Second Thessalonians 3:6-9 The command given and an apostolic example

Here we are in 2 Thessalonians chapter three, six through nine. Is that, that's right, Roger, right? On the right week. Okay. Okay. Six through nine. I'll just read it briefly. Now we command you brethren in the name of the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition and not according to the tradition which you receive from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with labor and hardship, we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you. not because we do not have this right, have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you so that you would follow our example. Verse six there threw me a little bit. I think I read it wrong. I was, It sounds like Paul's just instructed him not to live as he did, but it's the other way around. That just did a dippity-doo flipperoo in my mind there. Okay. Yeah.

So keep away from every brother who leads, I'm going back to six, who leads an unruly life. and not according to the tradition which you received from us. So, let's review briefly last week. From last week, we have verses one through five that Bob covered. in 1 through 5, he opens up a new section asking the Thessalonians for personal prayer for he and his team, and we learn that it's an imperative, it's a middle voice, you yourselves have please pray for us, for Silas and Timothy. For one, and I mentioned this in the prayer, that the gospel would run freely and effectively, and it would not be hindered.

We also learned that to run means to have its free course. And I like that. I like that word run because it reminds me of how a river runs, right? Kind of meanders, but it goes back and forth and it might go slow in some places, might go fast in some places, but it waters a valley and it's very effective of how it's supposed to run. So, I like that word run for the gospel to run freely.

The second thing he asks from last week in verses one through five is that Paul and his team be rescued or delivered from atopos men, which are men who are out of place, or unrighteous, or harmful men. So that's the two main things he asks for prayer from last week.

So that's a brief review. Now on to verse six here in chapter three. Now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us.

So he makes a command. And Macaulay's outline in my title I have, that's from Macaulay's outline. The command is given in verse six here. So, the word for command is perangelo. You see it there in blue. It's a charge or an order, an order to do something. It's a military term. And I think we're all aware of that and comfortable with that.

To keep away, from every brother, keep away from every brother, that is, I think it's an imperative. No, it's not an imperative, excuse me, it's an infinitive, to keep, to keep away, it's an infinitive. So, he's commanding them and Merriman says that it's an infinitive, but it works out as an imperative. because it's coupled with this word command, and he says to keep away from every brother. So, it's the word estello for keep away.

It means to diminish or check or to cause to cease. Another use of the word stello is to shorten the sails of a ship. So when you let down, if you're on the high seas and you let in the sails, that sail is gonna shrink and it's gonna diminish and it's not gonna take up as much wind, will it? So they'll slow the boat down. So what I think that, means in this context is it takes the wind out of the sails of a relationship with the unruly brothers that you have, takes the wind out of the sails of that relationship, and you separate from that person.

Unruly, let's look at that word, is ataktkos, ataktkos, and it means out of ranks or inordinate or irregular. So you could see, that's a military term too, isn't it? Out of ranks. So it's the command, that's a military term, or perangelo, and then this otaktos is another military term, out of ranks.

So if you have ranks and a couple of guys are a little askew in the ranks, you'll notice it, especially if you're looking at a parade from high above. My brother took over a command one time, I think it was in Okinawa, Japan, of a fighter squadron. He's the commander of the fighter squadron.

And this fighter squadron was the bad news bearers of fighter squadronism. And they had so many problems and they were just out of ranks. They were inordinate and they were irregular and they got into a lot of trouble and they were poorly ranked. But my brother lined them all up and he took a baseball bat. And I remember the story and he didn't hit anyone with a baseball bat, but he walked up and down the ranks. rank of the file of airmen and pilots and said, enough for stop this, stop this, what you're doing. And he would hit this bat against the concrete floor and he just gave them the riot act. And then after that, this fighter squadron rose up the ranks and I think they won an award.

I think it was Roger, it was a Raytheon award. Yeah, so he, that happened. So that was an out-of-rank rank. And so that's the meaning of this word here. Well, Andrew, I was thinking about your time in the marching band thing. Oh, the drum and mute course. Yeah. You can't be out of step, otherwise you destroy the whole thing. It's just- No, yeah.

And you can see it, because everyone's up high looking down on it, and you can see something that goes wrong. One time in a semifinals or the core I was in, I wasn't in it yet, but one guy caught an edge on the back of his heel and fell, caused the whole line to go down. They just got back up and got right back in it. And it was, and most people missed it because it's so fast. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we would always be getting yelled out for being outgrants.

So keeping with verse six here, the command given, Leading an unruly life. So, this is one verb and it's lead and lead a life, basically. So, let's forget the unruly word in there because we've covered that, but lead a life. So, that's peripateo and that's the word for walk. So, it's a daily walk, day-to-day. Peter would use the term, he wouldn't use walk, he would use have your conversation be you know, above board is the word Peter would use. So it's how this unruly one, this out of rank one, conducts himself, right? Keithley III, Bob's favorite person. It sums it up nicely, and that's why I put that here, because he sums up the thought here. The lesson here is simple.

The church is engaged in spiritual warfare from Ephesians 6. With every believer, a soldier whom God has enlisted into his army, When we fail to follow the directives of the Savior, it leads to disorderly conduct, which hurts our effectiveness. And then he has some verses from 2nd and 1st Timothy there. And I just put below there a brief summary of Ephesians 6 and these verses in 2nd Timothy chapter two and 1st Timothy chapter one. Ephesians 6 is that section that says, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to withstand the schemes of the devil, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the wicked spiritual forces in the world, etc. And then the second Timothy chapter two through four is Paul is instructing Timothy to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, another military analogy. And he goes on to say, no soldier in active duty entangles himself with the affairs of everyday life. And then first Timothy, he just says, fight the good fight.

So there you have this command and the military analogy of the command in verse 6. Note that the commander-in-chief would be the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's the one who heads up the army or the church body. And so, he's the ultimate commander, and Paul is acting on his authority, isn't he?

And that little phrase embedded in verse 6 there, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that that parenthetical phrase. That's a very strong phrase because it gives the authority from Christ himself. And so, Paul's very, he's very, he's being very serious here, much more than he has been with the Thessalonians in the past, in 1 Thessalonians. We'll look at that later, though.

Let's look at this phrase, the tradition that you received from us, Bob led us through this word, traditions, from 2 Timothy 2, verse 15. And it was more in traditions as it relates to Jewish traditions or Jewish rituals and things like that, or the law we were talking about. The Greek word is pardosis, and it's a body of precepts or oral or written teachings, instructions or narratives given, passed down maybe from generations or given from one to another, and meant to be passed on through time. I want to make the point though that is, is this the tradition that Paul has in mind here, these old traditions, maybe Jewish traditions or something like that, or maybe the gospel tradition.

And I don't think it is. I think that he means here by tradition is just, he's narrowing that down to just how he lived among these Thessalonians when he first arrived in their midst, or how he lived. And I think that's really the context, and we'll look at that. It really fits the context well. So, from his first letter, 1 Thessalonians 2 6-12, this is going to answer all our questions and just really shine light on verse six of 2 Thessalonians 3 here.

So he says, even though as apostles of Christ, we might have asserted our authority, but We prove to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection of you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not only the gospel, but also our own lives. And so you think about this word tradition when I'm reading this, and it makes sense. Because you had become very dear to us, for you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day, so as to not be a burden to any one of you, we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God, how devotely and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers, just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and employing.

Wow, look at all these triple adjectives here. Exhorting, encouraging, and employing each one of you as a father would his own children. so that you would walk, and there's our word peripateogen, in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. So, there you have, in a nutshell, the tradition, I think, that Paul had handed down to these Thessalonians.

And he wrote that letter a year before, so he's restating it here in verse 6, and especially in 7 and 8 of our lesson today. I mean, it's basically verbatim, but we'll look at that. Here's 7 and 8. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, verse 8. But with labor and hardship, we kept working day and night so that we would not be a burden to any of you."

So you see how that mirrors very closely that section in 1 Thessalonians chapter two, was it? Let me just go back there and make sure. Two, six through 12, that's correct. So I made point number one, 1 Thessalonians 2, 6-12 perfectly supports Paul's continuing defense of how he lived among them. Paul set the example that they should follow the word for in Greek for example is minima from the root mimos and it's a word that you can clearly see means mimic. So they want to mimic his behavior and lifestyle and ways that he set before them when he was with them in Thessalonica. He uses this word a lot in his letters, in 1 Corinthians, Ephesians.

I'll read some of them. Therefore, I exhort you, be imitators of me. Be imitators of me, just as I am of Christ, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Therefore, be imitators of God, his beloved children, in Ephesians 5.1.

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, from 1 Thessalonians 1.16. And then he uses it once again, for you brethren became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. Again, from 1 Thessalonians 2.

So he likes this word, mimimi, mimimi, mimimi. You guys can do homework and figure out how to say that on your own. Here's a discussion point I want to bring up. And I was thinking about this. So we'll just take some time here to kind of ponder this.

So he says he's working night and day. And I was wondering how much work did Paul do at tent making? Was it 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then did he preach from 6 to midnight? Or how much do you guys, if you have any insight to give me here? It doesn't seem like we have a whole lot of insight other than he says he was a tent maker.

I almost get the thrust here, Andrew, that It's just that the work of the ministry in Thessalonica was so intense. He had to work day in. It was just, I almost wonder if he's focusing more on his ministry and not so much on his tent making. I don't, it seemed like the thrust more here is that there was, the issues were so heavy that I was praying for you. I was doing the things of the ministry night and day, not so much. my day job, so it's my occupation. That's my thought. That's a good take on it that I hadn't thought about. Because I went 100% the way of the pen making.

Only because, you know, you see up in verse 8, he's eating He says, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. So he's making money somehow. That's good. That's a good point. Yeah. And paying for stuff. But it was a burden on his heart. He was burdened with this. He talks about that.

Yeah. And definitely, you know, of course he was working night and day too at the ministry. But I think, what I think is that he would work all day at tent making a lot, but people would come to him and maybe help him assist, maybe get some, bring some would or help him tithing, and they would talk, you know, and he would minister to people while he was working. Yeah, good point. Oh, and I had this other thought too.

And that is from, remember that story of he's up in, where is he, Philippi, I think. And he's, he's preaching. And the kid in the window, Falls asleep, right? And then he falls a couple stories down and dies. Well, that took place at midnight, right? That was at the midnight hour. So he was preaching at the midnight hour. So I think he worked a lot and preached a lot.

Yeah, so there you go. Well, Andrew, are you up for a midnight session? Yeah. Andrew? Yeah. Go ahead. Andrew, I think, He's giving a really huge example here. One of the things is that this is the beginning of the church. So here he's coming into town and giving the gospel and people are getting saved. And then he's not just sitting back and saying, well, now you have to support me. He's giving a very, very good example. He's certainly not a slacker. Yeah, right. And that's true. In fact, one of these words for unruly is, you could substitute the word as a slacker. So, that's a good point.

You see the purpose clause in verse 8b, so that He did not want to be a burden to any of them. And that word for burden is a barrio. And that's a weighing on, he didn't want to weigh on them in any way, is a thrust of that word. It's also used when Christ was on the mountain and his disciples disciples were falling asleep. Their eyes were getting heavy. And the word for heavy, heavy eyes was epiberio. Their eyelids were weighing on them is the thought there. More of the seven and eight. Another point I want to discuss is I thought about this and I wasn't able to answer that because there's no answer.

My question is whether Paul, when he was Saul and he was persecuting churches, did he live as a tent maker? Did he make a living that way? I would say, my guess is, and pipe in here if you have a differing opinion, but I would say not. I would say that he was going around as a representative of the Pharisees and persecuting the church. And he was working for the Jewish synagogues and they were supporting him. And I think he was living high on the hog back then, you know, eating and drinking well and having great clothes and travel and benefits and turn down service, whatever. He got all expenses paid. Yeah. And I think that he wasn't working like this because he was a, He was a- He was high up in the- Yeah, ultra important, tenured, like college professors think that- Yes, right.

So yeah, I think I would bet that, but we don't know, but that's my guess. point six here, another purpose of Paul's command to withdraw from undisciplined believers who do not work, is he was obviously having a problem because in the first Thessalonians, We see that he mentions two things twice in chapter four, verse 11 through 12, where he says, and to make it your ambition, to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and to attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, and there's that word again, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.

And then in 1 Thessalonians 5.14, he says, we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly. There's our word again, unruly, atactos. Encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. So these are words and phrases right out of our text today. So he's coming back to this little group of people who are out of sorts or out of rank unruly. And I really think that there's a strong connection that this, and this is the only problem it seems that this Thessalonian church is having with a little cadre of slackers here, for lack of a better word.

And so, the point I'm making in 6b here is that he's now invoking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, very strong, it's what Paul would use to cast out demons, right? It's so strong, it's so authoritative. And he's specifically addressing these shirkers of Christian duty to work and to mind their own business and to be self-sufficient.

And even next week in 10 through 12, I think we'll see more of this. So that's definitely the thrust of this. Going on to verse nine now, not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example is 3.9.

So, I want to look at this Paul's right to remuneration for, you know, pay for his spiritual work versus his liberty to forego taking it. And that's a lot of words there, but what I mean is, in 1 Corinthians, in the ninth chapter, Paul, the whole chapter is exactly the subject of having a right to take pay for missionary work. And Paul gives a defense of his rights to accept food and drink and shelter and monetary compensation as an apostle. And if you remember, this was covered in the 1 Corinthians class, and the particular one of chapter nine, I think was covered by Mike. In the chapter, the ninth chapter of 1 Corinthians, he says, do we not have a right to eat or drink? Who as a soldier serves at any time at his own expense?

And then he argues from an Old Testament standpoint about muzzle, you shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing. So, yeah, workers have a right to be paid is what he's basically arguing. But then he makes a switch, he turns it on his head and says, and after all that arguing and contending with Corinthians, he says in 912 of 1 Corinthians, if others share the right over you, Do we not more?

Because they work hard. Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. And then I put in this phrase that Mike used in his lesson from January of this year, Paul argues just as strongly for his right to give up his right. So he argues strongly for his right to give up his right. And that's all because the whole theme of that 9 and 10 of 1 Corinthians chapters 9 and 10 of 1 Corinthians is liberty. Right.

And another of a quote from Mike here from his lesson. He says, my rights are subservient to the interest of Christ and his people. My rights are not for the self-glorification or the indulgence of the body. And he says, all Christian ministry is of Christ the Lord, not earthly man. And if the spirit of the world is allowed to intrude, it will ruin Christian ministry.

So that happens to, Mike happened to cover that section. I was a little worried when I saw his name covering that section because he, Mike is a little more sparse with his written presentation than Roger. So I was gonna say, oh, I don't think I'll see a lot in here, but it is, it's an excellent presentation. Well, we've been trying to encourage Mike to be more verbose on paper. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, he definitely was for this lesson. I was like, Oh, fantastic. And it's if you want to go through that again, and just see that that logic that Paul is really a neat study there about having this right to, to take work or to take remuneration for missionary work.

So, he did not want to be a hindrance, and I'm just going up to verse 12 from 1 Corinthians chapter 9 up there. A hindrance is ekope, ekope. It means cutting in a road, and it's cut in order to impede an enemy's pursuit. So, I like that word picture of, you know, keep the road paved and passable and make it so the gospel can just have a free course or run its course.

And Paul's goal is not to hinder the gospel. verse 9 and the B part of the verse says, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example, Paul wanted to serve as a living example of Christ in his life. And from Philippians 2, 5 through 8, we have this, we have, have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant. and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. I like that how, if you think about Paul and his example to the Thessalonians, he really humbled himself and he took on the form of basically a bouncer, making tents.

Because the fact is, making tents back in those days was, I don't know this, I thought it was an artisan skill. It was, you're an artist and you're making a tent and it's like being a builder, you know, a custom home builder or something. So you have some prestige. But I read somewhere that no, tent making was the bottom of the barrel as far as work was considered.

Yeah. Well, that kind of fits well with what he's describing here. He's He doesn't want to be any hindrance to the gospel. He's gonna do whatever it takes in his work ethic and his whole life is gonna be focused on getting God's word out and whatever it takes to do that is all worth it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Paul was really an incredible, incredible man. Yes, I would say so. I mean, it would take an incredible amount of energy to work like he did. And it's just a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. Yeah, yeah, he was like he was supercharged or something. And of all the shipwrecks and things he went through too.

So, in point A here, I simply say Paul was modeling Christ and expecting the Thessalonians then afterward to model Paul, specifically in this idea of work ethic and not being unruly and out of order. The word for model is typos. It's a mark made from a blow or a strike. It's an imprint, or it's the figure formed by the blow or impression. And if you're old like me, you remember those typewriters, that was a type. they would blow the paper, make an imprint on the paper and the letter A or the letter F would come out, whatever. And that's the type. And the image there is the modeled after that typeface, right?

So that's what Paul wants these Thessalonians to do. Okay, final thoughts here. from verse 9. We looked at some of these. The reasons Paul gave for giving the gospel free of charge has been, number one, so to not hinder the gospel from 1 Corinthians 9, 12, not to be a burden on the hearers of the gospel from 2 Thessalonians 3, 8 that we looked at in this lesson, And the third reason was to shut up criticism of Paul being a peddler of the gospel for financial gain.

Some, you know, some of those some of those naysayers would accuse him of being a peddler of the gospel. So, he gave up his right to pay to shut those people up, and that's in 2 Corinthians 2, 17. And then the last reason to serve, like Kathy was saying here, to serve an example of diligence, that diligent work ethic. One final reason, this is an interesting reason too that this one guy brings out.

It's from 1 Corinthians 9, 18. Paul says, what then is my reward that when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge so as to not make full use of my right in the gospel? There's that word right again. But he says, what then is my reward And he answers himself, he says, when I preach the gospel, I may offer it without charge. So his reward is offering it without charge.

This guy, and I was simply looking up on the internet, you never wanna do that, but biblebridge.org. And I was looking, I wanted to know what, I knew Paul was a tentmaker, but I wanted to know, how do we know he was a tentmaker? Because he doesn't mention it much. And it's from Acts 18, when he meets Prisha and Aquila, and the three of them get together making tents. And that's where it's mentioned. That's the only time that tentmaking is mentioned. So, then you just extrapolate that to whenever Paul worked physically, he was making tents.

So, I was just looking that up, but I found this guy, Les, and that's all he gives us, Les, on the internet. So, he says, Paul was Paul was being rewarded, not like as a crown in heaven in the future for heavenly service, but here on earth, his reward was preaching for free. And Less, Guy Less, makes this argument that it was actually pleasurable for Paul and he enjoyed the pleasure of giving the gospel for free. It sounds like a simplistic thing to say, but then I thought, I thought of this, I thought of the word grace, right?

Charis. And charis, I like Aristotle's definition, charis, or grace, is something freely, something conferred freely with no expectation of return and finding source in the bounty and free-heartedness of the giver. And that's actually who is quoting Aristotle and Macaulay is quoting Wheat there. So if you listen to Macaulay's Grace series, he says that Charis is the quality of something that makes something pleasurable. Yeah, of course, we use grace as the cross of Christ and salvation is given by grace, things like that.

But it's also used in the regular world as something that is pleasurable, something that's beautiful, something that's you know, high-minded and things like that. So, I just thought of that interesting point that Paul was giving the Gospel here in true, pure, unhindered grace to his recipients, and he took pleasure in that. And he was communicating the exact definition of charis. This went on. Yeah. He was also taking pleasure in the absolute grace that was bestowed upon him to be the one to bring the gospel. Yeah.

To have the energy and the motivation to do what he did. And it all came from the Lord. Yeah, yeah, and if you think he always refers to the gospel as his gospel, my gospel, because, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ gave him personally this body of information about the mystery of the church, things like that, that only Paul really knew. And so that was his gospel.

So yeah, he did take pleasure in giving that and it was a big responsibility too. So there it is. That's good, Andrew. That's where we'll end it. Yeah. It's, yeah, I really liked following that theme of the rights, Paul having the right to take pay and then giving up the right. So I kind of went with that just because I guess the spirit was leading me, moving me there in that direction for this morning. So yeah, let's pray. close up.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time that we had together. We thank you for your gospel and that it's simple. If people simply believe that you sent your son in the flesh to come into the world and die on the cross for their sins, simply believing that they're granted eternal life is a free gift. And we just pray that that word goes out to all the unsaved. And we pray that you'll strengthen all the missionaries who are preaching the true gospel, and that you'll give them wisdom and guidance and endurance like you did, Paul. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.