Daily Devotional for Saturday, May 25

The Rules for Rebuking

“And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother,” 2 Thessalonians 3:14, 15.

In 1874, Mary Mapes Dodge, editor of the children’s publication, St. Nicholas Magazine, penned a childhood favorite. Her mother’s moralistic story encouraged Mary and her siblings to do their fair share. We probably all know her story of “The Little Red Hen.” A hard-working hen finds a wheat seed and learns it can become bread. She calls barnyard friends—a pig, a rat and a cat—to help her plant the seed, then cut and thresh the wheat, carry it to the mill for grinding and finally make bread. The lazy three repeatedly refused to help. At the end, to teach them a lesson, she asked for help again, but this time, it was to eat the delicious bread. Now the three were eager to take part! However, she responded, “No you will not.”

Some of the Thessalonians were being idle and letting others do all the work. Paul and the team had already addressed this in their first letter: “We beseech you, brethren…to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you” (1 Thessalonians 4:10, 11). Later they gave stronger commands regarding those brothers. The first is for the offending, lazy brethren. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, get to work! They were to work in quiet and eat only what their own hands provided.

The second command was for the believers around them. If those brothers continued their idleness and disobeyed this command, the believers were to note them and withdraw fellowship. The hope was that this shaming would result in repentance. In such perilous times, the church could not contend with this tension within.

THOUGHT
“But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden” (Galatians 6:4, 5).

Kelli Reynolds