March 14 - 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

March 14 - 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

“…and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”

Paul first encouraged the new Christians in Thessalonica to love each other more and more, but then he continued with these instructions: live quietly, mind your own business, work so that you are dependent on no one.

What a great idea!

The main reason for this behavior was so that the members of this church would gain the respect of outsiders.

When my mother, sister and I first opened Insty-Prints, we were excited to work with other Christian businesses in town … for a short period of time.  What we soon discovered was that many so-called Christian businesses were the most difficult companies of all to work with.  They were demanding and quite nasty about their unreasonable demands and they told us right up front that they expected discounted prices because they were Christians.  Not only that, they were the worst when it came to actually paying for the work we had done for them.  Several times it was just out-right theft.  We would do work for them, they would complain after receiving it, demand a discount and then refuse to pay, all the while, keeping the printed pieces.  We soon found out they had done this all over town.

We stopped advertising in Christian business journals because it took too much effort to maintain those relationships.

I have lamented the public behavior of Christians for quite some time. It is sad to see a person with the symbol of a fish or a cross on the back of their vehicle act rudely to others in traffic. It isn’t sad simply because they are a Christian and acting poorly, but because of the impression they give others about Jesus Christ. His followers don’t respect their relationship with him enough to treat others with respect.

Love each other. Live quietly.  Mind your own business. Work with own hands.

These seem to be good instructions for living in this world.