Gospel Hope and Action in the Waiting (2 Thess. 3)

Listen or read the following transcript as D. A. Carson speaks on the topic of the end times from 2 Thessalonians 3 from The Gospel Coalition.

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“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.

It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”

This is God’s Word.

Heavenly Father, help us to join the voices of those 2,000 years ago who acclaimed the entrance into Jerusalem of your own dear Son: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” For Jesus’ sake, amen.

Isn’t marriage a wonderful thing? It was designed by God to be part of the creation. One man, one woman in a union that makes one flesh for mutual joy and comfort, reflecting the image and glory of God, the reproduction of the race, new children coming out of love, the stability of society.

In fact, marriage is so important that it is presented as a type, a model, of the relationship between God and Israel. The relationship between God and Israel is sometimes said in the Old Testament to be a kind of marriage. This is picked up in the New Testament as a kind of reflection of the relationship between Christ and his church. “

“I have betrothed you to Christ,” the apostle says, “as a pure virgin.” Now we’re waiting for the marriage supper of the Lamb. The very return of Christ and the consummation of all things can be modeled on the consummation of a Christian marriage. Isn’t marriage a wonderful thing? It’s also diapers, getting up in the middle of the night, people pulling at cross-purposes, personalities in conflict.

Sometimes little things like toothpaste rollers and toothpaste squeezers and trying to figure out who takes out the garbage. Sometimes things are much more substantive. Trying to handle teenagers wisely. How to handle old age. For some of us, it has meant betrayal and hurt. Isn’t the gospel wonderful?

Though we are sinners by nature and choice, God in his mercy sent his own dear Son. He takes on human likeness, and he bears our sin in his own body on the tree. His righteousness is calculated as ours. Our sin is calculated as his. God’s just wrath against us is turned aside by the death of the Son whom he himself appoints to bear our sin.

We are reconciled to him. He pours out his Spirit upon us, regenerating us. We are the sons of God by adoption, we’re told, and already we have the Spirit as the down payment of the promised inheritance. One day we will have resurrection bodies in a new heaven and a new earth. Isn’t the gospel wonderful?

It’s also learning how to get on with all the awkward people in College Church. For many Christians, it means persecution and suffering in many parts of the world. It’s declaring yourself to be a brother or a sister of people with whom you would not normally converse. It’s learning how to bite your tongue, how to serve, how to die daily, how to take up your cross and follow Christ.

You see, strictly speaking, these things are not poles as if, well, on the one hand, there’s good stuff, and on the other hand, there’s bad stuff. It’s all part of the same thing. It’s precisely in giving that you experience the joy that transcends understanding. Thus you cannot really think properly about Palm Sunday without also remembering Good Friday, Gethsemane, and the cross. These are not poles. They’re all part of the same thing. The Christ who was acclaimed King reigns from the cross.

Now already as we’ve worked our way through 2 Thessalonians, we have learned something about living in a difficult time (chapter 1), waiting for the end time, and thus thought in huge, sweeping terms, of the anticipation of the end of all things. Now in chapter 3, Waiting in the Mean Time.

Here Paul comes to the nitty-gritty of life. What practical nitty-gritty elements of gospel living does the apostle underscore in his final chapter? After speaking of the glorious return of Christ and the anticipation of the end of all things, he gets down to the hard choices we have to make. What does he emphasize? There are four things.

1. Prayer for gospel priorities

Chapter 3, verses 1 to 5. Prayer for gospel priorities. In the light of what Paul has said so far, what would you expect him to want the Thessalonians to ask for? The rapid return of Christ? A vision of the future? Well, all of those things are good things, but in reality, he says (verse 1), “Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.”

In other words, he wants the gospel to advance, that the word of God might not only circulate widely but then so be received that it is honored as it was with the Thessalonians when they themselves became Christians. He wants the gospel to advance for men and women to be converted. “Pray for that,” he says.

In particular, verse 2: “Pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.” Do not misunderstand the verse. Paul is not asking for prayer for no persecution. That would be entirely contrary to the New Testament. After all, elsewhere Paul himself says writing in the Pastoral Epistles, “All who live godly lives will suffer persecution.” Jesus himself taught in John 16, “If they persecuted me, they’ll persecute you.”

Philippians 1 finds Paul insisting, “You have not only been granted faith, but you’ve been granted suffering.” It has been granted to you not only to believe on his name but also to suffer for his sake. This is a gracious gift from God in this broken world. The apostles in Acts rejoice that they’re counted worthy to suffer for the name.

Paul is not trying to duck any of that here. Verse 2 is focused a little differently. Remember Paul’s experience in Europe so far. He has arrived in Philippi and started preaching and pretty soon was thrown in jail, beaten badly, and had to leave before he could establish very much. In that sense, the gospel has been hindered. He got to Thessalonica, and he lasted there four weeks before the riots started and he was asked to leave.

In that sense, the gospel has been hindered. This is prayer that the gospel will not be hindered, not that he will escape any sort of suffering, but if he is to suffer, at least that the gospel will not be hindered. Do you see? “Pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.”

There are two practical observations that come from this immediately. You can tell an awful lot about a church by what it prays for. Attend the various prayer meetings of this church (small groups, large meetings, whatever), and listen carefully to what is prayed for. Now in some churches, you hear endless prayers along the line that are concerned about Great-Aunt Maude’s ingrown toenail.

“My grandmother, who is 96, has just been diagnosed with cancer. Pray the Lord will heal her.” “I’ve applied for a mortgage. Pray the Lord will bring it through so I can buy the home I want.” Now don’t misunderstand me. You can pray for all of those things. Peter exhorts us to cast all our cares on him, because he cares for us.

But we still have to ask, “What is the heart of New Testament praying? What is emphasized? What is underlined?” For that, what you have to do is work right through, for example, the prayers of Paul and right through the prayers of Peter. In this particular instance, what Paul wants the believers to pray for is the advance of the gospel. That’s at the heart of everything.

I was brought up in French Canada and lived through some of the tough years when there was a lot of opposition. As recently as 1972, in a population of about 6.5 million, there were only 35 or so small, struggling, French-speaking churches, perhaps each with an average of 30 or 35 people on a Sunday morning.

Then between 1972 and 1980, in a period of eight years, we grew from about 35 churches to just under 500, many of them with hundreds of people. It was a singular movement of the Spirit of God. In 1976, by which time I was serving on the West Coast of Canada, I was asked to fly back every once in a while to the French side (since I was reared in French) and speak there.

I recall speaking at a church in Sherbrooke on a Wednesday night. I asked the pastor how long I had. He said, “Listen. These people have all been converted in the last few months. They’re hungry! You know? I never take less than an hour. You’re a guest. You can take an hour and a half.”

We started at 7:30 and sang for about half an hour. I preached from 8:00 until 9:30. Then the pastor got up and said, “You know, it’s good to have Don Carson with us. If you have questions about the Bible, this would be a great time to ask them.” I answered questions for another 30 or 35 minutes. Then he solicited prayer requests.

Almost without exception, they went along this line: “You know, I’ve been talking to a buddy at work about the gospel. I don’t think he understands very much. Pray the Lord will open his eyes and bring him to solid faith in Christ.” “I’ve been praying for my family. I’m the only one in my family who is converted. Pray the Lord will give me wisdom to know how to bear witness to them effectively and that I won’t just put them off by my witness but they will genuinely come to trust Christ.”

On and on and on, for half an hour. Then we got down on our knees to pray. That’s what people prayed for … the advance of the gospel. I was the first to chicken out about 12:30 or 1:00. I still had some preparation to do for lectures I had to give the next morning at 8:00. The pastor said this was what was going on week after week after week. You can tell an awful lot about where a church is by what they pray for.

When we pray about persecution, as here the Thessalonians are facing some difficulty, the second practical exhortation is to remember not to descend to sloganeering. We’ve picked up from the fathers the ancient wisdom, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” It’s easy to recite that when you live in Wheaton. Many parts of the world, it’s not quite so easy a thing to trip off our mouths.

In fact, it isn’t always true either. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church where pressure comes on for a while, and the hangers-on sort of disappear. They all fade away because of the pressure. The church is, as it were, purified. Then when the pressure comes off a bit, then the church tends to expand very rapidly. Then more pressure comes on, and it’s purified a wee bit. The pressure comes off, and it expands very rapidly. That’s happened in China. It’s happened in many other parts of the world.

Sometimes the pressure comes on so brutally and so forcefully that the church in an entire region is simply wiped out. That’s what happened in Albania. There just was nothing there when Christians got in at the end of the Communist period. We must never ever treat verses like this glibly. Still Paul prays for the advance of the gospel, and he knows full well that while he is asking them to pray for himself in this respect, they are swept up in the same vision.

He says (verse 3), “The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the Evil One.” That is not from all suffering but from the Devil himself who will try to destroy you by this kind of attack. “We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command.” In this case, “the things we command” is prayer for the advance of the gospel. “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”

That is, the love of God they experience and now must demonstrate, the perseverance, the steadfastness of Christ, which they know about (he went all the way to the cross) and which they must now emulate themselves. Their prayer must be worked out in their lives of demonstrating God’s love and Christ’s perseverance all for the advance of the gospel.

2. Pursuing the example of the apostle

Verses 6 to 10. The language of example or imitation is used in verse 7 and verse 9. “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it.

On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model, an example, for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: if a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

Before we reflect on what it is Paul wants to model in this context, we ought to reflect on how the apostle regularly sets himself up as an example. For example, in 1 Corinthians 11, he says, “Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.” When he writes to Timothy in his second epistle, chapter 3, likewise he tells him to follow his own example. Which raises the question, how often have any of you said to baby Christians, younger Christians, coming along behind, “Do you want to know what Christian living looks like? Follow my example as I follow Christ”?

Do you ever say that? You see, you ought to. You ought to! There is so much in the Christian life that is caught rather than simply taught. In fact, Paul can actually, when he sends an emissary like Timothy or Titus, write to a church and say, “Watch Timothy or Titus. They will teach you my way of life in Christ, not just my doctrine. My way of life, how I live in Christ.”

You’ve been a Christian … what? Ten years? Twenty years? Thirty years? Don’t you have some things now to share with younger Christians about how to have private devotions, how to have family devotions, how to bring up a family? There are so many younger Christians nowadays who come from split homes. They have no models. They’ve been converted out of who knows what background. Where will they learn such things?

How to forgive people. How not to nurse bitterness. How to use your money rightly. How to handle suffering. How to persevere. How to bear witness. What your reading habits are. What do you do with your time? You ought to be finding out younger Christians in the church and come along and say as Paul said, in effect, “Watch me.” Not because he set himself up as some sort of guru. He says, “Imitate me as I also imitate Christ.”

You who are younger Christians, especially if you’ve come from homes where you have not had a lot of good modeling, you ought to be looking around the congregation, spotting senior saints, and saying, “I need help. Teach me.” It’s called discipleship. In this context, Paul here mentions just one element in his life that he wants the Thessalonian Christians to emulate. Elsewhere he mentions other things. Here he mentions just one.

He says, in effect, “You yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it.” This is not some wretched independence. Paul did have a certain kind of principle he lived by in terms of receiving support. Elsewhere he argues strongly (as the Lord Jesus himself teaches) that those who minister vocationally, full-time in the church, ought to be supported by God’s people so they are free to pour out their lives in teaching and preaching the Word of God.

But Paul’s policy, though he claims that as his right even in this passage.… Paul nevertheless insists that when he goes to a new place to plant a church he doesn’t receive any money locally. When he is in Thessalonica, he is happy to receive money from Philippi where he has already planted a church. But when he is in Philippi, he doesn’t want to receive any money from the Philippians.

It’s partly because he does not want to be confused with popular practices at the time. They didn’t have a university system in those days, but they had popular lecturers and speakers who spoke in the marketplaces and in private schools and the like. The more powerful you were, the more influential you were, the more you charged. The more you charged then, obviously, the better you were.

Along comes the apostle Paul, and he is speaking in the marketplace too, and he is not charging anything. In fact, later you discover the Corinthians are really ticked with him because he doesn’t charge them anything. Therefore, he can’t be all that good. Paul says, “No, no, no. You don’t understand. I’m doing it this way so you can see what grace looks like. The gospel comes free. I have the right, but the gospel comes free. I will not let you put me in your pocket by deciding how much to give me.”

Isn’t that interesting? Meanwhile, there are some people in this church apparently who think they can sponge off the beneficence of the church. Paul says, “No, no, no. You follow my example. You work, and you work hard.” If there wasn’t enough money coming in from Philippi for his work down in Thessalonica, then he would take up his own trade (leatherwork) and make some tents or the like, because he did not want to violate this principle that he would not take money where he was actually planting a church.

Isn’t that remarkable? He wanted grace to prevail because he wanted the freedom of grace to be countercultural. That brings us to our third priority.

3. Performance of certain Christian communal responsibilities

Verses 11 to 15. What is the particular sin against which Paul here inveighs? Most of our English translations preserve the pun you find in the Greek text of verse 11. “We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies.” A kind of pun.

Yet in the original, the word we’ve rendered in most of our translations busybody doesn’t quite mean busybody. It’s hard to find an English equivalent. For us, busybody refers to an interfering nuisance, a meddler in the affairs of others, an offense more easily committed by those who don’t have enough work to do, who have too much time on their hands. They’re not busy, so they go around and meddle. They just become busybodies, playing around all the time, getting in the way, nuisances.

In the ancient world, this word referred to clients in a patron/client relationship. There were benefactors and there were “benefactees.” Benefactors and these busybodies. It was a toady system. There were some people with quite a lot of money, and sometimes it seemed to be a little more advantageous to work for them. Some of them kept you busy, and it was an honest relationship. But many of them, it was just a toady system so you did jobs for them, odd jobs as they required.

Then you became in their pocket. They owned you. You would never run them down. You would never criticize them. You support them. You open their carriage doors or muck out their barns or do some accounting for them or arrange a party, whatever, because you’re their toady, and then they support you.

You can see what happens in a toady system. It means, for example, if one of the toadies is speaking up in a church meeting, you don’t know if this toady is really giving his or her honest opinion or merely speaking for the benefactor. If both of them are Christians and in the congregation, how are they brother and sister in Christ? One is a benefactor; one is a toady. Do you see? It’s destroying everything, and Paul won’t have it.

“We hear that some among you are idle.” They’re not busy; they’re toadies. “Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.” That is, get a proper job, not just being a toady to some patron. “As for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him in order that he may feel ashamed.”

It’s not right! “Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.” Now of course in our culture we don’t have exactly a toady system. Well, some of us are inclined to think maybe Chicago government comes close now and then, but nevertheless, strictly speaking in our culture, it’s not nearly as inbred as the ancient toady system, the benefactor system of the ancient culture.

Nevertheless, we do need to ask ourselves, “How does this sort of instruction apply to us?” It’s important to remember Paul is not saying rich people have no obligation to the poor. There are a lot of passages that insist that where people have more money, they ought to share and be generous and help. There’s a widows list in the church and an orphans list in the ancient church. People were encouraged to look after one another. That’s not a toady system.

Here Paul authorizes this stance with a massive appeal to authority. “We command you,” he says. He demands they obey (verse 14). There is communal authority, even church discipline over this matter. He sees it as so vile, so undermining gospel values, how to live communally in the local church. But still it’s not exactly our problem today, by and large.

Nevertheless, this does provide a glorious instance of how the gospel is countercultural. The benefactor system was so common in the ancient world, and Paul realized the gospel had to overturn the system. It was too evil. But if that isn’t our particular cultural problem, we should at least ask ourselves, “In what ways should the gospel of Jesus Christ be countercultural where we live, in Wheaton?”

Let me take one or two examples from elsewhere in the world (they’re always easier to see elsewhere) and then reflect a little on home. I have spoken in Korea a number of times, and there are some wonderful things God has done in South Korea, how the gospel has advanced in the last 100 years or so. On the other hand, there are now some very disturbing things too going on.

A few years ago, I was speaking in a church in Seoul with about 30,000 people on a Sunday morning (four congregations of 7,500 each). At the end of the last service, I don’t know what else to call them but bodyguards formed a kind of wedge to push aside the crowd so the senior pastor and I then could get down inside this wedge to a chauffeur-driven limousine. Then the chauffeur drove us away. For blocks around, the police stopped the traffic and saluted as we went by.

Now this pastor from my experience with him is a godly man, concerned for the gospel, faithful in his preaching, deeply desirous of being faithful to Scripture and all the rest. But I have to tell you, if I were in his place, it would take me about three weeks to be corrupted, maybe only two, because you see, so much in that culture inherits a Confucian outlook, a Confucian philosophy, that thinks in terms of polarities.

Somebody is up, and somebody is down. The teacher is up; the student is down. The pastor is up; the parishioners are down. It thinks in terms of polarities. It makes for very sharp hierarchies in companies and everywhere else. Do you see? There are only a few churches I have seen in Korea that tackle this cultural blindness.

Not too long ago, I was in South Africa. At the end of what I was doing there, I spent some time in a church conference on the edges of Soweto with churches that were black, or colored. That’s their terminology. There you sometimes hear people praying in the name of the Father, the Son, and the ancestors.

Now I suspect that’s not a really big problem in Wheaton. On the other hand, it’s a problem there. There’s a certain cultural blindness to it, for understandable reasons. It still has to be challenged by God’s Most Holy Word, doesn’t it? The question then becomes, “How should the gospel be countercultural in Wheaton?” I have time to mention only one or two things.

Many studies have been done in the last decade or two, for example, about how the new, younger generation coming along is remarkably slow to grow up. Many are DINKs (Double Income, No Kids). They are very slow to settle to anything, very slow to take serious decisions, very slow to actually ask someone to marry them, very slow to make long-term commitments. Always looking over their shoulder because something better could be coming along. Someone better could be coming along. They’re just very slow to take responsibility.

It’s narcissistic. It’s immature. Where will the church emphasize growing up and being adults and pulling your weight? Be countercultural. “This isn’t right!” On the other hand, at the other end, we have a generation of retirees, many with pretty good health. Where is it in the Bible that we’re told once you turn 65 you can abandon all responsibilities and simply spend your time in a motor home visiting children and grandchildren and, if you live long enough, great-grandchildren?

Don’t misunderstand me. I know there’s a time to slow down. I’m getting close! Energy dissipates, and you do have obligations toward children and grandchildren. Yes, I understand all of that. But for many of us coming up to 60 or 65 (if we have enough money, maybe only 55), shouldn’t we be thinking, “How can we use the rest of our lives to the greatest advantage of the gospel?”

Do you have any idea how many mission schools there are overseas that would just love a grandma and grandpa to be there for six months or two years? How many small business efforts and mission efforts there are overseas that would just love a first-class accountant to be on board for two years? Some basic training in Christian management and integrity, quite apart from direct gospel Bible teaching in all kinds of places.

What gives us the right to absorb from the culture this value that puts retirement as the goal of life when we can then sort of just be selfish and have a good excuse for it because the culture says it’s okay? Be countercultural. Think through what the gospel is saying, and live counterculturally for Christ’s sake.

4. Provision of peace in the midst of a turbulent world

Verse 16: “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” What kind of peace does Paul have in mind? It seems pretty comprehensive. “… peace at all times and in every way.”

That means, first of all, peace with God. We stand over against him in our rebellion, in our silly idolatry, in our wretched sin. He makes peace with us. Christ is our peace. He bears our sin in his own body on the tree. He reconciles people who are at enmity with him to himself. Peace with God. You can have all the psychological peace in the world, but if you don’t have peace with God, you don’t have very much.

Then peace also in your own conscience. Peace to be able to live with yourself. Both because you know the only handling of guilt finally is what Christ has achieved for us. Also because you recognize his Spirit has worked within you, and you now want good things you didn’t want at one time. You have peace with yourself.

I don’t know if I’ve ever quoted it here, but I love the old quotation of John Newton (an ex-slave trader, a converted minister) who could say, “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what one day I will be. But I am not what I was. By the grace of God, I am what I am.” Do you see? There was a man who was at peace with himself because he is at peace with God.

Then peace in the family. Peace with brothers and sisters in Christ. Peace in the church. Peace in the light of opposition. Peace when you’re discouraged. Peace when you have cancer. Peace when things are not going right. Peace when you’re not too far away from death yourself. Peace when you’re bereaved, even in the midst of the tears. Peace at all times and in every way.

Who is capable of giving us this? “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.” When Paul refers to the Lord, almost always he is referring to the Lord Jesus. This Lord, who is the Lord of truth. He is the Sovereign Lord, the King of Kings. He is the Lord of life and hope. He is the Lord of suffering. He is the returning monarch at the end of the age, and he is the Lord of peace.

That’s why elsewhere Paul can say, “May the Lord give you great peace in believing.” “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” This Jesus is Jesus alone. He is the Lord of peace. Let us pray.

Lord God, you know all of our hearts. You know which ones are even now struggling with enmity against you, longing for peace with you. Work your way in their lives now in conviction of sin, in opening their minds to see the glory of Christ Jesus and all of his finished work on our behalf on the cross and in his resurrection. Grant that even now some may cry, “I want to be at peace with you. Forgive my sin. I want to be reconciled to you. Forgive me, an enemy.”

Some no doubt are carrying other kinds of burdens. O Lord God, may the Lord of peace give each one peace at all times and in every way, gospel peace with gospel priorities. Not mere self-satisfied narcissism but such gospel priorities that we long to see the gospel extend. We long to follow the examples of disciples who have walked this way before us. We long to be countercultural in the best ways as our lives conform to the gospel of Christ. Lord God, in this frame we ask, give us peace. For Jesus’ sake, amen.