1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 - Live a Quiet Life

9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Target Date: Sunday15 January 2023

NOTES:

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

9 – Taught by God - θεοδίδακτος thĕŏdidaktŏs, theh-od-id´-ak-tos; from 2316 and 1321; divinely instructed:— taught of God.

This appears to be a word invented by Paul here; there is no evidence of this word prior to its usage here.

This is the only occurrence of θεοδίδακτος in the NT and its earliest extant occurrence in Greek literature.

θεοδίδακτος (“taught by God”) appears to be a Pauline coinage since there are no known instances of the term prior to Paul, and outside Christian circles there are virtually none after him (Koester, “I Thessalonians,” 40.n.14).

The idea (although not the word) is found in Isaiah 54:13: All your sons will be taught of the Lord; And the well-being of your sons will be great.

This is a clear passage about the Messianic age.

10 – do this more and more – excel - περισσεύω pĕrissĕuō, per-is-syoo´-o; from 4053; to superabound (in quantity or quality), be in excess, be superfluous; also (tran.) to cause to superabound or excel:— (make, more) abound, (have, have more) abundance (be more) abundant, be the better, enough and to spare, exceed, excel, increase, be left, redound, remain (over and above).

10 – urge – our old friend “exhort” - παρακαλέω parakalĕō, par-ak-al-eh´-o; from 3844 and 2564; to call near, i.e. invite, invoke (by imploration, hortation or consolation):— beseech, call for, (be of good) comfort, desire, (give) exhort (-ation), intreat, pray.

To call someone alongside

2:11, 3:2, 3:7, 4:1…

11 – aspire – φιλοτιμέομαι philŏtimĕŏmai, fil-ot-im-eh´-om-ahee; mid. voice from a compound of 5384 and 5092; to be fond of honor, i.e. emulous (eager or earnest to do something):— labour, strive, study.

The word “study” signifies to seek after an object with a holy and active ambition, as though it were the highest honour to possess it.

φιλοτιμεῖσθαι] The original idea of φιλοτιμία ‘the pursuit of honour, the love of distinction’ (typical of Athens, see Pericles’ speech in Thuc. ii. 44 τὸ φιλότιμον ἀγήρων μόνον) is more or less obscured in its later usages (e.g. Rom. 15:20, 2 Cor. 5:9) and the verb comes to signify ‘to make the pursuit of a thing one’s earnest endeavour,’ ‘to strive restlessly after’ a thing, and the substantive ‘restless energy’ (see e.g. Athenag. de resurr. § 18 οὐ γὰρ φιλοτιμίας τὸ κατάγειν ἢ διαιρεῖν νῦν). Thus though the meaning ‘ambition’ would well suit the context here, it is unsafe to press it.

11 – quietly – ἡσυχάζω hēsuchazō, hay-soo-khad´-zo; from the same as 2272; to keep still (intr.), i.e. refrain from labor, meddlesomeness or speech:— cease, hold peace, be quiet, rest.

When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” – Acts 11:18

On hearing about Peter’s experiences, the Christians at Jerusalem “remained silent” (hēsychasan; NIV, “had no further objections”) and “praised God.” This probably means that his critics, at least for the moment, were silenced, while those more receptive to God’s working acknowledged that Peter was right and credited God rather than human ingenuity for what had happened. In view of what Peter reported, the Jerusalem church could come to no other conclusion than that “God has even granted the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!” – Acts 21:14

Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. – Luke 23:56

Therefore it is right, agreeing with examples of such a kind and so many, to risk our necks and to take up the position of obedience, so that ceasing from the futile rebellion, we may attain the goal ⌊truly set before us⌋  without any blemish. (1 Clement 63:1)

11 – to mind – πράσσω prassō, pras´-so; a primary verb; to “practice”, i.e. perform repeatedly or habitually (thus differing from 4160, which prop. refers to a single act); by impl. to execute, accomplish, etc.; spec. to collect (dues), fare (personally):— commit, deeds, do, exact, keep, require, use arts.

11 – your own affairs – ἴδιος idiŏs, id´-ee-os; of uncert. aff.; pertaining to self, i.e. one’s own; by impl. private or separate:— × his acquaintance, when they were alone, apart, aside, due, his (own, proper, several), home, (her, our, thine, your) own (business), private (-ly), proper, severally, their (own).

Thoughts on the Passage:

9 – concerning brotherly love – this is an exclusive love, reserved for those within the family of God. Agape is for each person, but this philadelphia is for the community of faith in Jesus Christ.

The force of this love is more intimate, more personal.

It is a love of loyalty that encompasses agape, but moves beyond it into a deep relationship: mutual agape in community together.

It is more than compassion, more than fondness; it is BLOOD.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. – 1 Corinthians 10:12

11 - Brotherly love can have no place in the heart from which peace has fled and where war and discord reign. The quiet spirit is not a weak, meaningless, cowardly condition of mind, but contains in it all the elements of patient endurance, unconquerable bravery, and inviolable moral power. It is not the quietness of the shallow lagoon, on whose surface the heaviest storm can raise but a few powerless ripples; it is rather the profound calm of the ocean, which, when roused by the tempest, is overwhelmed in its impetuous onset. Christ is likened to the lamb—gentle, harmless, pacific; but when His fury is once let loose upon the ungodly, the distracted victims will shriek for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. A pacific spirit is another practical evidence of possessing the genuine sanctification so earnestly commended by the apostle.

We must unlearn many things before we can be taught this.—1. Cast out self-love. 2. Covetousness. 3. Pull back our ambition. 4. Bind our malice. 5. Empty ourselves of all suspicion, surmising, and discontent.

11 - “… it was not Paul’s intent that the church disrupt society or overthrow governments. Rather, he encouraged Christians to be good citizens and exemplary members of their families and of their society but to do so in a manner consistent with the teachings of Christ. Only in this sense was the Pauline gospel intended to change society. It set out to change the individuals who made up society while awaiting that climactic event when the power of God would truly change the world forever.”

11 - And that ye study; literally, that ye be ambitious. To be quiet; to avoid unrest, to live in peace. Worldly ambition excludes quietness and prompts to restlessness; so that the apostle’s admonition really is, “that ye be ambitious not to be ambitious.”

11 - The apostle exhorts to these duties: that they should study to be quiet, v. 11. It is the most desirable thing to have a calm and quiet temper, and to be of a peaceable and quiet behaviour. This tends much to our own and others’ happiness; and Christians should study how to be quiet. We should be ambitious and industrious how to be calm and quiet in our minds, in patience to possess our own souls, and to be quiet towards others; or of a meek and mild, a gentle and peaceable disposition, not given to strife, contention, or division. Satan is very busy to disquiet us; and we have that in our own hearts that disposes us to be disquiet; therefore let us study to be quiet.

Matthew Henry: A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit

Those who find themselves wronged and aggrieved, think they may have permission to speak; but it is better to be silent than to speak amiss, and make work for repentance. At such a time he that holds his tongue holds his peace; and if we soberly reflect, we shall find we have been often the worse for our speaking, but seldom the worse for our silence.

If others are angry with us without cause, and we have ever so much reason on our side, yet often it is best to delay our own vindication, though we think it necessary, until the passion is over; for there is nothing said or done in passion, but it may be better said and better done afterwards. When we are calm, we shall be likely to say it and do it in a better manner; and when our brother is calm, we shall be likely to say it and do it to a better purpose. A needful truth spoken in anger may do more hurt than good, and offend rather than satisfy.

Let not therefore those that do well and suffer for it, spoil their own vindication by mistiming and mismanaging it.

That which would break an angry man’s heart will not break a meek man’s sleep.

We must "contend earnestly," but not angrily and passionately—no, not for "the faith once delivered to the saints."

God's cause needs not the patronage of our sinful passions, which often give a mighty shock even to the truth for which we plead.

In dealing with gainsayers, a spirit of meekness will teach us to consider their temper, education, custom, the power of prejudice they labor under, the influence of others upon them, and to make allowances accordingly, and not to call, as passionate contenders are apt to do, every false step an apostasy; every error and mistake, no, every misconstrued, misplaced word, a heresy; and every misdemeanor no less than treason and rebellion: methods of proceeding more likely to irritate and harden, than to convince and reduce gainsayers. I have heard it observed long since, that "the scourge of the tongue has driven many out of the temple, but never drove any into it." (131)

We only gratify our great adversary and do his work for him when we allow the peace and serenity of our minds to be broken in upon by the reproaches of the world. For me to disquiet myself and put myself into a passion because another abuses me, is as if I should scratch the skin off my face to wipe off the dirt which my adversary throws on it. (135)

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

11 – This doesn’t mean that we should be unhelpful or oblivious to the needs of our brother; far from it.

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. – Matthew 7:3-5

11 – WORK with your hands; do not simply extend them to have them filled by someone else.

Sermon Text:

We come again to this passage where Paul and Silas are instructing the Thessalonian believers with some corrections.

We have looked at many of the teachings repeated throughout this book that indicated the basic doctrines the apostles taught in their limited time among this church.

But now in this section, and for most of the remainder of the letter, the apostles will be dealing with what we might call “next steps”.

These will be specific things that need to be strengthened in the lives of the believers in Thessalonica.

As we began to see in the last few weeks, some or all of these deficiencies the apostles address may be the result of the report brought by Timothy after his follow-up visit to Thessalonica.

They certainly contain the hallmarks of observations Timothy made,

As opposed to questions being actively asked by the Thessalonian church.

In each of the corrections the apostles make, there is an element of observation, meaning that each item they deal with could be easily observed by Timothy.

But each of these things might have required apostolic wisdom in how to address the problem.

So that the root of the issue was dealt with, and not simply the direct behavior corrected.

The good news for the Thessalonians is that, for the most part, they had taken to heart the gospel preached by the apostles,

Adding to that basic instruction they had received instruction from the Scriptures they had,

And seeking in all ways to be pleasing to God because of the great mercy He had shown them.

That is the difficult thing about the problems the apostles deal with in the rest of the book:

All these problems seem to grow out of a genuine fervor for the gospel and a desire to be recognized as distinct people – the people of God.

It is like someone who has just understood in their heart the truth of God’s sovereignty in salvation, leading them to finally grasp the rudiments of Reformed Theology.

They begin by a reverence and awe for God’s great love and mercy He has poured out on undeserving sinners.

But very often I have then heard people in this state say, “I don’t know how anyone can be a Christian if they don’t believe this.”

And yet they forget that months or years ago, they may have been ignorant of these deep truths.

For the Thessalonians, their fervor in this newfound faith seems to have caused them to make choices and develop beliefs that may seem entirely correct, yet be detrimental to themselves, the church, or the gospel.

This seems particularly true of the instructions in the 11th and 12th verses of chapter 4.

There is another set of commands in 5:12-27, but these seem to be more generally instructive, not to the point of correcting existing behavior.

For most of the instructions in chapter 5, there do not seem to be specific problems being addressed.

To explain what I mean, the instructions in chapter 5 are like when your dentist tells you: “Brush twice a day, floss every day, and stay away from sugary snacks.”

Where the problems addressed in our passage today are more like: “You have a cavity in tooth #3; we will fill it on the first of next month.”

That is, the instructions in our passage today are much more specific instructions that are intended to change an existing attitude or behavior.

It is my intention, if God is willing, to deal with each of these three instructions in detail, looking at what was being commanded and how we can apply it.

The first instruction we will look at this morning is at the beginning of verse 11: aspire to live quietly.

Perhaps, on first reading, you have some picture in your head of what “quiet living” is.

In my mind, if someone told me to “aspire to live quietly”, I might think they were telling me to move out to the country, far away from any neighbors, and keep to myself.

Similar to telling you to “get out of everyone’s way.”

And while that might be a welcome instruction to some, it is far from what the apostles are saying here.

Remember, first of all, that they are speaking to urban Christians – Christians who were born and raised in a large city.

These are businesspeople who had, in the course of their trading all over Greece, carried the gospel with them.

Selling the city house and moving to the country was not really an option for them.

And Paul and Silas are not suggesting it.

To see what they ARE saying, let’s take a look at the two primary words that are used in this instruction: aspire and live quietly (which is a single word).

The word “aspire” is also translated “make it your ambition”, “seek to”, and, unhelpfully in the King James, “study”, which was probably quite correct in 1611, but has a completely different meaning for us today.

The picture is someone relentlessly straining forward, considering the attainment their highest honor.

It is a picture that says you will let nothing get in your way of your goal; that you will overcome any obstacle along the way.

But then the apostles combine it with another word – “live quietly”.

It really is a shocking paradox: “make it your great ambition – let nothing stand between you and the goal …to be quiet.”

The word translated “live quietly” is used only a handful of times in the New Testament, and we can get a better idea of what it means by looking at a couple of the other uses:

In Acts 21:14, after Paul had been told by the prophet Agabus in Caesarea that he was going to be arrested in Jerusalem, Luke tells us that they begged Paul to stay away from the city.

Then Luke adds this narrative:

And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!” – Acts 21:14

The word there “we fell silent” is the same word Paul and Silas use here.

It really does mean to “hold our tongue” or “hold our peace.”

And then, in Luke 23:56, we get another translation of the word:

This is a passage describing the women who were caring for the body of Jesus after the crucifixion.

Luke tells us:

Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. – Luke 23:56

The word translated there “rested” is the same word as we see.

And what had these women done for that Sabbath?

They rested; they were still.

And that is the heart of the word:

To be still, controlled, calm.

It is the picture of peacefulness.

And to that end, I would like to look at quietness in the time remaining.

1. Quietness is obedient to God.

Now, when the Scriptures talk of quietness or calmness or meekness, the Holy Spirit is not commanding some vow of silence.

Quietness is speaking the right word in the right, Spirit-controlled way.

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. – Ephesians 4:29

When the Psalmist considers the refuge that God is for His people, he says of God:

Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” - Psalm 46:10

Be still – cease striving.

Allow yourself to be permeated by the Spirit of Peace, tempering your passions.

I know – that is not a popular message.

The world likes conflict; it respects those who will contend loudly for what they believe.

What would people say about a man who tempers his passions, who controls his emotions and his responses?

We have combative examples all over the place:

Back-and-forth blogs and videos and podcasts where men who say they are called to preach the gospel instead defend their position.

It reminds me of a paragraph from Matthew Henry in his powerful book on Meekness and Quietness:

“Those who find themselves wronged and aggrieved, think they may have permission to speak; but it is better to be silent than to speak amiss, and make work for repentance. At such a time he that holds his tongue holds his peace; and if we soberly reflect, we shall find we have been often the worse for our speaking, but seldom the worse for our silence.”

“…there is nothing said or done in passion, but it may be better said and better done afterwards. When we are calm, we shall be likely to say it and do it in a better manner; and when our brother is calm, we shall be likely to say it and do it to a better purpose. A needful truth spoken in anger may do more hurt than good, and offend rather than satisfy.”

Calmness, patience, even stillness before God can save us from great evil born out of our passions.

But some may speak of the famous incident of Jesus dealing harshly with the traders that clogged the temple courts.

But if we look at John’s detailed account of this in the second chapter of his gospel account, we find that even in His zeal, the actions of Jesus were measured, controlled.

The sheep and oxen were driven out, but they could be easily recaptured by their owners.

The moneys were spilled to the ground, but they could be readily regathered.

And the doves, rather than being released to scatter in the wind, were left in their crates as Jesus commanded the sellers to remove them.

2. Quietness is born in faith.

Only someone who has confidence in the love of God can have quiet confidence in Him.

Because only the one who commits himself entirely to God’s hands can remain unperturbed in the face of trial, difficulty, or opposition.

As we read this morning:

Do not say, “I will repay evil”; Wait for the Lord, and He will save you. – Proverbs 20:22

It is truly said that “That which would break an angry man’s heart will not break a meek man’s sleep.”

Another apt quote from Dr. Henry:

We only gratify our great adversary and do his work for him when we allow the peace and serenity of our minds to be broken in upon by the reproaches of the world. For me to disquiet myself and put myself into a passion because another abuses me, is as if I should scratch the skin off my face to wipe off the dirt which my adversary throws on it. (135)

3. Quietness honors the gospel.

God’s cause does not need our sinful passions to help it.

When Jesus was handling a dispute with His disciples about who would succeed Him in charge when He had gone, He told them:

You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. 43 But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; - Mark 10:42-43

It is the mark of a good servant to dispute and complain loudly?

No, that is the trait of the Gentile ruler – to demand his way in everything.

Quietness leads us to gratitude, thanksgiving.

It marks us different from the constant warfare around us;

Free from petty squabbles and disputes.

Calmly riding out great waves that would upset those who are not anchored to God in faith.

This honors the gospel, allowing us to “count it all joy when we encounter various trials.”

Instead of screaming at the storm, we can thank God for the anchor and the harbor.

The wise man builds his house upon the rock.

In Matthew 7, Jesus compares those who DO His words, and the one who does them is like the man who built his house upon the rock.

And what were those stabilizing words He spoke?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. - Matthew 5:3-5