1Thessalonians 4:9-12 (Pt. 1) But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

            “Paul, why are you still harping on that ‘love one another’ theme?  You just wrote about it at the end of chapter 3, and we wrote about it just two days ago!”

            “I keep coming back to that because we can never say too much about it.  Besides, repetition is a good teacher.  Beyond that, this time the Holy Spirit has inspired me to tell all believers of all ages to “increase more and more” in brotherly love (vs. 10).  So there!  If you need to increase in it maybe we need to increase our instructions about it.”

            “Oh, OK!  Why didn’t you just say so?”

            “I just did!”

            So, for readers of this little Bible lesson, remember that two days ago we wrote that we can never love one another too much.  We are to abound and super-abound in love for all fellow saints of God.  In the passage for today God the Holy Spirit had Paul raise the bar even higher by telling us that after we have abounded and super-abounded we are then to “increase more and more.”  Now, with that thought firmly established in our minds and with the fact that we can never over do it when it comes to loving one another permanently entrenched in our hearts, let’s move on and see what else the grand old apostle wrote to help us live successfully as children of the Living God.

            In the beginning of vs. 11 Paul writes that we are to “aspire.”  This comes from a Greek compound verb that has to do with exerting oneself in pursuit of honor.  It is used only two other times in the New Testament.  The New King James Version translates it as making something one’s aim in Romans 15:20 and 2Corinthians 5:9; the original KJV translates it as “labor” and “strive” respectfully.  It tells us that what follows is something that may not come easy but that it will be worthwhile.  Even from our earthly experiences we know that not much that is worth winning ever comes easy.

            The question now arises, “Does this instruction to exert ourselves apply only to “lead a quiet life,” or does it refer to all the other instructions that follow.  Some of my favorite commentators, Baptist Greek authority A.T. Robertson included, take it that “strive” applies to each of the succeeding commands.  Based on other Scriptures I think this is the best way to understand this passage.

            Agreeing on that, we now look at what things are we to exert ourselves in doing.  The first one is simple and yet so complex.  We are to exert ourselves “to lead a quiet life.”  It almost sounds self-contradicting, doesn’t it?  How are we to lead a quiet life while striving to accomplish something important?  We need to dig a little deeper into the context in which Paul was writing in order to get the answer.

            While the church in Thessalonica was exemplary in many ways it also had its problems.  There seem to have been some idle busybodies and gossips in the congregation who stirred up a good deal of trouble.  (We will see other allusions to this as we continue digging through both Paul’s letters to them.)  In light of that fact it seems that leading “a quiet life” would have to do specifically with bridling our tongues (Psalm 39:1, James 1:26).  Anyone who has ever tried to control an untamed horse with only a bridle will be able to relate to the idea of exerting one’s self in this regard.  It takes effort, strong, intentional, constant effort to keep the tongue in check and to lead a quiet life.  Because the tongue is such a dangerous thing capable of doing serious harm and hurt, it is necessary that we put forth whatever effort is required to keep it under control.  We will see very soon that the benefits of doing so, both to others and to our own lives, is something to be desired and pursued.