In this tumultuous world, do you STAND OUT? Poise, focus, and work (1 Thessalonians 4:11) in your life draws the respectful attention of even people outside the community of faith. Check out “Calm in Chaos?” for more insight into the first area. This post highlights the second arena – focus.
“Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 NLT)
In Paul’s second letter to Thessalonica, he complains again, “Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business.” (2 Thessalonians 3:11 NLT)
#2 FOCUS: Are You Minding Your Own Business – or Butting In Where You Don’t Belong?
You know some folks who are busy, busy only with what is NOT their business. Keep your focus where it should be. Focus on your personal responsibilities.
Stop worrying so much about the performance of others. Don’t put your nose into everything. Don’t go butting your way into conversations or fights or assignments of which you are not a part.
The Greek verb periergazomai is often translated “busybody” in 2 Thessalonians 3:11. Think about the meaning of that word.
- “to be working round about, instead of at one’s own business . . . to take more pains than enough about a thing, to waste one’s labor, to be meddling with, or bustling about, other people’s matters.” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary, p. 85)
- The word carries the idea “of a person who flits from task to task without really accomplishing anything. It is to busy oneself with trifling matters and to be inquisitive about the affairs of others. (Hayford, Fearless Faith)
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Be busy, not a busybody! God has you on earth at this times in history for a reason, and you need to be busy doing what He has called YOU to do.
Please observe, I am NOT calling for personal isolation. At times, you must shoulder the burdens and concerns of others. If you are a Christ-follower, then minding your business is focused on God’s agenda, seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
We are responsible for our own lives and are accountable before God for how we live them. In that sense, everybody is to pull his own weight, contributing to the work of ministry and developing Christlike character; and habits. The one person you can exercise control over is yourself. When you mind your own business, you believe that, in one sense, life is just between you and God. You are accountable to God alone. You care about others, but you carry your own load. In Galatians, Paul wrote, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). A little later he adds, “Each one should carry his own load” (Gal. 6:5). These verses seem contradictory, except the word translated “burdens” and the one rendered as “load” have very different meanings. One concerns carrying the pain of others and the problems they face. We should pitch in and help them carry that load. The other word focuses on personal responsibility and the load of accountability that each person has before God. In this case, no one can help us. Here we stand alone. (Holman New Testament Commentary I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, p. 63)
The world is watching. In today’s turbulent times, what is your life communicating to those around you? Poise, focus, and work will cause you to STAND OUT. Aspire to live as a STAND OUT!
