Well now do please take your Bibles in hand as we conclude our short series considering the teaching of Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. Turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 on page 990 in the church Bibles.
Paul is dealing, you will recall, with a strand of false teaching that has penetrated the church in Thessalonica that has argued that the return of Christ has already taken place in some spiritual sense. And so far, we have seen the apostle correct that error, and we have seen him strengthen the faithful. And now in the remainder of the letter, he tackles what may at first appear to be an unrelated additional problem in Thessalonica – the issue of idleness in the church. But actually, the idleness of some of the church members in Thessalonica is directly connected to the error, to the theological error that they were embracing.
And so as we follow Paul’s teaching in our passage this morning, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verses 6 through 18, I want to highlight for you four things. These are four principles, actually, which if you will think about them a little, function like a guide to the good life; a guide to living for God while we wait for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here they are. Four things. Number one, Paul is going to teach us that theology is practical. Theology is practical. Number two, work is godly. Theology is practical. Work is godly. Number three, boundaries are vital. Theology is practical. Work is godly. Boundaries are vital. And number four, maybe most importantly, peace is a gift. Peace is a gift. Those are four core values that offer a pretty helpful description, really, of a healthy, productive, Christian life. Don’t they? Theology is practical. Work is godly. Boundaries are vital. And peace is a gift.
Isn’t it interesting how like us the people at Thessalonica were? They thought theology is irrelevant, work is a burden, boundaries are offensive, and peace is hard won and fragile. And that’s often how we think, isn’t it? Theology, doctrine, is irrelevant, it is boring and out of touch; work is a distraction or a burden or a curse. Boundaries, limitations to what is acceptable, well that’s hate speech! “Your boundaries oppress me!” That’s how we think. And peace, that’s something you have to fight for and create for yourself and it is terribly fragile. If you are not careful, circumstances will shatter it like a dropped light bulb on the kitchen floor. But Paul says to the Thessalonians and to us, “You’ve got all of that exactly backwards. Theology is immensely practical, work is fundamentally godly, boundaries are necessary and vital, and peace is a gift of the grace of God.”
Before we take a look at those four themes, let’s pause and pray and ask for the Lord to help us and then we’ll read His holy Word together. Let us pray.
Our Father, we are constantly in need of Your direction. We feel we are often stumbling around in the dark, sometimes making it up as we go along. Shine the light of truth into our darkness. Guide us. Your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And so open our eyes that we may indeed behold marvelous things from this portion of Your Law. For Jesus’ sake, amen.
Second Thessalonians chapter 3 at verse 6. This is the Word of God:
“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. 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. 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.
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.
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.
I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”
Amen.
Theology is Practical
Many of you will remember back in 2005 a man called Harold Camping, who had a well-known radio ministry, predicted that the return of Christ would take place on May 21, 2011. “On that day,” said Camping, Christians would be taken to heaven in the rapture and then, “would follow 5 months of fire, brimstone, plagues on earth with millions of people dying each day, culminating on October 21, 2011 with the final destruction of the world.” Five thousand billboards around the United States warned people that Judgment Day was upon us. One hundred million pamphlets in 61 languages proclaimed around the globe, “The end of the world is almost here!” As a result of Camping’s teaching, people changed their lives, their schedules. Convinced they would not need them anymore, they sold their businesses, they liquidated their assets, and they waited for the end. Turns out, what you believe really matters. It really matters. In Camping’s case, the failure of his prediction was not only humiliating for him but dangerously, devastatingly wrong in the conclusions and actions that his followers took in light of it. They sold up and waited for the end.
If you’ll look at the text, you’ll see something similar was going on in 2 Thessalonians. The idea was being promoted that Jesus had already returned in some hidden spiritual sense. And its consequences were turning the Pauline pattern of godly living on its head. There were those, notice this in verse 6, who were “walking in idleness.” Or verse 11, “We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.” So their views about Jesus’ return had led them to the conclusion that they ought not to be employed any longer in secular work. Perhaps like the followers of Harold Camping, they thought the end of the world was about to occur any day now, so they wanted to be freed from all earthly entanglements in anticipation of the final cataclysm. But for Paul, no matter what theological justification they might offer in defense of their idleness, their false doctrine had been exposed by its fruit in their faulty living. Their false doctrine was exposed by their faulty living. You remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ – “By their fruit shall you know them.”
Now this is really just a preliminary point, but I think it’s important just to pause and make sure we have allowed it to register, this very clear connection between doctrine and behavior in Thessalonica, between theology and ethics, between what you believe and how you live. I wonder if you can see it clearly enough. The Thessalonian false teachers are a cautionary tale, aren’t they, reminding us ideas have consequences. The rudder of theology steers the ship of your whole life. The rudder of theology steers the ship of your whole life. In other words, real theology is inescapably practical. Theology is practical. We tend to take the view that doctrine matters less than practice, that what really counts is how a person lives. But Paul is showing us here, isn’t he, that how you live depends very much on what you believe at the deepest core of yourself.
You remember James in his letter telling us, “I will show you my faith by what I do.” And he was not saying, “Well you guys have doctrine and theology but I’m practical and I have works.” That’s not what he was saying. He was saying, “When doctrine really sinks in, when it really takes root and penetrates to the core of who you are and how you think, it changes everything and it shapes how you live, what you do, so that the rest of a person’s life reveals what they live for, what they believe, where they stand.” The test of your theology is not whether or not you can answer the catechism questions correctly, though I hope you can and would commend the catechism to you. But the real test is how you live and whether your life flows from what you say you believe. Or is your life a walking contradiction of the profession that you have made? William Perkins, the father of English Puritanism, famously said that, “Theology is the science of living blessedly forever.” “Theology is the science of living blessedly forever.” William Ames similarly said, “Theology is the doctrine of living to God.” These were giants of theological understanding, but for them, theology is deeply practical. It’s about living the blessed life unto God. If you want to live a holy life, a joyful Christian life, a faithful and fruitful life, stop repeating to yourself the silly idea that theology is for other people and you’ll stick to the practicalities. What you need, if the practicalities are really ever to work out in your life in a way that pleases the Lord and honors Jesus Christ, what you need is truth – well articulated, clearly stated, whole-heartedly embraced and pressed down, prayed down into your spiritual DNA.
And bad theology, by contrast, always results in all sorts of spiritual distempers so that, as a pastor, very often when someone comes and they are describing to me some struggle in their Christian life, it’s root lies in a basic misunderstanding about the nature of the Gospel, about the nature of free grace, about the character of God. In other words, the practical struggle is theological at its foundation. And the false teachers in Thessalonica are proof of that very principle, proof that I hope you can see. So first of all, theology is practical. If you want to grow in grace, you must not only grow in your head knowledge of the truth, but you must labor to press the truth down into your heart and turn it into praise and prayer and apply it day by day in every circumstance into which the Lord may bring you. Theology is practical.
Work is Godly
Then secondly, work is godly. Work is godly. Theology is practical, and now work is godly. Paul begins his exhortation to the idlers in Thessalonica by reminding them of his own and his team’s example. Do you see that in verse 7? “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.” If Paul had been advocating for these strange new ideas promoted at Thessalonica, which you may remember from chapter 2 verse 2 is what some of the false teachers were actually claiming – “We got our ideas from Paul, you know.” That’s what they were saying. But if that were true, then Paul likewise would have been just as idle, wouldn’t he? But when Paul and Sylvanus and Timothy planted the church in Thessalonica, they worked tirelessly in order to avoid burdening any of the new converts. Paul, you will recall, was a tentmaker by trade. “And with toil and labor we worked night and day,” he said, at basic business to earn his own keep, even while they engaged full time in the work of the Gospel.
Just as an aside in verse 9, it’s very clear, isn’t it, that Gospel ministers have the right to be supported by the church, so please don’t suspend my salary and tell me to go get a proper job. Gospel ministers have the right to be supported by the churches, but in this particular case, Paul seems to have anticipated the kind of problems that might yet arise in Thessalonica. He mentioned at the end of his first letter in chapter 5 that there were some in Thessalonica who were already identified as idlers. So this is already beginning to be a problem at the end of his first letter. He seems to have anticipated this reality among them. And so rather than make use of his right to receive financial remuneration for his Gospel ministry, he resolved to earn his own way to set an example to them of hard work. It’s pretty clear, I think, that for Paul, godliness works itself out in honest hard work. And that is, he says, “what I taught you when I was with you face to face,” verse 10. “For even when we were with you we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”
Now again just to be clear, Paul is not saying there that the unemployed are all lazy, or he is not saying that charity should only come with strings attached. That’s not his point. His focus is on the inner life and fellowship of the Thessalonian church. And he’s saying, when it comes to the benevolent generosity of the people of God, putting food on the table of those who have no means, it ought to be given to those who show themselves willing and committed to demonstrating the faith they profess to believe in a hard day’s work. If they’re not willing to do that, to earn their own way so far as they can, you ought not to be enabling them with your own generosity so that they can remain in their sin. Instead, verses 12 and 13, “such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living,” literally, “to eat their own bread.” And then he says, “For you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.”
So on the one hand, every Christian is to have a work ethic, a strong work ethic, a sense of personal commitment to working hard and not burdening the church but to provide for themselves in so far as they can. And yet on the other hand, at the same time, every Christian is also to give special attention and unwearied commitment to doing good to one another. And that gives us a lovely balance, doesn’t it, in Paul’s vision of a healthy church where the Gospel is working itself out through each member’s life and in their lives together. There is a shared commitment to gainful employment and to earning what they can. That’s a high value as a part of basic, godly behavior – to provide for themselves and not be a burden. While at the same time, there is an equal commitment to doing good and being others-centered, to showing mercy and kindness and generosity and sharing what they have with their brothers and sisters for Christ’s sake.
So in other words, part of the hard work expected of every believer is not focused ultimately on self and on the bottom line. That’s the balance that we need to remember. Some of us have a real problem with idleness and need to be reminded that hard work is godly, but others of us have made an idol of our work and need to be reminded that overwork is wicked. It’s wicked, and Paul strikes the balance right here. His concern is that you should work hard, but your focus in doing so is not yourself but on the needs of others. This is not just about building your portfolio, neither is it just about making ends meet, but about serving the needs of the people of God and not growing weary in well doing.
And you will have noticed, I’m sure, that twice over in this passage Paul invokes the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to reinforce the urgency and authority of His command in verse 6 and again in verse 12. The point is, this is more than just a general word about best practice and good behavior in a well ordered society. This is not “Capitalism 101.” That’s not what Paul is teaching us here. Rather, this is the basic implicate of following Jesus Christ. He binds our consciences in the name of Jesus Christ to live this way. This is how your real theology ought to show up practically day by day in your life. If you live under the Lordship of King Jesus, if you long for His appearing, how should you be living till that day dawns? Do your job faithfully, thoughtfully, diligently, patiently with a view to serving one another. Do it when no one else sees you do it. Do it not for the approval of your superiors or the praise of your peers. Do it for the glory of God. Do it so you can share with those in need. Do it because that’s how Jesus lived and that’s how He’s called you to live too.
Theology is practical. Work is godly. It’s not a burden merely to be endured, even though sometimes all of us can feel that way about our work. Work is not a problem to be escaped from, even though all the messaging of our digital age tells us the only reason to work is so that you can go play. But work is only valuable as a means to an end. But the Bible says that when we work hard, we are Godlike, we are Christlike. Work, hard work, is godly, not just for the outcomes and the results it provides, but in itself it is godly. So as Paul tells the bondservants in Colossians 3:22, we are called to labor in our vocations – listen to this language now – “not by way of eye service, as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord Christ.” In your secular vocation, you are serving the Lord Christ, and that changes everything about our attitude to our work.
I wonder if that’s your attitude to your job? Is that your attitude to other aspects of your calling every day at home with your family, at church and in the community? Labor at your vocations “not by way of eye service, as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive an inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord Christ.” Maybe, the Lord Christ is calling some of us to repent for our bad attitudes about work. For idleness and laziness, perhaps. For apathy. For resentfulness, because we see work as a curse and not as a blessing, as a barrier to our flourishing instead of the venue for it. Theology is practical. Work is godly.
Boundaries are Vital
Then thirdly, boundaries are vital. And this is also so deeply counter-cultural right now, isn’t it? Our culture believes, “If you love me, you will accept all my choices.” And so in our culture, boundaries are hateful things, oppressive things. But that is not at all the New Testament perspective. Did you notice how Paul brackets his whole discussion? In verse 6, he says, “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.” And in verse 14 he says, “If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with them, that he may be ashamed.” He’s putting boundaries in place for the inner life of the Thessalonian church. He’s really talking about, actually, here about the faithful exercise of church discipline.
And you can trace in 1 and 2 Thessalonians a pattern of escalating censures that he expects the church to impose on those who will not repent and return to Christ. First, there is admonition. At the end of 1 Thessalonians 5:14 he wrote, “We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle.” So that’s the first step, actually, in formal church discipline where there are those who are persisting in rebellious, unrepentant sin. They are to be admonished and warned. But now as Paul is writing this second letter, that admonition it seems has fallen on deaf ears and he has to call the church to sterner measures. He tells them to have nothing to do with the unrepentant idler. Now again, let’s be clear what he’s not saying. He’s not saying, “I want you to engage in social ostracism or community shunning.” He’s not saying, “If you see them in the grocery store, ignore them and pretend you didn’t see them.” That’s not his advice. No, this rather is a specific, judicial step of withdrawing fellowship from someone who is currently a member of the church, likely focused – though it’s not mentioned here – likely focused on their participation in the privilege of the Lord’s Table. In our tradition we call it “suspension.” A person is suspended from sealing ordinances, from the Lord’s Table, until such time as they repent.
Now we know from verse 15 in our passage, Paul is not yet talking about the last step in church discipline, what we call “excommunication.” He’s not talking about that because he tells the Thessalonians do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Excommunication, as you probably know, involves the final removal from the membership of the visible church of someone who professed to follow Jesus but whose obstinate refusal to amend their sinful life or their erroneous doctrine now renders that profession incredible in the judgment of the elders. And so they are to be regarded from that point on as unbelievers. But these idlers at Thessalonica, Paul says, are still to be treated as brothers, which implies that the breach in their fellowship is still only partial. They’re still within the sphere of influence of the church, still welcome and expected in their worship services, still being exhorted to come back to godliness. They’ve been suspended from access to the Table of the Lord where fellowship between believers is at its most intimate in the hopes that they might yet repent, that this might somehow break through and alarm them and wake them up and bring them to full restoration. That’s clearly the goal. He says it right here in our text in verse 14. Notice again the deeply counter cultural language he uses. The purpose of church discipline, he says, is to “provoke the unrepentant to shame.”
There is a temptation right now to see all shame as necessarily a bad thing. But the Bible sees shame as a gift of grace in the conscience of a sinner in whom God is at work to lead him or her to repentance. And let’s be clear, if you are unwilling to bend the knee to Jesus Christ and His Lordship in every area of your life, you should be ashamed and you will not ever find relief from your shame until you turn from your sin and receive the pardon of Christ which He offers to you readily and freely. That’s the design of church discipline. The church is not a purely voluntary society that you can join or leave whenever you please and in which, how you live and what you believe and what you do is nobody’s business but your own. That is not the church. No, we belong to one another. We are bound together. We submit to one another in Christ and we live together under His Lordship, which means we are to pursue one another and admonish one another and exhort and challenge one another. And where necessary, as the elders provide shepherding oversight, to exercise church discipline.
You vowed, remember, when you became a member of this church, to submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church. We ask you to take that vow because of texts like this one in 2 Thessalonians. It reminds us that boundaries are vital. In the life of a healthy church, boundaries are vital. This is not punitive or inquisitorial or ugly. This is Biblical love in action. It is Biblical love in action. With hearts that are breaking over the terrible choices of those who refuse to repent, the church is to pursue them, to warn them, and to use all the tools of church discipline to win them back. Theology is practical. Work is godly. Boundaries are vital. Christ has given us these boundaries to help us walk in obedience and to stay on course. That’s what they’re for.
Peace is a Gift
And then finally, peace is a gift. Peace is a gift. Verse 17, Paul authenticates his letter by signing it himself so that the false teachers can’t dismiss it as a fraud. And then you’ll notice, though, that Paul surrounds that closing practicality. He surrounds it with a three-fold benediction. Do you see it in the passage? First he prays in verse 16 for peace from the Lord. “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in every way.” That’s a pretty comprehensive peace that he has in view. Isn’t it? It comes at all times in every way. But it’s not a pipe dream, a big wish too expansive to be realistic – “peace at all times, in every way.” This is the kind of peace only possible because it comes from the Lord of peace Himself. Jesus has made peace for us with God at the cross, taking away our enmity with God because of our sin, making peace, reconciling us to Him. And now He can give to us that peace. He is the fountain of peace, the Prince of peace. And the peace Paul has in mind here isn’t simply the absence of strife in Thessalonica. He’s not just praying that they would all finally learn just to get along. That’s not what he’s talking about. Rather, he is talking about the presence of the reconciling, renovating, restoring mercy of God that sets things right between us and God and us and one another. Wholeness within us and between us, he is saying, is possible when it flows from the Prince of peace, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So he prays for peace from the Lord, then he prays for the presence of the Lord. Verse 16, “The Lord be with you all.” The blessing Paul wants for us is not a blob of peace bestowed from a distance. It’s not a Band-Aid to cover our divisions or a download to fix a glitch in our programming. The blessing Paul wants is peace that comes bound up, of a parcel with the presence of the very one who gives peace and makes peace Himself, living amongst us. He prays for Jesus always to be with us, keeping us, guarding us, teaching us, helping us, strengthening us. Peace from the Lord and the presence of the Lord.
And then thirdly, verse 18, he prays for the grace of our Lord. Peace from the Lord, the presence of the Lord, and grace, the grace of the Lord. Peace and presence only come to us by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is to say, it is all a gift. That’s what grace is. It is a gift. We really do struggle to believe that sometimes, don’t we? There’s a part of us deep down that thinks that if God is going to bless us, it will only be once we have earned it. But the peace of Christ and the presence of Christ are ours purely by the grace of Christ. That’s such a vital balancing point. Having urged us to work hard and not grow weary in doing good, he knows how prone our hearts are to slide into works righteousness and to sit back at the end of the day and say, “Boy, I worked hard. I’ll bet God’s impressed!” and to derive our sense of worth and value from the work our own hands have done. Paul says, “No, no, work at it for the glory of Christ because you love Him and want to honor Him. Yes, work hard in the service of Your Savior, but remember where peace really comes from – not from anything you have done. It is a gift. He gives it to you for free.”
Looking to Christ for grace to live the life to which He has called us – yes, He is going to use the apostolic Word that Paul is so careful to authenticate here at the end of his letter, to bring that grace to bear upon our hearts and consciences as He is doing, we pray, right now as His Word is being preached. But this is what we really need, isn’t it? Grace, not a clever strategy, not a ten-step program for a whole new you, not a newly discovered secret key to the good life. We need grace – blood bought, free and full grace, sent by the Lord Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit through the apostolic Word. That’s how you prepare for the day when Jesus comes. That’s how we live well until He does.
And so these four themes – do you see them? I hope you can see they outline for us what living well until Jesus comes looks like. Four principles which, if we will keep them and hold them and apply them day by day and in the life of the church, will guide us and help us grow. Theology is practical. Work is godly. Boundaries are vital. And peace is a gift of free grace. May the Lord give us that grace and help us to live for Him.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank You for Your holy Word. We pray that You would indeed instruct us by it, not only that You would form our thinking but shape our living, that we may be, that we may be to the praise of Your glorious grace upon which now we confess we are utterly reliant and dependent. So send peace from the Prince of peace. Send Him that His presence may fill us and humble us and strengthen us. And do it all by His marvelous grace, we pray. We ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.