Thursday after the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 12, 2024 by under
Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 (NKJV)
3:6 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. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, 9 not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.
13 But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good.
Devotion
In the Gospel reading from this past Sunday, our Lord Jesus tells the disciples in the Sermon on the Mount that they should not worry about food or clothing. The heavenly Father knows that we have need of these things, and He well provides them. He knows our need even before we ask Him in prayer. Our Lord Jesus points to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. They grow and prosper without the need for worry.
St. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Church at Thessalonica takes this instruction a step further. There is a difference between not worrying and laziness. Some had apparently adopted the notion that idleness was okay. They thought one could just sit back and do nothing, and things would be provided. St. Paul uses the example of his own behavior. When he was with them he worked, and he made the rule that whoever did not work did not eat. The birds of the air are the same. The Lord provides, but they must go out and find the food themselves. Going about one’s daily responsibilities is not worry, it is fulfilling one’s vocation. Obsessing about the acquisition of things is worry, and should be avoided, for the Lord provides all that we need to support this body and life.
Collect: O Lord, we beseech Thee, let Thy continual pity cleanse and defend Thy Church; and because it cannot continue in safety without Thy succor, preserve it evermore by Thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
