Do Not Grow Weary in Doing Good
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. 2 Thessalonians 3:5
2 Thessalonians 3:1–18 – … to Serve the Living & True God
Third Sunday after Epiphany – January 24, 2021 (am)
If we just read this chapter by itself, we might never even imagine the context in which it sits, and therefore never fully grasp the astounding comfort (2:17) it offers, and the refreshing peace (16) it enables, in an area that usually raises anxiety!
We’ve just finished one of the most graphic descriptions of the person and work of the ultimate antichrist who will appear in human history, surely the most extended description offered in the letters of Paul, and he’s just requesting [prayer] from them for his ministry, then urging them to be faithful, even quiet, in their work and assuring them of the peace and grace of God. It just sounds so placid!
Remember, these [persecuted] Thessalonians were shaken in mind and alarmed (2:2) by some of the rumors that were circulating about the coming of… Christ (2:1), the day of the Lord (2:2). Now Paul is finishing his letter with “normal, day-to-day instruction!” Doesn’t that seem odd to you?
But it’s not at all. Few things in life should be more real and normal to us than the promised coming of the Lord! We can think of it as strange or incomprehensible or distant, maybe even surreal. But that shouldn’t be! The return of Christ should be a more real hope (2:16) for us than a lot of other things we believe are entirely possible. It should feel more real than our hope (2:16) of finding reasonable and principled people to elect to public office! It should seem more reliable than the hope of a certain level of profit in our investments or appreciation in our homes! After all, the hope of Jesus’ return is established and undergirded by His resurrection! If He rose from the dead, then He’ll surely return as He promised! We should have no doubt of that!
Our hearts should be settled on that fact. And it should show in our lives, in the way we [live] and work day by day.
Paul finishes his letter to this church with just this sort of practical instruction, so common and calm that we can forget entirely that it’s his antidote to end times hysteria! Let’s note the three parts of his conclusion.
A Call to Prayer – 1-5
Right on the heels of calling them to stand firm on the truths they’d been taught (2:15) and reassuring them that our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who [loves] us and [gives] us… good hope through grace, can also comfort [their] hearts and establish them in every good work and word (2:16-17), Paul charges them to pray for us, for him and his team, that the word the Lord may speed ahead through their ministry, that it may gain traction and run by the power of God, and be honored, just as [it had been there in Thessalonica] (1).
And just as he told them that our God is able to [save] and [sanctify] (2:13) them even against the all-out efforts of the ultimate man of lawlessness (2:3) to [deceive] and [delude] (2:10-11) them, even so Paul is soliciting their [prayers] that [he and his team] may be delivered from wicked and evil men (2). And then in the most foundational statement in this passage with regard to how this work of [deliverance] will be done, the most concrete statement about both the means and the model for how their [prayers] will actually be answered, Paul [writes]: 5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. So, the same God Who displayed His love for this church, and so dramatically changed their lives—the same God Who provided them eternal comfort and hope through His grace (2:13-17), is the One to Whom they need to look in their intercession for Paul and his team. [This God] is faithful (3). And He will enable their endurance in obedience even as they battle against evil (3)—evil men (2) and the evil one (3).
Why wouldn’t we call out to this God in [prayer]? Do you?
A Call to Work – 6-15
This middle and longest section of Paul’s conclusion is really interesting. It actually appears that this is the main, practical concern he has with this church. Some of them are idle! They’re not [working]. They’re are living off the good grace of some of the others. They’re mooching (Piper), we might say!
Some suggest that this problem may have been rooted in their [alarm] (2:2) about the coming of [the] Lord, but there’s really nothing in the text to confirm that. In fact, it was a problem that Paul needed to address even while he was still there in Thessalonica (10). So, we really don’t know how or why it developed, but it was a fundamentally unchristian behavior. It was not in accord with the tradition that [they]received from [Paul] (6), which is the same word he selected a few verses back when he charged them: stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us (2:15).
It was also not in accord with the example Paul and his team had set for them to imitate (9). At the opening of his first letter he had spotlighted their imitation as a key indicator that they’d received the true gospel (1Th.1:6). But Paul and his team were not idle when [they] were [there in Thessalonica] (7). They never [ate] anyone’s bread without paying for it, but… worked night and day (8), which I believe means that they made tents (cf. Act.18:3) during the day and ministered the gospel at night so that [they] might not be a burden to any[one] (8).
And this is the key phrase here. Paul isn’t [working] like this to display some sort of macho self-sufficiency.
Rather, he’s modeling something for them as a church. He’s setting an example for them to imitate (9). He surely [has] the right to receive pay for his work among them (9; cf. 1Ti.5:17-18). But he set aside that right for the Thessalonians’ sake so that [he] might not be a burden to them (8).
He was modeling for them what it looks when you direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ (5), when you do [your] work quietly and… earn [your] own living (12), when you do not grow weary in doing good (13).
Paul wanted to model for the Thessalonians what it looks like to live in gospel fellowship, to place the good of the body above his own good, to be diligent in the exercise of His gifts for the enhancement of this new covenant community. And he wanted them to imitate his example. He even wanted them to keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness (6), and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed (14)—not vindictively, but to warn him [lovingly] (15).
Even when Paul says: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat (10), the overall aim of this approach was a sweet, whole, diligently interconnected, lovingly interdependent, relationally flourishing community of believers who were living and proclaiming the gospel with authenticity and passion. I believe we see all this in this word quietly (12). Paul also used it in his first letter: 1Th.4:11 … aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one. This [quiet], productive, interconnected Christian community is a witness to the watching world.
And this testimony was formed in the crucible of their persecutions (1:4) and poverty (2Co.8:1-5), while they were shaken in mind and alarmed about the day of the Lord (2:2).
But that’s precisely what shows it to be the work of God among them, a work that produces stability and strength and settledness in their community, a love that nurtures one another toward steadfastness in faith, that produces what they were commended for from the beginning: [their] work of faith a labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1Th.1:3).
A Call to Peace – 16-18
[Quiet] settled community even in the midst of turmoil, that’s the very essence of peace, of shalom. Paul finishes saying: 16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. This is the same peace with which he opened both [letters] to this church (1:2; 1Th.1:1). It’s the same peace with which he also closed his first letter (1Th.5:23). This is the peace that finds its definition in the very character of our Lord (16). It’s the peace that will be produced in these brothers [and sisters] as Paul’s blessing in v.16 is realized: The Lord be with you all.
This is the peace that has marked Christian community through the ages. It comes from the Prince of Peace (Isa.7:14) and gives unique witness to His presence with His people. And Paul wanted them to know this peace, to live it, to display it, at all times in every way (16), even in the midst of their persecutions (1:4) and poverty (2Co.8:1-5). And the grace of [their] Lord Jesus Christ [was] with [them] (18) to accomplish just this.
Conclusion
Do we know this peace, this [quietness]? It’s born of relationship with the true and living God, which is established by faith (cf. 1:3) and nurtured as we direct [our] hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ (5), and especially as we do that together as a body.
It’s experienced in community, because it is a communal quality. Peace isn’t something we feel in its truest, richest form when we’re off by ourselves. That kind of peace just gets obliterated once we re-enter life in the real world!
But as this peace begins to develop among us, we start making self-sacrificial decisions in favor of the good of the whole body. We begin demonstrating faith, hope, and love in exemplary ways that draw the attention of the watching world to the reality that God really is among us!
And this peace is resilient. It can’t be eroded by a virus, not even by a pandemic! It doesn’t rise and fall with election results or place its trust in any form of good that this world might promise. And not only is it not threatened by political opposition, it can actually stand firm (2:15) even if that opposition turns into persecutions, that lead to poverty because its satisfaction doesn’t come from this world. In fact, it’s power to endure and thrive, flourish, in this world comes from its settled connection to the next, such that its not ruffled even by end times hysteria here and now!
The [joy] of the believers in Heb.10:34 niv didn’t fade even when their property was [confiscated] because [they] knew [they] had better and lasting possessions. Their hearts were [hoping] in heaven! They were [directed] to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ (5). So, they knew the peace of God!
Do you—do we—know this peace?
Next Sunday: Reflecting on the Church as Family, Romans 8:12–17