August 27, 2017: Day 8 – II Thessalonians 3

There is a tale that Captain John Smith when he was made leader in Jamestown told the people if you do not work, then you will not eat.  It worked, people worked and the colony began to thrive.  If you ever wonder where he got that idea you don’t have to look any further than II Thessalonians 3:10.  You see Paul in a few other places talk about this Protestant work ethic.  No, it wasn’t called that back then, but there was an insistence of a certain work ethic which has carried over into our own understanding.  It isn’t understood today as a Christian perspective, although it should be, but industriousness is seen rather as a secular benefit.  We should turn that around and say it was Paul who insisted that “with toil and labor we worked night and day.”  I like that example.

If you take vs.13 it really works for so many different situations in life.  Listen to this verse again: “Brothers and sisters do not be weary in doing what is right.”  How can you be weary in doing what is right?  Well, what if doing what is right doesn’t put you in a position to step over others in your career?  Then it might be old doing what is right.  What if doing right puts you in a position of weakness?  Then doing right just might not seem too appealing.  But Paul tells us that we should never weary of doing right, and he says it in the context of a work ethic which ought to push us to keep doing, and doing, and doing.