Read: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12
Christ commands us to be generous and charitable, particularly toward our brothers and sisters in Christ (Rom. 12:13; Gal. 6:10). The Macedonian believers have left us a wonderful example of cheerfully giving, even out of their own poverty (2 Cor. 8:1-5).
This heart of charity is not a burden, but an overflow of the love that we have for Christ and for our fellow saints (John 13:34). It is good for Christians, when we hear of a fellow saint in need, to sense a desire to help them.
This is especially true when we hear of a fellow member in our local congregation who is in need. The charity and generosity of the saints is a wonderful testimony to the world of a love for Christ, and it should be encouraged in every local body.
Nevertheless, even though we should have an impulse of generosity toward our spiritual siblings, we cannot let our generosity become foolish.
Idleness in Thessalonica
Besides a faulty thinking about Christ’s return, one of the other big issues that was plaguing the Thessalonian church was the sin of idleness in some of its members. This issue is so pervasive that Paul addresses it in both of his letters to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5:14; 2 Thess. 3:6-12).
Although these Christians were able-bodied and had the ability to work and earn their own living, some in the congregation were refusing to work and relied merely on the charity of other members. Whatever the reason for their idleness, whether it was a result of their deficient thinking about Christ’s return or they were just basic laziness (or a combination of the two), the unproductive members of the church were taking advantage of the generosity and love of the other members.
In doing so, they had become a burden on the rest of the saints and drifting into other sin like gossip because they weren’t doing anything useful with their time.
Notice however, to whom our passage is directed.
While the idle members surely would have heard and felt the rebuke of this passage, Paul did not write these instructions to them. Rather, Paul commands the diligent, generous saints concerning how they should interact with and treat their lazy members. Paul does not condemn their generosity, but he does command them to stop being generous with those who had been refusing to work. He tells the Thessalonians to even keep away from those brothers and tells them not to continue feeding them.
Where’s the Love?
Why does he do this? Doesn’t Paul have compassion for these saints who do not have money to buy their own food, even though it’s a self-inflicted hunger and poverty? It’s precisely because Paul loves the idle saints, as well as the hardworking saints, that he instructs the generous parties to cut off their charity toward the idle members.
While the charitable saints did not intend for this, their charity toward their idle members was enabling the sin of idleness and promoting further sins (like being busybodies). Their charity was actually harming those they were intending to help.
Rather than bread or financial support, what the idle members needed was to be refused free handouts and to be told to get a job (v. 10). It is good to have a generous heart and to instinctively want to seek ways in which you can help those who are struggling.
It is not good, however, to waste the resources that God has given you by using them foolishly. This applies not just individually, but also organizationally as well.
Wise Giving
Professing Christians are the most charitable of people, and that’s the way it should be. We give a lot to different charities and organizations around the world. But rather than just blindly giving to every person that asks us for money, we should be diligent and research exactly what we’re giving to, how much of our giving actually reaches the people that organization intends to help, and what kind of positive change has actually been effected by the organization over the course of its existence, especially if it’s one that has been around for some time.
Let us give generously and seek to help our brothers and sisters in need but let us also make sure that our generosity isn’t actually harming those we’re intending to help with it.
