Love Enough to be Tough

5/19/2016

2 Thessalonians 3.10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” – St. Paul

I find it interesting, but not hard to understand, that Paul was led by the Spirit of God to deal with such practical issues with the people for whom he cared. In my Bible (I’m using the NIV this morning) this passage of Scripture is subtitled: Warnings against idleness. Perhaps there was some ‘idle-atry’ issues in Thessalonica.

Not only do some have a penchant for being distracted and unmotivated, their penchant is infectious. The problem when nothing gets done: hunger won’t go away. Nowadays, we just move back in with mom and dad, shack up with friends, or hit up DHS for some food-stamps. Paul said to beware of such stuff; God’s people are called to a higher calling.

The example of Scripture is this: love enough to be tough. Someone has to set the example, and people need to be taught. Hunger and discipline are both great teachers; but so is humiliation. Namby-pamby has no place in God’s church. We can make all the excuses we want, but at the end of it, we’ve been created for so much more and there is no substitute for discipline and strong courageous love.

Paul taught the Thessalonians to be tough on each other, and today, we need that as well. A sense of entitlement does not fit in Kingdom living or, thinking. Look at what that has done in the world… There is nothing wrong with caring for the poor and disadvantaged, but somebody somewhere, somehow sometime has to be a producer of some kind – right? If it isn’t God’s people, then who?

We’re to be tough on each other for this one reason: the Bible tells us so. It’s not to be mean to one another, but we all have a fallenness that will lead us all to ruin if we’re not careful, so that’s why Paul said: Lookit man, if you ain’t gonna work – you ain’t gonna eat. Love is tough enough to get the weak to move – even if it makes them feel bad for a while.

True love throws itself under the bus for the sake of another. If that is so, it’s only reasonable to ask that everyone pitch in and participate. Or is it just the clergy that do that? A friend of mine posted last night: “Living the Christian life isn’t an individual competition, it’s a team sport.” (Nadia Bolz-Weber) Living the Christian life is summoning the courage to tell each other: Get off your lazy ass and help! Love is: humiliating a loved one to keep them from destruction.

O Lord! May we be courageous and loving. May we use toughness to dispel destruction. May we learn that tough times do call for tough tactics, and no one ever got hurt by being humiliated into doing what is right and expected. Help us Lord. Help me – Amen.