By Jonathan Coates
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. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.
Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them, in order that they may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer.
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. (2 Thessalonians 3:6–16)
Waiting Well
Waiting can be hard, and how you wait makes all the difference. I have observed that waiting well is not a skill that comes naturally to us, but something that must be learned.
Small children have an extremely difficult time learning the skill of waiting for an adult’s attention. Teenagers struggle to wait for the freedom of being able to make all of their own decisions. Adults, you aren’t exempt. We have a hard time waiting well for the trivial (e.g., a restaurant that is taking far too long with the food) and the serious (e.g., the slow development of virtue in our lives, or time for the right financial decisions to bear fruit). Anything worth waiting for takes time, work, and patience.
It can be difficult to remain focused and patient in waiting for our Lord Jesus to come. With everything we see happening in the world, we can let the anxiety or intensity of the moment sweep us away. Jesus continues to say, “Hold on, stand firm, I am coming soon.” How we wait can reflect love or selfishness. It can be winsome to those who are still ignorant or unwilling to accept the gospel, or it can push them away. We can wait with confidence or with anxiety, with intention or with apathy.
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“You shouldn’t quit the mundane realities of life because Christ is coming soon.”
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Working Faithfully
In light of Paul’s instructions to the Thessalonian church, I want to delve into the extremely ordinary and practical matter of work. Many people spend their days waiting for the next day off from work. Nevertheless, we cannot have a full biblical discussion about standing firm while waiting for the Second Coming of Christ without speaking about work.
According to Paul, how we approach the mundane reality of work is inseparable from waiting for the Lord. It makes sense. Around one half of the total time we will spend waiting for the Lord is likely to be consumed by work of various kinds, whether paid work, the unpaid daily labor of life, or volunteerism. How are you going to behave in that amount of time?
The church in Paul’s day had an expectation that Christ was going to come in their lifetimes. This is why certain unwholesome habits developed. In the Thessalonians’ case, their expectation led to idleness. Idleness led to the disruption of the social order — not a good witness for Christ!
Yet, in one sense, you can understand the Thessalonians not as lazy but as misguided in their passionate expectation about the Second Coming.
I recall a well-meaning Sunday school teacher asking a group of young people a question. I am certain those of you who grew up in the church have been asked at some point, “What would you do if you knew Jesus was coming back in a month?”
Most people respond with some sort of righteous answer like “I would quit my job or school and go door to door everywhere telling people about the good news of Jesus.”
Of course, this question is usually used to compel people to act as if Christ were coming today, but it doesn’t really work. You shouldn’t quit the mundane realities of life because Christ is coming soon. Jesus Himself emphasizes faithfulness in the work laid before us. When the Master returns, He wants to find us about our assigned task. The Scriptures are clear. No one knows the day or hour. Therefore, even if we believe the Second Coming of Christ is soon, we should not act like the world is ending. Rather, we work faithfully.
Paul shares the Thessalonians’ expectation, yet his commands are: Work for what you eat, be a good citizen (do your part), and live a “quiet life.”
We first encounter the city of Thessaloniki in Acts 17, right after Paul and Silas leave the newly established church in Philippi. They went about establishing a church in Thessaloniki in the same way they did in most cities. They found a Jewish synagogue, and, over the course of three weeks, they taught that Jesus was the Christ from the Scriptures (those Scriptures being the Old Testament stories and prophecies).
They had a reasonable degree of success among the Jews and a significant measure of success among the Greeks. However, as often occurred where a new church was planted, some Jews were angry at the preaching of Paul. In this case, they stirred up a mob, which tried unsuccessfully to capture Paul and Silas, but did apprehend some of the new believers, dragging them before the city official while shouting these words of accusation, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying there is another king named Jesus” (NRSV).
Luke reports, “The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this.” The thrust of their accusation is that these people are not only religious zealots, but they are rejecting the established order to the degree that Rome is going to come in and put down this rabble. Knowing how Rome operates, the people fear they are all going to be punished with these Christians who are expecting their King to return soon.
Do you see how relevant and practical Paul’s instructions are? He left the believers in the midst of this unstable situation, and hearing reports of socially disruptive conduct in the church, he was concerned that the church might continue to harm itself and the advance of the gospel. It was for this reason that he sent Timothy back to check on them shortly thereafter. The context of Acts 17 tells us why Paul’s letter addresses a great deal of concern towards the matter of peace in the community.
He instructs the church in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life might win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” This is a parallel command to the exhortation Paul makes specifically to those who are idle and disruptive in the passage just read, 2 Thessalonians 3:12. I think the RSV captures better the use of the same Greek word from the command in 1 Thessalonians 4 when it translates the text as “Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living.”
Remember the charge the Thessalonian Jews brought forward: “These people are turning the world upside down!” Disorder would be particularly criticized among the believers, as everyone is going to be watching to see what crazy things happen among this new religious sect called Christians. If you are convinced that has changed in our culture, you need to have more conversations with non-Christians about faith. If you do, a large number of them are going to quickly inform you that they have been watching. Often, what they see among Christians, they do not like. How we wait for Christ matters.
In Thessaloniki, those who were idle and being busybodies in the community were likely to cause accusations of disruption for any number of reasons, but not least because the economy back then was more dependent on the cooperation of all in physical labor than today. If there were a few people not lending their hands to the farming, building, or other manual labor industries of the community, they would be missed. Imagine the city officials looking at the unemployment numbers (or their comparable report in those days) and finding out that a large number of the unemployed were Christians. What do you think happens.
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“How we wait for Christ matters.”
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How do you think the people of your town would react if they discovered your church was filled with those who quit their jobs and just gather for worship and gossip? I don’t think they would rise up in a mob as in Thessaloniki, but they certainly would view your church with greater distrust, and those who are working hard in the community would have a barrier between themselves and the gospel.
Paul says “no way” to those who “quit” their worldly occupations to anticipate the kingdom coming. He actually goes so far as to command the same kind of action against the idle person as he does in other places against those living in obvious sexual immorality. He says, “don’t share fellowship with them,” not because he wants to punish them, but because their redemption is important and because the holiness and reputation of the community of believers is that important. He also gives a rule, “He who shall not work, shall not eat.” (I often wonder if this command implies excommunication).
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“Let our work form and shape us into better kingdom people. “
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Working in Anticipation
Here is what I believe is at the center of the matter.
We work faithfully in anticipation of Christ’s coming, not in antipathy toward it. We don’t cease work or avoid work because Jesus is coming. We also don’t work for the things of this world. We work hard for the well-being of our community, to make inroads for the gospel, and to be found a faithful servant in the eternal kingdom we are inheriting.
Let our work form and shape us into better kingdom people. Let us use that work to do as much good as we can to all the people we can, with an eye ever to the heavenly storehouses, not our bank accounts. If we work in this way, we will always be ready for Jesus to come, and no one will be able to malign us or the gospel.
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