"Stay away from all believers who live idle lives."When I first read this, I wondered what Paul could have meant by "idle lives." I gathered that it must refer to people who are spiritually idle, because after all, it's the spiritual that Paul was most concerned with, right?
I was wrong. In context it's quite clear; Paul is talking about work. Eugene Peterson's The Message puts it like this:
"Our orders—backed up by the Master, Jesus—are to refuse to have anything to do with those among you who are lazy and refuse to work the way we taught you. Don't permit them to freeload on the rest. We showed you how to pull your weight when we were with you, so get on with it. We didn't sit around on our hands expecting others to take care of us. In fact, we worked our fingers to the bone, up half the night moonlighting so you wouldn't be burdened with taking care of us. And it wasn't because we didn't have a right to your support; we did. We simply wanted to provide an example of diligence, hoping it would prove contagious."
So Paul is basically saying to stay away from the habitually lazy. Paul is telling everyone to stay away from people like me.
Okay, maybe I'm not exactly lazy (he said, trying to excuse himself). But I confess to fantasizing about a life of leisure. My work schedule often keeps me up quite late (note the timestamp on this entry). Though if I am to be honest, if I managed my time better, I could probably get more sleep and still get my work done. But what I really want is a vacation.
What surprises me here is just how much emphasis Paul puts on work. In 1 Thessalonians 5:14, he gave a similar command, but here he goes on about it for ten verses. In fact, there seems to be some spiritual benefit to hard work. Well, I don't want to hear that. I want to hear about the spiritual benefits of a day off.
Oh yes . . . I've forgotten. God did appoint a day off -- a sabbath rest.
"Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest." (Exodus 34:20-22)
Let's put that in terms I can understand.
"Even when you're past the deadlines and your clients are sending you desperate e-mail messages asking where their manuscripts are, you must rest."
A friend of mine had a phrase she would to use if ever she found herself working on a Sunday: "The ox is in the well" -- a reference to Luke 14:5. "If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?"
"The ox is in the well," she'd say. Meaning, "I know it's Sunday, but I have to get this project done. I cannot rest today."
But this is just an excuse. If I was disciplined about my work habits during the rest of the week, I'd be able to take my sabbath.
And maybe that's what Paul was getting at: discipline. The work we do is a discipline. It strengthens us, gives us confidence, provides for our needs, keeps us from being a burden to others.
And it is an opportunity to serve Jesus.
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." (Colossians 3:23-24)
When we are idle at our work, we are idle at serving Jesus. So our work is not just a discipline, it is a spiritual discipline. The six days of labor are every bit as spiritual as the seventh day of rest. This is a perspective I need to take; a truth I need to remind myself every time I go to work.
But I must confess, I'd still like a vacation.
--Drew Clausen
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