CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
2 Thessalonians 3:13. Be not weary in well-doing.—Such bad behaviour under cover of the Christian name is abhorrent to St. Paul. “The loveliness of perfect deeds” must be worthily sustained. Well-doing here points to that which is admirable in conduct rather than that which is beneficent.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF 2 Thessalonians 3:13
A Call to do the Best Work.
The apostle has shown the necessity and duty of work—that honest industry is a law of Christianity. Now he inculcates unwearied diligence in accomplishing the best work, designated by the comprehensive and suggestive phrase “well-doing.” Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. No man has done his best till he has done all he can. A man’s highest work is the outcome of his best endeavours. Observe:—
I. Doing the best work is well-doing.—“Be not weary in well-doing.” We may define to ourselves this duty of well-doing by seeking answers to two questions:—
1. How can I get the most good?—The ancient philosophers discussed the question of the supreme good with amazing subtlety of logic; but they started their investigations with the erroneous assumption that the supreme good must be a human product. The question is not how to get good, but the most good—the highest, the best. We get the most good by bringing the soul into complete submission to the highest law of its being—voluntary and full surrender to the will of God. Call it getting saved, getting converted; call it what you like, so long as you get the thing itself—the love of God in the soul through faith in the Lord Jesus.
2. How can I do the most good?—These two questions are closely linked together, and are mutually interpretative of each other—the one being the qualification and motive for the other. It may be asserted we get the most good by doing the most good. The rose cannot diffuse the fragrance it does not possess, however much like a rose it may look. The question here, again, is not how I can do good, but the most, the highest, and best. We do the most good by beginning with the duty that lies nearest to us, and doing it at once. The earnest worker never lacks opportunity: there is the home, the Church, the perishing multitude, ever within easy reach. “He that winneth souls is wise.” The highest plaudit of heaven is, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
II. The best work is not done without encountering difficulties.—“Be not weary.” The exhortation implies there are difficulties. These arise:—
1. From vague and imperfect views of duty.—We have no sympathy with the rhapsody of the mystic who said, “Man is never so holy and exalted as when he does not know where he is going.” We must know clearly what we would be at, what is within the compass of our power and opportunity, where our efforts must necessarily end, and room left for the play of other influences. We must be practical and methodical. Clearness is power. Confusion of ideas creates difficulties.
2. From unrealised ideals.—We have formed lofty conceptions of what is to be done, and what we must do. We have elaborated extensive organisations, and worked them with unflagging zeal. But the result has been disappointing. Because we have not accomplished all we wished, we are discouraged; our success has not been commensurate with our ambition, and we are tempted to slacken our endeavours. “Be not weary.” We are not the best judges of what constitutes success. If it does not come in the form we expected, we must not hastily conclude our work is vain.
3. From the loss of spiritual power.—We have neglected prayer and the cultivation of personal piety. We have been so absorbed in the external details of our work as to overlook the duty of keeping up spiritual communion with the highest. We begin to frame excuses—a sure sign of moral decadence. “We have no talents.” Then we should seek them. We have more talents that we suspect, and resolute working will develop them. “Our adversaries are numerous and fierce.” If we keep at our work, they will not trouble us long.
III. The best work demands incessant diligence.—“But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing.” The best state of preparedness for the coming of the Lord is to be busily employed in the duty of the hour. Every moment has its duty. Opportunity has hair in front; behind she is bald. If you seize her by the forelock, you may hold her; but if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again. Arnauld, the Port Royalist, when hunted from place to place, wished his friend Nicolle to assist him in a new work, when the latter observed, “We are old; is it not time to rest?” “Rest!” returned Arnauld. “Have we not all eternity to rest in?” A man’s work does not ennoble him, but he ennobles it.
Lessons.—The text is a spiritual motto to be adopted—
1. By ministers and Sabbath-school teachers.
2. By parents seeking the spiritual good of their children.
3. By all discouraged Christian workers.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE
Weary in Well-doing.
I. The text by implication brings before us a state of mind to which believers are liable.—“Weary in well-doing.”
1. From a lamentable want of fitness for spiritual duties and employments.
2. From the opposition of the world.
3. From the hostile agency of spiritual wickedness.
4. From the dimness of our conceptions of the things which should especially influence us.
5. From failing to lay hold on the divine strength.
II. The text an exhortation suited to those in the state referred to.—“Be not weary.”
1. Because you are engaged in well-doing.
2. Because the time is short.
3. Because your associates are glorious.
4. Because the issue is certain.
5. Because sufficient strength is provided.—Stewart.