Sermon: Walk in Accord with the Tradition

Well, it's good to see you all on this Lord's Day evening. Uh, tonight we close our series in Second Thessalonians. Uh, next week we will begin a new series, uh, through, uh, the, the Prophet to the Kingdom of Judah Zephaniah. And guess who is gonna lead you through the introduction next week to Zephaniah this guy. All right. Our text this evening is Second Thessalonians three, verse six to 18. You can follow along with me as we read, but

before we do that, let's pray together.

Father, we, we thank you for this time to gather together as a family in Christ and seek your face. Help us to listen, knowing that you have Conde condescended to speak to us in your word. Help us to demonstrate our gratitude for this grace, the grace of your word by being attentive to it and seeking to apply it to our lives. A the speaker fade into the background, but your voice be clearly heard, and help us to leave here with a deeper sense of your love

for us in Christ and your will for our lives. And it's in His name that we pray. Amen.

Two Thessalonians chapter three, starting in verse six. Now we command you brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with toil and labor, we worked night

and day that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate for when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

As for you brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Now, may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way the Lord be with you all I Paul write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine.

It is the way I write the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. What I'd like to do tonight is some digging in to really comprehend what is being said in our passage here tonight. And then look at, look more generally at two topics that are being raised here in the text, the first being the topic of work in the Christian life, and then our responsibility as brethren in the Lord to help one another when we are in error.

So first we'll dig in a bit, recall with me the context of this letter. It is the second letter Paul writes to this church in Macedonia. He wrote it during his second missionary journey, not that long after he had been with them there in Thessalonica and founded this church. This is a largely gentile city, a trade city, and we see in Act 17 that the church faced persecution from both the local Jews and from the Gentiles of special concern.

As you'll remember of this second letter, are two main things. One, it appears that the church has serious questions or had serious questions and concerns about the resurrection of the dead. That resurrection, which Christians believe will happen at the end of all things. Somehow, somehow, uh, the question or teaching had arisen in the church that this eschatological resurrection had already occurred and that they had missed it.

As you can imagine, this caused no small amount of concern among these believers. Now, the second main reason for writing is what we have in our text today, namely that some among the church are behaving in a disruptive fashion primarily by expecting the others in the church to provide them with their daily bread. This is expressly against the instruction that Paul had given. Paul refers to it in the in verse six as the tradition

that they had received from him. In First Thessalonians chapter four, verses 11 and 12, Paul te tells the believers this, that they are to aspire to live quietly, to mind their own affairs and to work with their hands. And he says, just as we instructed you, so that no, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent upon no one. He told them that while he was with them, he repeated that to them in his first letter to them,

and now he's writing this portion of the second letter to correct those who are not living consistently with his instructions. He describes what they're doing as walking in idleness.

that this was not a one time sin or a few times sin, but an ongoing pattern of behavior. There's a, a bit of word play in the Greek and in the English of verse 11. These idle people are actually quite busy, but busy about the exact wrong things. Now, upon an initial reading of this passage, we might think that the, their behavior is in line with the sluggard of Proverbs six, the lazy person of Proverbs six, but it seems that their behavior is more in line

with the meddler of Proverbs 26. Paul calls them busy bodies. They're relying on others for their food all the while spending their days stirring up trouble for others in the church.

A difficulty in this text is that we are not told anything else about these idle people. We don't really know what motivates their behavior. Perhaps it is they who are going around reinforcing the false ideas about the resurrection or perhaps they're neglecting the obedience that they should be performing because they're just so rattled by the false teaching. We don't really know. We do know in fact that they are quite busy,

but not about the things that will provide them a living, whatever the reason. They're not living consistently with what Paul had told them to do when he was with them. And in First Thessalonians, the NASB and the KJV translate, the word that we have here idleness with the word orderliness. It's not that Ile is a bad translation, but we should think through Paul's usage of the word here. The letters to Thessalonica are the only place in the New

Testament where these words, this word appears. And if we look at other ancient Greek literature from around the time we find it used to refer to marching soldiers who are out of formation. These, these disorderly ones in Thessalonica are not moving in the direction that they should be moving. They are in this sense, idling and not advancing. Think about a, a troop of soldiers marching off to the, to a town to rescue the town from bandits.

If they're to get there quickly and efficiently, they need to be in step with one another. If they're walking at different paces, stopping to worry about the fearsome battle ahead, maybe running off in different directions, bothering one another, uh, they're not gonna make it in time to rescue anyone. These are, these people are undisciplined, they are disorderly. And this, this is exactly what these idol or disorderly brothers are doing.

The church has been given it's marching orders by Sergeant Paul to aspire to live quietly, mind your own affairs and work with your hands. He told them this when he was with them and in his first letter, and these brothers are just ignoring this instruction. They are out of step and making it hard on the rest of the church. Thus, I think laziness is not the main issue here. These brothers were quite busy, but they had decided for themselves

what they should be busy with. They seemed to have decided for some reason that Paul's instructions did not apply to them. So the sin at the root here in these brothers is faithlessness to their sergeants marching orders. It is in, as Paul says in verse six, not walking in accord with a tradition that the Thessalonian Thessalonians had received from Paul. Their idleness is a manifestation of their disorderliness. They're supposed to be living in a certain way

by a apostolic direction, and they have turned away from that way. Paul gives two commands to the two different groups of brothers within the church. Both of them he solemn iss by invoking the name of the Lord Jesus. The second command is to the idol ones. They should do their work quietly and earn their own living. They should stop their disorderly and disruptive behavior and work, work quietly. Stop trying to stir others up and mind your own affairs.

The first command is to the others in the church, the other brothers in the church, and it is that they would confront the sins of the brothers, verse 15. And if they are unrepentant, that they should set clear relational boundaries as a consequence for the bad behavior. Now, it isn't excommunication that Paul is talking about here. These are not to be delivered over to Satan as we have in one Corinthians five. It is rather the appropriate consequence to these

specific sins. These brothers are going around to, uh, the, the other believers' homes talking trouble to the members of the church and then going around and asking them to feed them as well because they're not, they've elected to not work the members of the church, therefore, after warning them, should not even answer these idler until they turn away from this sin. Now, Paul is careful to note that this is all to be done

recognizing the bond that believers have toward one another in Christ. We who belong to Christ must never regard a brother in Christ as the enemy or even as he wanders from the tradition that we have received.

Rather we correct, we even disconnect from him as we see here with the hope of restoration and fellowship as brethren, Paul then closes his letter as he usually does with a warm greeting and benediction in the Lord. And I hope you can see, uh, I at least feel like this text is complicated. We have some very clear teaching from Paul about the role of work in the believer's life, but there's certainly more here than just that.

Specifically, there's this idea of being a disruption in the church through ignoring the apostolic tradition or specific commands that the New Testament has given to us. So from here I wanna talk for a while about, uh, the role of work in the Christian life and then we want to talk more about this idea of how do we interact with, uh, brothers and sisters in the Lord who, uh, are walking in disorderliness. So first work, the Christian

has to take their relationship to work seriously. There are practical reasons, there are theological reasons, there are witness reasons. The principle that we find in verse 10 of our text this evening deserves some careful parsing. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. Both the Greek and the English take care to express that it is the inner state of the person unwilling to work. That is the problem, and not just the lack of work.

If anyone knowing that they're supposed to work elects not to do so. If anyone chooses, although they can to not work and yet, uh, rely upon others for their, uh, daily bread, this is not a principle. It should go without saying that applies to disabled or the sick or elderly or children or the unemployed who are looking for work, et cetera. If a capable person elects for some reason not to work and not to provide for themselves, Paul is saying here,

the church should not provide for them. It is a clear moral choice that's being made here, and it would require wisdom to discern the motives of such a person. Unemployment and even barriers to employment are a real thing. The sin issue here is unwillingness to work the heart that says, I deserve someone to provide for me with their labor. It is a fundamental kind of self-centeredness entitlement that sees one's own, wants one's own needs as superior to

the wants and needs of others. The Thessalonians, I think were torn. The there are, these are brethren, these are brothers and sisters in Christ who have come to them and asked for food. Didn't our Lord say not to withhold from those who ask, didn't the apostolic church have all things in common? Isn't it natural and right that they would just continue to feed their brothers? Paul is offering guidance on how to handle this particular situation.

Certainly those things are true, and it is also true that Paul confirms to us tonight that for a believer to abuse the system of generosity that is set up within the church is sin. Wisdom is needed to look through a pattern of behavior and into the heart. And Paul is training these Thessalonians how to discern what is going on. This is an important illustration I think, of the spiritual nature of the work of the deacon.

Sometimes we, we classify elders are over the spiritual stuff and the deacons are over the physical stuff, but that's not true. The deacon is a spiritual office that requires a man of godly character, maturity, wisdom, exactly for the reasons that we are seeing today. Paul is training the Diaconal discernment at Thessalonica and giving clear instructions about how to handle this kind of situation should it arise again,

just some thinking about work, poverty, uh, want, et cetera. College professor, uh, covenant College professor Dr. Brian Thickert has done both research and theology regarding work and poverty and the inherent dignity of work. Work is not a result of the fall. Rather, it is part of what the human is created to do. In fact, it reflects the image of God.

is the frustration and pain that will accompany work, but not the work itself. ERT says that those who are suffering with poverty are more helped by being provided the ability to work and provide for themselves and their families than they are by mere financial aid. They're given the opportunity to live into their created role and reflect God's image. Now, he's careful to say, if you see an immediate need, you should fill it.

Desperate circumstances do arise, and it's better to be taken advantage of for your mercy than to deny someone who is in need genuinely. But notice that this is not the case in Thessalonica. These brothers have decided to not provide for themselves. They are able, they are not in a dire situation. They have made a sinful choice. Paul's use of himself as an example in our text is significant. He's careful to remind us that pastors

and missionaries deserve the support of the church. This is a valid and important work, although it is not manual labor, but Paul says he and his team were not idle. They were not disorderly. The Greek word is the same into Paul's self description. When they were among the Thessalonians, they did manual labor so as not to receive free bread from anyone. And he did this, he says, to set, he to set an example, a type for them, a pattern that they should emulate.

This probably had a lot to do with the social and cultural climate of Thessalonica. The instructions to work quietly in first thesal, you go back and forth between Thessalonians and Thessalonian. Okay? All right. The instructions to work quietly in First Thessalonians four offer both not being a burden and the perception of those outside the church as its grounds. Perhaps there's an echo here of God's words in Jeremiah 29,

that God's people should work for the shalom of the city to be a witness to the city in which he has placed them. I'm gonna close this, this meditation about the, the dignity and importance of work in the Christian's life. By thinking together about this witness, there is a simple and strong witness to the watching world about it in the character of our work, 99% of us who work outside the home, work alongside unbelievers or for unbelievers,

and you, all of you who do can testify to this the truth that the simple Christian work ethic of work hard, don't complain about the work and mind your own business is surprisingly counter-cultural and attractive to employers and coworkers. As I meet with young people and I talk with them about work and their first jobs and try and reinforce this simple ethic, it never ceases to surprise me. The reports I get back of how rare this kind

of worker seems to be. I will hear things from young people like, I really don't know why, but I am my boss's favorite and I'm being given more responsibility. Well, because you are following this, uh, this simple biblical idea of, uh, honoring the Lord in your work and in your attitude towards work, I wanna suggest to you that a very important way in which you testify to the goodness and the truthfulness of Christianity in a hostile culture

is simply by being a reliable worker who does not gossip or complain in the workplace. Now, there's gonna be times in a, any, in some job where a worker has to speak up for what is right, advocating for themselves. This is not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking against the kind of worker who does as little as possible, complains about it and acts contemptuously of others. If this describes you as an employee, as a business owner,

you are not testifying to a watching world of the goodness and trueness of the gospel that you claim to love. If you do practice this simple work ethic, your coworkers and employers will not only notice at some point, they will ask you about it. And if you have not already made clear who you are and who you worship you are, you will be given a plain open door to do so. Your behavior at your work testifies to the goodness of the gospel even

before you get to share the words birds, I'm reminded of a story that I heard at admissions conference of a Christian nurse who took a job at a hospital in a closed country country that was closed to missionaries. No one is allowed to come in and evangelize, but she took a job at a hospital. They, they had a desperate need for nurses somewhere within the 10 40 window. She worked hard. She didn't complain. She worked so hard

and so well that she was able to start a Bible study among the Muslim women with whom she worked all with the full knowledge and consent of her supervisors. And the simple reason that she was allowed to get away with this was that by doing her work as unto the Lord, she had become far too valuable a worker to lose.

Paul wanted not only the health of the church to be maintained here in uh, two Thessalonians three,

Not only about the cost that these IRS were having on the brothers and sisters, but he also wanted the testimony of the gospel to be strong. And the believer works out this testimony in their life of work far more than we realize. Next I'd, I'd like to zero in on this phrase that, uh, Paul says in verse six that the believers in Thessalonika received the tradition from him, uh, and Silas and Timothy Verse, he talks about his instructions in this significant way.

This is not the only place where he uses language like this, of the tradition you've received from us, the pattern of sound, words that you, you have learned from us, what you have learned from us, et cetera. As you read through Paul's letters, uh, and the more you read through Paul's letters, you, you will notice that there are some practical and ethical teachings that are repeated in different books. Consider the household code of Ephesians five and six

and Colossians three, the qualifications for elders in and deacons in one Timothy, three in Titus one, generosity in second Corinthians nine, and in one Timothy six, and work here in two Thessalonians three, and in one Thessalonians four, and in Ephesians four, these aren't the only examples we can talk about orderly worship, bearing with one and with and forgiving one another relating to the state, the unity of the body, et cetera.

I think what you begin to trace out in studying this is that as Paul traveled and planted churches, he had a set of teachings in his mind that he wanted each church to receive a curriculum maybe of the Christian life individually and together. So he, he comes to a city, he preaches the glorious truths of justification by faith alone in the synagogue and in the marketplace, and the spirit works and converts souls. And now before he leaves, he wants to put them

through this curriculum. Obviously, some particular issues will be more pressing than others in a particular place, so he might start with one topic, one subject, and maybe he doesn't get a chance to talk about one subject or maybe after he is left he hears, oh, they didn't understand me when I taught them there, so, so he writes them a letter which covers, uh, some of the stuff that they are maybe weak on or need to hear.

Again, what I'm trying to get at here is this phrase that Paul uses in our text this evening. The tradition which you received refers not only to working, it refers to a whole set of teachings about the Christian life. And in this text we see that even still, uh, it does not only refer to work, it also refers to disruptiveness and the busy body ness. But it could easily refer to other ethical teachings, uh, teachings related to personal

or corporate holiness that we find elsewhere in Paul's letters. Why is this important? Because Paul is laying out here a plan for the believers to cope with someone within their fellowship who is for whatever reason, ignoring the plain ethical teaching of the tradition and becoming disruptive. It seems to me that these specific consequences in this specific situation are related to, uh, the, the consequences related to the sin.

The offending brothers are stirring others up and then asking for bread. It's a very social, relational, uh, conversational offenses here relating to and, and they're refusing to work. So Paul says, make sure that they hear the warning about them disobeying the apostolic tradition, and then stop answering them and don't feed them anymore. We also learned some important things about church life from this interplay. First, we learn that it is not only false teachers

that will trouble the church, but sometimes airing brothers will trouble the church. Now, you may think that this is obvious, but this is an important category that we need to have in our heads. Sometimes brethren in Christ saved persons will be wrong and even disruptive to the life of the church. Think of gossips. Think of perennial critics. Think of perennial complainers, and we brethren in Christ saved persons must not only live amongst people who commit these errors,

we must help correct them in love. We should note again that Paul does not call for the excommunication of these irs, nor does he call on the elders to do the work of correction. Now, maybe that their pattern of behavior would rise to the level of formal discipline, but notice that this command is to brethren about brethren. What we must deduce, therefore, is that church members have a responsibility in the Lord to help one another grow in grace and grow in righteousness.

Let me say that again. Church members have a responsibility in the Lord to help one another grow in grace and grow in righteousness, not merely by example, but sometimes by warning and even by relational limits.

If we love the airing among us, then we should seek to bring them to a better understanding of and obedience to the truth for their own good. I want us to notice together how far from canceling or condemning someone this is, it is a correction of a brother with an expectation of reconciliation. It is an embrace of this brother enough that you are declaring your willingness to walk with them through their difficult stage.

You might say, isn't that exactly the opposite of a willingness to walk with them? It, it didn't. We just, isn't Paul describing an exact opposite of a willingness to walk with them? No, because what is not, what is being said is not, I will never walk with you again. It is, I am invested in you enough to stand up to your sinful habits. I am committed to walk more closely with you when you have turned from them. Now, most of us are not particularly comfortable

with the idea of confronting sin in each other, and particularly not if it is a sin toward to which a brother is blind. But is that not what our text is pointing us toward? There are times when for whatever reason, our brethren will develop patterns of behavior that in order to love them well and to love the church well, we will need to risk their anger or rejection in love and the hope of redemption. Think about it this way.

The greatest enemy of my life is my own sin. The mortification of that sin is the hardest battle that I will face in my whole life. That is true of me, and it is true of you. Can we then place a value on a loving brother or sister who comes alongside you in love to help you overcome, to help you in this mortification?

The testimony of our lives together isn't apologetic for the goodness of our God. That includes how we interact with one another's errors. This means as we, we gracefully and humbly address sin in one another. Ever ready to forgive, ever ready to restore fellowship, ever re ready to be. Let the past be the past. We are honoring Christ before a watching world. Think about the attractiveness and the draw toward Christ that is particularly today,

when it is, when forgiveness is not a category in the broader culture.

Oh, yes, that community of believers knows that I'm a sinner and oh no, they have not ignored it. Rather they have embraced me fully sins and all and are helping me to overcome with kindness and hope. This is what we are called to do. It is it is the way in which we honor the Lord, in love for him and love for one another, and it is a witness to the broader culture around us. As, uh, our Lord said, they will know that we belong to him

by our love. Let's close together in prayer.

Father, help us not only to love those who have things together, but also those who do not have things together. For we know, father, that none of us actually really fit the description, have things together, we acknowledge that we are sinners not only in need of your grace, but in need of the fellowship of the Saints to help us overcome. Help us to humbly receive, rebuke and humbly be willing to offer it when it is needed.

Help us to overcome, not that we might be proud, but so that you might receive glory and help us to work in our daily tasks as unto you. May the world see both in our work ethic and in our lives of close fellowship together, the g goodness and beauty of what it means to belong to you. It is the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen.