Simply Irresistible (2)
SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE (2)
THE QUIET LIFE
Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12(NIV)
11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: To mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
- Mind your own business
11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: To mind your own business…
Make it your ambition (to strive to outdo each other, as who shall have the honour of being the quietest person and the most peaceable member in the church community). This has to do with loving the RIGHT way:
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The Thessalonian Christians were showing love to others but theyweren’t always getting it right. Some of them were being meddlesome, over-caring, giving unsolicited advice, forcing their opinions on others and trying to control what someone else was doing…
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1 Peter 4:15 AMP, “But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or any sort of criminal, or as a mischief-maker (a meddler) in the affairs of others [infringing on their rights].” – I.e. look at the categories meddling is linked to!
Proverbs 26:17, “Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own”
“Never worry about what I'm doing. Only worry about why you're worried about what I'm doing”
Meddlesome people are interfering, nosey & gossipy
I believe gossip is enemy Number one in the church
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“A fig must have a fig tree as its source, a grape can only come from a vine, an olive from an olive tree; salt water has a salt source; sweet water a sweet source; bitter words a bitter heart; critical words a critical spirit; defamatory, unloving speech issues from a heart where the love of Jesus is a stranger.” (The Message of James, Alec Motyer, P. 127)
Being meddlesome, interfering, nosey & gossipy is not the way God has taught us to love one another:“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: To mind your own business.” So, if you’re a meddlesome, over-caring, gossipy person who loves giving unsolicited advice, forcing your opinions on others and trying to control what someone else was doing – STOP IT!
- Mind your own business
To mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you…
(The words “with your own hands” indicate that most of the Thessalonian Christians were of the tradies)
God’s Word teaches us to attend to our own concerns, without interfering with the affairs of others. It teaches us to have a good work ethic at a useful occupation, it encourages us to work hard, rest well and enjoy recreation. It inspires us gather with believers, to do life together but not to interfere with the lives of others. It motivates us maintain habits of prayer, reading & study of God’s Word, and to cultivate a practical and genuine care for those less fortunate than we are, as the apostle Paul states in Philippians 2:4, “Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”
Idleness is one of the great evils that lead to many vices. God made people to work and Paul reminds us why in the next verse of our text: 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.