Sunday 9th March
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
“Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: you should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” (NIVUK)
The new Christians in Thessalonica, with the strange new ways with regards to life and love and sex, necessarily attract attention. Their difference to their former friends and fellow citizens is stark. Rather than flaunt those differences Paul is urging them to keep their heads down. The wiser path is to live quietly and look after one another by dint of hard work.
Some throughout history have taken Paul’s words as an injunction to ‘quietism’, the practice of opting out of society altogether and living separately in communion. This is perhaps an over-reading of these words. I am not sure we quite grasp today just how radically different the way of life Paul was instructing them in relative to their peers. Unnecessary antagonism was the suggested order of the day from Paul.
There will be times when a stand needs to be taken but wisdom and grace is needed to know when those times have come.
