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The Apostle Paul told the Timothy that elders of the Church should be paid, especially those who preach and teach. Indeed, close reading of that passage shows that Paul felt pastors should be paid double the normal salary. “Workmen,” he said, “are worthy to be hired.”

On the other hand, Paul valued his churches so much that it seems he never took payment. Instead, he earned his keep across the Mediterranean and Europe by working as a tent maker, a skill he had learned as a boy in Tarsus.

As we continue to look at 1 Thessalonians 4, we see that Paul links work – specifically working with one’s hands – to living a sanctified life. Work, in this passage, is also closely connected to living a quiet life.

The question is: why? Why does Paul link sanctification, which is an act of the Holy Spirit, to work, which is commonly considered an act of our own strength?

Here’s the thing, sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit that rids the believe of the carnal (sinful) nature and replaces it with the nature of Christ). In return, we are so full of the love of God that we want God to be in control of every aspect of our lives. We want Him to clean the muck out of even the darkest corners and replace it with the light of His love. As a result, we even give Him our work, our labor, our jobs.

Those of us who accept Jesus as our Savior but never make Him Lord of our lives… those of us who ask Him to save us but never let him have dominion over our hearts and minds… those of us who are saved, but never allow His Holy Spirit to fill us with His love, will find that we soon burn out, soon wear out, and soon return to our old habits and old ways.

By the way, I have not forgotten about the part of the verse that reads, “Mind your own business.” Well look at that, and the connection between work and peace later.

According to Apostle Paul in Thessalonians chapter 4, if we have been sanctified, then we will turn away from sexual immorality, love one another more and more, find peace and quiet in our lives, mind our own business, and earn our keep.

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In an earlier devotion on Christian Holiness Daily, we learned that it is God’s will that we be sanctified, or filled with the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:3). After Paul proclaims this to his readers, he expounds on what is expected out of those whom Christ sanctifies.

• Abstain from sexual immorality
• Love one another
• In verse 11 of that same chapter, he says that we are to live a quiet life. What does Paul mean, though, when he uses the word quiet?
• Paul’s life seemed to be anything but quiet. He traveled from town-to-town preaching first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, bringing a new message – and one that few wanted to accept – and stirred up so much trouble that he found himself often in jail, stoned and left for dead, beaten, and eventually martyred. Ask and the definition of quiet life, I doubt any of the items on that list are mentioned.
• When I think of a quiet life, I think of a cabin in the woods, off grid, and a room full of books.
• Others may think of a sailboat on a calm sea, or a fishing boat on a still lake. Some might picture a horseback ride or a cross-country trip on a Harley. Though peaceful, I doubt any of those images are what Paul had in mind when he wrote of the quiet life. Paul’s idea of quiet can be determined from his other epistles.

• The first clue that we find about Paul’s definition of quiet is Romans 12:18, where he gives similar advise:

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. – ESV

Peace and quiet are synonymous. In this passage Paul ads a qualifying clause, If possible…

In Paul’s life, peace and quiet wasn’t always possible, for it wasn’t always up to him whether he lived at peace.

• Galatians 5:22 tells us the same thing that Paul tells us here in 1 Thessalonians 4, but it is more succinct: the fruit of the Spirit is peace.
• In Philippians 4:7, he urges us to allow our hearts to be guided by the peace that comes through the Holy Spirit.
• In Romans 14:19, he urges us to make every effort to bring peace into our lives.
• As with every aspect of sanctification, living in peace or living a quiet life is only possible if we allow the Holy Spirit to rule (take charge) in our lives daily.
• If He is not the King of our hearts, then the best that we can hope for is brief calm often followed by a ferocious storm.
• If we allow the Holy Spirit to reign, then we too can say (like Paul),

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

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In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul speaks to Christians – those who have believed on and followed in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. He tells them they need to be sanctified. They need to live a holy life. He emphasizes that they should turn away from sexual immorality. Today, we see that he encourages them to love one another (and others) more and more.

You see, love is what sets Christians apart from the rest of the world. For mortal man, it may be difficult to love someone outside our immediate family (sometimes, it is not easy to love those within our immediate family). For Christians, love – even love for others and love for our enemies – should come as natural as love for our own children.

If loving others does not come natural, then you should prayerfully and persistently seek sanctification. Ask God to rid you of worldly love, lust, selfishness, pride, and hatred, and fill you with His Holy Spirit. He will. He will perfect His love within your life. When one is filled with the Holy Spirit, one is surprised by love… a deeper love than you thought possible.

We seem to be living near the end of days and Satan has begun one final offensive in the battle against the saints of God. As a result, many Christians have ducked for cover, and are not reaching out to others in love as they should; instead many are looking out only for themselves and their closest loved ones.

We must resist fear. We must stand up to evil and call it by name. We must look evil in the eye and expel it in the name of Jesus. And we must do it all in love.

Remember, Christ sacrificed His life for the sins of the world, not just for you and me (and not just those who agree with our viewpoint). That person that we think is so evil… that one who is causing so many problems in the world…he or she may be the next Saul who finds Christ on the road to Damascus and becomes the next Apostle Paul.

We must love our enemies. Pray for those who threaten us, abuse us, and persecute us. Remember, they, too, need to know God and His love.

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An old story circulates throughout Southeast Kansas about a family that lived on the frontier in the days immediately after the Civil War. The family, named Bender, were infamous. They lived on a major trail that connected the Frontier to Indian Territory and took in boarders, some of which they robbed and murdered. When exposed, they slipped out of Kansas and onto Indian lands without ever getting caught. Their misdeeds were so notorious that they were mentioned in a novel of Rose Wilder Lane.

Father Paul Ponziglione, a Jesuit missionary, once encountered that family at their inn. The Benders were hospitable, offered food and a place to lay his head at a reasonable price. The weather was turning, and a storm threatened from the horizon. Thunder rolled across the sky, sounding like a barrel rolling off a moving wagon. The night promised to be frightful. At first, he agreed, for home was a day’s journey away. As the storm brewed, a voice whispered in his heart: “Leave this place. It is not safe.”

Embarrassed, the priest made his apologies and steered his covered wagon with its team of oxen up the road. An hour or so later, he made his way off the road and into a secluded grove, out of sight of the Bender family. Later, when recounting this story for a historian, he testified that he knew the voice he heard was the voice of God.

It is not always easy to hear the voice of God, especially in the midst of a storm, but it is possible if we train our hearts to listen. We read of a storm in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4. Jesus and His disciples were on the sea of Galilee when a storm blew in. Some of the disciples were professional fishermen, from a long line of fishermen, and they were scared for their lives. The shallow-drafted, flat-bottom boat was nearly swamped. They cried out to Jesus, who was sleeping near the stern. With the words, “Peace, be still,” he calmed the stormy sea.

God does not always calm the storm when we cry out. Sometimes, he wishes to speak to us through the storm, as he did to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-13. God’s voice is often heard in the midst of a storm. In my own life, I often hear him best when I have taken refuge from a storm, holed-up in a shelter of my own making, on a sea with fishermen who are in uncharted waters, or flat on my back, with nowhere else to turn but to the heavens. I cry out in desperation to God, “Please, Father, calm the storm before I am drowned.”

In the midst of every storm, without fail I hear my Savior speaking, “Peace be still.” In. Every. Single. Storm. I hear His precious voice.

Sometimes He says them to the storm. Other times, He says them to me.

“Steve, peace… Be still,” he says. Upon hearing His words, I no longer worry about the storm that rages around me.

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Sheltered in the Arms of God

So let the storms rage high
The dark clouds rise
They don’t worry me
For I’m sheltered safe within the arms of God

He walks with me
And naught of earth shall harm me
For I’m sheltered in the arms of God

-Jimmie Davis and Dottie Rambo

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