Alba 4-21-2024
DO NOT GROW WEARY IN DOING GOOD
II Thessalonians 3:6-15
You may have heard the quote: “Do all the good you can, to all the people you can, in all the ways you can, as often as you can, and as long as you can.”
I was looking up that quote and found that it has been attributed to various people from John Wesley, to Charles Spurgeon, and even to Hillary Clinton. I think she must have read it somewhere. To do all the good you can means we should always do our best to help others.
Scott Bradford, a minister in Texas told a story about someone doing good. He made a phone call to his daughter-in-law to see how she’s feeling with her radiation treatments. She’s tired now and feels sore, but her skin is not burned. Then she told him about his grandson Patrick, who is nine years old, and what had happened the previous day.
Because she is so physically exhausted by the radiation treatments, she stopped at the grocery store to pick up two things and get back out to the car. In the meantime, Patrick, the nine year old who was with her, noticed a lady in one of those carts a person can ride who was doing her shopping.
She had her basket full, and she had her lap full. So Patrick told his mother he was going to help the lady. She asked him not to since she was so tired. But he went to get a regular grocery cart anyway.
He looked for and found the lady and told her he was going to help her. He proceeded to take all the groceries out of her lap and put them into the cart, and asked her if she needed anything else.
When she was finished, he stood in line with her until she had paid her bill. Then he went with her to her car to unload the groceries. When he got to the car the lady's son, who is in his thirties from the look of it, was sitting in the front seat playing a video game!
Patrick tapped on the window and said, “Hey, buddy, are you gonna help unload these groceries?” The stunned man got out and asked his mother where she found this kid. She told him she didn’t find him–that he had found her. Her son helped to unload the groceries and put them into the car, all the while getting an earful from his mother.
When Patrick was finished she offered him money for what he did. Patrick refused the money because, as he told her, “We’re supposed to do all the good we can do.” Scott said, “Here is a child who gets his allowance from us because their expenses are so high and he is saying, 'I don’t want the money because the Lord wants me to do all the good I can do.'”
Well his grandfather is a preacher so he probably heard the Bible verse that says “do not grow weary in doing good” from our text this morning, II Thessalonians 3:6-15.
Here is what the apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Thessalonica in those verses: “But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.
“For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.
“But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
Right in the middle of warning the ones who were being lazy and taking advantage of others, Paul tells the church that it should not discourage them from doing what was right and good.
When first looking at these verses I saw the negative commands that are given or implied. For example: Don't Be a Burden (vs. 8); Don't Be a Busybody (vs. 11); and Don't Keep Company With the Disobedient (vs. 14).
But then I saw that with every “Don't”, there was a positive alternative. On the basis of not growing weary in doing good, the church is told to Follow, to Work and to Admonish. Each of these positive commands offset, or combat, the wrong and improper actions of some of the people among them.
1. Don't Be a Burden... Follow (vs. 9)
So first we see that if a person is Christian, he is not to be a burden to others but instead, follow the example of the apostle Paul. As an apostle he had the right to expect that the church would support him and supply his needs. In some cases he exercised that right. In other cases he didn't, depending on the immediate circumstance.
In Thessalonica, he did not burden them with asking for support. Instead he worked his trade. All Jewish boys were taught a trade no matter what other profession they may take on later. Paul was a tent maker and worked with leather. So in Thessalonica he worked to support himself while also beginning and growing a body of believers in that community. Today we call a minister who does that bi-vocational. He was ahead of his time.
Paul didn’t want to be a burden to them, unlike those who had quit working, and were sponging off the other Christians. And now in these verses he reminds them of the way he lived among them. He is able to use his example to challenge those who were taking advantage of others to stop being a burden on the congregation.
2. Don't Be a Busybody.... Work (vs. 12)
So again, if a person is a Christian, he should be busy but not a busybody. In other words - work, if able, to take care of his own needs. Because as the old saying goes, idle hands are the devil's workshop. Work is a protection from temptation. Have you noticed how much more corrupt our society has become as the emphasis on work has decreased and the pursuit of pleasure and entertainment has increased?
In the early 1800’s farmers didn’t have time for pornography. They were too exhausted to riot. Their work kept them from all kinds of iniquity. That’s part of the problem in our inner cities, not all of it but part of it. Work is a protection. Most of us can’t handle very much idleness without getting ourselves into trouble.
Think back. Did you get into more trouble when you were actively doing something productive? Or was it when you were not doing anything, and a crazy idea came into your head? Of course, its worse if you are with someone else who isn't doing anything who influences you to participate in some scheme or activity that you know you shouldn't do.
The devil takes advantage of whatever opportunity he has. And those opportunities grow if we are sitting around with idle hands. In verse eleven Paul says, “We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies.” (NIV)
This is not the first time that this problem had to be addressed. Verse ten says, “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” And even in the first letter, I Thessalonians 4:11 they were told, “to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.”
Lazy people even have a shoe named after them: loafers. And as they loaf around, they start to be busy with other people's business, not their own. Here they are told: Get to work! But they were like one man who said, “Hard work may not kill me, but why take a chance?” Or like the man who was applying for a job. The manager reviewing the application said, “I’m sorry I can’t hire you, but there isn’t enough work to keep you busy.” The applicant quickly responded, “You’d be surprised how little it takes.”
Paul, when talking about those for whom the church should provide care, warns Timothy in I Timothy 5:13 to be careful, because if not administered properly he says, “And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not.”
There is no reason that the Christians who were taking responsibility for themselves should have to take care of someone else who is able bodied and able to take care of themselves. So the question is, were some thinking that since Jesus is returning soon that all they had to do was sit around and wait? Or were they just plain lazy?
Years ago, missionaries to China spoke of “rice Christians”. What they meant was that if the missionary would give food (usually rice), to people, they would participate as Christians. But when the food supply was cut off they seemed to lose their so called faith.
That's why we need to be careful in the charity we offer to others. I like the way Watered Gardens in Joplin provides care to people in need. Their plan is to give a hand up, not a hand out by requiring the person to learn how to earn what they receive. In other words, to have some skin in the game. Otherwise a person becomes accustomed to getting, and never doing anything. That kind of welfare creates a lazy person.
Paul says, if they don't work, they don't eat.
But in the middle of this is the command to not grow weary in doing good. That's because there are those who truly are unable to care for themselves. There are people in circumstances that make it impossible for them to work. It may be because of a disability or other real issue or problem.
Scripture always tells us to care for those in need, to be Good Samaritans. And James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
The New Living Translation makes it more plain. It is not just visiting, but “caring for orphans and widows in their distress”. And the NIV has it, “to look after orphans and widows in their distress”. When there are true needs to be met we should not grow weary in doing good.
3. Don't Keep Company With the Disobedient... Admonish (vs. 15)
But third, because there are people who misuse the generosity of goodhearted people, there is one more command. We are not to keep company with the disobedient (vs. 14). Yet as verse fifteen says we should, “not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
Why should you stay away from lazy people? Because their attitude could “rub off” on you. The church in Thessalonica was turning into a welfare center for the lazy. What we are being told here is, “Keep going, don’t conform to the wrong things; but keep pushing for that which is good.”
Of course, the ultimate good would be that those who are being lazy and disobedient would turn from their ways and become productive and helpful to the whole congregation.
That should be the plan in any attempt to correct or discipline anyone for any reason. The purpose is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change. Sometimes we may think we are so right that whatever we do or say is justified. But if there is no purpose for eventual reconciliation, it does not meet biblical standards.
Jesus had a lot to say about the Scribes and the Pharisees, often calling them hypocrites. Of course, that is what they were. But when He was on the cross He prayed, “Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do.”
Before that He had looked at the city of Jerusalem and in Matthew 23:37 said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
That's the reason He went to the cross, because as He said in John 12:32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” He went to that cross because without it, you and I would still be in our sins, no matter how much work we did, or how many good things we have done.
The apostle Paul asked the church in Thessalonica to follow his example. It was a good one for any of us to emulate. But we have an even better example to follow. It is Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Because in spite of the pain and agony of the cross He did what is good for us.
He is the “author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2-3)
It is by God's grace that we can be saved. And then, once we are Christians, “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
So as the Lord gives us opportunities to do what is right and good, let us not grow weary in doing the good He has for us to do.
CLOSE:
Roberto Duran, a boxer from Panama, had a famous trilogy of fights with Sugar Ray Leonard, the welterweight champion at the time. In the first fight, Roberto won and he became a hero in his homeland of Panama.
But in their rematch, Leonard threw Duran a curveball and fought him differently. He didn't fight him toe-to-toe like the first fight. He changed his strategy and used his maneuvering skills to move around and tag Duran with his jabs. Duran was angry because he wasn't able to catch him and pummel him. His frustration caused him to quit toward the end of the eighth round, telling the referee, "No Mas" which means, "no more".
Although some people still supported him back home, many of his countrymen despised him for quitting. He went from hero to zero overnight. To this day, Roberto Duran is probably best known, not for his accomplishments, but for the infamous “No Mas” fight. Right or wrong, that moment of giving up had long-lasting negative consequences for Roberto.
Roberto Duran trained for the fight with Leonard, and he started the fight. But he gave up in the eighth round.
What will people say about us? Will they be able to say we never grew weary in doing good? Giving up can have eternal consequences for us.
