Daily Bible Reading - 2 Thess 3 "Staying Productive in Quarantine"

Greetings everyone, my name is Keith Foskey and I'm back with another daily Bible reading from Sovereign Grace Family Church. And today we're going to be reading 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. We're going to be closing out the book of 2 Thessalonians today.

Reading 2 Thessalonians 3 and the Warning Against Idleness

We're going to read the chapter together and then I'm going to make a few comments for us as we consider what this chapter has to say to us. Paul writes,. Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men.

For not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command.

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not accord with the tradition that you received from us.

For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.

It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of gentleness or genuineness in every letter of mine.

It is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. And so ends the reading of 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and thus the reading of the whole book. Now yesterday I went over 2 Thessalonians 2 and we talked a little bit about the fact that there had been confusion in Thessalonica about the subject of the return of Christ.

How Confusion About Christ's Return Led to Idleness

And it seems as if the confusion over the subject of the return of Christ had caused some to feel like that his return either had already happened or that his return was going to be so soon that it could allow them to essentially become idle, meaning that they essentially didn't want to go to work or do work.

You know, why concern ourselves with work if the world is going to end anyway? If the world is either having already ended or if it's going to end, why even worry? Why even concern ourselves with any kind of labor?

And so Paul ends the letter with this warning against idleness. And idleness in this sense basically means a lack of productivity or a lack of work. Basically, we could equate it in a sense to laziness, but it's not so much laziness by itself but it's just a lack of desire to do the labor that we're supposed to do, the labor of the Lord.

Productivity in a Time of Slowing Down

And you know, as I was thinking about this passage and I was thinking about what I wanted to say today in our devotional, I was thinking about the fact that we live very busy lives today. In fact, all of our lives seem to be inundated with busyness and in the last couple of weeks that has really changed.

We have all experienced a major slowing down because of the events that have taken place in regard to the outbreak of the COVID -19 virus. And this virus has slowed our normal busy lives and in a way that's kind of a good thing because some of us had become so busy that we had stopped being productive.

And I know that sounds maybe counterintuitive, but I want you to consider for a second that a person can be a busy person and not be a productive person. Busyness does not always equal productivity. In fact, I imagine many of you, and I know that I can say this, there have been days where I felt like I was busy all day and I didn't accomplish anything.

And so at this time when we're sort of in a forced slowdown with our lives because of everything that's going on, and some of us are being forced to work from home, some of us are, certainly all of us are being discouraged from going out and going about our normal busy routines.

This is an opportunity for us to sort of take stock of those things which are most important and the things that are, in a sense, most productive. Remember, the opposite of idleness is not busyness because Paul even says that.

He says, I'm not talking about, I don't want you to be a busybody, a person who is busy with things that are not good, but rather the opposite of busyness is not, or the opposite of laziness is not busyness, and the opposite of idleness is not busyness.

The opposite of idleness is productivity. So my question to you today is, how are you being productive today? Are you being productive today? This virus has, again, it's changed the way that we behave.

It's changed the way that we live, especially over the last few weeks, and even though we can't go about our lives as we did before, at least not at this moment, the question is how are we still being productive?

Are we being productive in this time? Many of you have seen the, it's a picture that's going around the internet with various names on it, and it says, look what this person did while they were quarantined, or look what this person did while they were held away because of some kind of sickness or some kind of disease.

There's stories about Shakespeare writing King Lear and Isaac Newton performing some of his greatest discoveries while in quarantine, and I find those interesting. I don't know how much truth there is in them, so I'm not going to try to perpetuate something that I've not researched, but I will tell you one person who was extremely productive while he was kept away from his normal routine, and it wasn't because of a sickness, it was because of being jailed, and that was a man by the name of John Bunyan.

John Bunyan as an Example of Productive Suffering

John Bunyan was imprisoned for his faith, and while he was in prison, he wrote one of the greatest pieces of Christian literature in history. He wrote what's known as Pilgrim's Progress, and he did that while he was in a situation that none of us would ever want to be in.

He was imprisoned, and even though he was imprisoned, he didn't find himself in idleness, but rather he found some of the most productive years of his life, and so my encouragement to you today is in the midst of all this social distancing, in the midst of being sequestered to our homes, and being asked to stay at our homes, how are you being productive?

Practical Ways to Be Productive for the Lord

And here are some things that I, just as I was writing and kind of preparing for what I was going to say in this video, here are some things that I thought of. One, there's no better time to be praying and studying your Bible.

If you have extra time, spend that time with the Lord. You know, Jesus commends us to make our prayers in our closets, meaning go away from the world and sequester yourself and pray. Well, the world is saying sequester yourself, so this is a time where we could be praying and we could be studying our Bible.

Remember prayers when we talk to God, and the Word of God, the Bible, is how he talks to us, and so I would encourage you to study your Bible and pray during this time. I would encourage you also to call upon other people, especially those who you know are going through this by themselves.

Some of our church members, if you're a member of Sovereign Grace, you know that there's some of our church members who are, who live alone, and so this is compounding the time of loneliness for them.

Give them a call. Let them know you care about them. Let them know you love them, especially if you know that either they're lonely or that they've dealt with some kind of sickness, and certainly they're going to be avoiding being out.

I would encourage you to reach out to them. You can write letters as well. There's something very personal and very beautiful about receiving, not an email or a text message, but receiving something that someone took the time to handwrite, and that's a great way to be productive.

You can spend quality time with your family. I've been encouraging ever since the beginning of this that you consider the fact that we need to be practicing family worship, but also just family time. Spend time with your family.

Pull out the puzzles. Pull out the games, and spend some time getting to know your family again. What a productive thing that could be, and again, just remember that this is not a time for idleness. This is not a time for laziness.

It's just a time that we need to learn how to be differently productive, and to continue to be productive for the things of God, to continue to be productive for the things of Christ. That is my admonishment to you today.

My question for you to think about is, how am I being productive for the Lord today, and in what ways am I seeking to glorify Him in all that I do? Let us not be idle, and remember, Christians are a working people.

We are not a lazy people. Let us be working in the ways of the Lord today. Let me pray for everyone. Father, I thank you for this time that we've got to look at your word. May we be kept from idleness.

A Prayer for Productivity, Growth, and Gospel Witness

May we be productive in the Lord today, and Father, help us to see this time as not necessarily a burden, but an opportunity, an opportunity for growth. I pray, Lord, as we grow in you, and as we become more conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would have an ever more burning passion in our hearts to share the love of Christ with others.

Not only other believers, Lord, but those who do not know Christ, that we would share the gospel with them, and Lord, that through that, that you might win souls for the kingdom. Father, I pray all of this in Jesus' name and for His sake.

Amen. Well, my friends, again, I miss you all, and until we meet again, may the Lord richly bless you.