Working Well as Warfare
From 2 Thessalonians 3…
6 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 [a]he received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread [b]free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, 9 not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now those who are such we command and [c]exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.
13 But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. 14 And if anyone does not obey our word in this [d]epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Yet do not count him as an enemy, but [e]admonish him as a brother.
16 Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.
17 The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every [f]epistle; so I write.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
I got to know a successful businessman over several years who declined to vocally associate his work with the Christian faith. In fact, he was suspicious of those who did so. He saw them drawing themselves around a boss who was an outspoken Christian by such means. He also saw those who identified their Christianity with their work in this setting trying to make up for a lack of diligence with sudden spasms of a sense of crisis.
Paul speaks to such dissonance as he closes out his second letter to the Thessalonians. Expecting the imminent return of Jesus has led some who assemble with the church there to decline to put any priority on diligent work. We saw last week Paul's confidence in the power of discipling example in the hands of Christ. When they are tempted by the culture around them which cheapens work, verses seven through 10 serve as a summons to the power of personal memories. We worked hard as a part of our testimony for Christ though we had other options, Paul says. You do the same.
Verse 11, along with the scathing appraisal of the businessman I knew, offer a cautionary tale. When Christians don't see hard, enthusiastic work as an extension of our testimony, we are testifying to the opposite. We are, in fact, testifying to our laziness as our god. That testimony already confirms the worldly belief that working is a necessary evil. That untestimony reinforces the assumptions many in the world have about Christians, that we are too Heavenly minded to be any earthly good. Worse, bad work in Christ's Name might offer Exhibit A that we cover our self-interested laziness and entitlement in religious language. Since what they see in bad Christian work snaps in place with existing assumptions, examples travel, and Paul says so. Whatever the distance that now separates him from Thessalonica, he has heard, he says in verse 11, about those who refuse to work hard.
So, if the message that the Gospel erodes the work ethic travels so readily along the world's pre-existing circuitry, if it resonates so well with what non-Christians already think, what overwhelming marketing blitz must the Lord have in mind to defend His brand in the marketplace, and the marketplace of ideas? Not for the only time, when the world claims the places of highest influence, He claims the lowly to work with. Not for the only time, when the world claims the loud, He claims the soft and the subtle.
The essence of His marketing plan of His own re-engaging the workplace? Walk in quietness and eat your bread is the whispered challenge of verse 12 that we, and much of the world along with us, must strain to hear. Our tendency to counter noise with noise, bad reputation with carefully packaged and presented reputation is taken back to the workbench. The Gospel advances in its cosmic struggle, apparently, one worker at a time, one job at a time. When one who claims to follow Christ stops surfing the Internet or complaining to a coworker and puts his or her all into the job at hand, the universe begins to tilt just a little with the glory of God.
What kind of revolution is Christ running here, anyway? Don't He and this Paul fellow know there is a culture war going on, a battle for the souls of those who supposedly win by working quietly? Both are aware of the stakes in the marketplace, for the Holy Spirit knowingly inspires Paul in verse 13 to speak to those brothers in Christ defying the gravity of laziness and cynicism there. If the world will be changed by those He flips from laziness to a sense of vocational purpose, the Word also doesn't neglect reinforcing those defying the culture and working with the right motives. Don't grow weary, Paul says. Your work is noticed. It matters. It is, in fact, a quiet act of war.
The Christ focus of those moments when we are, in fact, working enthusiastically for Him is worth enough that Paul would preserve it by strong means. He says in the next verse we can't risk contaminating a focus on God's glory in our work by entangling our hearts with those who claim poor workmanship is part of their Christian ministry. When we speak to the laziness-as-ministry crowd with a testimony of heartfelt work behind us, those words of caution will be reinforced by the work lives we live. Our occasional words ABOUT work will flow from our ACTUAL work, offering instances of integrated testimony.
Verse 16 is a solid pier from which to occasionally as led reach out to someone drowning in a culture of purposeful mediocrity. Whether we change someone's mind in that instance or not, Paul closes with a flourish. Christ is our peace, Christ and not converts, Christ and not a formal or informal reckoning of work influence, Christ always and in every way. Individualized accounting of work worth is so little to be valued that Paul is willing in verse 17 to draw attention to the fact that he doesn't minister in isolation, that the very writing of the Word of God is a credit of grace to be shared with other people. This is grace, proclaims verse 18, which he can afford to give away far and wide. The free gift of Christ's purposes in his work, and ours, doesn't belong to us anyway
6 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 [a]he received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread [b]free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, 9 not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now those who are such we command and [c]exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.
13 But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. 14 And if anyone does not obey our word in this [d]epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Yet do not count him as an enemy, but [e]admonish him as a brother.
16 Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.
17 The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every [f]epistle; so I write.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
I got to know a successful businessman over several years who declined to vocally associate his work with the Christian faith. In fact, he was suspicious of those who did so. He saw them drawing themselves around a boss who was an outspoken Christian by such means. He also saw those who identified their Christianity with their work in this setting trying to make up for a lack of diligence with sudden spasms of a sense of crisis.
Paul speaks to such dissonance as he closes out his second letter to the Thessalonians. Expecting the imminent return of Jesus has led some who assemble with the church there to decline to put any priority on diligent work. We saw last week Paul's confidence in the power of discipling example in the hands of Christ. When they are tempted by the culture around them which cheapens work, verses seven through 10 serve as a summons to the power of personal memories. We worked hard as a part of our testimony for Christ though we had other options, Paul says. You do the same.
Verse 11, along with the scathing appraisal of the businessman I knew, offer a cautionary tale. When Christians don't see hard, enthusiastic work as an extension of our testimony, we are testifying to the opposite. We are, in fact, testifying to our laziness as our god. That testimony already confirms the worldly belief that working is a necessary evil. That untestimony reinforces the assumptions many in the world have about Christians, that we are too Heavenly minded to be any earthly good. Worse, bad work in Christ's Name might offer Exhibit A that we cover our self-interested laziness and entitlement in religious language. Since what they see in bad Christian work snaps in place with existing assumptions, examples travel, and Paul says so. Whatever the distance that now separates him from Thessalonica, he has heard, he says in verse 11, about those who refuse to work hard.
So, if the message that the Gospel erodes the work ethic travels so readily along the world's pre-existing circuitry, if it resonates so well with what non-Christians already think, what overwhelming marketing blitz must the Lord have in mind to defend His brand in the marketplace, and the marketplace of ideas? Not for the only time, when the world claims the places of highest influence, He claims the lowly to work with. Not for the only time, when the world claims the loud, He claims the soft and the subtle.
The essence of His marketing plan of His own re-engaging the workplace? Walk in quietness and eat your bread is the whispered challenge of verse 12 that we, and much of the world along with us, must strain to hear. Our tendency to counter noise with noise, bad reputation with carefully packaged and presented reputation is taken back to the workbench. The Gospel advances in its cosmic struggle, apparently, one worker at a time, one job at a time. When one who claims to follow Christ stops surfing the Internet or complaining to a coworker and puts his or her all into the job at hand, the universe begins to tilt just a little with the glory of God.
What kind of revolution is Christ running here, anyway? Don't He and this Paul fellow know there is a culture war going on, a battle for the souls of those who supposedly win by working quietly? Both are aware of the stakes in the marketplace, for the Holy Spirit knowingly inspires Paul in verse 13 to speak to those brothers in Christ defying the gravity of laziness and cynicism there. If the world will be changed by those He flips from laziness to a sense of vocational purpose, the Word also doesn't neglect reinforcing those defying the culture and working with the right motives. Don't grow weary, Paul says. Your work is noticed. It matters. It is, in fact, a quiet act of war.
The Christ focus of those moments when we are, in fact, working enthusiastically for Him is worth enough that Paul would preserve it by strong means. He says in the next verse we can't risk contaminating a focus on God's glory in our work by entangling our hearts with those who claim poor workmanship is part of their Christian ministry. When we speak to the laziness-as-ministry crowd with a testimony of heartfelt work behind us, those words of caution will be reinforced by the work lives we live. Our occasional words ABOUT work will flow from our ACTUAL work, offering instances of integrated testimony.
Verse 16 is a solid pier from which to occasionally as led reach out to someone drowning in a culture of purposeful mediocrity. Whether we change someone's mind in that instance or not, Paul closes with a flourish. Christ is our peace, Christ and not converts, Christ and not a formal or informal reckoning of work influence, Christ always and in every way. Individualized accounting of work worth is so little to be valued that Paul is willing in verse 17 to draw attention to the fact that he doesn't minister in isolation, that the very writing of the Word of God is a credit of grace to be shared with other people. This is grace, proclaims verse 18, which he can afford to give away far and wide. The free gift of Christ's purposes in his work, and ours, doesn't belong to us anyway
Comments
Post a Comment