Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - A Biblical Perspective on Work | New Testament | 2 Thessalonians 3

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

Are you more prone to idleness or to busybody syndrome? In today's episode, Keith explores the importance of diligence and hard work in the Christian life. Join as Keithuncovers what 2 Thessalonians 3 discusses about work. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 2 Thessalonians 3

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I have a friend who got a seminary degree from a well-known school in Texas, and he told me that one of his professors had shared some hard-earned advice with his class. The professor asked the students if they had noticed that most of the professors at the school had second jobs. Like in addition to being a professor, some were pastors, or they did other jobs both inside and outside the church. Well, of course, every student had noticed, but they hadn't just noticed. They had also disgusted among themselves.

I mean, they wondered, did being a seminary professor not pay enough to cover the family's bills? The professor explained that when the faculty were young, many of them were part of Christian communities that believed that Jesus would return soon, so they hadn't bothered to save for retirement. They didn't think they would need it. Now as they approached retirement age and Jesus hadn't returned, they had to work extra hard to make up for life. lost time. That's similar to what's happening in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3. But before we get there, another story. In the 1840s, William Miller began preaching of Jesus' return and the end of the world, which he predicted would take place between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He had a lot of followers known as the Millerites, some estimate close to 100,000 followers. Now, these Millerites

expected Jesus to return soon, so they sold all their belongings and took to the mountains. waiting for the end to come. When Jesus did not return on schedule, well, William Miller changed the date and the movement morphed into the Seventh-day Adventist movement. William Miller was wrong, not only about when Jesus would return, but also about how we should live in light of his return. Those stories set up 2, 2nd Thessalonians Chapter 2, where Paul responded to a false report that Jesus had already come and that the believers who lived there had missed out. In 2, Thessalonians chapter 3, talks through the wrong response to that false report. Like the later Millerites, these Thessalonians had stopped working and carrying on their lives because they expected Jesus to return at any

moment. Here's chapter 3 verse 11. We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. See, this is a problem that Paul's confronting. He tells them, even if you're sure that Jesus was returning soon, you should go on working in the callings that God has giving you. In verse 13, he says, as for you brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. So, like I said, the main pastoral problem in Feslanica was that some church members remained idle instead of working to provide for themselves and their family and others in the community. The word translated as idleness can also mean unruly. Originally, it was a military term that described a soldier who got out of line. Here it applies to professing Christians who are not

living up to their obligations. Specifically, they were not working hard to provide for their own needs, but instead were relying on gifts from the church and other Christians. There are several possible reasons for their laziness. We know in that time of Greek culture, manual labor was looked down on as unworthy of a cultured man. But the most likely reason is linked to the other matter that Paul wrote about in the letter, namely the return of Christ. Like the attitude of the Millerites in the 19th century and that of many others before and after. The belief that Christ was about to appear had led these people to stop performing their duties and responsibilities.

Other Christians had to take care of them, and the rest of society thought of these people as being irresponsible and lazy. In addition, the people who refused to work were stirring up trouble. So in verse 11, Paul calls them busy bodies. And not only were they burdening the resources of the church, but they were also disrupting their fellow Christians. A busy body means they were meddling in the affairs of others and gossiping about them.

One commentator says they may well have considered themselves the more spiritual members of the church and seen it as their duty to reproach others for their lack of zeal. What is certain is because they weren't working, they had too much time on their hands, and they were using that time to cause problems. If you work hard to provide for yourself and to help out others who are in need, you don't have as much time or energy to cause problems. Verse 12. Now, such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

So first, Christians are to apply themselves to their work. Christians have various callings in the workplace and in the home. The duty of Christians is to work hard in these callings. Paul adds that we should do so quietly. What he means is that we should work without disrupting others. the very opposite of being a busy body. The aim of our work is to provide for ourselves and our families. And in this way, hardworking Christians fulfill the obligations in their life.

They avoid depleting the church's resources and they gain the respect of unbelievers in their community. Now, let's take a second to talk about how the Bible thinks about work differently than we do. Some people put their theology of work on their car in the form of a bumper sticker. Have you seen the one that says, I owe, I owe, so off to work I go? Well, that indicates that work has no real value other than to pay the bills. Or another bumper sticker says, work fascinates me. I can sit and watch it for hours. And another one says, I'd rather be fishing or playing golf or camping or whatever that person

prefers instead of work. But the message there is that work is to be avoided wherever possible. Now, in contrast, the very first worker in the Bible is God. God creates. And since we are made in his image, it should come as no surprise that we are workers too. And Genesis 215 says, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Work is not a punishment. It's a gift from God, and it's a way that we can image him. Work wasn't caused by the fall. No sin made work more difficult and more frustrating, but work is a gift that God gave us from the very beginning. And when Christ returns and establishes his kingdom, we will work, but we won't have to do so

under the consequences of sin. So Christians should do all our work, whether it's in the marketplace or the home or the church or the school or wherever, as something that God has called us to do. Paul writes in Colossians 3, whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Paul believes this is so important that he gets a little hardcore with the Thessalonians. Here's what he writes back in chapter 3 10, for even when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. Notice that this command pertains to those who were unwilling to work, not to those who were unable to work.

The church should gladly help those who are in a season of their life that they aren't able to provide for themselves. But when someone simply is not willing to do the work needed to provide for himself, then Paul's instruction is really clear, let him not eat. Now, I get that it's not always easy to distinguish between those who are unable to work and who are unwilling to work. Part of me wants to err on the side of grace and be generous with everyone. But part of me also realizes that enabling bad habits is not loving.

So why should people work hard? Well, we've seen in Second Thessalonians that we need to provide for ourselves and our families so we won't be a burden on others. And we've also seen that we should work because we are imaging God. God has given us work to do. But Ephesians 428 tells us another reason. It says, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. So another reason we do our work well is because it's one of the ways that we love our neighbor.

Think how much good that a nurse or a banker or a teacher or a police officer does through doing their work with excellence. Maybe the greatest reason to do our work well is because it glorifies God. We work to please him first and foremost. So let's close with the story that I heard from a reliable source. The story is told by a famous theologian about a Christian officer, worker who caught the eye of an executive in London. The executive would often pass by and notice how this one woman was working with so much more diligence than others. She was working faster, taking fewer

breaks, and just getting more things done. He finally asked someone in the office about the woman and was told, oh, that's Mildred. She's a Christian. After a few more weeks, the executive approached Mildred herself to discuss her work performance. And she told them, I'm a Christian and I serve Christ. I work heartily for him. That conversation led to that executive becoming a Christian. When you're faithful and your work, you don't know how God will use it. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up. It'll help you deepen your journey with Jesus.