“… 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.” (1
Thessalonians 4:11 NIV)
Did anyone ever tell you to mind your own business? Or have you said
it to anyone else? Those words can come across as being quite strong,
depending on how they’re said, but did you know that there is an
exhortation in Scripture that says just that? “You should mind your own
business…”
To mind our own business doesn’t mean that we don’t care about others.
We are called to rejoice with those //who rejoice, and to weep with those
//who weep (Romans 12:15); to give a cup of water to someone in need
(Matthew 10:42); to look after the widows and the orphans in their
distress (James 1:27); to gently restore someone //who is caught in a sin
(Galatians 6:1).
What, then, did the apostle Paul mean when he wrote to
the Thessalonians, “Mind your own business”? He meant, in essence,
what Jesus meant /when he said the following /to the apostle Peter /after
the latter asked about John: “If I want John to remain alive /until I
come back again, what is that to you?” (John 21.22)
When we serve the Lord we can be so easily distracted /by looking at
other people and trying to figure out what God is doing with them and
how they are acting and what they are doing right and what they are
doing wrong, but how will that change anything for us?
When you and I
die and we stand before the Lord, we’re not going to answer for anybody
else in the whole world. So what does it matter what anybody else is
doing? Of course, if someone is teaching false doctrine, then we have
to lift our voices and make other Christians aware. That is biblical.
But, otherwise, what a good rule it is in life to just concentrate on
working out our own salvation /with fear and trembling and not get into
other people’s business. Do you know how much trouble we would avoid?
Many times we end up voicing our opinions about things //that aren’t our
business, and then we become involved in gossip; and we end up affecting
not only our lives, but the lives of others as well.
Today, let’s follow the advice of the apostle Paul and make it our
ambition to lead a quiet life. Let’s fix our eyes, not on others, but
on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. This will help us in
our spiritual lives and in our service to the Lord and to others.
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12.