Living a quiet life?

This morning in my quiet time, I was reading Paul's letter to the Thessalonians when I noticed the exhortation in chapter 4 verse 11: "Make it your aim to live a quiet life, to mind your own business and to earn your own living." Well, at first glimpse, this is totally not the life of a typical missionary. Often our life is anything but quiet as we travel from one location to another in order to reach people with the gospel and "make disciples of all nations." Far from minding our own business, we seek to influence and transform individuals, cities and even whole nations. And because many missionaries live by faith, rather than earning a salary, some people might think that we don't really "earn our own living." It would seem that we are not at all following these instructions from the Bible.

Of course, these words were originally written to the believers in Thessalonica, and I guess that they were addressing specific issues and problems among the young Christians in that city at the time. Perhaps they had lived wild and immoral lives; perhaps they had been known as gossips and busybodies. We know from another letter (2 Thess 3: 10 - 12) that some of those new believers were living lazy lives, expecting others to provide for them, and just spending their time meddling in other people's affairs.

However, the reason they were exhorted to live a "quiet" and godly life was "so that you will win the respect of those who are not believers, and you will not need to depend on anyone for what you need." (1 Thess 4: 12) Wherever we are and whatever our situation, this should still be our aim today - to live lives that are honouring to God and that are a testimony to others of His life-transforming power.

And for those of us whose income as missionaries is made up of financial gifts from others, it's also a reminder that we do not ultimately depend on people to meet our needs, but this generosity on the part of friends and supporters is ultimately our provision from our God and heavenly Father who promised to supply all our needs. I thank God regularly for the friends and family who stand with me in this way and are therefore such an important part of the things that God has called me to do as a missionary.

So, perhaps our life is not always "quiet," and perhaps we don't always "mind our own business," but let's pray that you and I will be diligent and fruitful in our mission of reaching others with the truth and love of God.