"Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right."
--II Thessalonians 3: 6-13
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
--The Collect for Proper 28, Year C (The 23rd Sunday after Pentecost)
Reading, marking, learning, and inwardly digesting an (apparently) Arabic or Hebrew New Testament.
All Holy Scripture may have been written for our learning, but Holy Scripture can be really complicated. If taken out of context passages of Scripture can be used to support or debunk just about any talking point. One such example is II Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 10, which was the Epistle reading for this past Sunday. “For even when we were with you, we gave you this command, anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” If we’re not careful, we could easily interpret this text as support for the argument that people who are not willing to help themselves don’t deserve to be helped at all. But if we understand the kind of Christian community out of which this text comes, we find that there is good news here, and that the message isn’t what we might think it is.
First, we need to understand the Second Letter to the Thessalonians as a whole. Though we may assume that it is a sequel to the First Letter to the Thessalonians, which is a letter that is indisputably written by Paul, there is strong evidence to suggest that Paul likely was not the author of the second letter. We know this from the letter’s tone—which is much harsher and more direct than the first —as well as the use of certain verb tenses and other factors relating to the original Greek text that show us that this letter doesn’t share the same traits as other, authentically Pauline letters. The fact that the text’s authorship is disputed doesn’t mean we should throw it out, but who wrote the text always matters when we’re trying to learn from it.
As we read II Thessalonians, we can see that the author is writing to a community of people who are sure that Jesus is coming back any second now, and that immediacy is causing all kinds of problems. Certain members of the community are forsaking their duties, both in worship and in work, because, why put in a long-term commitment if Jesus is on his way? To add to this stress, other members are so discouraged by the persecutions that they are facing that they have little to no motivation to participate in the life of the community. These folks are effectively living off the work and ministry of others. An example of this for us today might be folks who are perhaps fully capable of coming to church or participating in the life of the parish, but they willingly never come and yet still wish to reap the benefits. This idleness among the Thessalonians takes the form of eating the food for which others have worked and prepared, but it goes to a deeper motivation that is detrimental to the community; for to early Christians, work and prosperity were not signs of individual grace but evidence of one’s role in supporting the whole community. Thus, to refuse to show up was to rebel and take unfair advantage of others, and THIS is the problem in Thessalonica, not mere idleness or laziness but a kind of inactivity that harms the rest of the community.
This hits on a matter that we must always bear in mind when reading Scripture, especially those deetailing the ways and means of what we call the early Church: these texts are directed to specific communities. This letter raises the concern of what it calls idleness, but not in a general sense, rather as it relates to living in Christian community. Verse 6 introduces the idleness problem with: “keep away from believers who are living in idleness” (emphasis mine). The author’s denouncements are not directed toward, say, the homeless person sleeping outside the church door or the woman and her kid who come by the office asking for food. Also, we must note that the word "idleness" is not a perfect translation of the Greek word ataktos, which denotes behavior that is insubordinate or irresponsible. The Thessalonians don’t have an issue with needy people banging on the church door but a lack of responsibility on the part of the Christians already inside.
Still, Christians today do misuse this text as a cop-out for not helping others. Just a few years ago I remember seeing a social media post from Senator Kevin Cramer (R - North Dakota), who touted how his Christian faith influenced how he governed. A constituent then asked his thoughts on Matthew, chapter 25 – you know, when Jesus says “whenever you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or visit those in prison you are doing it for me.” To which Senator Cramer quoted, you guessed it, II Thessalonians 3: 10, pointing out that the Bible explicitly says that those who cannot work for themselves and for their own bread shouldn’t receive any from others. It sounds a lot like another quote I’ve heard a time or two: “God helps those who help themselves,” which, of course, is a sentence you won’t find in any translation of the Bible, not even the Message!
Unfortunately, there is a tendency on the part of many Christians to forget that context matters for every sentence of every book of the Bible. Using this passage as an excuse not to give to those in need or to moralize against folks who are poor, hungry, or homeless, not only is a gross misuse of the text but also completely—and conveniently—ignores every other mandate in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospels to address the needs of those who seeks help—which can be found, among other places, in Deuteronomy 15: 11 – “Since there will never cease to be need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.” – and, from last week’s Gospel, Luke 6: 30 –‘Give to everyone who begs from you.’. This text must never be used to label poor people as lazy, and it is our duty to understand its context, so that if and when we find ourselves in conversations with those who would have us believe that Scripture teaches us not to offer any assistance to those unable to work or in some other great need, then we will be ready to correct their course—in all Christian love.
What is the point of the text in our own time if it is not a far-reaching indictment of “lazy” people? The ultimate goal of this text is to bring people back into the community. Too many of the Thessalonians were relying on Jesus’ immediate return—and if we lived with that level of fear and anxiety we might also just say, ‘Forget it!’ to all kinds of responsibilities. But what the Thessalonians had forgotten, and perhaps even what we forget sometimes, is that members of a Christian community are responsible to one another. As I said to my congregation on Sunday, when you’re not here, the community is worse off, and when you’re not at the Table, the community is cheated of the gift of your presence. That’s not in any way meant to malign those who tune in to church online because they physically cannot be there in-person. But for those of us who can, the question we might ask ourselves when we kept up on Sunday morning and decide if we will show up shouldn't be “Do I need to go to church today?” but rather “Who needs me to be in church today?”
With everything in us, we must resist the urge to see this text from II Thessalonians and others like it as an invitation to judge others. If we’re not careful, we could take it as an invitation to be the very worst kind of judgmental, passive-aggressive, shaming Christian. Instead, let us hear this text in the manner it was originally intended, as instruction for us to be accountable to one another in the context of our own Christian communities, and to embrace the unique experiences, perspectives, and talents that we each bring, eager to share them, which, of course, is what stewardship is all about. And so, as we "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Scriptures," even in a complicated text like this one, we find there is, as always, good news.