1Thessalonian 4:11 ....lead a quiet life. You say, Now wait a minute, Jesus is coming, shouldnt we lead a loud life? Shouldnt we be all over the place screaming and yelling and hollering and marching and protesting and doing whatever we need to do, wake up the whole world? No, just lead a quiet life. This is a very interesting statement because it says in verse 11, And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. Those two verb forms are tied in to excel still more. How? By making it your ambition to lead a quiet life. That is a...that is an almost contradictory usage of two verbs. The first one means to be zealous and to strive eagerly...be zealous and strive eagerly to be quiet. A little bit difficult. Make a major effort to do nothing. Make a major effort to rest, relax, remain silent. That word there is used in the New Testament of a number of things...keeping your mouth closed and not saying anything; quieting down when youve been speaking. Its used of resting. But it has the idea in all those usages of a tranquility, calm tranquil, peaceful. The root has that idea...quiet, peaceable. One noun form literally means to keep your seat, sit down, relax. Christians are to live quiet, relaxed, restful, peaceful lives in face of persecution, in fact of anticipation of the Lords return. We dont know...we dont know what these Christians were doing they shouldnt have been doing, we dont know where they were going and what they were involved in. We dont know how they were manifesting this lack of composure and upheaval. But he says back off, sit down, relax, settle down, calm down, be quiet, be tranquil, be peaceful. Very much like Pauls instruction to Timothy to give the church at Ephesus, tell them to lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Dont make trouble for the king, dont make trouble for the governors, dont upturn...overturn the culture. Interesting commands, arent they? First one, even though Jesus is coming very soon, make sure you do loving things to meet the needs of other people, physical needs, earthly needs. Second one, lead a very quiet life, stay out of the public eye, get back, settle down, be quiet. Theres a third one, mind your own business. That communicates, doesnt it? Mind your own business. Thats been quoted a lot by folks, Attend to your own business. But this is the only time this word is used in the Greek in the New Testament. Its common in secular Greek, its only used here. We dont really know what he was speaking to because we dont know what the issues were if there were any. It may have been a general exhortation. He is saying dont get into somebody elses affairs, either the affairs of other Christians, the church leaders, the society, whatever...stay out of that stuff. Just take care of your own business. Concentrate on your own life. Concentrate on how you live. Stay out of other peoples matters, stay out of other issues. Over in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 he said, Dont be a busybody. Whats a busybody? Well thats exactly what it says...a body thats busy. Somebody who is para peripatetic from the Greek verb peripateo, to walk around, who is all over the place all the time. Dont do that. People who are undisciplined who dont work but act like busybodies, just running around sticking their nose into everybodys affairs. Keep doing whats necessary for your livelihood. Dont be running off trying to solve everybodys problems in the world and straighten out everybodys issues. Mind your own business, no place for gossip. Take care of you and just keep doing what youve always done. Work, he says in Colossians 3:22 to 24, to please your master whether hes good or not. Do whatever you do for your master, the guy who has employed you heartily as unto the Lord. Just keep doing what is necessary to your life and stay out of other peoples affairs. Keep to yourself. Keep your own life, your own business, the matters that concern you. Lead a quiet unobtrusive, gentle, peaceful life and make sure you give yourself in sacrificial love to one another in the matter of meeting worldly needs. (JohnMacarthur)
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 01:00:43 +0000
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