A Precept on Business
J. Hamilton, D. D. 1 Thessalonians 4:9-11 But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write to you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.… All have a work to do, and all are, more or less, indisposed to do their own work. If the gospel had entirely repealed the sentence — "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," many men would have liked it all the better. But this is not what the gospel does: it does not abolish labour; it gives it a new and nobler aspect: it sweetens the believer's work, and gives him fresh motives for performing it; it transforms it from the drudgery of the workhouse or the penitentiary to the loving offices and joyful services of the fireside and the family circle. The gospel, then, has not superseded diligent activity; but it commands one and all — "Do your own business, and work with your own hands." I. THIS PRECEPT IS VIOLATED BY THOSE WHO HAVE NO BUSINESS AT ALL. Some are placed by the bounty of God's providence in such a situation that they do not need to toil for a subsistence; but such a life, though it certainly is the easiest, will neither be the happiest nor the most lawful. We must have some business in hand, some end in view. Those who are familiar with the seashore may have seen attached to the inundated reef a creature, whether plant or animal you could scarcely tell, rooted to the rock, and twirling its long tantacula as an animal would do. It's life is somewhat monotonous, for it has nothing to do but grow and twirl its feelers, float in the tide, or fold itself up on its foot stalk when the tide has receded. Now, would it not be very dismal to be transformed into a zoophyte? Would it not be an awful punishment, with your human soul still in you, to be anchored to a rock, able to do nothing but spin about your arms or fold them up again, and knowing no variety except when the retiring ocean left you in the daylight, or the returning waters covered you in their green depths again? But what better is the life of one who has no business to do? One day floats over him after another, and leaves him vegetating still. He was of no real service yesterday, and can give no tangible account of occupation during the one hundred and sixty-eight hours of which last week consisted. He goes through certain mechanical routines; but the sea-anemone goes through nearly the same round of pursuits and enjoyments. Is this a life for an intelligent, immortal and responsible being to lead? II. THIS PRECEPT IS ALSO VIOLATED BY THOSE WHOSE ACTIVITY IS A BUSY IDLENESS. You may be very earnest in a pursuit which is utterly beneath your prerogative as a rational creature and your high destination as a, deathless being. The swallow is abundantly busy, up in the early morning, forever on the wing, as graceful and sprightly in his flight as tasteful in the haunts which he selects. Behold him zig-zagging over the clover field, skimming the limpid lake, whisking round the steeple, or dancing gaily in the sky, or alighting elegantly on some housetop and twittering politely by turns to the swallow on either side of him, and after five minutes conversation off and away. And when winter comes, he goes to Rome, or Naples, or some other sunny clime; and after a while he returns. Now this is a very proper life for a swallow; but it is no life for a man. To flit about from house to house; to pay futile visits; to bestow all thought on graceful attitudes and polished attire; to roam from land to land, and then return home — oh, this is not simply ridiculous, but really appalling! The life of a bird is a nobler one; more worthy of its powers, and more equal to the end for which it was created. III. THIS PRECEPT IS VIOLATED, TOO, BY THOSE WHO ARE NOT ACTIVE IN THEIR LAWFUL CALLING. They are "slothful in business." They are of a dull and languid turn: they trail sluggishly through life, as if some adhesive slime were clogging every movement, and making their snail path a waste of their very sub. stance. Others there are who, if you find them at their post, are dozing at it. They are perpetual somnambulists, walking in their sleep; looking for their faculties, and forgetting what they are looking for. They are too late for everything — taking their passage when the ship has sailed, insuring their property when the house is burned, locking the door when the goods are stolen; and thus their work is a dream, and their life is worthless and in vain (Proverbs 9:10). Practical lessons: 1. Have a calling in which it is worth while to be busy. 2. Having made a wise choice, mind your own business, and go through with it. (J. Hamilton, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. WEB: But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another,