We don’t get very far in St Paul’s letters to the Christian believers in Thessalonica before we find him mounting a spirited defence of what most people find praiseworthy in their daily lives, hard work. Idling their time away, minding other people’s business and neglecting their own: most of us have strong views of that sort of thing. Paul goes so far as to say that in a Christian fellowship anyone who would not work should not eat. He himself had worked day and night so that he should not take up the offer of free bed and board in Thessalonica.
Mind you, Paul was referring to a specific problem of time and space. The idleness on view in Thessalonica was shameful. It was closely related to the responsibilities of taking aboard the name ‘Christian’. It was not a guide to long-term choices and long-term living. Paul, I am sure, would have agreed that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. He had plainly watched boxing-matches and the games in the course of his life.
Personality comes into it. Brunel was the kind of man who, given the chance, would have worked 25 hours a day. The world is full of mothers caring for infants who are doing not far short of that. I think of a pioneering feminist who was married to somebody about as senior as you could get in the television world who regularly and decisively turned in copy on time and at the right length as she forwarded her own career.
And leisure comes into it it as well. Time to think is of the essence as far as some occupations are concerned. We can see hard work when it takes place behind a lathe or at the driving seat of a tractor. Less obvious is the work going on at a desk or in reading a brief. And when it is a matter of bringing something out of nothing—say a play or a news report – that is about as unobtrusive as it gets.
So … it is no wonder that Paul spent time on this when he wrote to the Thessalonians (second letter 3.l6-15). If it is true that genius is 10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration, it may be that the same proportion holds good for a Christian and his or her faith. A hard-working Christian sounds like a godsend.
BIBLE TRANSLATION
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