idle and disruptive

Paul had one thing in common with Dutch Calvinists of a couple of generations ago: he didn’t like idleness. “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop!” was a saying I heard a lot as a boy.

Here’s Paul’s version, from 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13: “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.’

“We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.”

The way Paul seems to see it is if you tend to your own business you won’t have time to stick your nose into other people’s. Idle people not only have time to gossip and stir up controversy, but they rely on others to support them. They’re a burden, a drain on resources.

This isn’t a point about government programs. This is a word for people who could be busy but aren’t. And it doesn’t have anything to do with jobs; there are many busy Christians who serve all day long and never collect a dime. There are many who leave their day jobs and spend evenings doing good works.

There are also people who never seem to roll up their sleeves, but instead snipe at people from their comfortable seats at the coffee table after church. I think those are the ones Paul didn’t like.

At work we have an informal rule that you can’t complain about something you’re not willing to help work on. If you won’t contribute to the solution, then the problem evidently doesn’t bother you all that much. It’s a way that we keep idlers from turning into busybodies. And it might be a good rule for the church.