The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, “Aspire to live quietly, mind your affairs, and work with your hands.” In other words, mind your business. Provide for your family.
Working to provide for our families is one of the things that make us human. God created the heavens and the earth, separated the night from the day, the dry land from the water, and then put us to work. He put the first human beings in the garden to till it and keep it. God’s plan is that we would work to provide for our families.
If you are currently making a living for yourself and the people who depend upon you, congratulations. You are doing the right thing. However, for most of us, at some point in our life, providing for our family is difficult. Sometimes jobs are hard to find. Sometimes we don’t get paid enough to meet the bills. When that happens, we need to do something constructive about it. Complaining about economic injustice is not going put food on the table this week. In such situations we need to do something to make ourselves more marketable, for the sake of our families.
The Thessalonians lived in eager expectation that Jesus was going to return at any time. If Jesus returned tomorrow, we couldn’t do better than him finding us at work, doing our jobs in such a way as to glorify God and provide for our families.
In our sermon this Sunday we will continue our series, “Financial Freedom for Families,” by talking about minding our business.