“Do Not Weary of Doing Good”
[II Thessalonians 3:6-13]
November 14, 2010 Second Reformed Church
One of the sins we can fall into as Christians, knowing that Jesus is coming back, is to think that we can disregard the Creation and use it and abuse it. Another sin we can fall into is to think that since Jesus is coming back, we don’t have to work, and we call on the Church and/or the State to provide for us.
A significant portion of the Christians in Thessalonica were committing the second sin – so many of them had quit their jobs, saying, “If Jesus is returning, why should we work?” – so Paul had to address the problem in his two letters to the church. They thought, “if Jesus is returning soon, why shouldn’t the Church just provide for us?”
On this Sunday, we consider ideas about stewardship, as well as thanksgiving. And in our text we find Paul addressing the question: Is it right for a person w Christians who refuse to work. Not that they were wrong about Jesus coming back soon – He is – but soon did not mean within their lifetimes. But that’s not even the point – their sin was two-fold – that they refused to work when they were able and that they assumed that the church should supply their needs.
So Paul tells the Thessalonian Christians that they are not to welcome or assist or eat with any Christian who is able and refuses to work. That is, with anyone who is “walking in idleness” and not with the tradition that they received from Paul.
What was the tradition they received from Paul?
Paul reminds them that Paul and his companions worked while they ministered among the Thessalonians. Paul made tents and sold them to pay for his needs. Paul and his companions ate with them, but they paid for their own food – they did not expect that the church would feed them for free. Instead, they preached the Gospel of Jesus and worked another job so they would not have to burden the Thessalonians by requiring pay from them. And, Paul reminds them, it is the right of the pastor to receive his livelihood from the Church. Paul could have required that they pay him and provide for his needs, but he did not ask for pay in order to show them humility and generosity and to encourage them to act in like manner – not because he wasn’t due that support.
Paul reminds them that while they were with them, he gave them the command: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” If that sounds cruel, consider, if someone in this church was able to work, but refused to work, and came to the Consistory and asked for money for food, how ought they to respond? Should they enable the person’s sin?
No. If these people are truly Christians, Paul says that we ought to command and encourage them – we ought to tell them what they are doing is not right – it is sin, and then we ought to encourage them to work – to work quietly – and to earn their own living – to stop living as though they are entitled to someone else providing for their needs.
Now, the Christians in Thessalonica tried to excuse their actions by saying that Jesus was coming back soon, so why not just live off of what the church had? Most people today who “abuse the system” or family or church don’t do so because they believe that Jesus is returning in days or months, they do so out of greed – out of believing that they are entitled or owed a living.
We cannot allow people to abuse family and church and “the system” in that way – especially in the church – because there are people who honestly need help – people who can’t work for one reason or another or who honestly can’t – at least for the time being – earn enough to pay for their needs.
So Paul tells the Thessalonians – and all of us – “do not grow weary in doing good.” Do not grow weary in doing those things which are good and right and God-glorifying. Do not grow weary in showing the Love of Christ by helping those who really need help – not those who are just unwilling to provide for themselves. Do not grow weary and fade into your lounge chair or your couch.
Why not?
First, we are to work and to do good because God works and does good. Humans were created in the Image of God, and part of what it means to be created in the Image of God is that we – like God – work. In Genesis one and two, Moses tells us that God created everything that is in six days and rested on the seventh. And then, Moses tells us in Exodus 20:8-11, that we – humans – are commanded to work six days and then rest on the seventh. God built into us that pattern of work and rest with which He created everything that is.
The Image of God in us has been marred by sin – it is not as easily seen as it once was or as it will be when we are received into glory. But as people look at us and see us work hard and work honestly – giving the best that we are able in the work that we are called to do – people see in us – though not perfectly – something of the Character – of the Nature – of God Himself.
Second, we are to work because God called work “good.” In the Creation, God called the work that He did “good.” And once He had created humans, God gave them the responsibility – the work – of tending and keeping the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). This was not a punishment – this was a gift from God to engage with God in the creative process – and so it is today.
Now, we know that things are different from the Garden. Today, everything has been infected by sin. So work is difficult, it is not necessarily enjoyable all the time – we have songs such as “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend.” But work was not created to be hard and discouraging, and it won’t be in the Kingdom. So, in working to the best that we are now, we witness to our hope and faith in the world to come when all work will be pleasant and joyful and God-glorifying.
Third, we are to work because God has given us work to do – especially we Christians. And to neglect the work that God has given us is sin. Paul explains, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).
Paul explains that you and I were created by God – we are His creation – and all of us that He created in Christ Jesus – all of us whom He elected and called to faith in Jesus, as Christians – God created us in Christ Jesus for good works. God created us and made us Christians – and one of the reasons He did so was so we would do certain good works. And these works God prepared beforehand – before what? Before the Creation. So before anything existed, God chose you and me and all Christians to be created in Jesus – saved through Jesus – to do certain good works that God chose for us to do as Christians. And those are the works we ought to walk in.
I wonder if we ought not be amazed at that: the Almighty God chose to create the world, but before He did so, He decided to send His Son to redeem a people for Himself – Christians. And God created those Christians who would one day exist in Jesus – through His Work which merits salvation. And He prepared good works for each of us to do in obedience and thanksgiving for what He did through Jesus. God decided all that before He created anything. That’s really quite amazing, isn’t it?
Finally, we are to work because if we do the good works that “God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,” we cannot help but be successful in what we set out to do. Why? Paul wrote, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to competition at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6, ESV).
What did Paul mean? Paul was saying that our salvation is a good work that God began in us and brings to completion at the day of Christ Jesus when we are received into the Kingdom and glorified. That is specifically the good work Paul has in mind in this text, but it does not seem too much of a stretch to say that any good work that God begins in us will be brought to competition because it is God who gives us the work to accomplish and God who gives the ability to accomplish the work He has given us and God Who makes sure the work gets completed – because God is the One Who wants and plans that the work be done.
This is similar to what we saw when we looked at prayer: prayer is not our convincing God of something or giving Him some knowledge He didn’t have. Prayer is the process of becoming in line with the Mind of God so that when we pray for something, what we pray for is what God wants, so God says “yes” to our prayer. So, if we pray for what God wants, God will do it. That’s what it means to prayer “in Jesus’ Name.”
Similarly, if God wants us to do a good work out of obedience and thanksgiving to Him for what He has done for us, and we set out to do that good work, God will make sure that we accomplish that good work – for His Glory and our joy.
For example, God commands us to the work of being holy: “Be holy as I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). Therefore, since that work of becoming holy is something that God wants of us, it will happen – it cannot fail to happen – because God gives us the grace and the power to accomplish it.
Don’t misunderstand, we still have to work hard to accomplish what God has given us to do: becoming holy is not something we can accomplish in an afternoon. In fact, becoming holy is something that we won’t achieve until Jesus returns. Yet, ultimately, we don’t have to worry about failing, because if God is bringing to pass – in us and through us – what God wants us to do and become – it cannot fail to happen. It cannot fail to be. Because God cannot fail.
That’s why I can say to you with confidence that Second Reformed Church will stand and proclaim the Gospel for as long as God has work for us to do. So let us not weary of doing good. Let us seek God’s Will and do everything we understand that God is calling us to do. Let us work hard knowing that everything that God would have for us and have us do will come to pass as God works in and through us.
Let us pray:
Persevering God, we thank You that You will bring all that You have set for us to do to competition. We thank You especially that You will bring the fulness of our salvation to competition. We ask that You would strengthen us and give us Your Grace that we would not grow weary of doing good, but would be invigorated and livened by Your Word to follow after You in obedience and thanksgiving. Help us to know the difference between those who are in need and those who are sinning by not working. Help us to guide those who are not working to jobs that they might honor You in their work. And may Jesus receive all the glory. For it is in His Name we pray, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment