|
News for the Pews |
Home
21st January 2026
WednesdayReflection
************************
'Mariam Kamell'
Assistant Professor of New Testament Studies
"The one who is unwilling to
work, shall not eat".
.... 2 Thessalonians 3:10
In today's heated climate of disputes over universal healthcare and a social safety net, this verse has seemingly taken on a life of its own.
Opponents dispute the meaning of this verse and quarrel over people's intentions and probable outcomes.
The key focus of the passage, should not surprise the one who has been paying attention.
Both verses 6 and 11 use a rare term that only occurs in these two verses of the New Testament to describe the problematic ones, and while many translations have opted for "lazy" or "idle" on the principle that these people are refusing to work, classically this adverb comes from the word group for "disorderly" or "disruptive"
Taken in its normal meaning, suddenly the picture opens up that these may well have been the same troublemakers from chapter 2, causing the theological earthquakes and distress.
Indeed, the picture Paul paints of these troublemakers is not simply that they are lazy or won't work, but that they actively work trouble for the church (v. 11) as busybodies and meddlers in things which they have no business.
The characterization in verse 11 is crucial for getting this passage correctly, giving a threefold picture: they are disruptive, will not work, and are meddlers.
It is not that they are simply lazy, or heaven forbid, unable to work.
These people are able to work, but use that ability to create chaos in the community.
As such, they directly contradict the example of the apostles who by status would not have had to work but did anyway.
This passage has nothing to do with whether a social welfare should be in place to catch the helpless in society; this is entirely concerned with those who should and can work but refuse and instead direct their energies to causing chaos in the community.
This day and age when it is entirely possible, and disturbingly common, to work full time - or more than full time - and still not earn a living wage, Christians need to be profoundly careful with our rhetoric about those who depend on welfare for survival.
We should be fighting for justice and help for those in that position, rather than carelessly branding people with this passage.
It would seem that Paul wanted to impress on his congregation the importance of their deeds, that how they act shows the fulfillment of their calling.
Good deeds, not presumption and meddling, ought to come as a response to grace. People needing welfare is not the problem.
People causing chaos in the community is.
If in the case of the Thessalonians it was due to their theology leading them to a presumption that they had been perfected and no longer needed to work, we should consider comparable situations of entitlement today, rather than take the path of simplistic rhetoric.
But what does the illustration of the apostles add to our understanding of the passage?
For the preacher, this is an awkward one, because congregations can and have taken it to mean that they shouldn't have to pay their pastor or that ministers have been guilted into not seeing the ministry they do as genuine work.
Paul, as a church-planting apostle, refused to play into the patronage games of his culture, working to avoid the entanglements and obligations that receiving gifts would entail upon him.
We see elsewhere in his correspondence, however, that the Philippian church supported him in his ministry, so his statements here in verses 7-9 ought not be taken as an absolute principle.
Where the gospel would be bound and muddled if he received gifts or pay, Paul refused.
The gospel is always to be a free gift.
But in some ways the argument here is not all that different from that of 1 Corinthians 4, where members of the congregation appear to be surpassing their leaders in entitlement.
Paul reminds them that instead they ought to imitate their leaders (the same language of imitation appears in both texts, interestingly enough).
The gospel is a free gift, but it should produce a life of good works that build the community.
Where meddling, gossiping, entitlement, and other disruptive behaviours flourish, the church is in grave danger, and Paul's warning in this text is directly applicable.
We are not to outstrip our Saviour who had all rights and gave them up for our sake and our salvation.
Mariam Kamell
was appointed Assistant Professor of New Testament at Regent College in August 2013.
Her research has centred on the epistle of James, with an M.A. thesis on the role of "wisdom" in the epistle
and a Ph.D. thesis on the soteriology of the epistle.
Both of these projects involved extensive work in both Jewish wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible and Intertestamental period as well as in the Gospel of Matthew.
This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
During the Interregnum
March 2025 to ....
Contact the Benefice Office
E-mail:
thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com
Contact the Benefice Office
Sunday School Rooms, Church Lane,
BUGBROOKE, Northampton, NN7 3PB
Land Line: 01604 830373
E-mail:
thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com
Mon., Tues., Wed., Thur.
9:00am to 11:30am
For Baptism bookings (Christenings)
to arrange an appointment please contact
the Benefice Office.
For Wedding bookings:
please contact the Benefice Office to arrange
an appointment.
Who Made This?
Seeing as you asked, if you can give helpful
advice or report factual corrections and
'deliberate mistakes',email:-
regparker3 at gmail dot com
Email addresses shown using words in an
attempt to avoid 'spam',
Type the email address replacing 'at' with '@',
and 'dot' with '.'
|