Transcript
Alright, today we are starting II Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 6 through 15. We are going to start verses 6 through 15 of II Thessalonians chapter 3. The title of this section is The Precepts of Paul, with the precepts being the principles and commands that he is giving to them from Paul, concerning the conduct of the believers. It is a very interesting teaching in Scripture that we are going to get introduced to this morning.
Remember Paul is writing in chapter 1 to comfort them in the midst of trials. Because someone had told them that Paul has said that they were in the midst of the tribulation period, or The Day of the Lord, which is the seven-year judgment period of God upon the earth. So somebody had told them that Paul said, “You are suffering hardships not because of your faith but because it is God’s judgment upon you.” And many hold to those views even today – rather than trials they are judgments because God does not want you to have trials.
In chapter 3 we saw the instructions concerning their testimony as they were waiting for the coming of the Lord. He says in verse 1, For the rest, brothers. And the word rest literally means in summary or finally. It is the word remaining. He is saying, “The same remaining thoughts,” or, “My final thoughts before I end the letter.” He gives the first command in this section, Be praying concerning us. So the very first command is be praying. It is in the present tense, which means he is saying continually pray for us.
Next is not what to pray for but the purpose as to why they are to pray. First of all, In order that the word of the Lord may run. That is how it is literally translated, and it means to run unhindered, from the word (trechō), where we get our word track from. In order that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, just as it is with you. So the same thing that happened with you, pray for the word of God as it goes out that the same will be experienced by others.
Then the second purpose in verse 2, And in order that we may be delivered from the perverse – literally the word is out of place or twisted. So, in order that we may be delivered from twisted and evil men; for the faith is not of all people. Again, as we have shared with you in the past, the word faith means persuasion. Not all are under the persuasion of God’s Spirit. So when we go to give the word we are giving the persuasion of God and we are coming up against a persuasion that is not of God, so pray for us, pray concerning us. And he says, pray that we might be delivered from these kinds of people who are in opposition to the word, who quench the ministry of God’s Spirit through the word, and that the Lord’s word might have free run and that He might be glorified in it.
He prayed for the word of the Lord and that he might be delivered from perverse (or twisted) and evil men, for not all are of the faith. I think that phrase of the faith has stuck with me over the years. That is the literal translation, but I am constantly reminded of that phrase when talking with people, especially people who oppose the things of Christ or the things of the Scriptures. The Lord always ministers to me these people are not of the faith, that is the problem. They are of a different persuasion.
He goes on to say in verse 3, But faithful is the Lord, that is the literal translation, who will establish you. This is the promise and provision of the Lord that He will establish you and He will guard you from the evil one. Now he does not say He should establish you and should guard you, or, I hope He does. He says the Lord will establish you.
We saw from I Peter chapter 5 verse 10 that the Lord establishes us. After we have suffered for a while that He himself comes and He mends us and He establishes us, that is, He makes us to stand. That is the word that is found here. He strengthens us and He puts a foundation under us according to I Peter chapter 5 verse 10. And so he says, But faithful is the Lord, who will establish you and will guard you from the evil one. Not, He might if you are good or good a Christian, He will. That is the promise of God for His people. He is going to establish us. He is going to guard us from the evil one.
Verse 4, But we have had confidence in the Lord over you, that what things we command to you, you both are doing it and you will do it. So I have confidence that if I give you a command not only are you doing it, but you will do it. He is talking here about endurance. He is talking about continuing on. And this is a very important principle in the Bible that we need to really get established in, is the fact that continuing on and remaining with the Lord is a key ingredient of evidence and proof that a person is saved. Remember what salvation is. Salvation is not just believing, because we know from James chapter 2 verse 19 that even Satan believes. The demons are believing and trembling but they are not saved. So Paul is establishing for us that the proof and the evidence that a person belongs to Christ is that they have Christ living inside of them. When a person is saved they received Jesus Christ, His Spirit into their spirit.
The question always comes up, “Can you lose your salvation?” First of all, you cannot win it so discussing losing salvation is not even on the on the table. But you cannot even ask the question if you understand what salvation is. To lose your salvation means that you lose Christ, that He leaves you, or that you send Him out and send Him away, which He said in Hebrews chapter 13, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will never leave you if you tell Me to. I will never forsake you, if I make a decision on My own. It will not happen.
So with Christ living inside Paul can say, “I have confidence in you that you are doing what I have commanded you and you will do what I command you because you have Christ inside.” And it is the evidence that you belong to Him if you continue on consistently.
We saw from Philippians chapter 1 verses 5 and 6 where Paul made the same two principles and the same two promises. He says to those who were continuing in the gospel from the first day until now, he says, Having this confidence that the One who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. So I have confidence that the Lord is going to take you all the way to the end with His completed work in your life. Why do I have this confidence? Because you have begun in the gospel from the first day until now. You have never stopped. You have never walked away and said, “I give it up.” If you receive Christ and Jesus comes to live inside of you, you cannot quit because He is the one who causes us to endure and causes us to continue.
Paul says those true believers are those people who continue in the gospel. For those people he makes the factual statement of establishment in the things of the Lord – that the Lord will establish you and He will guard you. That is a promise to everybody who is born of the Spirit of God and belongs to Christ.
Even Jesus said the same thing. Now here is a new piece of Scripture that we are introducing to you on this subject of remaining with Christ. Jesus said in John chapter 8 verses 30 through 32,
30) As Jesus spoke these words, many believed in Him.
31) Therefore He was saying to those Jews who believed Him, “If you yourselves should remain in My word, truly you are My disciples.
32) “And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
So here were Jewish people who believed Jesus and He says, “If you continue in My word,” if you remain in my word, “you are truly My disciples. If you do not continue on, you are not truly My disciples, even though you believe what I am saying is true.” Very important point. So there is a condition there. That is the sign or the evidence or proof.
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24 verse 13, The one who has endured to the end, this one will be saved. He is looking back on – He is not looking forward to the challenge of saying, “The one who endures to the end this one will be saved, so make sure you endure all the way to the end.” He is speaking as if He is at the end and it is an aorist participle, The one who has endured to the end this one will be saved, Jesus said. That is the saved person who endures all the way to the end. This is a sign that a person is saved that they endure all the way to the end, because that person is being kept by the Lord.
We saw in I Peter chapter 1 in verse 6 that the Lord keeps us in His power through faith for salvation. He is the one who keeps us. He guards us and keeps us in Christ. Because a person is being kept by the Lord, a person cannot deny Him, a person cannot go back into the old lifestyle before they supposedly received Jesus Christ. They cannot live with no conscience except for the fact the person does not have Christ in their heart. So continuing, enduring is the evidence that Paul saw that a person belonged to Jesus Christ.
These people in Thessalonica had suffered so much that basically Paul came to a point where he said, “If you are going to fall away from the Lord, if you did not belong to Him you would have been gone by now.” No one suffered like these people did. From the very first day that they received Christ and now many months later they have done nothing but suffer for the faith of Christ. Because we have this confidence, he says to them, in you that you are doing and will do the things that we command you. He has all that confidence because they belong to Christ.
So then he goes on to say in verse 5, his prayer for them, Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the endurance of Christ. The word into is a preposition that shows action or motion toward someone or something. And it is called the love of God, the love belongs to God. And the endurance of Christ, which is a key to all the Scriptures that we have read up to this point. It is called the endurance that belongs to Christ. That is why a person who belongs to Christ can endure all the way to the end, it is because Christ gives the endurance, He produces the endurance in a believer’s life.
The word endurance is the word (hupomenō) that we have studied. It means to remain under, not just endurance in general, but it is the endurance of Christ. And his prayer for them is the Lord would direct them in that path. It takes the Lord to direct us, and cause us to grow in His love, and cause us to grow to the point that we endure in His endurance, and that is his prayer for them.
But as we get into verses 6 through 15, we get into the second command of this chapter in verse 6. Verse 6 reads, Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for you to withdraw from every brother walking disorderly, and not according to the tradition which he received from us. A very pointed factual text. A factual command that causes all kinds of reactions when we are called upon to withdraw from every brother walking disorderly. Is not someone’s feelings going to be hurt? Is not somebody going to be upset? Probably. That is all part of the disciplinary process.
Notice that he says, we are commanding you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it is not in Paul’s name. This is based on the teaching handed down from Christ to them and from them to the church, for you to withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly. The word withdraw comes from the word to send and it is in the middle voice here which means send yourself away. That is what it means to withdraw. Withdraw and it is from brothers or a brother – he is not talking about non-Christians. He is talking about a brother, somebody who knows the Lord but is walking disorderly. It is a brother who is walking disorderly and not according to the traditions that Paul and the others have handed down to the church.
Remember what we said a couple weeks ago? That there are two kinds of traditions in the Bible. There is the religious church tradition which is handed down by man that is a command of the church, or religious practice, or organization. It does not come from God’s word. It did not come from the Lord. It did not come from those who are inspired to write the words. It is church tradition. That is one kind of tradition.
In Matthew chapter 15 the religious leaders were telling Jesus, “Why do Your disciples not wash before they eat and why do they violate the traditions of the elders?” And Jesus said to them, “Well, why do you by your traditions violate the command of God?” So there is a battle looming there where Jesus said, “Your traditions violate the command of God,” and He wants to know why is that? He wants them to answer.
There are traditions that are handed down by men and there are traditions that are handed down by Christ from His apostles and to His disciples and to the rest of the church that is established in God’s word. Everything that we study from these letters are spiritual traditions. They have never changed and they do not change over the years.
We have a problem in the church today where church teachings and doctrine and tradition change because of the culture. The culture is putting pressure on the church, pressure on fellowships to perform a certain way, to accept a certain thing. But God’s truth has not changed over the years. The word tradition in Greek literally means a hand-me-down. Something that is handed down from person to person. Paul says, “These are teachings that have been handed down through the church for years. They are established truths and they have never changed.” And he says, “I am handing down to the church the traditional teaching that they are to follow, nothing more, nothing less.”
You remember in Galatians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 where Paul says, But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. He says in verse 9, As we said before, so say I now again, if anyone preaches any other gospel unto you than what you have received, let him be accursed. So anything that violates the original inspired Word is not of the Lord.
Interesting, another word here in verse 6, the word disorderly. Withdraw from a brother who is disorderly. When we get to verse 10 we are going to find out that, in this instance before us, he is specifically talking about disorderliness that is somebody who is not working. That is literally they refuse to work. It is not somebody who is out of work. It is somebody who refuses to work and presents themselves as being spiritual by not doing so, and thinking all kinds of reasons why they should not work. One of them was, obvious from the letter, was that the Lord is coming any moment.
We have had it happen here in California many years ago, where someone prophesied and predicted an earthquake and that California was going to fall into the ocean. So people sold their businesses, quit their jobs, sold their houses, and moved somewhere in the Oklahoma area or Idaho area, somewhere around there. It is funny because after they moved there, there was an earthquake; not here, there, where they moved to.
People who just quit. “The Lord is coming back. Judgement is coming any moment.” All kinds of religious, seemingly spiritual reasons for not working. And Paul is going to tell us in that section later on that this is a brother who is walking disorderly and if he refuses to work withdraw yourself from him. So disorderly, when we get to verse 10 is going to apply specifically to somebody who refuses to work.
But in verse 6 the word disorderly is the word submission. Submission with the alpha privative or negative in front of it. It means to be out of order. It is from the word (tassō), which is a military term that means to line up with. To be in submission in the body of Christ, to be in God’s order in the body of Christ means to line up with the body of Christ. You need to line up with those who are leading, and line up with God’s word, and line up with God’s Spirit, and take your place, take your rank.
If you have ever been in the military or around military you know what it means with somebody yells, “Fall in!” It has nothing to do with swimming pools. But in the military it means find your spot. And on the grinder, that is the large blacktop area in the military, they have these dots lined up, one up in the front corner and then a spot evenly an arms’ distance to the left and an arms’ distance from the front all the way back so that when the leader yells, “Fall in!” everybody goes to find their spot. In fact, we used to do that. We used to get our spots and put our arms up to the person next to us, and then we were commanded to drop our arms, and we were commanded to put our arms out from the person in front of us so that we have perfect rows and this is called falling in.
This is what the word (tassō) is making reference to, lining up with Christ, line up with His word, line up with the rest of the body of Christ, line up with the leaders in the body of Christ. But in Christ, so as Christ is the head of the church and as those in the church line up with Christ, so everyone is to line up with one another and do things orderly according to the Lord. So disorderly mean somebody who just refuses to do things according to God’s order.
But come to find out from Paul’s teachings the Lord is the head of the church, and we are to line up with His order trusting Him to take care of the church. So whatever He sets up, if we do not agree with it, or do not like it, we are to be in submission to what Christ wants. It is His church. It is not man’s idea, it is the Lord’s idea. And so it is actually a response to Christ. My response to life, my response to submission is my response to Christ. That is what it all boils down to.
In fact in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 21 it uses the word (hupotassō), which is the word for submission. Paul says, Be in submission to one another. Many people go two verses down from this and say, “Wives are to submit to your husbands in everything,” except all of that comes under the one heading in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 21 where it says, Be in submission to one another. Line up with one another in Christ. Be in the proper order in the body of Christ.
When he says here in II Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 6, There are those who would call themselves brothers who are disorderly. They refuse to submit, they refuse to be in order. Because God’s word says it is wrong to not be in order in the body of Christ. So verse 6 says, and this a command, Now we command you, brothers, and it is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourself from association with brothers who are disorderly. That is a command. We take all the human and humanitarian reasons why we should not withdraw from those who are disorderly – mainly because we hurt their feelings. But in reality that is part of, and we will see this next time, that is part of the repentance process.
Later on he is going to tell us to separate yourself from the disorderly so that they will be ashamed and it will bring them to repentance. But it is interesting that withdrawing or avoiding is part of the ministry that the believer has, not only to those who are not saved, but to the ones who are saved. So he says this is a command. Period.
What about love? What about those who come and say, “Well, that is cruelty. What if it hurts that brother’s feelings? Sure, he is disorderly, but it is not up to us to judge.” Well, it is not our judgment it is God’s judgment, not ours. He gave us the command. He made the judgment. I am just obeying His word. That is orderliness in the body of Christ.
So what about the Scriptures? I do not make those decisions what the Scriptures say. It is a commandment, Withdraw yourself from brothers who are disorderly and are not walking according to the tradition which you received from us.
So as we get into the meat of the presentation next week, keep in mind these two principles that are very important in the word of God. Number one, the gospel, the word, the traditions, which Paul handed down in his teachings they are the word of God. They are the ones that we are to line up with and be in order with. The second principle, as we are going to see next week, that Paul is going to present himself as the example of how a believer is to function, and live, and respond with other people, especially those in the body of Christ.
I find that fascinating because many people make excuses for not obeying the Lord because the Lord is perfect. He is sinless. I can never keep the commands of the Lord or be like Him. But Paul, it is interesting, was set up by the Lord and established by the Lord as being the example, the pattern, of what it means to walk with Christ. So here is a man who considered himself to be the chiefest of sinners and yet he was able – with the Lord’s power and the Lord’s Spirit he was able to follow Christ, and be obedient, and line up with the orderliness that God has set down for His church.
We will get more into that next week. Realizing that Paul – when Paul taught, he not only taught the Scriptures, but he presented himself as the one who is the example of what it means to be a Christian. In his teachings he shared the teachings in which he was saying, “This is the Christian life and I am presenting myself as the example.” It was not just that Paul is an apostle, and he has an important position, which is true. But he presented himself in his teachings as being the normal Christian, teaching and living the normal Christian life. And that means a lot when you consider that is how he presented himself.
We are going to see next week as we begin verse 7, he is going to say, Imitate us. So he hands down the traditions, the normal Christian life, and commands us to be in order in our walk with Christ and in our function as a fellowship in church in Christ.
Let’s close with prayer.
