The Three Rules of Respect

A friend recently ask about me about 1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12 and I immediately thought of the Three Rules of Respect. Admittedly, there are few people who would think of that . . . maybe three others total (my wife and two children). When my children were young I made them recite the three rules of respect each time they left the house to spend time under authority other than parental. The first rule was (I should say is) "obey those in authority over you." This comes from another passage. One and two come from this passage:

   to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we charged you; so that you may command the respect of outsiders, and be dependent on nobody (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).

Rule #2, from "aspire to live quietly", is Have a Quiet Disposition.

Rule#3, from "work with your hands", is Work Hard.

The lesson for my children was this: If you want people, even adults, to respect you, and most children do desire this, you need to consistently (1) respect authority, (2) have a quiet disposition, and (3) work hard.

The context of this passage is the impending return of the Lord and the general resurrection. In 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 we see that some disciples had become inappropriaty idle. The thought was something like, "since the Lord is coming back soon, I might as well just chill until he gets here." So Paul was concerned that disciples project an appropriate picture of godly living to the world around them. We were created to work in his creation and to seek the world's welfare.

That reminds me of another passage:

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:7).

Just like the Jewish exiles in Babylon were to work and seek the welfare of the cities they were exiles to, disciples of Jesus Christ work to seek the welfare of a yet unredeemed world, in which they too are exiles.

That reminds of another passage:

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

This is the last verse of a rather long section on the resurrection. Jesus is coming back, his disciples will be resurrected and given new bodies, death will suffer a final defeat, all causes of sin and lawbreakers will be removed, creation will be redeemed . . . thus we should get to work . . . what we do toward making the world look like this will apparently not be in vain.

And, by the way, my children are now 18 and 16 years old and I am very proud of the way they have grown into adults who respect authority, work hard and have a quiet disposition. (I digressed a bit).