Labor and the Kingdom

If you watch many medical mysteries, you find something of a well-worn pattern in them. Something goes wrong medically which is hard to explain. Yet, the symptoms, seemingly random, point to something more sinister lying just below the surface. The rest of the show is, of course, getting at that underlying cause. In our passage this morning, the symptom of idleness, of the avoidance of work, is a clear problem that Paul needs to address. But under this symptom is a much more dangerous and cancer-like problem that might well metastasize to all the Thessalonian believers if it is not removed. Let us see what our Physician, Paul, says about this situation today.