Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
What great advice! Paul’s instructions here need little amplification from me or anyone else, but I might just add this…
Leading quiet lives is out of fashion these days with tweets, texts and people sounding off all the time. I used to tell my kids that their friends don’t need to know about every little thought that passes their consciousness. Of course teenagers tend to think their parents don’t know anything and they texted or posted or spoke frequently, and frequently got a face full in return… Hardly an example of leading a quiet life.
Back in Paul’s time, working with your hands would refer to someone who was self-supporting and not dependant on others. It didn’t mean that they work in a factory as opposed to an office, for neither existed at the time!
Most importantly, the result of his instruction is that we maintain a good reputation in the community so that we reflect well on the Gospel we preach. Boy, does this ever apply to us!
Living in this way allows us to focus our attention where it needs to be focused; on our relationship with Jesus Christ. He is our hope, not this world. He is the center of our beings, not gossip and social media. He is the reason we are on this planet, not making millions. It is this understanding that is step one to a peaceful and satisfying life.
Life Project Blog 
What? They didn’t have cubicles in Paul’s time? How quaint. LOL
Primitive wasn’t it?
You make a good point that we don’t need to sound-off about everything. I have always taken the “lead a quiet life” to mean quiet in terms of busyness, noise and distraction from what is really important. Two sides of the same apple maybe, and we are shown the side where we struggle.
Yep, I’d say that’s about right!
Thanks for this treasure this morning! Very wise advice for our culture today.
Appreciate it, thanks!
A very good message, Don. In today’s society people tend to believe that the “look at me and what I say on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere” makes them some how important. What they fail to realize it is “pride” of self that they are portraying to others. Not a very quiet productive life I fear..
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless and keep you and yours.
…and yours, thanks!
You’re welcome, Don.
God bless you and yours.
“…to mind your own business…”
Dear Don, I woke up with this passage in my mind this very morning.
Specifically, I was reminded that the “your”, here, is second person plural and the “business”, here, is singular rather than plural.
I’m a hair splitter because, to me, it’s a matter of inheritance. Would you recommend going to the reading of a rich dead relative’s will not ready to examine each and every word?
We have the potential to create and share corporate business. We do not have to remain yoked together to bosses who are not believers.
If we did create Kingdom enterprises, the wealth we produce would be more available to our own weak ones – and, that’s the reason Paul told the Ephesian elders that they should work with their own hands they way he did.
Thought-provoking perspective, thanks… thinking…
A simple, quiet life, working with one’s hands, is a choice that brings to mind the old order Mennonites, the Amish, monks and such.
scythewieldor – You have a good point, and you may be right. Nonetheless, I think the many passages in the Bible have several perfectly appropriate interpretations. Don’s is good, and those folks who set themselves apart to avoid worldly entanglements — being drawn into envy and strife — also have a valid point.
At the time Paul preached, Christians were being persecuted. Hence I would imagined they longed for quiet lives — to serve the Lord, care for each other, and otherwise be left in peace. Paul found only a few with the courage and the gifts needed to do what he did, stand before crowds and preach, living anything but a quiet life.
Thanks Tim!
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Such beauty in simplicity. Thank you.
Thanks
I miss those days of my youth, laying on a hammock – looking up at the clouds. The cacophony of our existence comes at us from everywhere. The only final rest from it is at our demise. Peace – perfect peace. Thanks for your words.
🙂
This and the comments that follow it remind me of what I remember my mother once saying when I was a kid: “Always tell the truth, but don’t always be telling it!”
Listen to Mom, she’s almost always right!
Amazing to see this particular verse quoted and discussed today! This was the life verse of the man from my church who died unexpectedly this week. His widow, an amazing young women, spoke at his funeral yesterday about His faith and mentioned this verse several times as she spoke about the man he was. What a blessing it was!
Wow, I bet it was!
Dear brothers, My anchor in life is believing the Spirit led the apostles into all truth just as Jesus said He would. Therefore, I read their writings as if there is, in them, 2 or 3 witnesses of eternal heavenly wisdom to apply to my life. Jesus commanded us to move to another city if we find ourselves persecuted in a place. That would agree with Paul who says to make it our ambition to lead quiet lives as Citizen Tom points out would be the case in Paul’s time. Indeed, he left places where he was persecuted more than once. Obviously, his intention was to lead a quiet life in as much as it was possible with him (Rom 12:18-19).
On the other hand, dear Don just reminded us how James taught us not to be many teachers, and, to show our wisdom in the manner by which we live our lives. Peter says the same thing differently: to be ready to give an answer when men see our quiet lives and ask the reason for our hope (1Pet3:15 – 4:4).
Don, this letter Paul wrote – and this verse in particular – refers to a group in the church who, though fully able, chose to depend on their wealthy brothers and sisters to support them, rather than support themselves through honest labor. It also addressed those who engaged in gossip rather than focusing on the Word.
As we humble ourselves and turn our attention to Jesus – as you so rightly stated – our relationship with Him becomes our priority, which leads us us to peace and contentment whatever our circumstances. This is the simple life Paul lived, and he is an example who lived his live using Jesus as his own example.
Right on the money Susan, thanks!