Canter Bridge

The apostle Paul is often taken for a fire-breathing apocalyptic with little time for this present world as it sulks and struts in its overwheening vanity. Such a view misses both his respect for our realia as the very texture of creation and his counsel to the Thessalonians to lead a respectably independent life:

Aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Paul is concerned here with the believing community’s integrity. Having just concluded some choice words about what integrity looks like on the sexual interior of the people’s house, he turns to the painting and trimming of its outside walls. Here the topic is largely a matter of practicing a proper work ethic. A community that views itself as the first fruits of a new humanity can hardly get away with the life of a couch potato.

They must work and tend to the kinds of ordered lives that do not place awkward burdens upon the shoulders of their fellow citizens who, it seems, have every right to expect a higher standard when it comes to their messianically enthusiastic neighbors.

This too—and not only heavens being rolled up like a parchment, fiery consummation, and the like—comprises the warp and woof of life in the presence of Jesus’ spirit.