Work First, Eat Later

For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12).

Yes, I’ve been afforded with a lot of free time these days. With no exams at hand, I’ve been on holiday since 30th September, until 27th December. This kind of privilege can only be enjoyed by students pursuing a degree in Education, upon completion of their 10-week teaching practice!

Even though I’m not tied down by academic obligations, my time still ends up being filled, in one way or another. So, am I very free nowadays? My answer is, yes and no.

I’ve been working on my preparations to teach tuition at a tuition center. The work of writing notes and compiling a question bank requires more commitment than I anticipated. But as the Malay saying goes, “berakit-rakit ke hulu, berenang-renang ke tepian; bersakit-sakit dahulu, bersenang-senang kemudian.” The work of preparing the material is tedious indeed. But after I’m done with preparations, everything will be smooth sailing when tuition classes start in December. With the transition of Science and Mathematics into the English medium of instruction, there’s no better time to make a start into the tuition business than now. Besides the long-term benefits it may bring in the future, I can really do with an immediate source of income. Need it for the autonomy.

I’ve found myself a small group of kids to teach swimming as well. It’s quite a lucrative job, this “business” of teaching. Not only is it lucrative financially. It’s an enjoyable thing to do, especially when you find satisfaction in teaching people skills and imparting knowledge that can benefit them for life.

While I’m enjoying the idea of the prospects that are before me, I am reminded about Paul’s words to the Thessalonian church about work. It’s so true that being jobless and not having any academic pursuit at the same time may give you too much free time for your own good. With nothing better to do, it’s so easy to become “busybodies”, minding other people’s business not for their betterment, and neither for our own. But when there is work for us to do with our own hands, we won’t have time to behave in a “disorderly manner”. How true! With something to do, I find that I don’t really have time to clown around these days! Rightfully said for everyone’s own good, Paul exhorts that we should “work in quietness”, mind our own business, and “eat (our) own bread” when we reap the rewards of our work.

However, minding our own business does not mean we mind only our own business, without giving any room for the Lord’s business. Taken to one extreme, minding our own business may give rise to a lifestyle where we live only for ourselves, without anyone else or anything else in the picture.

However, the recipients of Paul’s epistle were living in the other extreme. Some people did not see the point of working at all, since they were being expectant of the Lord’s second coming, using a form of spirituality to hide a lifestyle of irresponsibility. Therefore, Paul instructed them to work and keep busy while waiting for the Lord’s return, and not just coast around.

We live in a point in time where we struggle between the possibility of Christ’s immediate return, and the impossibility of predicting that moment. It’s not easy to live out the time that we have between our current existence until the Lord comes again. In the midst of the enjoyments and disparities of life, a good way to dispense the time that we have is to live with an end in mind – that we our appointment with Christ is yet to be due.

Paul The Mother, Paul The Father

But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children (1 Thessalonians 2:7).

Surprise, surprise! Paul has a motherly side! As a mother would care for his children, such was Paul’s care for the Thessalonian church. Paul “affectionately longs” (1 Thessalonians 2:8) for the church. Paul exhibited a mother’s nurturing character by bringing up the church in the gospel. He showed a tinge of a mother’s personal touch by sharing not only the gospel, but also his own personal life intimately because the church “had become dear” (1 Thessalonians 2:8) to him. Also, he showed a mother’s sacrificial attitude when he would rather labor “night and day” (1 Thessalonians 2:9), so he would not be a financial burden to the church.

Not only did Paul exhibit a motherly nature. He also had a fatherly side to him.

As you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children (1 Thessalonians 2:11).

Typical of a father’s role, Paul behaved “devoutly and justly and blamelessly” (1 Thessaolonians 2:10) as an exemplary and respectable father figure to the Thessalonian church. He also dished out fatherly discipline by exhorting, comforting, and charging the church as his own children to “walk worthy of God who calls (them) into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12). Just as any father would want his children to walk worthily so that they would bring pride and honor to the family name, not shame and contempt, Paul longed for the very same thing for the children of God in relation to God the Father.

Indeed, Paul had proven himself to be one of the “apostles of Christ” (1 Thessalonians 2:6) who “have been approved by God” (1 Thessalonians 2:4). He played both sides of parenting for the church – the maternal role, and the paternal role as well. Not only did Paul strike a good balance in the way he took care of the church. He also painted for us a good model for parenting in our own households.

If only Paul also played the role of the grandfather and the grandmother. Oh, how he would have pampered us!

“The role of grandparents is to pamper the grandchildren. The rest is the parents’ job” – A grandparent of two toddlers.