2 Thessalonians 3:11-13 - Never tire of doing good

3:11

Paul gave his warning about idleness not on a whim, but because he had heard reports of their being idle and disruptive people in the church. Some of these people would claim to be busy, even busy in the Lord’s work, but Paul does not stand for any nonsense and knows that they are just busybodies. 

3:12,13

Such people often claim to be super spiritual, when in fact they are at best a nuisance, and at worst a danger to others and themselves. The right “medicine” for such people is not to treat them with any sort of respect for their supposed spirituality, but to tell them to “settle down and earn the food they eat”. Living life in a sensible and worthy manner is a godly trait and one to be encouraged. It is also essential to true spiritual growth. It is also the best medicine for those who live in a dream world. For the rest of us, we “should never tire of doing good”. All this is a command “in the Lord Jesus Christ”.

Ezekiel 12:1-3 - You are living among a rebellious people

12:1,2

This chapter starts with God reminding Ezekiel of the nature of his task. “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people”. As we know, Jesus most commonly referred to Himself as the “Son of man”. I’m not sure that we fully understand why. It is perhaps to reflect both His humanity (“son of man” can simply mean human) and his divinity, with reference to the one like a son of man in Daniel 7:13. Perhaps it is also a reference to Ezekiel, for the term “son of man” occurs 93 times in this book, far more often than in any other book of the Bible. So it could also be that Jesus is referring to the fact that He was “living among a rebellious people”, which is certainly true. Anyway, just a thought.

12:3

So Ezekiel is to do another dramatic demonstration of the defeat of Jerusalem, this time people going into exile. Now remember that Ezekiel was already in exile, so his enactments were for the benefit of the exile. At the same time, Jeremiah was preaching directly to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Why did God have him do this? It is at least partly because the idea that God would not let Jerusalem fall was so deeply ingrained in the minds of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and, despite their already being in exile, would still be ingrained in the minds of the exiles. They would think that something strange had happened to them, something outside of God’s plan. Likewise today people often think that it is impossible for a “God of love to send people to hell”. They needed to know that the fall of Jerusalem and the exile were indeed all part of God’s plan, a plan of judgement and salvation. We too need to understand that God sending people to hell is all too real. And just as the fall of Jerusalem was perfectly just, so God sending people to hell is perfectly just. We do not appreciate the true nature of our sin.

2 Thessalonians 3:9,10 - A model for you to imitate

3:9

Paul would have been perfectly within his rights to seek support from the Thessalonians, but he chose not to do so. This was done so that Paul and his companions might be a model for the Thessalonians to follow. Now elsewhere Paul talks about rewarding people properly, and this must not be used as an excuse for churches not to pay their pastors or other workers properly. This is an example that you or I can choose to follow, and sometimes it will be right to do so. But it is not a model that we must impose upon others.

3:10

It seems that there was a particular problem with laziness or scrounging in Thessalonica. The same issue was mentioned in 1 Thess 4:11,12. This verse is also a warning against having a wrong attitude in social care. We should help the poor, there are countless Biblical commands and exhortations to do so, but we must not create a dependency culture.

Ezekiel 11:18-25 - I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me

11:18-21

The return would not just be a matter of going back to things the way they were. What would be the point of that? Instead they will remove all the “vile images and detestable idols”. Then we get the first of the new heart promises in Ezekiel. “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh”. Coming to Jesus is not just a matter of being forgiven, it is about being transformed, being born again, becoming a new creation. And that new creation is a person who becomes ever more Christlike.

“Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws”. Questions like “can we do what we like and be forgiven”  (one like this being dealt with in Romans 6) demonstrate that the questioner really has not got a clue what the gospel is about. Following God’s ways is the best thing we can do, it is the only way to be truly alive. “Then they will be my people and I will be their God”. This is the goal of the whole of the Bible. But there is also a severe warning. Those whose hearts remain devoted to idols will “bring down on their own heads what they have done”.

11:22-25

Having given Ezekiel this message the glory of the Lord departs the temple, and the Spirit takes Ezekiel back to Babylon. The vision then leaves Ezekiel, and he tells the exiles all that the Lord had shown him. The exiles needed to understand what was going on and what te lord’s heart and plans were.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-8 - We were not idle

3:6

Paul now turns to very practical advice and concerns. The practical and the spiritual go together, it is only us who tend to separate the two. In this verse is a warning against idleness and disruptiveness. This command is given “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”, it is a very solemn command, not a mew suggestion. And the command is to keep away from the idle and disruptive believers. “But that’s unloving” some might object, there is a time to be “unloving”. These people are not living according to the truth. But it is hard to do this. As well as being accused of being unloving by others, we will feel opposition from within ourselves as well.

3:7,8

Paul then cites the example of himself and his co-workers when they were with the Thessalonians. They were not idle in any way, but quite the opposite. They did not take food from anyone without paying for it, and worked hard to provide for themselves without being a burden upon the Thessalonians.

Ezekiel 11:14-17 - I will gather you from the nations

11:14,15

There is probably a section heading here in your Bible, but it is good to remember that this comes in response to Ezekiel’s desperate plea in 11:13. “Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel?” To which the answer is a resounding no! We need to understand that judgement and salvation go together with God. Where there is a judgement plan there is also a salvation plan. There is another aspect that we should also get a hold of: there are many who suffer under judgement. We can cope with God forgiving everyone, we can cope  (intellectually) with God punishing everyone. But the Biblical reality, painted again and again, is of judgement and salvation going together. Some suffer judgement, some receive salvation. We find it very difficult to “get our heads round this” (I hate that phrase, but it will do for now!), yet we need to do so for it is the Biblical message. 

To add to Ezekiel’s woes from the vision he has just experienced, the people of Jerusalem thought the exiles were a write-off. The thinking was that since the exiles were far from Jerusalem, they were far from God’s plans or concern. Nothing could be further from the truth.

11:16,17

So God now begins to correct the wrong thinking that was going around, and that was affecting Ezekiel. And these words are highly relevant to the exiles. Yes, God had sent them far away, and this was because of their sin, but He was a sanctuary for them in the far away land. “For a little while” is there because this exile, while being a stepping stone in God’s plan, is not a permanent state of affairs. The longer term plan is for Him to gather them back. The land of Israel would be given back to the exiles.

2 Thessalonians 3:4,5 - May the Lord direct your hearts

3:4

Paul is praying for them not because he thinks they are failing in anyway, but so that they will be strengthened all the more. All of us are totally dependent upon God for our strength. A great danger is that when we do things well because of the grace of God at work in our lives, we start to think that it is because of our own goodness. We then start to rely upon ourselves rather than God. God warned the Israelites not to think they had been given the Promised Land because of any intrinsic merit of their own (Deut 9:4).

3:5

Paul finishes this prayer by asking that the Lord will direct their hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. God’s love for us is to be the foundation of our lives, it is to be the underlying thought that guides us and forms our worldview. We are also to have perseverance, Christ’s perseverance. Christ faced many obstacles, but He overcame them all, and kept going. In the Revelation letters the reward is for those who overcome. Facing opposition and difficulties is normal.