Actions fair and good
2 Thessalonians 3.4-18
Never tire of doing what is good.
Prepare
Are you tired? Weary of the daily struggle? Ask God to direct your heart into his love. Picture yourself surrounded and held by the loving arms of your heavenly Father God (v 16).
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Explore
The Christian walk is a daily effort. We don’t walk for a couple of hours and then arrive; we continue walking (v 4). It sounds easy to keep God’s love as our beginning and end, but the lure of other things means it isn’t. Hence Paul’s prayer for perseverance (v 5).
Have you ever been involved in church discipline, either giving or receiving it? It’s so difficult to get right that many churches shy away from it. But Paul had a high view of the church as a community and family, and he knew how critical its members’ behaviour is for its reputation with outsiders.
Paul also knew how dangerous disruptive behaviour and disobedience can be (v 6). They spread through a community like cancer, eating away at the heart, killing the roots. They need to be challenged, but carefully and graciously. We need to be careful not to treat our Christian brothers and sisters as the enemy (v 15). For, even as he warns those who are idle and disruptive (vs 11,12), he includes all the family in his final prayers (vs 16,18).
Respond
Do you need to hear Paul’s warnings? How can you be a good example to your Christian brothers and sisters, as Paul was (vs 8,9)? Pray God would fill you to overflowing with his peace and his grace.