He who turns up his nose at his work quarrels with his bread and butter.

Charles Spurgeon

For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.  Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

2 Thessalonians 3:11-12

Have you ever run into a lazy know-it-all? I wish this type of person were rare, but they are all too common in the world today. They show up on the scene and have all the time in the world to criticize others about how things “should be done” or could be done better. Maybe they live in the glow of how they did it (when they did things of course)… They seem to know it all but don’t do anything but complain or stir up drama. 

The church in Thessalonica had some lazy know-it-all type folks.  So Paul had a few very direct statements to help these folks grow in their relationship with the Lord. Sometimes we need to have tough conversations in the church. In this situation, there were folks who were taking advantage of the grace and goodness of others. They were able to work, but weren’t working. They had it in their mind that Christ was coming soon and so they had stopped working in order to “prepare.” However, this free time gave them plenty of time to meddle in other people’s affairs. They became busybodies, gossips, and critics.  Their lack of work under the guise of piety obligated others to feed them. Their allergy to work was costing the rest of the church body.

Their rationale was flawed. If indeed Christ was coming back soon, they should all be busy telling other people about Jesus. Like a farmer running out of daylight and good weather to get the harvest in they should be working till the very last possible moment to see people come to faith in Christ! Indeed, the closer the return of Christ seems to be the harder we should be at work and the more able we should be to work together… The solution of course was for those who were busy bodies to stop their campaign of criticism and get to work. 

I found this historical illustration and thought by Dr. Mohler in a book I read a few months ago very challenging and to the point on this topic. So I decided to quote him at length here:

“Throughout the history of the Christian church, there have been those who have sought to deny the biblical truth that Jesus will come on a day and at an hour that we do not know. Infamously, William Miller, preaching in New York in the nineteenth century, confidently predicted that the Lord Jesus Christ would return in 1843 or 1844. Eventually, he settled on the date October 22, 1844. On the basis of his confident prediction, many of his followers sold their property, but on white clothes, and waited for the Lord’s return An eschatological fervor had struck many at that time, and Miller became only the most famous of those to declare that he knew when the Lord would return. Clearly, the Lord Jesus Christ did not return on October 22, 1844, and this left Miller and the Millerites with a great deal to explain. They tried various arguments to recalibrate the date, but, now well over a century and a half later, we understand that the Millerites cost the Christian church a great deal of credibility in the United States. Instead of celebrating the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Millerites and their friends experienced what became known as the “Great Disappointment.” 

Judged by what we have learned in Scripture, the Millerites failed in more than one way. They should never have claimed to have been able to predict a date on which the Lord would return. Furthermore, they disobeyed the Lord’s command by waiting for him to return as if they were helping to bring the current age to an end, when they should have been working on behalf of the gospel and the kingdom, they truly understood the gospel and obeyed the Word (Mohler, R. Albert, Jr. Tell me the Stories of Jesus. Nashville. TN: Nelson Books, 2022.  Pages, 212-213).

Father, Your word is true and good. I pray that we will all have something to give to the betterment of the body of Christ. Let us all work so that we might not only meet our own needs but look out for the needs of others. Let us not be those who take advantage of others. I pray today, especially for those who are unable to serve as they used to. I ask that you would give these friends grace and vision on how they still benefit and bless the body of Christ in different ways. Give us grace to serve and encourage each other all the more as we see the day approaching.  In Jesus Name, Amen.