For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
2 Thessalonians 3:6-15
As Christians love one another, we are to help meet the needs of others and even to serve them. In our verses today, in addition to loving others through our work, Paul charges us to work hard in our callings. Paul criticizes those who “walk in idleness” and who are “not busy at work.” Knowing the kind of hard working man Paul was, it is not difficult to see why he would be unhappy with those who do not labor diligently. Failing to work diligently at our assigned tasks is an unloving act toward our coworkers, forcing them to pick up the slack. A failure to work hard is a failure to love our employers and supervisors as we are commanded to do. Paul has stern words for those who refuse to work, even having the church to show discretion and wisdom in attending to those who are in need. Simply put, those who are not willing to work should not eat. Obviously, those unable to work by illness, severe disability, or those who are diligently searching for work but have been unable to find it are among the needy to serve. God’s people are to be generous toward the ill, the infirm, and those who are seeking to find work but who cannot find it on account of things beyond their control. Deacons and elders in the church must extend assistance wisely, not closing their hearts to the needy but also encouraging those who are able to live up to the high work ethic revealed in Scripture. Believers should be the best workers of all no matter the vocation to which they are called, for we have been given powerful motivations for our labors: the love of neighbor and the glory of God. A 16th century theologian commented, Believers “should be intent upon their calling, and devote themselves to lawful and honorable employments, without which the life of man is of a wandering nature.” God’s command to love our neighbors is not an abstract principle or a call to mere sentiment. We are to love our neighbors concretely, and that love is to be shown even when we are at work in our vocations. We should be asking ourselves if others would see us as diligent workers.
Source: S C Ball March 16, 2024
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