1Thessalonians 4:9-12 (Pt. 2) 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.

            In today’s devotion we continue looking at the Holy Spirit’s biblical instruction as to how Christians should exert themselves in their daily walk.  In the last writing we saw His first direction, that we are to aspire to lead a quiet life.  Hopefully we all find that to be a desirable achievement because the next two are likely to be a bit more involved.

            God’s next instruction to us is that we “mind [our] own business.”  Has anyone ever told you that before?  Well, now God is telling us.  The literal translation is that we all practice as a life habit “your own.”  Only one Greek word has been translated “your own business,” and it means literally “one’s own.”  It can apply to anything as it is in several places in the New Testament, but “business” is a good application of it if we understand “business” in the right way.  In this context I think it means all the essential business of one’s personal life.  Rightly considered, I think we could all agree that carefully practicing our own individual life’s responsibilities as God wants us to would be enough to keep us too occupied to try and practice that of someone else.

            Seen from God’s point of view, it is the business of every child of His to live a life of personal holiness that brings glory to Him.  That means that we need to focus constantly on the details of every aspect of our lives.  It would require such fixed attention that we would have no room or time for intruding into the lives of others.  Paul was inspired to write this because in Thessalonica there were busybodies who were always gossiping about the lives of other people.  How we wish that this sin had been restricted to that city in that era, but, alas, we all know that is not the case.  Gossip, not baseball, is the great American pastime.  Gossip is an indication that someone has ceased to focus on their own life and have begun to pay too much attention to that of another.  If we find that concentrating on our own lifestyle instead of minding someone else’s takes too much pleasure out of life, we really need to examine well how we are living.

            Obeying this part of God’s instruction does not prevent us from giving advice or counsel to a brother or sister in Christ when asked, but the key here is “when asked.”  If someone is struggling with a problem in life and asks for our assistance we are free to apply godly wisdom and Christ-like love in trying to help them through their problem.  God has instructed us to do such things, making this a part of our business.