Living a Quiet Life

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 (NIV)

9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

These four verses are the rest of the section from the text from last week. Paul is speaking to the believers in Thessalonica. From this text, we can deduce that Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia. According to bibleplaces.com, it was located along a major trade route at the intersection of two major Roman roads. It was a seaport and so it was a busy city. Today, if you look on a map, it is in northern Greece and it is called Thessaloniki and a million people live there.

Is this society Paul is addressing very different from ours? Can we apply this instruction to our own lives? Let’s look closer at what the text says. Paul tells them to do two things: love all of God’s family more and more, and strive to live a quiet life.

The first directive to love all of God’s family more and more covers a lot of ground. By loving one another, that would encompass everything they do. This mention that the Thessalonians love not only each other, but all of God’s family, seems intentionally worded. They, of course, are in Thessalonica, but Macedonia is quite large. They were doing a great job of loving one another, and Paul makes a point of mentioning they love not just each other, but all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. I think we can assume that Paul is giving a nod toward unity within the body of Christ.

Thinking of our society today, a lot of us Christians do a great job loving our fellow Christians within our own church, but do we love the other Christians in our town or state who are maybe a different denomination than us? Paul has spoken a lot about unity within the church at large. The first step in building unity among us is treating each other with love. Not only are we to love those nearest to us, but we are to love those outside the four walls of our immediate community as well.

In this text, he doesn’t give specific examples of what loving others looks like, beyond what he mentioned earlier in this chapter about what not to do, but we can find other verses in the Bible which do tell us how to love. The key verse being what Jesus said about how we can sum up the 10 Commandments by loving the Lord and loving our neighbor as ourself. Jesus said that if we truly love God and other people, then we will end up keeping all the commandments. We won’t disobey God or hurt other people if we love God and others. Like Paul said in the verses just before these, we are not to act inappropriately with brothers or sisters in Christ. If we are loving them with the love of Christ, then we would not take advantage of them. If we love our fellow Christians, then we won’t harm them.

He then states that they are to live quiet lives and defines what he means by this: they are to mind their own business, and work with their hands. Let’s look at those two things individually, but first, do we see this directive to live quiet lives anywhere else in Scripture? Paul tells Timothy in his letter to him that he should pray for a peaceful and quiet life. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 says, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

I think part of Paul’s directive to live a quiet life is because of what we know about Thessalonica from Acts 17:1-9 which tells us, “When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,’ he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: ‘These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.’ When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.”

From that we learn, in Thessalonica, the Christians were being persecuted, so instruction to lead a quiet life and mind their own business probably also had something to do with the real threat the believers were under. If they lived quiet lives, minding their own business, then they would be less likely to be singled out and attacked by the mob. We know from Paul’s life that he doesn’t mean that we should never speak up and share our beliefs. Paul was ceaseless in preaching. But maybe he is saying that they should not stir up trouble on purpose. They shouldn’t be busybodies who are getting in arguments and drawing undue attention to themselves. I think that is what Proverbs 26:17 is saying when Solomon offers this hilarious piece of good advice: “Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own.” If we mind our own business, we are less likely to get bit! Paul is telling them, don’t get unnecessarily bit.

The believers in Thessalonica were not all that different from believers today. They lived in a busy city, so Paul’s instruction to live a quiet life did not mean that they should all move out of the city into seclusion in the country. Rather, I think part of living a quiet life means we shouldn’t try to be the center of attention. While Paul became well known, he didn’t become famous on purpose. He actually didn’t want people to say they were followers of Paul. He always pointed people to Christ. As he said in 1 Corinthians 3:4-5, “For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.”

This directive to live a quiet life seems kind of counterculture to the message we hear a lot from the world, and frankly, from within Christianity. The world, of course, is all about becoming famous, but even celebrity pastors and famous worship leaders dominate and set the tone for American Christianity. I was on the campus of a Christian college not too long ago and the banners said, “Dream big” in bright, bold colors. Can you imagine those same banners saying, “Live a quiet life”? Whenever my kids have gone to Christian camp, the themes are usually along the same lines of “dream big.” We are told to do something amazing for God, follow your dreams, think bigger, etc. I can’t remember ever hearing that we should live a quiet a life.

Ironically, the people who seem to have impacted the world for Christ and whom God has used to bring about big changes for good in our world, do not seem to be the people who set out to do those things. They, I think, were actually the people who were seeking a quiet life of following Jesus. They were never in it for fame or personal gain. I think of people like George Mueller. His biography is incredible and profound and yet he didn’t set out to do anything special. He simply followed the Lord. Yet, God used him to radically impact England, and the whole world, through the orphanages he set up. If you’ve never read his biography, I highly recommend it. It’s one that I read again every couple of years. Letting George speak for himself, this is one of my favorite quotes from him:

“According to my judgement the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord’s work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. This has been my firm and settled condition for the last five and thirty years. For the first four years after my conversion I knew not its vast importance, but now after much experience I specially commend this point to the notice of my younger brethren and sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.”

I think George Mueller is saying in that quote, our focus should be on the Lord, and everything else will follow from that place of finding joy in God. The Lord needs to be our priority, not all the other things that seem more pressing. Did you notice, George even used the words “business of your life”? Our business should be about finding our joy in the Lord. I think George would definitely agree with Paul and, ultimately, the Lord who spoke through Paul to write this, that we should mind our own business and focus on God.

This reminds me of something Paul told Timothy in a letter to him. In 2 Timothy 2:3-4, Paul wrote, “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.” If we mind our own business, and make our focus the Lord, we save ourselves from getting distracted by things we don’t need to concern ourselves with.

The second part of living a quiet life is Paul’s directive to “work with your hands.” Did he mean we should only take manual labor jobs? Should all teachers quit and take up wood working? Paul himself was a tent-maker. He said in 1 Thessalonians 2:9, “Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.” He worked with his hands, but that is not the point of his directive. It seems like his point is that we should not sit idly by and let others work for us.

Paul expands upon this more, even using the same word “quietness” again in 2 Thessalonians 3:12 (NKJV), which says, “Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.” Putting this verse into context, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 (NKJV) says:

6 But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, 9 not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.

10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

13 But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. 14 And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

Paul seems very adamant that all people who can work should work. It seems like he is also saying that those who do not work become busybodies. In other words, they will be up in other people’s business, not minding their own business. Having an occupation will help everyone avoid becoming entangled in other people’s affairs. He believes this so strongly that his directive is to not even keep company with those who will not work, so as to shame that person into working. This seems opposite to a lot of people’s ideas today. I hear a lot about guaranteed universal income and social justice being applied to welfare. I don’t think those concepts are Biblical. Some liberal theologians like to cite Jesus’ directive to love our neighbor and the model of believers in Acts, as to why socialism is a good thing, but if we look at scripture as a whole, that argument quickly falls apart.

The Thessalonian believers, according to Paul, were doing a good job of loving each other and so you might think that they would have copied the model we see in Acts of the believers having all their possessions in common and supporting each other financially. Yet Paul doesn’t tell them to do that. He instead instructs them to work with their hands and not be dependent upon anybody. That is a different model than the early church in Acts. I think it’s easy for some people to take advantage of other Christians and expect fellow Christians to give to them because, after all, we are instructed to love one another. But Paul is making it clear that part of loving one another means not taking advantage of another person and so, therefore, everyone who can work should work.

Back to 1 Thessalonians 4:12, Paul states the Thessalonians are to do these things “so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” First, why would we want to win the respect of outsiders? Jesus gives us the reason when He says in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

If we live peaceful and quiet lives, behaving properly and kindly, loving other people, living holy lives, we will be examples to other people and witnesses to other people of the beauty of following God. And then, people will know we are Christians and, as Paul says, then we might “win the respect of outsiders.”

This idea that Christians should conduct themselves rightly in order to win the respect of outsiders is also seen in 1 Peter 2:11&12 which says, “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

We want to win the respect of unbelievers so that they too may come to salvation. If, after observing Christians, unbelievers have zero respect or admiration for them, why would they want to become a believer? We don’t want to turn people away from the Lord. Yet, unfortunately, that happens a lot. So many people who call themselves Christians don’t follow the Bible’s directives and this has created a problem where non-Christians will say that Jesus was a good man, but they want nothing to do with becoming a Christian because Christians are hypocrites. We want to point people to Christ, not turn them away from Him. I think one reason Christians fall into un-Christlike behavior is because we are trying to please people and not God. Sometimes, fear keeps us from following Jesus. Paul offers a solution to this problem in the second part of why we should live a quiet life.

He says that if we live a quiet life, minding our own business and working with our hands, then we might win the respect of others and will not have to depend on others. Not being dependent on others seems like a key to following God. If we are dependent upon others for things we need, then we are beholden to them. Then we have to stay in their good graces so they keep helping us. If we are trying to please others in order that they will continue to help us, we might put their approval and acceptance of us above God. Galatians 1:10 says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Sometimes, even pastors fall into this trap. They water down the Gospel message and make it softer and more appealing to people so that people will continue to attend their church. After all, most pastors’ livelihood depends on the people who attend and tithe to their church. If they ruffle too many feathers, people might leave the church. I also see this situation in Christian schools or colleges that accept government money. The government in America is increasingly trying to shape and control educational institutions. Those who take part in government programs are increasingly being told they must comply or lose funding. If schools were not dependent upon the government, then they would be free to operate according to Biblical standards and not have to bend to the government’s requirements.

Earlier in his letter, in 1 Thessalonians 2:4, Paul says, “On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”

The less dependent we are upon other people, the more free we are to obey God and follow what He tells us to do.

I want to point out that Paul says, “we urge you… to make it your ambition” to lead a quiet life. He is saying we need to determine to do this, make this our aim and goal. We must love our fellow Christians more and more and strive to live a quiet life. I believe we see this same aim lived out by Jesus. No one has ever loved more than He loves, yet He was not concerned with pleasing other people. His goal was to follow the will of the Father. He said in John 8:28-29, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

That should be our goal, too. As we follow the Lord, we should love our fellow Christians and make it our ambition to lead a quiet life. We don’t need to try and make a name for ourselves, running after more and more, trying to win the approval of the world. If we simply follow Jesus, He will direct our lives. As Jesus also said in Matthew 6:32-34, “For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

There is a beautiful freedom and peace that comes to us if we will just make finding our joy in Jesus our focus. He will provide for us and give us all we need to live for Him.

Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your love for us. We ask that You would help us, by Your Holy Spirit, to live quiet lives, full of love for others. We pray that You would help us to focus on You and make finding our joy in You our priority. Help us not to be overly concerned with the world. Help us to make Your approval our number one goal in life. We love You and in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.