The Sin of Enabling

The Early Church, Idleness, and the Command of 2 Thessalonians 3

If you do have a Bible turn to 2nd Thessalonians 3 and we're going to be reading 2nd Thessalonians 3 6 through 12 so whenever you get to 2nd Thessalonians 3 go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word.

2nd Thessalonians 3 6. 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 in accord with the tradition that you've received from us.

For you yourselves know that 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 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 name of the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. It's the Word of the Lord. Let's pray Lord we do thank you for the words that you've given to us which are life to us.

Pray that you help us today to hear great things from your scriptures. Help convict us of our convict us of our sin help us to personally seek to apply by the Spirit All the ways in which we may be violating your commands without knowing it and give us Hope that you stand ready to forgive us when we ask we thank you for all you do in your son's name.

I pray Amen. Maybe see now what now when we think about ways in which we may Tempt other people to sin or put a stumbling block in their path of sin most naturally we think of ways in which we as Sinful human beings with malicious motives are actively seeking to do them harm and encourage their harm but as you read through the scriptures one of the things that you're going to find is that there are many instances in which we as Christians are tempted to do other people harm by seeking their good and doing good and kind and generous things for them and with respect to the nature of The destruction that this kind of sin can bring it's very difficult to compare The two because you can destroy a person's life through kindness just as well as you can Destroy their life through through active evil and we ought to do well to pay attention to these things.

The Sin of Enabling as Charity That Facilitates Sin

Now when you read 2nd Thessalonians 3 one of the things you realize is that you're dealing with a situation where Christians are tempted to entice other people to sin through acts of kindness through acts of Charity, and so this is a topic that we would do well to think about Today we're going to be talking about the sin of enabling and this is a sin that Christians are Quick to fall prey to partly because we as Christians were a generous people and we're taught by God in Christ to do good to those who persecute us and Despitefully use us.

We're taught to be generous to people who don't deserve The kindness that we show to them. But as I said, this is a sin that Christians are very prone to commit and sin that we're going to talk about today.

And we think about the passage here 2nd Thessalonians comes to us in a particular context. So the context of 2nd Thessalonians is that these books are written These are very early books that are written and there was an expectation that you're going to find as you read through these books.

That.

Christ's return would be very soon. So many people in the early church They knew and understood that and thought that Christ would be coming Soon. And because they thought Christ was going to be coming so quickly because of a lot of the words that Jesus said.

They have a temptation towards idleness. Because after all I mean I'm just gonna return and arrive at any moment. Then why not just sit there and do nothing and wait for him to come right? And so this is a very natural temptation that many people have this the temptation that the early church had.

It's a temptation that's surrounding the formation of the early church in general. So one of the things that happen when you think about the formation of the early church. You find in the book of Acts that there is a remarkable change from the new from the Old Covenant into the New Covenant.

It is a huge deal that Jesus Christ has come to be the fulfillment of the law. There's a this is a huge deal in the lives of the Jewish believers. If you understand the nature of their lives beforehand, they've been given a portion of land and inheritance.

In the promised land that was going to be their eternal possession. The the nature of their mission like the mission of the Old Testament in part is to hold on to that land. Which is an inheritance of that's given to them by their fathers that's passed along through families and tribes.

One of the things you'll find is in the story of Ahab trying to steal Naboth's vineyard. Naboth looks at Ahab and says how you know, I can't it would be wrong it would be evil for me to sell you the birthright of my Fathers.

And so when you think about the nature of the Jew the the Jewish relationship to the land their lives were tied very particular. Particularly to a very specific portion of land now when Jesus came that changed the nature of the mission so No longer were they commanded to stay in the promised land forever and make that their eternal inheritance.

They were told to take the good news and spread it to Jerusalem first then Judea Samaria to the ends of the earth. So they were given a missionary calling that they were supposed to take this good news and sell it and spread it everywhere.

And what you'll find in the book of Acts is after the day of Pentecost 3 ,000 people were added to the church and those 3 ,000 people That were added to the church. Sold their houses and lands and properties and they gave those funds.

They they laid those at the foot of the Apostles because they knew that their life was going to be remarkably different you know if you look at the picture of the early church one of the things that Christians who have a socialist kind of bent are apt to point out is that in the early church.

They had all things in common and What they think that meant is they shared one purse it was socialism. But really what's happening is you're living in a time where Jews are have realized that Jesus was Messiah.

This is going to radically change the nature of their life. So they're selling their houses their lands and their property. They're devoting himself to the Apostles teaching. Which is happening daily at the temple, you know.

So they're in a unique time where they're being told all the expectations about what? Jesus coming to earth taking on flesh dwelling among us becoming the once and for all sacrifice of sin. Means to them, but very quickly.

They can't just stay there forever devoting themselves to the Apostles teaching every single day they have to get back to work and These are dynamics that are happening behind the scenes when you get to the book of second Thessalonians.

One of the things you realize is that many people in the Thessalonian Church? They they thought that Christ would be coming quickly. And so they were prone to idleness. This was a sin that they were actively committing committing and this is a sin that the Apostles are Warning against Jesus Christ will return.

Amen. He's going to return quickly. Amen. But we need to get continue to get to work and there's a lot of work to be done until that time. When he does return. So the book of second Thessalonians in our passage it starts with this second Thessalonians 3 6.

And it says this 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 a tradition that you've received from us.

Apostolic Authority, Church Discipline, and the Seriousness of Idleness

And so what we see is that this passage starts with an apostolic command to reject the idol. Now when you think about the nature of the Apostles commands, it's important to realize that the Apostles commands come from Christ.

They're not just speaking of their own authority. They're speaking the authority of Christ. So the revelation of Christ it comes in two different phases. So Jesus before he was taken up. This is what Luke tells us in the opening chapters of Luke before Jesus was taken up He had given commands to the Apostles.

So Luke says in Luke 1 1 as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us. Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us.

It seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past. To write an orderly account to you most excellent theophilus that you may have certainty concerning the things that you've been taught.

So the revelation of Christ as I said, it comes in two different phases. It came through Jesus's earthly ministry while he was here on earth to the Apostles.

Which.

The Gospels are a record of if you think about the nature of what the Gospels are doing. They're a record of Jesus's teaching. They're a record of the things that Jesus didn't talk now. They're not an absolute record in terms of they don't set out to tell you everything that Jesus didn't talk.

John tells us that if everything that Jesus didn't taught were written I suppose the world itself couldn't contain the books that would be written of that. But it is a sufficient record of what Jesus didn't taught to know God's will and his expectations for us.

But.

If you remember before Jesus left He looked at his Apostles and he says I have more things to teach you and the helper who am I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit he's gonna guide you into all truth. He's gonna give you those additional things that you're not able to bear at this point.

After my departure and they were the Apostles were instructed to Wait for power to come from on high in order to give these additional commands that God had to give to them. So acts 1 1 Luke tells us this he says in the first book O Theophilus I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach Until the day he was taken up and then after that he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles Whom he had chosen.

So when the Apostles here are saying Now we command you brothers in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not appealing to their own authority. They're appealing to the authority of Christ. These are they're making a claim to revelation.

These are those additional commands the Lord Jesus Christ has for you that were given to us by the Holy Spirit and Established on the basis of signs and wonders and miraculous gifts and everything else.

So the Apostles commands come from Christ and This command that we look at today is not something that we can just say. Hey, that was the Apostles. They just decided to talk about these things. These are commands that are coming from Christ and the command that is given in this passage is the command to reject The idol and we talked about the nature of what that means when you talk about what does it mean to reject the idol?

What does it mean to keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness? You're talking about the category of church discipline. There's few things that's more uncomfortable to the life of believers in general than the topic of church discipline.

If you look at the church like in large Measure one of the things you're going to find is in Particular the American Church the Reformed Church, whatever church you're talking about church church in general in our time in our location in history We are not often Guilty of the sin of disciplining too much you know if there's any indictment that could be made upon us in our own particular time and place in history is that we Discipline too little and in fact Most of us probably don't have the stomach To practice church discipline and unfortunately church discipline is something that almost never happens in most churches.

Okay, it was a very rare thing that a church or practice church discipline, and I'm not saying we'll just get a look Let's overcompensate and find ways to correct the correct the imbalance. I'm just trying to say that You we ought to be aware brothers and sister that our most natural Impulses at this point are not to discipline too much our natural impulses are basically to Discipline too little if if at all okay, those are our temptations our temptation is to Not listen to what Paul says, and I'm not saying that these temptations are particularly Unique to us in this time and place in history although.

I do think that we are very much characterized by the sin of the of a Neglective disciplined over against a sin of over discipline, but then when you think about the nature of what's happening here The Apostles are putting idleness in the category of church discipline.

So when you read this passage you should understand that the Apostles are putting that sin of idleness In the category of church discipline, and they're not giving a lot of caveats for it are they? And it may not be intuitively obvious why it should be put in that category as well.

So I think as a church we often have a very underdeveloped Theology of work and because we have an underdeveloped theology of work it may not be intuitively obvious Why this is such a significant deal Why this is something that you would discipline over it made it may seem like that they're blowing this way out of proportion.

Okay.

So the the less familiar we are with Scripture the less Intuitively obvious this all becomes. And yet this isn't just an instruction That's given related to one passage you understand so first Timothy 5 8 says if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his own household He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever, okay?

Like this is the Uniform teaching of Scripture that idleness is Something that should be treated in the in the most serious terms possible. And the only way you understand why that's happening is if you understand that God made man.

He put him in a garden he put him in garden and gave him a purpose to work and to keep it. Work is central to humanity's mission in the here And now and when you take work away from people you are robbing them of their dignity.

Right there in the language of this passage if you enable people to not work and be productive You are treating them in a subhuman way, right? But they're even animals who know this lesson like the ants that we should at times look to learn it from but Work is God's gift given to man and the preacher in Ecclesiastes tells us this over and over and over again.

Work is central to man's purpose in the here and now and when you take it away You do rob people of their dignity and This is a much more serious thing than what you might imagine. Now one of the things that Nazis would do in World War two would be they would make the Jews engage in labor process labor projects.

And then they would immediately destroy them afterwards. Because they they understood something about the nature of the work that God created man to work. And when you destroy a man's work you were destroying his dignity and I learned this lesson when I was delivering appliances.

So when we were learning how to What I did a job for a while where I was delivering appliances and in order to learn how to carry Refrigerators on dollies they made us take all of the refrigerators and washers and dryers from one side of the warehouse to the other.

And so we thought that we were doing that for a purpose you understand we thought that we were doing that for purpose. So we brought him over there to the others to one side of the warehouse. Then when we got done They told us to take him from that point all the way back to where they started.

And I felt like I was being treated like a Nazi at that point. I thought I was working towards some objective that made sense. But really it was just a learning exercise to teach me how to how to work.

But I'm just here to say that God has given us work and when we refuse to work. It actually is a much bigger deal than what we realize and the apostolic command here is to reject The idol because they have an understanding.

Here's the point. They have an understanding of the primacy of work. That we often are Tempted to tone down. Okay. So we command you brothers in the name of Lord Jesus Christ. You keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition you received from us.

For verse 7 you yourself know How you want to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you. Nor that did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it? But with toil and labor we work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you.

It's not because we do not have the right but to give You in ourselves an example to emulate. So first we see in the past is the apostolic command to reject the idol. Second we see the apostolic example of work to imitate.

Christ, the Apostles, and the Example of Productive Work

Now the apostles encouraged the Thessalonians to follow their example but note the Apostles are also following the example of Christ and The Apostles are also following the example of God. Notice Jesus.

John 5 17 Jesus answered them. My father is working until now and I am working. John 9 4 we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one is work. Jesus came to earth to do the work that the father had prepared for him to do before the foundation of the world.

Jesus came to earth to Accomplish that work and he accomplished that work in a way that we will never accomplish any work, right? He accomplished that work perfectly and completely. Directly in obedience to the father in everything.

So Jesus. Jesus came to earth to work. When we say we're not saved by works, that's Somewhat inaccurate in the sense that we're not saved by our works. We're saved by Christ's work, aren't we? So we are saved by work.

It's just not by our work is by Christ's work on the cross. So Christ came to accomplish a great work. So not only did Christ come to accomplish a great work of salvation for us. God worked and we've been we've been thinking about that over the last few weeks.

Haven't we in the opening chapters of Genesis where God? Created the world out of nothing. X Nihilo out of not. God created the world out of nothing. In six days and saw that it was very good. The Apostles they're they're putting themselves forward as examples of work to emulate.

So they're telling you to reject the idol. They're putting themselves forward as examples to emulate but then they are also emulating Christ and God in Their working to provide a tangible example to the Thessalonians of faithfulness.

Not Enabling Idleness and Its Consequences

Third we see the apostolic command to not enable.

The idols.

That's second Thessalonians 310. For even when we were with you we would give you this command If anyone is not willing to work let him not eat. Now I've described this over the course of The sermon today and the language of enabling and enabling is obviously not a word that's found in the Bible.

It's it's a word that's frequently used in counseling context and because it's a word that's frequently used in counseling context. It is a word that Could be prone to misunderstanding and it may not be the most helpful word to use at all.

But it is a word that I believe is a summary of a certain kind of sin that we can commit Against other people which is a very destructive kind of sin. So let's deal with Some simple definitions of this word and talk about how they apply To this definition in Scripture in general.

So enabler is a person or thing that enables something or makes it possible. It's fairly neutral definition, isn't it a person or thing that enables something or makes it possible? That could be a good thing.

That could be a bad thing. So you think about an enabler there. You can enable something good. You can enable something bad when using the counseling context. Enabling general refers to actions or a lack of actions That allow support or facilitate another person's harmful behavior to continue whether knowingly or unknowingly.

Enabling using involves making it easier for someone to persist in destructive behavior. Often by removing the natural consequences they would otherwise face. So enabling can involve excusing or justifying bad behavior rather than addressing it directly.

Failing to hold someone accountable allowing them to avoid responsibility. Protecting someone from the consequences of their actions or providing resources or support that facilitate harmful behavior.

So when you think about enabling as I said, that's not a word in the Bible, but then there is Many different concepts in the Bible that would be necessarily Violated through this inactive enabling. So as I said enabling it's not a biblical word.

But it's a useful summary of a variety of sins which can be committed out of a misguided understanding of compassion with enabling. Charity essentially becomes an enticement to sin. So to put this in biblical language.

We're talking about Charity as an enticement to sin or charity as the facilitation of sin. So one of the ways you can able enable someone in the language of this passage is you can enable them to be idle?

By continuing to give them monetary support. What are you doing when you're doing that you're enticing them to sin? You're facilitating their sin. You're subsidizing their sin. Your charity and your generosity is functioning as a biblical stumbling block in the way of obedience for them.

Do you understand? So imagine someone selling telling you they want to create an idol to worship and serve instead of the living God. Imagine someone telling you that and you say hey, well, you know what?

I have some metal and I have an engraving tool. Here you go. Right, that would be an example of the sin of enabling. And I think most of you like you would think if someone were to come to you with That intention and say hey, I I want to create an idol your Christian impulses would kick in and you would say well.

Don't ask me to help right? I'm not gonna buy you the stuff so you can make your idol. I'm not gonna give you techniques on how to engrave this thing and carve it, you know. Because I can't really control you.

I can't really help what you're doing. So if you put the matter that starkly Most of us would recoil and think there's something wrong there, right? There's something wrong with me giving you everything that you need in order to carry out your sinful plan.

And I think in the extremes we can often identify this sin in the extremes. So for example, if someone were to come to you and say hey, I want to kill myself and you're a doctor. Can you give me a shot in order to make that happen?

Most of us as Christians would think it would be morally reprehensible To give them their euthanasia shot in order to allow to help them assist them in taking their lives. We understand this in some areas, but then I think We have a great Temptation that we may not be aware of to do this very thing as it relates to our loved ones in general.

So there's plenty of common examples of enabling that We fall prey to without even realizing it so as an example parents enabling children. There's a growing trend among young adults today and Whatever young adult is is I think we just keep on making up new categories.

And so you have preteens and teens and young, you know young adults apparently young adult includes right now The category of 18 to 34 year olds, so that's a pretty broad category. Okay, but there's a growing trend of young adults now that a third of young adults from 18 to 34 Are still living with their parents?

So the trend there is the trend of failure to launch. And what may be surprising is that 36 of those are men. And 30 are women. When you would naturally expect it to be the opposite way. Like you would expect it to be more reasonable.

That because a man's job is to go and prepare a place for a wife so that where he is she might be also there's a natural kind of impulse to say that it would be wise for him to Start making some progress on that so that he can bring a wife into a situation whereas a woman being the weaker vessel opens herself up to many many temptations and has no form of protection if She's just launched out on her own by herself With with no form of protection or care, but the trend here is just to say that 36 Percent of men aged 18 to 34 and 30 percent of young women Seem to be failing to launch so parents enabling children is a significant problem.

There's children who enable parents so there's plenty of situations where children are Out of a sense of compassion and care for their parents in a seat in an attempt to try to honor them are providing Total financial provision for them very early on in their lives.

You know not in their later years where they're physically unable to work, but providing like total financial provision for them. And providing for them to be idle Basically to have nothing productive to do because often they're being manipulated and guilted into doing this so parents enabling children.

I mean there's examples of parents enabling children to be idle children enabling parents to be idles we could think about. Husbands can enable wives. I mean I gave statistics about Dual income families right now.

There's plenty of husbands who are enabling wives to Basically reject all of their responsibilities to be homemakers to be domestic to be workers at home. In order to ask that they're there. I know situation of a situation of a situation where young men are Demanding that their wife take on the role of being a provider for them.

Enabling them to not fulfill their responsibilities and work the work that they're called to do. The exact opposite is true, too. There's wives who enable husbands in that same way. To not take on their responsibility to be a provider.

By jumping in and taking over that role for them. I mean, I think that's an area where a wife should look at her husband and say you can't ask me to Obey you right over and against God. I need to obey God rather than men.

There are times where if a husband is asking you to take over his job for him. You look at him and say I have a higher authority that tells me what my job is than you and so there are times where wives should not submit to their husbands and and one of those clear times is when a husband is asking his wife to Enable him to reject God's commands by taking over his job for him.

As I said, I mean you're talking about you're talking about this apostolic command to not enable the idol. This is a common problem that pastors and church members face. Where pastors and church members enable their fellow church members to walk in sin with no consequence.

This is not obviously a new temptation for us. This is a temptation that's always existed. Paul in first Corinthians 5 6 says your boasting is not good. Your glorying is not good. Like you think that you're being generous towards this brother who has his.

You know, it's mother-in-law as wife like you think that you're being generous towards him. Your glorying is not good. This isn't an example of generosity. This is an example of kindness. You are you are harming this individual one not dealing with it in the right kind of way.

Boasting is not good. Do you know that do you not know that a little 11 11 is a whole lump? Therefore remove the 11 so that you may be a pure lump. Titus 3 10 Says as for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice have nothing more to do with him knowing.

Such a person is warped and sinful. He is self to say it could self-condemn. So there's there's plenty of examples that I could give a parents enabling children and children enabling parents husbands enabling wives wives enabling husbands.

Pastors church members who enable their fellow church members. Bible was replete with these kind of things. But as you think about the main example, it's important to realize. What they're talking about here goes against our basic notions of charity in certain ways, doesn't it?

So second Thessalonians 3 10 says for even when we were with you, we would give this command if anyone is not willing to work. Let him not eat. Again this command is given because we have a natural temptation.

When you see a person who appears to be in need as a Christian. You feel this impulse rising up within yourself to meet that need. But part of the problem is that not all needs are needs. Are they? Not all needs are legitimate.

If you if you've worked with people who Are in low-income areas to any degree and I mean we certainly did at my last church. We we had many people coming to our church asking for money asking for provision.

I can tell you story after story after story after story of situations where we as a church wanted to help people and We would give them opportunities to work and earn provision. So they're asking for food.

You say hey, we have a job to do if you do this job. We'll go get you some food and I'll tell you in case after case after case after case. They would look at us and they would be unwilling to work in order to they expected you to give them Material provision, but they weren't willing to work for it.

They weren't willing to earn it and if you think that. Like here's the issue if you think that you should just give some give anyone something that asks them. What you're gonna find is they're gonna come to you every single day and expect you to be there provided for them.

That's the way things are gonna. Things actually work out and there's more consequences to these things than what you might imagine so the apostolic command is to not enable the idle because Verse 11 there are consequences to enabling idle idleness.

So verse 11 we hear that some among you are walking in idleness not busy at work, but busy Bodies, so there's consequences. Here's the thing brothers and sisters. There's consequences to enabling idleness this passage mentions one Mentions one consequence of idleness and you can see these consequences Bear themselves out in different ways throughout both testimonies.

But one consequence of enabling idleness is that people have a lot more time to meddle in the affairs of other people. So if you don't have something productive to do what you're often going to be tempted to do is to mess things up.

Okay.

So one of the ways you mess things up is to be a busybody you have time. To go from house to house meddling in affairs that don't belong to you. Stirring up conflict stirring up divisions. You know, one of the temptations of young men is To get into trouble When they don't have productive things to do.

So you so you see this in the book of Proverbs you see the temptations that come from idleness. You know some of those temptations are temptations to join a gang. Go around mess things up. What do young men do?

You know.

What do young men do when they have too much time on their hands and nothing productive to do? Some of the young men are shaking their heads right now because you imagine some of the things that you're tempted to do.

I mean, you know Drive by in your hey, I got a great idea. Why don't we drive by in our car with a baseball bat and see if we can play baseball with the mailboxes? You know, this is these are the kind of things that guys are tempted to do when they have too much time on their hand.

But this is not just like a cultural phenomenon. Like the Bible has a category that is called worthless fellows. Fellows of the baser sort and typically worthless fellows are those young Unemployed men who have way too much time on their hands and they find themselves getting into trouble, right?

David found David when he was on the run from Saul, he found a bunch of these worthless fellows and he formed an army. Because that's what you generally do right like if throughout history if you're gonna form an army you find a bunch of young angry men with a bunch of time on their hand you give them something productive to do and a lot of the things that they're Given to do and like historically is was form an army and put that to good use.

So what when the kovat lockdowns happen. And the kovat lockdowns happen. I looked at my brother. I said, when's the rioting gonna start? I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but the rioting is gonna come right because you have a bunch of people who are Prevented from working.