The Unglamorous Christian Life
Bob Yandian
Do you remember the excitement you felt when you were first born again? The Holy Spirit seemed so close, and it felt as if Jesus was standing right beside you. Then, after a few years, you found yourself making breakfast, sending your children to school, going to the office, and doing the ordinary things that life requires. You began to wonder, where did that feeling go?
Feelings come and feelings go. The excitement of a new experience may be temporary, but God has something for us that will last forever. He wants us to grow in His Word and become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. A disciple studies God’s Word, applies it, and continues in it. The revelation of the Word of God brings stability into our lives, even when the Christian life no longer seems glamorous.
Living for God Today
Paul often began his epistles with spiritual truth and ended them with practical truth. He taught what Jesus accomplished in the past, including His death on the cross and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. He also taught about future events, including the coming of Jesus Christ. We rejoice in what Jesus has already done, and we look forward with hope to what He will do, but we cannot live continually in the past or the future. There is also a present day Christianity.
Present day Christianity is lived while you are raising children, working at the office, preparing meals, and taking care of responsibilities around the house. Sinners have jobs, children, and meals too, but the believer has something they do not have. We have the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit lives within us. An ordinary routine can become a place of fellowship with God.
Second Thessalonians chapter 3 deals with this everyday Christian life. Paul had taught the Thessalonians about their past and their future. They had turned from idols and demons to serve the living God, and they had learned about the rapture of the Church. Yet they still had to live in the time between their conversion and the return of Jesus. That is the same period in which we live today.
God never intended for this part of the Christian life to become boring. If it seems boring, that is often an indication that we should spend more time studying His Word. What replaces our early feelings is the revelation of the Word of God. We see something in Scripture and say, “That is wonderful. I need to apply that to my life.” This revelation brings freshness into every day.
Becoming a Disciple
Second Thessalonians 3:4 says, “And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you.” Paul’s confidence concerning the Thessalonians was in the Lord. We should never place our full confidence in people, because even Christians can disappoint us. When our confidence is in the Lord, people may let us down, but we still have a foundation. Our trust in people must rest upon our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Paul had confidence in the Thessalonians because they had received his teaching and applied it. They were not hearers of the Word only, they were doers. What they heard in the congregation, they used in their everyday lives and as they served in the church. What they received, they wanted to give to others.
Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.” God is not looking for converts only, He is looking for disciples. A convert is excited about the things of God, but a disciple continues in the Word, becomes established, and shares it with others. A disciple has spent enough time in the Word to remain steady when someone presents a contradictory idea.
Verse 5 says, “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.” Through the Word we have learned, the Holy Spirit directs our hearts into love and rest as we apply God’s promises to each situation. As we use His promises and depend upon the Holy Spirit, we increase in love. As we come through the problems of life, we grow in patience and rest. These blessings are available, but we must receive and use them in our daily lives.
Maintaining Godly Standards
Verse 6 says, “But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.” Not everyone who is a Christian is serving the Lord. Some believers struggle because of immaturity and sincerely want to overcome. Those people need Christian friends who will stand with them and help them grow. Others deliberately follow the world and have no desire to change.
Withdrawing from a disorderly believer does not mean that we hate the person or refuse ever to speak to them again. We still love them because they are part of the body of Christ, but we do not have intimate fellowship with them as before. Love is not merely an emotional hug or handshake. Love is freedom from bitterness, jealousy, hatred, and strife. We can walk in love while refusing to follow someone down a path that is contrary to God’s Word.
This separation is for their benefit as well as ours. Sin has consequences. Our stable life can help bring conviction to someone who has wandered away. If they repent and return to fellowship with the Lord, we should welcome them back. Our fellowship revolves around a spiritual life with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believers must also use wisdom in business and spiritual relationships. We are not to enter into close partnership with dishonest or corrupt people, even if they call themselves Christians. Honesty should be found in every part of our lives. We are also to separate ourselves from false religion and apostasy, especially when someone moves away from the truth that salvation is in Jesus Christ.
An Example of Christian Responsibility
Verse 7 says, “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you.” Paul’s natural life showed the Thessalonians how a mature Christian should behave. Being a Christian does not excuse us from being decent toward believers and unbelievers, working for a living, caring for our families, and conducting ourselves properly. Being free does not make us lawless.
Paul did not preach one thing and live another. There was not one standard for Christians in the congregation and another for preachers in the pulpit. When Paul came to Thessalonica, he worked making tents because he did not want the people to think they had to pay to receive the gospel. Later they learned that giving was sowing toward the future so someone else could hear the gospel.
Paul had the authority to receive support, but he chose to make himself an example. Authority does not give us the right to demand our way over the rights of others. When authority is joined with respect, our lives become examples that others can follow.
Verse 10 says, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” Some Thessalonians had received wrong teaching about the return of Jesus and had quit their jobs to wait for the rapture. When Jesus did not come immediately, they still refused to work and expected the church and the community to support them. This brought reproach upon the gospel.
Paul was not speaking about people who could not work or genuinely needed help. Christians should help those in need. He was speaking about people who would not work, yet tried to appear spiritual while living from the labor of others. Believers are to work, provide for their families, and have something to give. Finances can also bless others and help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Verse 11 says that those who refused to work had become busybodies. When people are not busy with their own business, they begin sticking their noses into someone else’s business. They may put great effort into getting others to provide for them when they could put that same effort into legitimate work. Paul commanded and encouraged them to work in quietness and eat their own bread.
Finding Freshness in Routine
Life needs routine. God built routine into life, and within that routine we can insert the Word of God. A job demands discipline, and routine is the basis for growth and maturity. Routine also provides opportunities. A lunch hour can become a time to study the Bible, and in some workplaces it may even become an opportunity for a Bible study where people hear the gospel.
Verse 13 says, “But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good.” We can become tired even while doing what is right. Going to church, working, feeding our families, and fulfilling our responsibilities are all good, but if we become caught up in the works of life without spending time with God, weariness will eventually come. We need a daily time to study the Word, take notes, pray, and meditate so that revelation can come.
Everything in life can become routine, including church. Ushering, teaching, greeting, singing on the praise team, and other responsibilities can lose their freshness when separated from fellowship with God. His Word and presence bring freshness into life. Whatever job you have is your full time Christian service, and you are to perform it as a royal priest in the kingdom of God. This lifts an ordinary job into an area of nobility and enjoyment.
Praying in the Spirit is another way to fellowship with God in the midst of routine. You can pray in the Spirit while driving, working, walking, or doing ordinary tasks. It builds you up and prepares you for future revelation from God. What looks dull to someone else can become a wonderful opportunity to get alone with God, meditate on His promises, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
The Christian life is often a matter of setting your pace and continuing one step at a time. We may want to reach our destination quickly, but God’s plan can take years to unfold. The tortoise won the race because he set his pace and stayed with it. In the same way, the believer who keeps trusting God and walking in His Word will finish the race. Obstacles may come, and some days may appear to take us backward, but the Lord has promised to deliver us.
Well doing is the daily Christian life moving toward maturity. It may appear unglamorous when compared with the excitement of our first days as believers, but this is where faithfulness is developed. One day the Lord will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That faithfulness does not begin when we arrive in heaven. It begins here, in the routines of everyday life, as we continue in the Word, fellowship with the Holy Spirit, fulfill our responsibilities, and take one steady step after another with God.
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