Jump Start # 1753
1 Thessalonians 4:11 “and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you.”
In our Jump Start yesterday, we saw that the apostle had instructed the brethren about how to walk spiritually and to please God. Our verse today, tells yet of another instruction that they had received. We wonder if these instructions came in the form of sermons, Bible classes or just informal talks. Seeing what they were instructed in makes us take a look at how and what we are instructing folks in today. Could it be that we are leaning too far into academia and intellectual depth and not simple practical living?
Four thoughts come out of our verse today:
Lead a quiet life. The opposite seems to be a “noisy” or “loud” life. The word means peaceable or tranquil. Quiet rather than stressful. Quiet rather than bothered and worried. Quiet comes up again in the N.T. Paul would tell the Thessalonians in a second letter to “work in a quiet fashion and eat your own bread” (3:12). Timothy was told to pray for kings so that we may “lead a tranquil and quiet life” (1 Tim 2:2). Just doing what we are supposed to be doing. Not causing trouble; not making a scene; content; happy; quiet life—that’s the idea.
Attend to your own business. That’s needed then and it’s certainly needed now. This is directly related to the quiet life. Often the quiet life is missing because someone is not minding their own business. There is a thin line here and it’s often hard to detect what is my business and what is not my business. When we don’t understand the difference, we get things messy and too often, we upset people. The spiritual wellbeing of a person is our business. We want people to go to Heaven. Whether or not they are following God and obeying the Lord is our business. When a man in Corinth was living immorally, it became the business of Paul and eventually the church. For that man to say, “Mind your own business,” doesn’t fit there. Our business is getting folks ready for Heaven. It is teaching and encouraging others. Our business goes beyond what happens at the church building. It’s not right nor fitting to this verse for a person to say, “Mind your own business about my church attendance. I’ll come when I want to come.” Wrong. It is our business because it affects you spiritually and it impacts the church. What a person wears, modesty, is a spiritual issue. To say, “I can wear what I want and you can’t say anything about it,” is simply wrong. God speaks about modesty. If a Christian isn’t obeying God, then something can and ought to be said. Misunderstanding this expression, can lead folks to doing whatever they want as soon as they leave the church building and everyone must take a “hands off” approach. This is not the direction of this passage. There are too many other verses that remind us to “bear one another’s burdens,” or, restore one who is “caught in any trespass.”
The minding your business that we too often get involved in is the personal things that do not involve spiritual matters. We love to tell people what they ought to eat, what kind of car they ought to be driving, where they should live. Some times walking into the church building is an intense questioning by busybodies who simply want to know. They want to know if and when you are going to have another baby. They want to know if you are going to stay in your house after your mate has passed away. They want to know how much money you make. They want to know about your sex life. Personal and none of their business. You do not have to answer every question that is asked, even by brethren. You do not have to be compelled to reveal information that you feel is off limits. The direction of this statement is not towards being asked, but rather, don’t be the one who does the asking. Mind your own business. There are things that are off limits to you. Once you know these things about others, a person feels the need to share that with someone else. This is the breeding ground of gossip. Word gets around. Feelings get hurt. People leave a church. Why? Because someone stuck their nose in where it didn’t belong. My grandma often said, “Mind your own bee’s wax.” I have no idea what that means other than mind your own business.
It seems that some are so busy running the lives of others that they can’t run their own lives. If we put as much attention into ourselves and pointed the radar gun at ourselves as much as we do others, we’d be better people. What all of this means is that there are some things that I may not like, understand or figure out, but if it doesn’t hurt them spiritually, it’s none of my business. I may not like it, but if they can still go to Heaven that way, it’s their business. A person can go to Heaven being different, weird, or even unusual, by my standards. If a guy wants to paint his house black, go for it. I must mind my own business. You can go to Heaven with black walls. If a guy wants to trade cars every year and he can afford it, I must mind my own business. If a guy changes careers often, switches colleges often and is still excelling with the Lord, I must mind my own business. If a couple decides that they do not want to have any children, I must mind my own business. It they decide that they only want one child, I must mind my own business. If they want to adopt, I must mind my own business. One of my children and his wife adopted a boy from overseas. I have been asked, “could they not have children.” My answer is, “I don’t know. I never asked.” It was their business, and even as a parent, you must mind it. We hurt each other when we don’t mind our business.
Years ago, when I first started preaching, we lived in a house that the church owned. Early one morning, we heard someone walking around inside the house. I got up. It was one of the older members. I asked him what he was doing inside my house. He said, “I just wanted to see if the love birds made it back from their honeymoon. Besides, we all have keys.” That crossed several lines with me. He thought it was his business to just come on in, without knocking, since the church owned the house.
Thirdly, Paul says, work with your hands. This also is tied in to the quiet life. Don’t work with your mouth, work with your hands. Be busy. When you are busy, you don’t have time to notice all the particulars of others. This applies to worship, as well. Get busy in worship. Pray. Sing. Praise. Listen. You don’t have time to count how many times some people are in and out. You don’t have time to notice who is sleeping. Get busy. Work with your hands. Mind your own business.
Finally, Paul says, make this your ambition. This is your goal. This is what you are to strive for. What a great theme for a year. What a great goal for each of us to strive for. Make it your practice. Make it your ambition. Make it your aim. This is what you are striving for. Lead a quiet life. Work with your hands. Mind your own business. When you do this, you’ll find the stress levels going down. This happens because you are not so worked up about others. If it’s not wrong, then don’t think about it. We are good at telling others what we think they need to do. We never realize that what we are doing is pushy and it bothers others.
Relationships—this is what Paul is writing about. We are a family in Christ, but there are things that we need to understand to make this work. Bumping into each other can be lessened when we listen to the words of this passage.
This verse ends with Paul reminding them, that they had been “commanded” about these things. This isn’t’ just good advise. This is more than helpful stuff. These are commands of God. Missing this, messes up the walk and the pleasing God that this chapter began with.
Quiet, work with your own hands, mind your own business—hard to do some days. Something that one must work on, even us parents of grown kids. It helps saying, “They can still go to Heaven that way.” And, I suppose, in our own way, folks look at each of us, and just shake their heads.
Walk, please the Lord, live a quiet life, work with your hands, mind your own business. Those would make great stencils on a wall. They work better when they are stenciled into our hearts.
Roger