Should Christians Start Revolutions or Just Live Quietly?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Here's a great question from a podcast listener
00:00:07.920 | named Nolan.
00:00:08.760 | Pastor John, my name is Nolan from West Palm Beach, Florida.
00:00:12.400 | In First Thessalonians 411, Paul writes this.
00:00:15.120 | "Make it your goal to live a quiet life,
00:00:17.320 | "minding your own business and working with your hands
00:00:19.940 | "just as we instructed you before.
00:00:22.600 | "Now, instantly I thought of faithful Christians
00:00:24.860 | "who led revolutions, Martin Luther,
00:00:27.240 | "Martin Luther King Jr., et cetera.
00:00:29.680 | "And noted that they did not live quiet lives
00:00:32.400 | "minding their own business."
00:00:33.640 | So my question is, does this passage prevent us
00:00:36.560 | from leading social movements,
00:00:38.440 | many of which are bold and upfront,
00:00:40.860 | like the civil rights movement?
00:00:42.080 | What would you say, Pastor John?
00:00:43.640 | - Well, and of course, you don't have to jump over
00:00:47.160 | 2000 years of church history to find examples
00:00:49.680 | of people who stirred up trouble almost everywhere he went.
00:00:52.600 | - Right, exactly.
00:00:53.440 | - Like in the New Testament,
00:00:56.080 | the first thing we think of is Paul,
00:00:58.480 | who wrote these words.
00:01:00.720 | And the other person we think of is Jesus,
00:01:03.440 | who never did anything wrong,
00:01:05.240 | and both were accused of turning the world upside down.
00:01:09.240 | When they opened their mouths,
00:01:10.880 | quietness did not follow.
00:01:13.800 | Like division followed, riots followed,
00:01:17.760 | murder followed.
00:01:19.820 | So I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
00:01:25.680 | So, good question.
00:01:28.200 | Just, you don't need Martin Luther or MLK to ask it,
00:01:32.080 | although they're relevant,
00:01:33.320 | and I'll come back to that, Lord willing.
00:01:35.800 | We have Paul against Paul here,
00:01:40.560 | and we have Jesus, who drove the money changers
00:01:43.040 | out of the temple, over against Jesus,
00:01:45.120 | who said, "Turn the other cheek."
00:01:46.900 | Of course, that's not the right way to put it.
00:01:51.080 | Excuse me, Paul, sorry.
00:01:53.040 | No, it is not Paul against Paul,
00:01:56.440 | and Jesus is not against Jesus.
00:01:58.640 | The solution lies in finding how the pieces fit together
00:02:03.640 | in the Bible, not walking away from the table
00:02:07.000 | where the jigsaw puzzle is,
00:02:08.680 | lying there on the table, complaining,
00:02:10.620 | "Nothing fits, nothing fits."
00:02:12.480 | A lot of people leave God and the Bible that way.
00:02:16.600 | They just see this, you know, 125 pieces spread out,
00:02:20.000 | or maybe 1,000 people spread out on the table,
00:02:22.080 | and they can't find the one that fits next
00:02:23.840 | to make the picture beautiful,
00:02:25.160 | and they dump the table over because they're so angry,
00:02:28.400 | and that's not good for them.
00:02:30.880 | So let's read the text that Nolan is referring to,
00:02:35.120 | very important, and I'm gonna put one other with it,
00:02:38.000 | which I think sheds a lot of light on it.
00:02:40.320 | So 1 Thessalonians 4, 9.
00:02:43.600 | Concerning brotherly love,
00:02:46.000 | you have no need for anyone to write you,
00:02:48.360 | for you yourselves have been taught by God
00:02:50.800 | to love one another,
00:02:52.040 | for that indeed is what you are doing
00:02:55.240 | to all the brothers throughout Macedonia,
00:02:57.440 | but we urge you to do it, brothers, more and more,
00:03:02.160 | and to aspire to live quietly,
00:03:05.000 | and to mind your own affairs,
00:03:07.120 | now notice, quietly, and to mind your own affairs,
00:03:12.120 | 2 Thessalonians is gonna spell that out
00:03:14.920 | as meddling other people's business,
00:03:16.920 | and to work with your hands as we instructed you,
00:03:21.760 | so that you may walk properly before outsiders,
00:03:25.800 | and not be dependent on anyone.
00:03:29.160 | So what's the situation here?
00:03:31.800 | Some in the church seem to be idlers,
00:03:35.840 | lazy, not working for a living,
00:03:38.300 | mooching off of others,
00:03:40.480 | and bringing the church and the name of Jesus
00:03:43.120 | into disrepute among outsiders,
00:03:45.880 | and the quietness that Paul has in mind
00:03:48.600 | seems to be the opposite of bothersome talk
00:03:52.240 | when you hang around others who are trying to do their work,
00:03:55.680 | and you aren't doing any work.
00:03:58.880 | All you are is talk, so be quiet and get to work.
00:04:03.880 | Pull your own economic weight,
00:04:06.200 | and stop making Christianity look like
00:04:08.300 | the birthplace of laziness.
00:04:11.080 | That's my paraphrase.
00:04:12.440 | See if that's confirmed in 2 Thessalonians 3.10.
00:04:16.640 | For even when we were with you,
00:04:18.540 | we would give you this command.
00:04:21.080 | If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
00:04:25.000 | For we hear that some among you are walking in idleness,
00:04:30.000 | not busy at any work, but busy bodies,
00:04:34.520 | meddling in others' affairs.
00:04:37.080 | Now, such persons we command and encourage
00:04:40.960 | in the Lord Jesus to do their work quietly,
00:04:46.160 | and to earn their own living.
00:04:48.980 | So, the situation is exactly the same, I think.
00:04:53.540 | I mean, same church,
00:04:54.860 | and these letters are not separated by very long.
00:04:57.580 | There are lazy idlers in the church in Thessalonia,
00:05:02.060 | and maybe they're people who think the Lord
00:05:05.180 | is coming back so soon that they quit their jobs
00:05:08.680 | just to look up into the sky,
00:05:10.580 | and they're making an absolute nuisance of themselves
00:05:13.620 | as they idle around while other people
00:05:16.040 | are trying to do their work,
00:05:17.960 | and their mouths are filled with chatter
00:05:20.440 | and talk about what other people are doing
00:05:23.280 | rather than doing their own work.
00:05:25.400 | And he connects explicitly the quietness and the work.
00:05:30.400 | Says, "We encourage in the Lord to do their work quietly."
00:05:37.080 | So, the quietness in mind is the opposite of,
00:05:42.800 | or it flows from focused, diligent, gainful employment.
00:05:47.800 | If you're laying brick all day,
00:05:50.580 | or digging a ditch, or winnowing grain,
00:05:53.400 | you're not a nuisance,
00:05:55.180 | gadding about and gossiping about other people
00:05:58.620 | while they're trying to work.
00:06:00.700 | So, big question then, is it a contradiction
00:06:04.740 | when Paul walks into town,
00:06:07.980 | preaches the gospel, and a riot breaks out?
00:06:11.260 | He said, "Ooh, I shouldn't have done that.
00:06:12.820 | "My goal is quietness."
00:06:14.900 | He clearly touched other people's affairs when he did that.
00:06:18.820 | Like the silversmiths in Ephesus in Acts 19.
00:06:23.180 | They were about to be put out of business
00:06:26.140 | by Paul's denouncing idolatry
00:06:28.860 | because these idols were made out of silver.
00:06:31.820 | And so, if people renounce idolatry,
00:06:34.780 | the silversmiths are going out of business,
00:06:37.700 | and Paul is preaching the gospel anyway.
00:06:41.340 | Is that a contradiction to 1 Thessalonians?
00:06:45.460 | And my answer is no, it's not a contradiction
00:06:48.500 | because Paul wasn't talking about that at all
00:06:51.460 | in 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
00:06:53.940 | The overarching concern of Paul in Thessalonica
00:06:58.620 | was that the saints walk in love
00:07:01.780 | and that they exalt Christ truly in the community
00:07:05.220 | so that the outsiders see what he's really like.
00:07:07.900 | And that's exactly what Paul was doing everywhere he went
00:07:11.900 | and what those who led great Christian movements were doing.
00:07:16.000 | They were loving people and exalting Christ.
00:07:19.740 | So, for us, let's do the same.
00:07:23.460 | If it causes a public uproar,
00:07:25.660 | let's make sure it's for love and for Christ.
00:07:28.740 | Amen, thank you, Pastor John, for that balance.
00:07:30.620 | It's all about Christ.
00:07:32.620 | In fact, everything that does not make Christ
00:07:34.700 | look more glorious is a waste of our life,
00:07:37.220 | as Pastor John will explain tomorrow.
00:07:39.580 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:07:40.420 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:07:42.500 | I'll see you tomorrow.
00:07:43.540 | (upbeat music)
00:07:46.120 | (upbeat music)
00:07:48.700 | [BLANK_AUDIO]