Summary
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 make it clear that we need to mind our own business and work with our hands. Put simply, we need to be pleased keep our heads down as we shoulder the responsibilities God has seen fit to give to us personally. This way we will win the respect of outsiders, and not be dependent on anybody.
Content
Minding our own business in general
In 1 Thessalonians 4:11, Paul says “You should mind your own business and work with your hands.”
These commands apply just as much today as back then. The impulse to go get up in other people’s business can be overwhelming, especially when they are so, well… wrong.
Well, wrong according to God, or wrong according to you? And if you say the former, how do you know for sure? Is it sin? And if it’s not sin, how do you know it is not right for them, given that God makes us all different, and calls us all to different things?
We are allowed to be skeptical, to be sure. I’m skeptical when someone says God individually spoke to them, but instead of saying something spiritually momentous (e.g.), God apparently told the individual to go buy a yacht instead of supporting their children. Did God now? Interesting. I’d put my money on that not actually being true, but you know what, God is plenty capable of sorting it out. He doesn’t need my help doing it.
And really, that’s the problem here. When we start sticking our nose into other people’s affairs and telling them what’s what, that is not leaving judgment to the Lord. For the Lord is plenty capable of setting them straight—I promise (cf. Hebrews 12:4-12).
Sin is a somewhat different matter, since the Bible tells us to not associate with those who claim Christ but refuse to acknowledge sin (i.e., not that they sin—for we all sin—but that they refuse to acknowledge sin as such, and flout it in a sort of public way that cannot be ignored). See, for example, Matthew 18:15-17, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15, and 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.
But there is a very large difference between (a) exhorting someone engaged in gross, public sin and then avoiding them thereafter if they refuse to listen the Word of God, vs. (b) snooping around in the affairs of others in an effort to uncover sin (even past sin) so that we might wag our finger and scold them for it.
We’ve all got skeletons in our closets, and most of us probably have far bigger skeletons far closer to the surface than we’d like. I certainly do. So let’s do everyone a favor and let the skeletons stay locked away there, and instead turn all our efforts towards encouraging our brothers and sisters to press forward toward the goal that we are all striving after—not looking back, but straining ever more single-mindedly towards the finish line (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Philippians 3:12-14).
What does working with our hands have to do with it?
Put simply, only idle people have the time to go about being busybodies.
If you dedicate yourself towards working outside the home (or working within the home, depending upon what God has called you to)—keeping your hands busy with the responsibilities in life that are yours to shoulder—once you add to that all the time you should be spending upon Bible reading, Bible study, prayer, and ministry (whatever ministry looks like for you specifically, as we are all called to different things)… well after all that, there simply won’t be any time left for you to go interfere in other people’s business. Not if you are doing it right.
It really is that simple.
What are some of the specific reasons for minding our own business while working with our hands?
Paul gives two reasons in 1 Thessalonians 4:12:
- So that we might win the respect of outsiders
- So that we will not be dependent on anybody
It’s about our witness. Being industrious—keeping our focus on what’s before us specifically, as we work unto the Lord—is the only way to achieve these things.
Idle people gossip and interfere. Idle people also depend upon others rather than pulling their own weight, becoming a burden to the body of Christ instead of being able to support others in need. This is why we need to be pleased keep our heads down as we shoulder the responsibilities God has seen fit to give to us personally.
If we give a good witness—live our lives as salt and light—and then let the chips fall where they may, God’s perfect justice will see to the rest. We need to be pleased to not only say we believe that, but to also live like we really do.