1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 - Work From Love
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Introduction:
Work. What word comes to your mind when think about work?
Taxing?
Boring?
Hard?
Fear?
Is our understanding of work Biblical in today’s church? Do we really understand what God thinks about diligent work?
And why in the world is today’s sermon putting the word work and love in the same phrase? What does love have to do with work? Aren’t those two words antonyms - opposites?
Today we are going to dive into a Biblical understanding of work. We are going to see the church in Thessalonica have a few people struggling with a Biblical understand of work, and we are going to see Paul teach through this. Join me as we seek to understand God’s plan and purpose for work in our lives as we study his letter to the Thessalonians.
Lets look at our text for today:
Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,
for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,
and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,
so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
Let us pray.
Prayer.
Today we are going to discuss three aspects of diligent work unto the Lord. The first is:
I. As Followers of Christ, We Should Seek To Worship God Through… Why We Work (9-10)
I. As Followers of Christ, We Should Seek To Worship God Through… Why We Work (9-10)
Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,
Paul has spent the entire first 3 chapters of this book with positive affirmations for the church in Thessalonica. However, he spent the first part of chapter 4 addressing an issue regarding sexual immorality which we discussed last week.
As he prepares to call out a select few in the church that had a struggle with diligence in work, he comments on those who are doing well in this area first.
He brings up those who worship and glorify God well through their love for one another.
However, he wants them to realize that this love that they have for their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ isn’t just a natural born love. It is a love that they have been taught by God Himself. And this love mentioned here - is philadelphia - or as shown here - brotherly love.
This Greek word for love normally referred to love for the members of a family during Biblical times. It usually wasn’t used to describe love outside of familial relationships. Yet, Paul used this word time and time again when discussing the love between fellow believers. This is because believers in Christ are spiritually and eternally closer in family than blood relatives who are not in Christ. Once you have repented of your sins - believed, trusted, and put your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation - the One who took our punishment that we deserved for our sins on the cross, died, was buried, and rose again - and become a born again believer and follower of Christ - then you are adopted into the family of God. You are called a joint heir with Christ in Scripture.
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Obviously we are not equal to Christ. He is exalted above all as we see time and time again in Scripture. However, as believers, we are part of the family of God.
Let that sink in for a moment. We are sons and daughters of the King. We are sons and daughters of the God who created the universe. We are sons and daughters of the most powerful Being ever - the one who has no beginning or end. That God - that King - loves us and desires a relationship with us.
Brothers and sisters, if that doesn’t get your blood pumping and get you excited about our life in Christ, I’m not sure what will. You are loved, chosen, protected, and pursued. Our God never loses those who are His.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Jesus Christ stands by you in protection. He will discipline you when you stray. I thank my God so much for that discipline. Because that discipline reminds me that I am His. And He will comfort you when you repent and return to Him. How beautiful is our Savior!
And this wonderful Savior calls us to love others well. And that brings us to the why of working for Him.
We work for God’s glory. We love others because He first loves us (1 John 4:19).
God is glorified by believers who diligently work for His glory. Those who sacrificially give of their time and energy, finances, and efforts for others and for the kingdom of God worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
And this work is always stretching to us as believers. It is hard, but it is necessary. D. Michael Martin in his commentary on Thessalonians says:
“But the nature of Christian love is such that it is always practiced, never mastered.”
D. Michael Martin
for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,
My friends, none of us will ever arrive when it comes to loving God or our brothers and sisters. But we are encouraged by Paul to continue on more and more as we see at the end of verse 10. This same phrase was seen in our last section of Scripture when Paul asked and urged the Thessalonian church to purse holiness and walk pleasing to God. He tells this church and us as well - to pursue brotherly love in the same way. Don’t be satisfied where you are - keep pressing onward.
We have now seen the ‘why’ of work. We work to glorify God. We work because we have been saved by Jesus Christ. We work because we love Christ and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
However, in the next two verses we are going to begin to practically flesh out how we are to glorify God and love our brothers and sisters through our work and how that reveals Christ to the world.
First...
Scripture References: Romans 8:17, John 10:28, 1 John 4:19
II. As Followers of Christ, We Should Seek to Worship God Through… The Way That We Work (11)
II. As Followers of Christ, We Should Seek to Worship God Through… The Way That We Work (11)
and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,
There are three practical instructions given in verse 11. Paul ends the verse with letting the church know that he and his colleagues already discussed this while they were with them. The first of these is to:
1. Aspire to live quietly.
This first practical command is that they are to have peaceful relations with others. We glorify God through our peacemaking with others. Have you ever worked with someone who was always stirring up strife? They were always talking about something and never seemed to take a breath for someone else to speak. They dominated conversations and ruffled feathers just about everywhere they went? Maybe you work with one of those people now! Hopefully you aren’t that person!
Those are usually the people that you do your best to avoid. They are trouble-makers and are usually not trustworthy.
Paul is letting the church know that they need to be sure to not be like those people. They need to slow to speak as we see in James 1:19:
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
Quiet and peaceful believers are not to the first ones to speak at every opportunity. They take in what is around them and then speak in wisdom. They also are calculated with their words:
When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
Being quick to speak is a self-control problem as well. As we discussed last week that sexual immorality is a self-control problem - this is just as much so. Listen to Paul’s admonishment here and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grow in this area.
My friends, if we want to have good relationships with others while we work to glorify Christ, we must aspire, or seek diligently after - peace.
Let us live quietly and peaceably.
Next he commands us to...
2. Mind your own affairs.
Here we see a call to respect the privacy of others. Some may take this too far in that we should not be involved in anything that doesn’t involve us directly. In cases where someone is being oppressed or bullied, we do have an obligation in some cases - as directed by the Holy Spirit - to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before our God as we see in Micah 6:8. That is not what Paul is pressing in on here. He is encouraging them to respect the privacy of others and not be gossips or busybodies.
This advice runs hand in hand with the last command that Paul just gave. Believers should not be unnecessarily creating familial, social, political, and workplace disturbances. Note the word unnecessarily there. We should always first seek to make peace with others. We are not to go around trying to convert everyone to our way of thinking or convert them to our idea to make our place of work or home better. Our command from Jesus Christ is not to go into all of the world and make them disciples of a particular way of thinking or of a business plan or model. He commands us to go into all of the world and preach the Gospel - making disciples.
We should do our best to be peacemakers and mind our own affairs whenever possible.
Our heart should be to love others - and the best way we can do that is through our actions and through sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with them.
Third we see Paul tell us to...
3. Work with your hands.
This is an interesting command from Paul as during the time that he is writing this letter, Roman culture despised any manual labor. Manual labor was done by slaves and lower class persons. So to command the Thessalonians to be working with their hands was very counter-cultural.
I can’t think of any direct correlations in our culture regarding this - but it would be something like me telling all of you to go home and knit your own sweaters for winter. It would seem out of left field for how we do clothes in America. By doing clothes I mean buying them from a store! Frankly, there are probably only a couple of people in here that would even know how to do so!
Or I could say that each of you needs to change your own engine oil for your vehicle. Some of us here can do that! I’m much more apt to do that than the last example!
But see Paul’s heart here. He encourages them to not think that anything is beneath them.
Work with your hands. Get them dirty.
Praise the Lord we live in a society and culture that, although has become more and more secularized, we still have some strong roots in Biblical Christianity. Working with our hands is still, for the most part, a respected thing in our culture.
Paul was in a great position of authority and influence to teach the Thessalonians about the value of hard work. If you recall, he was a tentmaker and used this manual labor job to support much of his ministry. He knew what is was like to have calloused hands from hard labor.
This final command of verse 11 is the most practical way to prevent breaking the first two commands of this verse. If one is busy working with his or her hands and is busy providing for the family, taking care of the home, taking care of the children - then it is really hard to be a gossip or busybody. It is difficult to be interfering with the affairs of others and interrupting their work and life when you are working diligently with the tasks God has called you to.
Brothers and sisters, we need to be a people focused on our own work from God. Sadly, those most critical of others and most involved in gossip about others have their houses and jobs in the most disarray. May we be a people of peace and hard work. I pray that each of us glorifies Christ in the labor that He has given us. Whether we are in the workplace, in the home, or even retired - we all have work that we are to be doing for Christ.
I pray that we spend less time interfering with others and more time seeking the Lord and the work that He has for us.
Before leaving this topic in his letter, Paul finishes with the following point...
Scripture References: James 1:19, Proverbs 10:19, Micah 6:8
III. As Followers of Christ, We Should Seek to Worship God Through… The Witness of Our Work (12)
III. As Followers of Christ, We Should Seek to Worship God Through… The Witness of Our Work (12)
so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
Quick Disclaimer:
Before diving into and expounding some of the issues brought up in this verse, I want us to understand something first. The Bible does not shy away from the fact that the church should be serving one another. There are times when we need help. And we are to be there for one another. There is no shame in needing help at times. There is no shame in aging and getting to the point where you cannot do what you used to be able to do. There is no shame in having medical conditions that keep you from being able to provide like you used to. There is no shame in needing to ask for advice. There is no shame in occasionally needing financial help in times of hardship.
The Bible is full of grace and mercy to us. So as we go through this difficult subject regarding the witness of our work - I pray that you accept God’s grace and mercy if you fall into one of those categories or one like it. Yet, I pray that the discipline of God is felt for those who might be under the condemnation that this verse and parallel verses might bring. I pray that anyone convicted by this section repents and turns from their sin and turns toward the mercy of God. And I pray that they glorify Christ through the witness of their work.
Getting back to our verse:
What Paul is mentioning here is a problem that had arisen in the church of Thessalonica. If you haven’t read his second letter, you might actually miss this problem entirely in this section. But notice that he is now talking about their appearance to outsiders and warning against being dependent on others.
What had happened to a select few in this church is that they had gotten so focused on eternity that they quit working and providing for their families. They became freeloaders per se. They had become idle.
See his words in 2 Thess 3:11
For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.
These people were not working with their hands as we saw in verse 11. They were doing exactly opposite of minding their own affairs and living peaceably.
And this idleness and freeloading was bringing reproach to Christ.
It wasn’t that they were more holy than others by focusing on Jesus’ second coming. Frankly they were less so! They had just figured that there was no reason to really do much else because it was all going to be for nothing anyway. They had the idea that there was no reason to pay off debts, feed their family, and invest for the future if Jesus was about to come back soon.
My friends, if unbelievers who are working to provide for their families, see believers being idle and busybodies, how is that going to affect the spread of the Gospel? Our witness to outsiders is extremely important.
Those with strong work ethics who do their jobs thoroughly and well - are beacons of light to a world that likes to cut corners.
Just think of Chic-fil-a today. Obviously we have seen them pull back a little regarding overt Christian positions, but they have been a beacon of light to an industry that seeks to cut corners whenever able to make profit. And through their diligent efforts and quality products, they have become the most profitable fast food chain per location in the world. In 2019 they brought in an average of 4.1 million dollars per store location. Compare that to the largest fast food chain - McDonald's - which brought in 2.7 million dollars per location.
Church, we need to be a beacon of light to the world around us. And we do this through our example and witness. One way we show the world that we are different is by working in such a way that we bring God glory.
We have addressed the importance of our witness as seen in verse 12 - but look at the end as well:
so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
Paul had told the church to work with their hands and now he gives the reason for working so diligently - so that you will be dependent on no one.
Again, I would caution you to avoid the sin of pride here. There is a heart that will not ask for help when one needs it. There is a heart that thinks that one can truly be completely self-sufficient. We understand through Scripture that we are never self-sufficient. We are dependent on Christ for everything. And He chooses to use the body of Christ and the people of Christ to help us throughout our walk with Him.
But what Paul is warning against here again is idleness. Let’s revisit Paul’s second letter to this church again but go back one verse than before. Paul says:
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
Wow. Tough verse! Sadly this verse sounds overtly political today. But that is not how it should sound to us as believers. Followers of Christ should be hard workers and diligent workers. We should be sacrificial. We should seek to help others and not be freeloaders who expect others to do everything for us.
Paul’s pointed words do not stop here. Listen to what he says in 1 Timothy 5:8
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
This verse is specifically targeted toward men, but we can understand that all of us need to glorify God by our labor for Him - whether it in the workplace or in the home. Paul compares those who are idle and unwilling to work as those who have denied the faith and are worse than an unbeliever.
That is some difficult teaching my friends!
Some may hear a verse like this and balk that there is a works-righteousness component to this teaching. However, you will be hard-pressed to find someone who celebrated grace more than Paul himself.
The real heart of this issue comes down to one thing and one thing alone. Paul even started off this section of Scripture discussing it. And that one thing is love.
The great pastor of old nicknamed ‘Golden Mouth’ - John Chrysostom stated:
‘For it is a mark of love to our neighbors not to receive from them, but to impart to them.’
John Chrysostom
Followers of Christ are marked by love. They are marked by love for God first and foremost and then love for their neighbor. Those who do not love their neighbor and show this by being idle and freeloading off of them are in great danger.
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
You may not say that you hate your brother. But it is hatred toward your brother to sit by in idleness while he or she does all of the work. There is no love in slothfulness and laziness.
In fact, the Proverbs warn against the sluggard 14 times and slothfulness 3 times. Scripture provides plenty of exposition that would lend for a sermon series on laziness verses diligence in work.
Hard work is a big deal to God.
Church, may we be a people that exalts Christ through our witness by being diligent workers for His glory. May we fight against laziness and work through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Scripture References: 2 Thessalonians 3:11, 2 Thessalonians 3:10, 1 Timothy 5:8, 1 John 4:20, Genesis 1-2
Conclusion:
As we come to a close, I pray that we all have a better understanding how important our work is to God. He is a God of work. He has made everything that we see! He continues to be intimately involved with His creation. He continues working in us and through us through the Holy Spirit. And He has created us in His image as seen in Genesis 1 and 2 to do work on earth. Work is not the curse. Work became harder because of the curse. But we were to work before sin ever entered the world. Knowing that work is a gift and responsibility given by God...
May We Worship God and Glorify God Through:
Why We Work
The Way That We Work
The Witness of Our Work
Let us pray.
Prayer
If you would like to learn more about salvation through Jesus Christ or want to obey Jesus by obeying the first commandment of a believer in going through the waters of baptism - please let me know.
Have a blessed week.