6 Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother or sister living irresponsibly and not according to the tradition that they received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not irresponsible when we were with you, 8 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. 9 This was not because we do not have that right but in order to give you an example to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: anyone unwilling to work should not eat. 11 For we hear that some of you are living irresponsibly, mere busybodies, not doing any work. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. 13 Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
My sermon from 23rd Sunday after Pentecost (November 16, 2025) on 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13.
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It’s important, I think, to be mindful of all the different ways we use scripture. For example, there might be a story, a verse, or even a short phrase from God’s word that speaks to our souls. When we’re struggling, it’s a text that provides us a bit of comfort and guidance for whatever comes next. They’re the words we hang onto to know God really is with us in the lives we actually live. Yet, if we’re not careful, we end up pulling this text out of scripture and turning it into a slogan or motivational poster divorced from all the other holy words that surround them. God’s words are meant to be understood in light of where they come from. And so that’s why I regularly invite us to not only find those words that make God real in our lives but to also keep God’s word in God’s word by paying attention to its context and why it was written in the first place. Taking words from scripture and putting them back into the Bible is a helpful way to discern what God wants us to hear. And in our reading today from Paul’s 2nd letter to the Thessalonians, the verse we regularly take out of context – that “anyone unwilling to work should not eat” is one I believe we should put back in.
Now the word Thessalonians was the name given to those who called the Macedonian city Thessaloniki their home. And that city was, at the time of Paul, the capital of a Roman province which meant it was full of Roman monuments, soldiers, and temples declaring the Emperor to be a Son of God. When Paul arrived in the late 40s, he could see Mount Olympus – the legendary home of Zeus and other gods – just across the water. It wasn’t the kind of place we’d expect followers of Jesus to thrive since the power that killed him appeared to be completely in control. Yet Paul, over a short period of time, founded a church where people learned how to be for one another even when Paul left to continue on his missionary journey. This, however, wasn’t easy since they were new to a faith that was, itself, brand new. And so when the Thessalonians had a concern, they’d send Paul a letter even though he might have been hundreds of miles away. The concern at the heart of Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians was centered around a deep worry the community had. They, like Paul, assumed Jesus would return immediately to establish God’s kingdom here on earth. Yet, while waiting, life kept happening. Some of their friends, loved ones, and folks within the church had recently died. They were concerned that the ones they had lived the faith with would lose out on joy when Jesus came back. And so Paul, in response, was trying to show them how God’s hold on them – and those who had died – really was forever.
That context is, I think, important to understand our reading today. Paul was responding to a community who felt small, fragile, and who were living with unexpected grief. They needed the assurance that God had written a new chapter for you – was actually true. Living that kind of hope out loud, though, isn’t easy since life has a way of making us hopeless in the face of all kinds of pain and suffering. It was while navigating through this hard stuff that led the Thessalonians to develop some kind of unhealthy dynamic. What exactly that was is a little difficult to know since the letter they wrote to Paul describing what was up hasn’t survived. It’s possible some of the believers were so obsessed with Jesus’ return, they gave up doing their jobs and taking care of their families while waiting for the end to arrive. For them, real life was over since their so-called eternal life was about to begin. It’s also possible, though, that some within this small community became so anxious and overwhelmed by the thought of Jesus’ return they became a kind of “busybody” thinking they could work-out the crisis before it arrived. They might have imagined that if they said the right prayer, worshiped the right way, and lived in a specific kind of way – they would survive what was about to come. They, in a way, became really noisy about what they imagined God wanted for their lives and assumed that everyone around them needed to be that way. This caused them to change their lives in ways that cared more about being noticed by God rather than paying attention to the God who was already with them. And so for Paul, “the best way to honor the Lord [wasn’t] to drop all activity… and wait for the end, nor to rush around like busybodies. Rather, [we’re] to do all things, including the work we are called to, in service and honor of the Lord.” Paul invited the Thessalonians and invites us to recognize that life God has already given us to live. And while what that living looks like will, depending on our age, talents, and abilities be different – it’s always rooted in the Jesus who is, even now, right beside you. Paul wasn’t, I think, making a blanket statement that only those who match our cultural definition of “work” are worthy of life since Jesus regularly fed and cared for those the rest of us would always define as undeserving. Rather, Paul wanted us to pay attention to all the work we actually do. Does our work and care reflect who we know Jesus to be or might it reflect something else? Do we act as if God isn’t present at the office, the store, or at school so we let a love of money, power, and attention trump any love for God? Or could we imagine all our work – in the words of Professor Nijay K. Gupta – to be like “bakers exercising skill and diligence in their food production, teachers diligently learning and studying so they can offer sound instruction, and garment makers ensuring that their clothing not only is pleasing to the eye but will last.” And instead of focusing our attention on what others are up to, could we instead focus on what we can do since building each other up for the benefit of all is how we learn to never grow weary in doing what is right.
Now a few days ago, a volunteer for the Tri-Boro Food Pantry in Park Ridge was at a store buying turkeys for their upcoming Thanksgiving Meal Distribution. Someone walking by noticed their shopping cart filled to the brim with frozen turkeys and asked what they were for. The volunteer explained who she was, what she was up to, and who these turkeys would be going to. She was about to keep going on her way since she assumed the conversation was over. But before she could head to the next aisle, the stranger asked her to wait because she had a story to tell. They were, it seems, very familiar with the Tri-Boro Food Pantry because when they were going through a rough time in their life, that pantry had kept them fed. They had been an unemployed single parent, living in this expensive area, and unsure if they’d be able to keep their kids fed. And yet it was the generosity of everyone supporting the pantry who let her kids do the work of being kids rather than the work of being hungry. After sharing her story, she bought a couple of the turkeys so others might experience what she did. The work God invites us to is all about recognizing how God’s work in Jesus of living, loving, dying, and rising for you isn’t a work we’re meant to pay off. It is, instead, a gift we live out by doing what we can to let others know how Jesus is for them too.
Amen.