THE END - 2 Thessalonians 3.6-18

THE END - 2 Thessalonians 3.6-18

Good Morning.

In December, we stepped away from Paul’s writing to the churches in order to discuss Christmas. Then with the opportunity of a new year in front of us, I challenged you to grow your Christian faith with renewed commitment and disciplined vitality, and many of you have let me know, you are taking me up on the challenge . . . so exciting, isn’t it? But now, let’s go back to close out Paul’s two letters to the church of Thessalonica.

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received from us. For you know you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”
Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living. As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.
Take note of those who refuse to obey what we say in this letter. Stay away from them so they will be ashamed. Don’t think of them as enemies, but warn them as you would a brother or sister.”
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all.
Here is my greeting in my own handwriting—Paul. I do this in all my letters to prove they are from me.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 2 Thessalonians 3.6-18

Apparently, some were teaching that the Lord was going to return any day, so some people in the congregation had left their jobs, and were living off the generosity of the church. Ah, back to the subject of ‘the end of the world is near’ . . . clearly, the predicting of when Jesus would return began—well, almost at the beginning! -that is to say, shortly after the early church was established. Remember, Paul was writing to the Christians in the church at Thessalonica, which he had established on his first missionary journey; he was writing to inform and instruct the young believers, and also to correct behaviors that did not follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. We learn much from Paul’s writings, because although they were directed toward first-century believers, there is much to inform and instruct us as well.

‘Case in point: Jesus taught that ‘no one know about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father’. Matthew 24.36 Therefore, no one should be predicting a day or time for Jesus’ return—yet throughout history, heretics have come along, and have done just that. Check this out—when I was a child, I attended a small Christian school in Northern California, which had a number of children whose parents worked for Family Radio in Oakland. So. . .? I remember the austere fellow who ran the program and taught locally in the Christian Reformed Church. So . . . ? I went to school with his daughters, went to his home, and toured his radio station. So . . . ? The first time he predicted the Lord’s return, he calculated that it would be September 6, 1994. I remember driving by his church the Sunday after—his followers were still there—and the rest of us had not been raptured either.

Can you believe it—I was driving home from a baseball tournament the other night, when I heard the announcer mention a familiar name, so I raised the volume. It seems Harold Camping is at it again. From his website, (family radio), I took this verbiage: THE END OF THE WORLD IS ALMOST HERE! HOLY GOD WILL BRING JUDGMENT DAY ON MAY 21, 2011. It is one thing for movie producers to capitalize on world events, and bring us “2012”—but for self-titled Bible teachers to do so by naming a date is nothing other than false teaching. (though it is kinda interesting to see how they arrive at their preposterous conclusions)

As we close out this letter, the point is this: Christians are to live responsibly in the world and in their dealings with each other. We are to live as disciples of a coming Lord, knowing that we will one day be with him forever—but we do not know the day of his coming.

“Thank you, brother Paul, for your passionate, loving writing to the young Christians in the church at Thessalonica; we have profited much from your teaching.”

Christine

Podcast: www.pastorwoman.com