II Thessalonians 3:6-15
ICE BREAKER
Think of a time you experienced someone doing a good job on your behalf. How did you feel when that happened? Next, think about a time when someone did a poor job on your behalf. How did that feel?
These reflections tell us the importance of work. Your work has an impact on your community.
We also see that work has a lot to do with relationships with others as well.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Examine how you work and why you work.Is it honorable and life-giving? If not, what needs to change?
Share with the group one life-giving way you work and one area where your work tends not to be life giving.
How has God helped you get traction toward life-giving work? Let’s learn from one another and let’s celebrate what God’s Spirit is doing in us.
Group leaders: consider praying together as a group after the sharing is complete.
- In II Thessalonians 3:11 Paul contrasts the positive of being busy at work with the negative of being a busybody. A busybody is someone who meddles. To meddle is to complain, to whine, to criticize.So, the problem is that we can work hard all week and be a busybody at the same time because of our grumbling attitude.
Paul, in II Thessalonians 3:12 urges us to do our work quietly. The word “quietly” is in contrast to the busybody–the one who complains.
Do you grumble, complain and whine regarding your work? Or, do you talk about incompentent leadership?
Do you try to get away with as little work as possible?
Share your answers with the group and then reflect on what we lose when we do this and what the community loses as well. Allow God’s Spirit to invite you to something better in your work. Confession in the context of community opens the door for God’s Spirit to invite change.
NOTES AND QUOTES
A common approach in our culture toward work is the mindset that says If you don’t love what you do, then do something else.
Some people view their work as drudgery; others see their work solely as a source of making money.
Work can also be viewed merely as a status symbol.
Let’s counter these views by fostering a biblical view of work.
Work has dignity. Work was part of man’s life before the fall and it will be a part of our lives for eternity.
Paul begins with a warning in II thessalonians 3:6: “…keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness…”.
So, he does not merely say don’t be idle, he says “keep away from” a brother who is idle. So, right away we see a relationship between the community and the role of work.
Work is never separate from the community.
Paul wants us to think beyond ourselves. Our work impacts our community.
Prov 18:9 states, “The one who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys.”.
In II Thessolonians 3:9 Paul speaks of modeling through his own work.
His example is to work making tents in addition to the work of his ministry.
So, Paul is saying the work of those who do full time ministry is not the only important work. All work is important.
So, like Paul, when we work we need to ask ourselves:
Is the way I am working the way I would want a job done for me?
If everyone worked the way I work what would happen?
In 3:11 he contrasts the positive of being busy at work with the negative of being a busybody. A busybody is someone who meddles. To meddle is to complain, to whine, to criticize.
What if you work in a job and it’s hard and dirty? Paul answers this in 3:13 and exhorts us to not grow weary in doing good.
The good must never be abandoned. This is our post. We are called to work and we raise the banner of God with hard work in tough circumstances.
In 3:14-15 He says to have nothing to do with a person who does not obey so they will be ashamed.
Paul is now contrasting shame with honor.
So, we remove honor from a brother who is not working. This creates an opportunity for someone to see their sin.
We warn him as a brother rather than regard him as an enemy.
So, to practically work this out is to simply not join in when someone at work is slothful.
One task of life is to figure out our vocation,so, we ask two questions:
What do I want from the world?
What does the world want from me?
The question, “What I want from the world?” is the question our culture primarily thinks of.
God adds the second question: What does the world want from me?
Who are the people right around me and what do they need?
Who is right in front of me that I can bring life to through my work?
To know what the world wants from us is to ask who is willing to pay you for what you can offer.
