Well-Ordered Work (2 Thessalonians 3:6-15)

Introduction

In the last couple of weeks, both the House and the Senate passed the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” and just a few days ago the President signed it into law. I’ve got mixed feelings about the bill, but one feature that’s gotten a lot of attention was something called “the work requirement.”

The government has now established (with the passing of this bill) a basic requirement that all able-bodied adults (up to retirement age) must work at least 20 hours a week in order to be eligible for Medicaid and SNAP… which are healthcare and food assistance programs for lower-income Americans.

Some people opposed this feature of the bill – they argued that any work requirement is harsh and that it would lead to many Americans losing their benefits. Others argued that a minimal work requirement was a practical and effective way to motivate capable Americans to work (at least a little).

Some of us have able-bodied young adults living in our homes, and we can probably understand the reality that circumstances can vary… but (generally) we want our adult children doing more with their time than playing and relaxing. I’m pretty sure we all want our kids and grandkids to move away from dependence and toward independence.

So too, those of us who are living out on our own, we probably feel some sense of obligation to provide for our own needs and for the needs of our own family – so far as we are able to do it. Whether we are younger, and just beginning our working lives, or whether we are older, and largely living off of what we’ve saved or earned in the past, we likely feel some responsibility to take care of ourselves and our immediate family.

From where does this sense of responsibility come?

Is it right for us to feel this way?

Or is this merely a cultural norm that we can choose to embrace or leave behind as we see fit?

If we do think it is right, then should we press this responsibility on others, even if they don’t want it?

Does our work (as Christians in the world) bear witness to Christ?

And if so, how?

And does (or should) our work contribute to the good order of society?

Today I am presenting the next installment in my sermon series on The Well-Ordered Life. We began this series way back in January, where I focused on the basic principle that God intends for us to live wisely or to choose the wise path. I argued then (and I’ve argued each time) that the well-ordered life is one lived with the fear of or reverence for God, a life lived according to God’s design and commands, and a life lived to display God’s glory (i.e., to show that His ways are good and right).

Today, we are moving yet one more step away from the center of the well-ordered life (in concentric circles, we’re working our way from the center outward).

We began with Christian conversion (that personal shift from disorder and disbelief toward order and belief).

We talked about personal spiritual disciplines (striving to align ourselves more and more with God’s teaching and instructions).

We talked about marriage and the family (growing into manhood and womanhood by embracing the distinct responsibilities God has given).

We talked about the way we ought to order ourselves in our broader relationships (friends, co-workers, neighbors) and the way we ought to urge others to order themselves according to God’s design and commands.

And now we are going to talk about how our work or labor or productive activities in the world are fundamental to order in our own lives, in our families, and in the broader culture.

You might say that I’m trying to paint a picture of the good Christian life from start to finish – from childhood to natural death. Soon, we will talk about finishing life well, we will consider what it means for Christians to die in faith, and we will even consider how our funerals can provide one more opportunity to give testimony as godly men and women and also to call others to repentance, faith, and godly order.

As we consider our topic for today, let’s first take a look at a brief passage of Scripture that speaks to the importance and purpose of work… and then let’s consider some general implications of the Christian concept of work or labor.

Scripture Reading

2 Thessalonians 3:6–15 (ESV)

6 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.

7 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, 8 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. 9 It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.

10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

13 As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. 14 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. 15 Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

Main Idea:

We were created to work, Christians bear witness to Christ through their work, and we contribute to the order and flourishing of society by working.

Sermon

1. Created to Work

Man was created to work.

The main point of our text this morning is a series of commands for faithful Christians in the church of Thessalonica to “keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness” (v6), to hold back support from anyone who “is not willing to work” (v10), and to “take note of” and withdraw Christian fellowship from any “brother” who “does not obey… this letter” (v14).

Friends, work is much more than what we do for a paycheck, and it will be important for us to remember this as I make my argument today. When I use the word “work,” I’m referring to anything and everything we do to sustain life, to practice virtue and responsibility, and to generally foster human flourishing (first for ourselves and our families, and then for others around us).

A young man mowing his elderly neighbor’s lawn is working.

A retired woman caring for her aging parents is working.

A young mother caring for her children at home is working.

A retired man managing his resources and continuing to provide for his own family out of his savings and investments is working.

And, of course, when we labor in jobs of all sorts (as owner or employee), we are working.

With this in mind, I want to point out that work or labor or productivity is such a vital and basic feature of the well-ordered Christian life that the Bible commands Christians to practice church discipline and withhold basic life-giving aid for church members who persistently refuse to work and take care of their own responsibilities.

The Scripture says elsewhere, “if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household [i.e., by working or laboring], he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8).

This may seem shocking to some in our day, but it is longstanding Christian teaching. In fact, many of our Christian ancestors would probably be just as shocked (maybe more so!) by the way we are prone today to enable (and even encourage) laziness, idleness, and negligence. Let me explain.

The Creation Mandate is God’s purpose for humans.

When we first read of God creating man (male and female) in Genesis 1, there immediately follows God’s commissioning of man – God said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over [all creation]” (Gen. 1:28).

After the flood, when God (in a sense) began again with Noah and his sons, God repeated the same commission – God said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 9:1).

Of course, this includes getting married, making babies, and raising those children to do the same.

But what are the fruitful and multiplying people in the world supposed to do?

They are to subdue creation and have dominion or rule over it.

The Creation Mandate is ultimately fulfilled in Christ and discipleship.

The first “Adam” was “a type of the one who was to come” (Rom. 5:14).

The first Adam sinned, and “sin came into the world through [him], and death through sin” (Rom. 5:12).

The better Adam – Jesus Christ – did not sin, but “brought justification” for sinners as a “free gift” (Rom. 5:16).

The first Adam failed to “work” and “keep” the original garden (Gen. 2:15) and thus brought death upon himself and all his descendants.

The better Adam conquered death and reigns right now with “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18) – Christ is working and keeping His garden! – thus securing life for all His disciples.

Christ has now commissioned His people to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… [and] teaching them to observe all that [Christ] has commanded” (Matt. 28:19-20).

Thus, one way Christians participate in the creation mandate today is through evangelism and discipleship – we extend Christ’s garden-kingdom in the world right now through making disciples and helping one another follow Jesus.

But the Great Commission does not replace the Creation Mandate.

The Christian commission to make disciples does not eliminate or abolish the original mandate to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over [all creation]” (Gen. 1:28).

Brothers and sisters, Christian are not only interested in helping sinners get to heaven… Christians are also interested in taking up the distinctly human responsibility to establish godly families, to build productive communities, to maintain and hand down healthy churches, and to generally contribute to the flourishing of the societies in which we live… until Christ comes.

Yes, we ought to tell others about Jesus!

But so too, we ought to give ourselves to doing good work in the world… bearing witness to Christ and advancing human good.

We are eagerly awaiting the new heavens and new earth, but we still live in this old one… and we are to be active in it.

Humans in every place and at every age are to grow up into and continually embrace the goodness of work. When we build, cultivate, provide, nurture, learn, solve problems, create, serve, teach, repair, discover, and produce, we are exercising a fundamental feature or characteristic of our God-designed humanity.

Of course, seasons and circumstances will change, and we will be more and less productive, but we are (as we are able) to take up our own responsibilities and to contribute to the good order and productivity of the world around us.

2. Bearing Witness in Work

Legend has it that Martin Luther was asked what he would do if he learned that the world would end tomorrow. As the story goes, he answered, “if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree today.”

I don’t know if Luther actually said this, but I do know that it reflects the Protestant attitude toward productivity in this world and the Protestant work ethic. We cannot know what will happen tomorrow, and we do know that this world will not last forever, but when our Master returns to see His people and the stewardship He has left them, we want to be found diligent and hopeful.

Consider how the Apostle Paul talks about work or productivity here in our main passage today. Paul himself “toiled and labored,” he “worked night and day…[in order to] give… an example to imitate” (v8-9). He also commanded, “any brother [i.e., one who claims to be a Christian] who is walking in idleness” is to be “ashamed” and exhorted to “do their work… and to earn their own living” (v6, 12).

Friends, work or labor or productive living is so central to Christian living that laziness or idleness or willful dependence upon others is a scandal to the name of Christ. What this passage makes clear is that our productive efforts (as Christians) bear witness to Christ, and a lack of productive labor exposes an un-Christian way of thinking and living.

In other words, our diligence in work, the kind of work we do, and the posture with which we do it bears witness to our faith in and obedience to Christ.

Diligence in work

We’ve talked about this recently in our study of 1 Peter.

Near the end of ch. 2, Peter called Christians to diligent and humble labor, even under harsh and unfair treatment.

We emphasized then that Christians are not ultimately working for a paycheck or a boss, but for Christ – their Savior and King.

As the Scripture says elsewhere:

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men… You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23-24).

“So… whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

“[Render] service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord” (Eph. 6:7-8).

Brothers and sisters, when we are diligent in our work – giving ourselves heartily to the tasks at hand and striving for excellence – we are bearing witness to our true and supreme Master.

Even if other people in the world shirk their duties and give only half-effort, we bear the name of Christ, and our diligence ought to shine all the brighter when others see our care and energy.

The kind of work we do

So too, Christians are peculiar workers in the world when they persistently choose good and virtuous and godly work over those jobs or tasks which only aim for worldly wealth or personal advancement.

This shows itself in numerous ways but let me point out just a couple.

First, Christian men and women display their godly priorities by choosing work that is suited to them – according to God’s good design for their gender.

Christian men choose careers and prioritize their work in all of life to provide for their family, to stabilize their home and household, and to protect their families (as best they can) from the sin of the world and inevitable hardships.

Brothers, we ought not do work that exposes our wives and children to undue wickedness.

We ought not choose to spend our labors in such a way that makes our families vulnerable to excessive risk or poverty or hardship.

So too, Christian women choose their work in a way that prioritizes raising and nurturing children and that complements and helps their husbands.

Sisters, you ought not neglect caring for your children in order to pursue career ambitions or more money.

You ought not set your vocational aims (inside or outside the home) independent of or in conflict with your husband’s vocational efforts.

The kind of work we do (as Christian men and women) will either distinguish us as Christian men and women or it will demonstrate that our vocational and career priorities are pretty much the same as the unbelievers around us.

Second, Christian men and women bear witness to Christ in their work when they employ themselves in the kind of labor that is marked by virtue and not vice.

Whether formal or informal, whether hourly job or owning a business, whether manual labor or highly skilled… Christian men and women spend their energies embodying and promoting godly productivity.

We do not swindle or deceive, but we do invest.

We do not peddle in sin, but we do create or administer or sell services that promote what is good for ourselves and others.

We do not deal in immoral products, but we do manufacture or manage or market the sort of stuff that can be used for human benefit and further productivity.

Brothers and sisters, there are a thousand ways we might apply this idea, but the point is that we want to bear witness for Christ in the world by giving our time and energy to those labors which will honor Christ, sustain ourselves, and build up others.

The posture with which we work

This has some overlap with diligence, but I’m thinking here more of the joy, the pleasure, the attitude we bring to our labors.

For the Christian, we must approach our vocation (i.e., our work or our labor) as a service to the Lord Himself.

So too, we must remember that work is not a result of the Fall (in Genesis 3), and we ought not treat work or productivity as a negative thing.

And as I said earlier, it’s important for us to remember that work is not just the sort of thing we do for a paycheck.

Work (in the broadest sense) is virtually anything we might do as productive contributors in our homes, in our communities, and on our jobs.

Thus, we ought to want to be (generally) productive, we ought to delight in using our time and skills for improvements of all kinds – improvements of our homes and families, of our neighborhoods, of our churches, and of our businesses.

And we ought to strive for such improvements as a feature of our love for and submission to Christ.

Friends, as we’ve talked about before, there is no secular-sacred divide in the Christian life. Whether we are working to preach sermons or to create widgets, whether we are laboring to drill wells or to raise children, to teach or to build, Christians may… Christians should… do their work as unto the Lord.

Christ is our King, and we are His people in the world; therefore, we want to be good stewards of the skills, the opportunities, and the resources He’s given us to take responsibility for whatever portion of creation over which He’s given us charge.

Brothers and sisters, we were created to work – it is precisely in good and productive labor that we find greater dignity and delight. And we bear a particular kind of witness to Christ through our work – it is one way (a major way) that we show our love for Christ and our love for others.

What a short-sighted and insignificant life we would live if we only worked because we had to or if we only worked to improve our own luxuries. The Christian life is one lived with a greater delight and a grander purpose in our labors.

3. Flourishing Through Work

Most of my sermon today is drawing from the assumptions and underlying principles that must have provoked the Apostle Paul to write what he did about work here in our main passage. There is a Christian way of thinking and acting when it comes to productive work. There is a distinctly Christian understanding personal responsibility, personal property, and personal participation in broader society.

In our main passage, these distinctly Christian ideas are on display in the way the Apostle Paul speaks about work.

He seems to think that work creates the necessities of life (speaking of “bread” and the need to “earn” one’s “own living”).

He seems to think work exemplifies and builds character (speaking of the way his own work ethic served as “an example to imitate”).

And he seems to think that work is a means by which the strong help the weak (speaking of the way working Christians are to withhold support from those who are idle – the implication is that working Christians are indeed to give aid to those who cannot support themselves).

Let’s use the last several minutes of our time this morning to consider these underlying principles as they help us understand how good Christian work is meant to contribute to human flourishing in our own homes, in our communities, and in the broader society.

Work creates the necessities of life.

Paul writes, in v12, “we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ [that you] do [your] own work quietly and… earn [your] own living” (v12).

Literally, “eat their own bread” (v12).

Our economy in America today is far different from that of ancient Rome.

But the concept still holds in our complicated economic world.

We are to work for what we need to sustain life – food, clothing, shelter, etc.

These are not to be provided for us – like some politicians are promoting today… like a universal basic income.

Indeed, our passage makes it clear that anyone who is “not willing to work” is “not” to “eat” (v10).

This point is not to ensure that lazy people starve to death, but rather to force them into a situation where they must work.

Friends, when a community of people are all taking care of their responsibility to work for the necessities of life, then there is a kind of dignity and joy in the experience of the harvest.

Whether we have more or less than the other people around us, we are better able to be content with what we have because it has come to us through our own labors.

We can even take a certain kind of pride in what we have earned, because we have actually earned it.

More than that, we can feel a sense of deep gratitude for God’s provision of our skill, our ability, and our opportunity to have what we need (and more!).

Friends, we not only need food, clothes, and shelter… we need a sense of dignity that only comes from earning such things by our own work – our ingenuity, our planning, our physical and mental labor.

Work creates the necessities of life (for us and for others), and we must give ourselves to the kind of work that will produce such things for ourselves and for those under our responsibility.

Work exemplifies and builds character.

Paul wrote, in v7-9, “you… 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 the right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate” (v7-9).

Paul’s work ethic was an example to be followed, and his work ethic displayed the kind of character that only comes from diligent practice.

When you work hard to earn what you need, you understand the value of hard work and what can be accomplished by hard work.

We can often see the opposite example in the lives of those who have most everything handed to them.

Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Her parents spoiled her; they gave her everything.

When Willy Wonka announced that only five golden tickets could be found in the millions of chocolate bars – golden tickets that would give entrance to a world of wonder – Veruca’s dad stopped production in his peanut factory in order to set his entire staff to work on finding a golden ticket so that Veruca could have one.

But when she did get her hands on a golden ticket, what did she do?

Was she grateful?

No! She kept on making more demands.

Friends, doing hard work – putting in the time and labor – this actually builds character.

We learn what it really means to work.

We learn the importance of doing a job right.

We learn the value of our labor.

And we learn to value the labor of others.

When we give ourselves to good work, we not only enjoy the tangible fruit of our labor, but we also enjoy the intangible fruit of it – good character.

Work is a means by which the strong help the weak.

Paul puts this in the negative in our main passage here.

He wrote, “even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (v10).

Apparently, in Thessolonica, there were idle or lazy people coming to Christ and joining the church.

Even when Paul was present with them, he was teaching them to be diligent at work and even to hold back support for those lazy Christians.

And, apparently, this problem was persisting in Paul’s absence, so he was reminding them of his command and repeating it.

“Those with means should not enable lazy people to be lazy.”

This is a command we ought to consider, especially when our culture is so quick to assume that needy people are not to blame for their need.

Sometimes those folks in poverty or who lack the basic necessities of life are in the situation they are because of their own bad decisions.

This is certainly the general and repeated assumption the Bible makes about it.

“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich” (Prov. 10:4).

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hand to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man” (Prov. 6:10-11).

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied” (Prov. 13:4).

Brothers and sisters, we ought to remember that our own choices and actions have consequences, and sometimes the best remedy for poor decisions is to let the fool suffer his consequences… so that he may learn to do better.

But this is the negative, and I want to make the positive affirmation that work is a means by which the strong can help the weak – or help those in genuine need.

James tells us, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27).

Listing “orphans” and “widows” here is not to say that these are the only “afflicted” or needy people in the world, but they are exemplary of people in genuine need.

In the ancient world, a woman without a husband and children without a father were the embodiment of vulnerability.

I think the same is still true today.

In fact, the entirety of the biblical teaching on work and protection and provision lays the lion’s share of the burden upon the shoulders of husbands and fathers.

The Bible teaches us, then, that one of the motivations Christians ought to have to work or labor or be productive (especially Christian men) is the desire to not only contribute to our own well-being but also to the well-being of others.

Friends, even our best efforts to be independent will not completely sever our connection to others around us.

We have families, we live in neighborhoods and communities, we participate in an economy that involves many other people besides ourselves… and we will all do better when we work to contribute to the order and flourishing of our society.

If we are capable, then we can use our labors to build things people can use for good.

If we are skilled, then we can provide services that will encourage and promote good.

If we are diligent, then we can not only reduce the burden of others (by taking care of our own), but we can also come to the aid of those around us (by using our surplus) when a genuine need arises.

Conclusion

Friends, a summary of my argument today is… (1) we were created to work, (2) Christians bear witness to Christ through their work, and (3) our good work contributes to the right order and increased flourishing of the society in which we live.

We were created to work.

Work is fundamental to the Creation Mandate, and it is a feature of the core purpose for which God has made us.

Whether we are young and just getting started or older and retired from our formal jobs, we are never to completely stop laboring for the joy of a job well done, for the glory of Christ, and for the good of others around us.

Christians bear witness to Christ through their work.

Our diligence, the kind of work we do, and the attitude with which we do it… all of these (and more) speak to our perspective that we are Christ’s people in the world, and He has given us a stewardship over which we are to be productive managers.

We certainly have an eye on our eternal home, but we are not gone from this world yet… and so long as we are here, we are to be productive servants of our King.

And, finally, our good work contributes to the right order and increased flourishing of the society in which we live.

When we give ourselves to productivity, then we not only take up our own responsibilities well, but we also make the lives of others around us better in practical and tangible ways.

I’m glad to see good examples of what I’ve been preaching about today in the lives of many of our church members, and I pray that the Lord will help us continue to live such exemplary lives… for our good, for His glory, and for the good of others.

May God help us.