Marsha's Musings: Workers & Busybodies

My Quiet Time

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. (2 Thessalonians 3:6-12 ESV)

This passage deals with the importance of work in the Christian's life.  We are commanded to work and earn our own living in the world and not be idle, habitually eating bread that we did not pay for.

There is another reason for us to work.  So that we would not become busybodies.  What is a busybody? Webster defines busybody as follows:

• : an officious or inquisitive person

It is a person who goes around prying into other people's lives looking for some juicy tidbit to either gossip about or to criticize, rebuke or correct them for.

It is possible for a Christian to be a hard worker, earning his/her own way in the world and still be a busybody.  I have seen it happen and it isn't always older women who are busybodies.  I've seen teenage boys be busy bodies.

So the lesson here is to realize that all of us, young and old, male or female can be guilty of being busybodies even when we hold full time jobs!

Paul's point here is the welfare mentality where a person is lazy, looks for handouts and spends his/her time prying into other people's business or getting into trouble by being idle and not keeping their minds occupied.

How am I doing in this area?  Do I pry into people's lives?  Do I gossip about others?  Am I a busybody or do I work and occupy my mind with other things?  

Hard questions when you think about Facebook.  So many people put out so many details of their lives on Facebook that it is easy to spend a lot of time being a busybody there.