2 Thessalonians Blog 2

“Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling got work should to eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. Take note of those who do not obey what we say in this letter; have nothing to do with them, so that they may be ashamed. Do not regard them as enemies, but warn them as believers.” 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

I remember as I read this I thought, “In this regard, what does God think of me?” Because I could list off other people who are Christians who expect to get everything for nothing. Yet the words of Jesus ring in my mind about not removing the speck from my brother’s eye if I have a log in mine. Do not be foolish in thinking that self is greater than others.

This semester I did nothing but homework until about three weeks ago when I crashed and no homework got done except papers that were due. I refused to do homework for almost two weeks. This not doing homework made grades that reflected perfectly. I got a few sorry grades on quizzes. Paul’s advice given above worked. No surprise there. When I tried to learn, I did and it reflected in my grades.

At the same time I had been trying to make Christian friends. A week and a half ago I gave up. Trial and error made me realized that “nobody really cared.” I looked at what a “Christian is supposed to be” and did not see what I was looking for. Now, this sounds really bad, I know it does. Here this: I had friends, I have friends. Many of them are in Idaho. Yet even here at Colorado Christian University, I have found friends. There was something heavy over me that I needed to find somebody to confide in. The Lord and I had talked about this issue and He told me that I needed to trust even one person enough to share the deepest pain inside of me. I hated that that was what the Lord wanted.

In this state of having given up on Christians who were around me, I read 2 Thessalonians again. While, I continued to work hard at work representing the company that I am employed by (therefore able to eat there), I thought mostly about spiritual food. Here I was attending a church and not giving out what the Lord has given me. God did not give me a gift so that I could have a claim to it. He gave it to me to give out to others.

Thank God for others, though. Two friends did not give up on me like I had given up on them. More than two had been praying for me even though I had given up on them.

My application of this passage is that I think it needs to be constantly applied to myself because I can be just as idle as the next person you walk past.