Urgent Work

Friday, January 30th
Urgent Work
By: Pastor Todd Crofford

Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: "Those unwilling to work will not get to eat."
-2 Thessalonians, NLT

Paul is addressing an important distinction here between unable to work and unwilling to work. The concern that this short letter to this church was addressing was that there had become this mentality that Jesus was coming again soon, so why bother working?  Why plant crops if we won’t be here by the time harvest rolls around?  Why maintain my house if it is about to be burned up in the last days?

Paul instructed them that while they should be filled with hope over the knowledge that Christ will come someday, they have no way of knowing exactly when Christ will come.  Therefore, they cannot afford to stop working and replace being busy with being busybodies.

This is different than having a mentality that says, “Why should we care for our incapacitated neighbor? After all, if they want to eat they should work.” In reality, caring for the disabled and the less fortunate is precisely what capable people should be up to while they wait for Jesus to come. This was the faithful work of God that his servants should be found doing when Jesus unexpectedly returns. 

In other words, the urgent work of the church, in light of the coming Christ, spurred them on to realize two things - if we can work, we must; and for those who can’t work, we must care for them.

Laws, political institutions, fraud in programs and other such confusing issues abound.  I want you to know I am not smart enough to sort all that- and this brief devotional is not attempting to make some sort of policy recommendations.  This I do know.  If God has blessed me with health enough to work, I need to provide for my needs and I need to keep a soft heart to figure out how to personally, through the church, and wisely through the government, be generous to those who cannot.