Idle believer

For some odd reason I have been attached to 1 and 2 Thessalonians. This morning as I was working my way through 2 Thessalonians I stopped at chapter 3:6.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teachings you received from us.

In this day and age I overly hear the command to "love" one another. But I rarely hear anything about correction or confronting people. Don't take my words incorrectly and think that I don't believe that loving other people is unimportant. I realize that yes, we are to love one another but there is so much that comes with loving people. 

If I love someone, I should be willing to be honest with them. As a parent, I love my child and discipline him to follow instruction. As a friend, I love that person but also want to call them out if they are doing something wrong. Not in the sense of, "Man you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself." But do it in a loving way. 

You know it's so sad that as a Christian, I don't feel like I can correct people because the scripture that is used following 'correction' is Luke 6:41 about the speck in your brothers eye and failing to notice the plank in your own eye. Every time I feel like lovingly telling someone they are out of line I stop and say, well what is wrong with me. What am I doing wrong?

A lot of this goes to your heart. What is your hearts intent? How are you going about doing these things? Is it with malice or actual concern for the other person. What I find interesting about this package of love, correction, and acceptance is the verse above. 

Constantly I am being told that I need to accept people in love. Yes, I am to love people but if I really look at the scripture, what does it say? TO KEEP AWAY FROM EVERY BELIEVER WHO DOES NOT LIVE ACCORDING TO THE TEACHINGS YOU RECEIVED. Does this mean that I cannot be a part of anything that the Methodist Church does because I attend a Baptist Church. No! 

This is really talking about a character check. Idle is without purpose. Disruptive can mean disorderly or wild or undisciplined. This doesn't mean that you get to go around high and mighty because you feel like you are better than people. You have to make sure that you are surrounding yourself with people who challenge you. Who push you. Who encourage you. Not people who just sit. And wait. And walk. And just are. 

We serve a living God. A God who is constantly moving. A God who wants to see his people reach other people. A God who wants to lend a helping hand out. What part of that is idle? None of it. God is moving and we should be moving with him. Not sitting eating popcorn and snickers waiting for something to happen. 

The Bible also tells us that Faith without Works is dead. Not saying that it is our works that bring us any form of accomplishment but we have to be able to have faith and work. Reach out to others. Pray for others. Send out a helping hand to our neighbors who need it. Christianity isn't idle. It shouldn't be disruptive. Make sure you are checking your circle of friends and make sure they are on the move with you.