November 10, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 2 Thessalonians? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Thessalonians 3 (NIV)
Request for Prayer
1 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. 2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.….Continue Reading
This chapter made me think of the world’s mentality that we see a bit too much of in the younger generation which is a desire to do as little work as possible for the biggest paycheck. It is a societal view that is tearing down standards of quality and customer service. somehow showing up constitutes work! Well Paul is making it clear that we get out what we put in as it should be not just in actual work but in our relationship with God as well. We don’t just show up and expect Him to take care of everything we do our due diligence to obey, pray, dig into His words and then we will see the blessing through the knowledge and wisdom He provides.
I remind my kids all the time that “idle hands are the devil’s workshop”. When we sit stagnant, feeling we deserve a “break” is when Satan creeps in and we are vulnerable to end up doing things that not of God, things based on selfishness, pride, and ruled by emotion rather than obedience.
Verse 3: “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.”
Paul encourages the believers here with a reminder of God’s faithfulness to His promises. Memorizing these promises has been so helpful for me in my Walk with Christ. James 4:7-8 is perhaps one of the shortest, yet most encouraging promises of God…”Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (8) Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” What more do we need than is contained in these two verses? But I find it is important to remind myself that these promises start with a command…”submit yourselves therefore to God.” Whenever I am struggling, I have to stop and ask myself…and I submitted to God? Or am I demanding my own way, seeking to follow my own desires, and potentially sinning against God in the process? If I am in willful sin, why should I find assurances in God’s promises?? But when I submit to God, confess my sin, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” THEN, I can come before God in confidence and with a clear conscience, and have assurance, faith, and trust that His promises are true!
To be clear…this is not a suggestion that somehow we earn our promises from God. God’s love is free to us, everlasting, and we will never be cast out by Christ, nor can we do ANYTHING to earn His love, grace and mercy. But if I am engaging in sin…I am actively walking away from God, well, He is still true, as are His promises…but if I am giving myself to sin, I should not expect to find assurance in those promises. I cannot serve two masters! But when I submit to God, I find His peace. I find His assurance. And the Spirit of adoption within me cries out “Abba, Father!” When I am submitted to Christ, my Lord, I experience intimacy with Him that knows no equal, and that intimacy flows out of me into all areas of my life.
Verses 14 and 15: “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. (15) Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer.”
Consistent with Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and others, it is clear he takes a very strong position about guarding the church from willful sin within its fellowship. Yet I love the grace he shows in his direction on how to deal with such sin. “Do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer.” Paul believed that true believers would turn from their sin in order to be welcomed back into the fellowship…and that it was the duty of every Christian to exhort each other to righteous living and devotion to Christ. Paul knew that harboring willful sin undercuts the testimony and power within a believer, and had the potential to even destroy a church from the inside (a little leaven…).
It is interesting to me that he says to warn them “as you would a fellow believer.” Is this because Paul is acknowledging that a person who is willfully opposing God’s call to righteous living may not in fact be a believer, despite their profession of faith? Again, we are helped by James’s letter and a verse that God used mightily in my life…2:17. “So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” And of course, a dead faith will not save. Ultimately, God calls us and equips us for training in godliness and the peaceful fruits of righteousness! When I submit myself to God, it is then that I feel most near to Him and experience His power in me.
Paul begins the last chapter of this short letter asking the Thessalonians to pray for him. In the same way he prayed for them for the advancement of the gospel and guarding them against evil people, he recognizes the same need in his life. He then warns them against idleness. We have responsibility in our spiritual lives as well as our physical lives and should work hard and with intentionality in both. We also need to be careful of the people we associate with because bad company does corrupt good morals and idleness in both aspects of life can rub off. That is not to say we shouldn’t come alongside people and seek to encourage them to not be idle, but if they refuse, then we should create distance from them. Paul set the example and the teaching to follow: he who does not work, does not eat. What a good lesson for many of our young ones today! And those who tend to be idle with time on their hands, tend to involve themselves in other peoples lives in a negative way. The best cure is to get busy with the good things so idle hands don’t become the devil’s workshop.
And because Paul believed that he was writing the word of God, he placed a high value on what he said and asked others to do the same. For those who didn’t, he encourages the same treatment as those who are idle. And when we distance ourselves from people, in the same spirit as church discipline, they need to take a look at themselves and recognize what is happening in the fellowship with people is happening with their fellowship with God. We do that because they are family, not because they are not. But family warns, protects and holds each other accountable as opposed to enabling and condoning disobedience and sin.
Because one of the desires God has for us is to be at peace, peace with God and peace with each other. And that peace is found in the Lord of peace and following the word that Paul has shared.
2 Thessalonians 3
3 ¶ But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.
4 And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you.
5 ¶ Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.
2Thessalonians 1-3
Paul asks for their prayers so that their preaching Christ may not be hindered and the Lord would be glorified. Then Paul calls to account that no one should be idle but should be working. He is giving them instruction that they are to follow his example for he worked with his own hands among them. In scripture we are given many examples of working hard so we may eat. Jesus Christ worked as a carpenter before He went into His teaching ministry but I am sure that He continued to use this skill in helping others as it is shown in the series The Chosen when He was fixing a wagon for someone. Our Lord was not idle for He was praying or ministering in some way even when He was weary. He got tired like us and needed sleep. Colossians 4;5 [ Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.] Colossians 3;23 [ And whatever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.] Philippians 2;4-7 [ Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But made Himself of no reputation, and took the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.] Or the words of Christ. Matthew 16;24b [ If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.] And earlier in 1 Thess 4;11 [ And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.] To name a few how we are not to be idle. May God bless us all.
When we are feeling down, discouraged, anxious and fearful, it is important to remember that the Lord is always with us, and he will strengthen and protect us from the lies of the evil one. Stay grounded in truth even if we don’t feel it, feelings aren’t facts but God’s word is.