So he talks about the believer's holiness, the believer's love.
Verse 11, the believer's work, verse 11 says,
and that you study to be quiet and to do your own business
and to work with your own hands as we commanded you.
So it's pretty interesting. You know, he gets into their work ethic, okay?
And this is what I love about the Bible.
When it comes to practical advice and counsel and admonishments,
sometimes it's just like, hey, love your brother,
but also don't be lazy, you know what I mean?
Study to be quiet. What a great way to phrase that.
You know what you need to study? It's not end times Bible prophecy.
You know what you need to study?
Not the intricacies of replacement theology.
You should learn how to just shut up when you're working.
Well, that's not very spiritual. Yeah, it is.
And to do your own business. What's another way of saying that?
Mind your own business.
So apparently there's people in this church who are just flapping their gums at work.
They're just kind of wasting time, being a bad testimony at work,
just talking and chatting away and not getting things done,
and the Apostle Paul is saying, hey, you need to study,
you need to get your degree, you need to get your master's
and just learning how to be quiet on the job, okay?
Obviously there's certain jobs out there that require for you to talk a lot,
like for example, my job.
I got to talk for an hour straight, okay?
But there's certain jobs that require for you to physically accomplish a task
where if you talk, you're just going to waste time.
And so he's telling them, just be quiet, learn how to do your own business,
to work with your own hands as we commanded you.
This is something that he's actually taught them in times past,
how to have a good work ethic, okay?
By the way, the Bible tells us in all labor there is profit,
but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury, okay?
Don't be a person on the job that's constantly talking to the employees,
constantly talking to your coworkers, just flapping their gums
and just not getting anything done.
Obviously if your job allows it and it requires for you to communicate with your coworkers
in order to get a task done, that's a different story.
But, you know, a lot of times that's not what it is.
Some people are just idle at their job and they want to waste time.
Don't do that.
He says in verse 12 that you may walk honestly toward them that are without
and that you may have lack of nothing.
So he's saying work honestly.
Don't steal from your boss.
Don't steal money from your boss.
Don't steal hours from your boss.
Don't steal paper clips from your boss.
Don't steal pens from your boss.
Be an honest person, okay?
When it says them that are without, he's referring to without the church,
without the scope of Christianity, people who are not saved.
That's what he's talking about.
And God wants us to live an honest life before the Gentiles,
which the Bible often synonymously refers to unsafe people as, okay?
He wants us to be honest among them, to have a good work ethic before them.
And obviously not all Gentiles and not all unsafe people
are going to like us even in spite of our good work ethic.
They're going to find out that you go to this church
or find out that you have a terrorist as a pastor
and a hate preacher as a pastor and all these things
and then they're just going to hate you no matter what.
But in general, okay, maybe for that and not because you're lazy
and you talk too much, okay?
Let it be for me, okay?
Not for your lack of diligence, all right?