself when he was with them before.
• “For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:9).
• “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.’ We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:7-12).
Paul’s unashamed advocacy of manual labor in a letter written to a community in a Greek city must have caused a commotion within the Christian churches in the area. The typical Greek attitude was that slaves did this sort of work, but that freemen would not stoop to it. It was degrading. Here, as in so many other ways, the Christians refused to take their principles from the community in which they lived. Rather, they held that everything they did should be done as service to Christ (Colossians 3:17), and they specifically held that manual labor was good (Ephesians 4:28). No doubt they remembered that Jesus himself had been a carpenter (Mark 6:3). How could the followers of the Carpenter do other than welcome manual work?
Paul recognized and acknowledged the danger of idleness. One of those great British preachers of a past generation, provided this insight in one of his Sermons: “If we cannot be holy at our work, it is not worth taking any trouble to be holy at other times . . . . If experience proves anything, it proves that nothing is worse for most people than to have nothing to do but be religious . . . . The daily life of toil . . . . does not rob us of the Christian life; it really puts it within our reach.” There can be no better preparation for the coming of Christ than to be faithful in ordinary duties. The man who is doing his work faithfully at the right time (the second coming of Jesus Christ) is ready to meet Him.
The believers at Thessalonica were on fire for God. They were zealous, their testimony had reached throughout that entire countryside, and Paul knew that it was altogether possible for them to become so enthusiastic that they would neglect the practical side of life and forget practical necessities. He therefore warns them not to be gadabouts and busybodies, for fear that they could become Lazy and adopt the attitude that the world owed them a living.
