MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Reader: Ipe Mavunkal
Scripture: 2nd Thessalonians 2:13-3:15
Every person, whether a child or a parent, has had “tough love” applied to them at some point, when out of concern for one’s well-being, a figure of authority placed on that person rules, restrictions, or consequences for a wrong action. Contrary to how perfect I am now (ha!) I wasn’t always so, thus “groundings” were a constant in my childhood years as my parents administered tough love on me. However, I do know an individual, a grown adult, whose parents never employed tough love. When that person was a child and the parents attempted to get them to do something, if the child said they didn’t want to do it, the parents responded with, “That’s ok, you don’t have to do it.” The parents should have said, “We know it’s a challenge, but you need to do this, for your sake.” Because they didn’t, that person never learned how to swim, ski, skateboard, rollerblade, use a construction tool, vacuum a house, wash the dishes, drive a car, etc. By the time that person reached adulthood strong feelings of inadequacy and failure, as well as those of being unloved and unworthy of love filled their thinking. Tough love, not abusive behaviour, but tough love results in something good.
Today, we are going to look at some “tough love” words given by the apostle Paul. Now, as you know from previous sermons, Paul wrote two letters to the church in Thessalonica, northern Greece, because he was thankful for them – and concerned for them. He was thankful for their enthusiasm for the Gospel and that their faith in Jesus as Lord was strong. He was concerned that certain people had infiltrated the church after he left, claiming to have insider knowledge from Paul, particularly about the Second Coming of Christ. Paul’s concern was not just about the false statements they made but the damage they inflicted within the Thessalonians church. Paul had been clear on these issues in the first letter but not clear enough to counter the statements of the false teachers, apparently, so Paul wrote a second letter, saying this:
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers,not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way… Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? (2nd Thessalonians 2:1-3b, 5)
Earlier, Paul reminded the Thessalonians that Jesus had told his followers to be always watching, ready for His return for he would come “like a thief in the night”, i.e. unexpectedly. Those false teachers had convinced many in the Thessalonian church that there was no point in working because Jesus was coming imminently. So, they quit their jobs, gave up making money, and sat waiting for Jesus to return. Such a thing has happened throughout human history as many false teachers have predicted the exact day of Christ’s return. Several weeks ago, an influential pastor in South Africa convinced thousands of his followers that on September 23rd or 24th of this year Jesus would come back and take them to heaven. Those followers quit their jobs, sold all they had, and gathered on a mountain to wait for Jesus. But, after that date came and went and his followers were still on that mountain, now without jobs or food, the pastor stated that he hadn’t been incorrect, but had made a slight miscalculation in that he had unfortunately used the Gregorian calendar when he should have used the Julian calendar, which is 13 days ahead, and that he was “a billion percent sure” (how a person can be a “billion percent sure” is a mystery to me) that the date of Christ’s return would be October 7th or 8th. Despite the passage of the October 8th date without Christ’s return, he has not revised his claim, maintaining that the delay was necessary for “fulfillment” (whatever he means by that). This whole farcical event has caused real problems in his church, particularly among those who quit their jobs. Similarly, in Thessalonica, the teachings of the false teachers had caused real problems there. To encourage the believers there before addressing that problem of people who had quit working, Paul first writes words of gratitude to the Thessalonian church.
But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. (2nd Thess. 2:13-15)
Paul’s words were God’s words. Paul was thankful that so many in the Thessalonian church had not succumbed to the words of those false teachers but had “stood firm” and were holding on to “the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by letter.”
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. (2nd Thess. 2:16,17; 3:1-5)
So, what about those who had quit their jobs and were refusing to work, were mooching off of people, and, in their idleness, causing lots of problems by being “busybodies”? What were the Thessalonians to do with them? We will get to Paul’s advice about them in a minute, but first, in a different letter Paul wrote to another church, he similarly advised tough love by that church, that they were to keep away from a man there who was sinning. Here are Paul’s words on that situation:
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. (1st Corinthians 5:1)
It seems that a man was having sexual relations with his father’s second wife, his stepmother, and the church had simply shrugged their collective shoulders in response, rather than dealing with the flagrant sin in their midst. Paul argued for tough love treatment with that man.
When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1st Cor. 5:4,5)
Ooh, that sounds harsh, doesn’t it, delivering a man “to Satan”? But Paul was not meaning for the church to physically take that man to Satan, but rather to spiritually release him back into the world, the realm of Satan’s influence as he was already living there. Why? So that the man would understand the consequence of his sinful actions, see what he had lost in not living in the light of Christ but in the darkened realm of Satan, all with the hope that the man would see the wrong he had done, repent, and come back to the Lord, and be saved by him. The tough love Paul recommended was for restoration purposes, not for condemnation and an eternity in Satan’s realm.
Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. (2nd Thessalonians 3:6)
We will see that in his letter to the Thessalonian church Paul likewise advised them to have nothing to do with the person in their midst who was causing problems. Then, in another letter, this one to the church in Ephesus, in what would be modern-day Turkiye.
So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:14-16)
Thus, we can know Paul’s end goal: maturing the church and making the individual Christians strong. Speaking the “truth in love” can help with that. Winking at sin or putting up with deceitful schemes or false teaching does no good. It may seem nice, but it is foolishness. It may seem easier to avoid the hard conversation at the time but, in the end, only speaking “the truth in love” will grow and purify the church, and mature and restore the person who is sinning. Regarding idleness,
For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. (2nd Thessalonians 3:7-9)
Paul certainly expected Jesus to return imminently but he never quit working, nor did his two missionary evangelist partners, Silas and Timothy. None of them waited on a mountaintop for Jesus to appear. Paul was a tent maker by profession, and he paid his own way. We do know that their missionary trip was partly financed by donations from the churches in Antioch and Philippi, but Paul, Silas, and Timothy took nothing for granted. They did not mooch food. They toiled and laboured “night and day” and did not demand that the Thessalonian church provide for them. They were not busybodies living lives of idleness. Rather, they gave the Christians in that city an “example to imitate”.
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. (2nd Thessalonians 3:10-12)
The old saying is true: “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” Or, as was commonly said in the 19th century: “Idleness is the parent of psychotherapy.” Or, as my mother would say to me, “Idleness is the parent of mischief.” Not working or being productive leads to idleness, and the Bible warns that can cause problems. Do you remember the story of King David and that he committed adultery with Bathsheba? Do you remember how that story begins? “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army…But David remained in Jerusalem.” Had David gone with his soldiers to work, being productive, he would not have ended up sinning with Bathsheba. When an individual decides to not work, the vacuum of time gets filled, and too often in the wrong way. The more idle time a person has the more chance for meddling and mischief.
This is basically what that awful TV series “Big Brother” depends on. We watched it many years ago, one summer, in fascinated horror. Put a bunch of people in a house, give them nothing to do, and watch with fascination as they meddle in each other’s lives. Idleness might create popular TV content, but it creates a perverse church community – if left unchecked. So, what was Paul’s command to the idle? Get a job, keep out of trouble, and pay your own bills. To the working Christians in Thessalonica, Paul encouraged them in what they were doing, and to also do the right thing regarding the idle person in their midst.
As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy but warn him as a brother. (2nd Thessalonians 3:13-15)
Remember, Paul’s goal of unleashing “tough love” was to shock into repentance any lazy, idle, non-worker in their church. But “Do not regard him as an enemy but warn him as a brother”, Paul wrote. The end goal was redemption, that life-in-Christ would be restored to that person. As an aside, Paul wrote, “never tire of doing what is right.”
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1st Corinthians 15:58)
If you do “what is right, in the Lord your labor is not in vain!” was Paul’s message to the different churches he had started.
Zig Ziglar tells the story of a young couple, lost on a roadway out in the country. They spotted an old farmer, so they stopped the car and asked, “Sir, could you tell us where this road will take us?” Without a moment’s hesitation the old farmer wisely replied, “This road will take you anywhere in the world you want to go – if you are moving in the right direction.”
That is the road Paul wanted the Thessalonians to be on – and it is a road we should be on – the road leading to life. Idle, mooching, busybody behaviour will take us on a wrong road. Be productive for the Lord. In all things, do them for Him. Sadly, in the Thessalonian church, tough love needed to be applied to make sure that the church was on the right road. Paul knew that God would bless them if they were on that right road. And Paul knew that the only path towards redemption was for those individuals who needed correction to have tough love applied to them. May we apply this wisdom to our lives! God will lead us with dependable directions if we do what he instructs. Amen.
