Withdraw Yourselves
W. Carl Ketcherside
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Thessalonica was a city of pride. Location, history and status all contributed to the feeling of self-gratification. But some of it was false pride.
The hot springs gushing from the earth in numerous places gave the city its original name of Therma. The rivulets from these, emptying into the sea, came in contact with the colder water and created a cloud of vapor through which sailing ships appeared as argosies of the skies. It was for this reason the body of water was designated as The Thermaic Gulf. The harbor bustled with the activity created by vessels of lading from many ports.
It was Cassander who changed the name of the city. The son of Antipater, he married the daughter of Philip of Macedon. The latter had won a great victory on the very day that a runner brought him news of the birth of the baby girl. He returned word that she was to be called Thessalonica. After she married Cassander, he was assigned the task of slum clearance and modernization in the city which had not carted away the rubble of preceding wars. Not only did he alter the city, but changed its name to that of his wife. In honor of her he issued new coinage on which the form
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In our own United States of America, Highway 66 has long been recognized as the chief thoroughfare from coast to coast. Chambers of Commerce have advertised their towns along this route with the slogan, "On the Main Street of America." There is some evidence that publicity groups for various municipalities functioned even in apostolic days. If so, the advertisers in Thessalonica could have adopted the phrase, "On the Main Street of the Empire." The famous Via Egnatia, main artery through which life flowed from the heart at Rome to the remote extremities of the Asian world, passed directly through the center of Thessalonica. It was the largest and most influential city from Dyrrhachium to the Hellespont. Every pulse beat of the empire was felt as it surged through the political and economic veins of the district.
Most important is the fact that Thessalonica was a "free city." This cherished status was granted to but few places in the Greek world. Sometimes it was bestowed as a political gesture because of an illustrious past, as in the case of Athens. Again it was given as a reward for assistance to the armed forces of the empire in a period of crucial struggle, as in the case of Tarsus. This was true also of Thessalonica. After the assassination of Julius Caesar by the republican conspirators, a civil war began which culminated in a decisive battle on the plains of the River Strymon, between Philippi and Thessalonica. These plains have been called "The Deathbed of the Roman Republic." Here the imperial forces led by Augustus and Mark Antony completely overwhelmed the army led by Brutus and Cassius.
As a result, Philippi was made a military colony (colonia) and Thessalonica a free city (urbs libera). There were four distinct privileges accorded a free city. (1) The citizens were self-governing and not subject to a district administrator from Rome. They could determine their own form of government and were wholly responsible for its application. The local magistrates held the power of life and death over the citizenry. (2) No armed Roman guard was stationed in a free city and the citizens were not subjected to the sight of an occupational force. (3) No Roman insignia, either political or militaristic, could be displayed. This avoided frequent revolts and outbreaks which occurred elsewhere when the hated symbols violated places held sacred by the populace. (4) In most cases freedom from taxation (libertas cum immunitate) was granted, and descendants of original families were supported by the dole if they registered and requested it.
If time and space permitted it would be a genuine privilege to show our readers how this background is woven into the very language in Acts describing Paul's encounter in the city, and how it also provides an understanding of many of the very phrases appearing in his two epistles. However, we must forego the pleasure to be derived from such a course in the interest of a more limited pursuit. We shall begin by investigating the general effect upon the inhabitants of a city of the declaration of urbs libera.
Obviously the decree would eliminate a great deal of personal responsibility and provide much time for leisure. In a cultural environment like the one at Athens this afforded the average citizen opportunity for listening to the various philosophers, most of whom conducted their dialogues in the Forum, or marketplace. At Thessalonica, devoid as it was of such scholastic opportunities, the tendency was for many of the men to degenerate into lazy louts and loungers, ready for any excitement which might be aroused. This type of character is depicted in the references we have seen to the Thessalonians in the literature of the times, and the rabble might well be described in the words of Epimenides concerning the Cretans--"liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons" (Cp. Titus 1:2). This will explain what happened in Thessalonica as described by Luke.
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A congregation of saints exists within an environment and cannot be wholly unaffected by it. Those who compose it are also victims of their own past conditioning. This will serve to explain why Paul laid such emphasis upon the necessity of securing honest employment, holding it, and earning one's own livelihood. He did this in three ways.
(1). By personal command while with the brethren. In his first epistle he directs them to "look after your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you" (4:11). In his second epistle, he says, "For even during our stay with you we laid down the rule: the man who will not work shall not eat" (3:10).
(2). By personal example in their midst. "Remember, brothers, how we toiled and drudged. We worked for a living night and day, rather than be a burden to anyone, while we proclaimed before you the good news of God" (2 Thess. 1:9). "You know yourselves how you ought to copy our example. We were no idlers among you; we did not accept board and lodging from anyone without paying for it; we toiled and drudged, we worked for a living night and day, rather than be a burden to any of you--not because we have not the right to maintenance, but to set an example for you to imitate" (2 Thess. 2:7-9).
(3). By special admonition in both epistles. "Let it be your ambition to keep calm and look after your own business, and to work with your hands, as we ordered you, so that you may command the respect of those outside your own number, and at the same time may never be in want" (1 Thess. 4:11,12).
These letters grew out of life situations. They were written to cover actual conditions. The favors for which they express thanks were real. The behavior which was commended was genuine. The rebukes administered were not for imaginary wrongs nor the corrections prescribed for fictitious ills. We can visualize the state of the brethren from that which was written to and about them. This fact lays a foundation of a scripture which has been wrested and contorted--2 Thessalonians 3:6.
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which ye received of us."
On the basis of this passage honest dissenters have been hounded out of every faction. Every disagreement with "the powers that be" and with "those who appear to be somewhat" has been labeled a "disorderly walk" and action has been taken to "withdraw fellowship." In our own days of factional adherence and bigotry, we misused the passage as justification for refusal to recognize our brethren in the Lord. We were wrong! We are ashamed of the spirit of intolerance which we sought to excuse by abuse of the verse. We are convinced from unbiased research that what is commonly called "withdrawal of fellowship" is not countenanced in the verse and corporate action resulting in excommunication of a brother is not even a consideration in it.
The problem of interpretation centers around the meaning of "walking disorderly." The word for disorderly is ataktos. It occurs in this form as an adverb twice (2 Thess. 3:6, 11). It occurs in the verb form ataktein once (verse 7). When applied to the military it means "to break rank, to get out of step." When applied to another orderly arrangement such as a school or business, it means ''to play
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The context clearly shows that Paul uses it to designate the idleness into which the brethren had drifted. Having reached the mistaken view that the return of Christ was imminent, they saw no further need of working. They gave up their jobs and decided to live off of the other brethren, even prying into their personal affairs and becoming busybodies in other men's matters. Paul defines "disorderly" by showing both what it is and what it is not. In verse 11 he shows that it consists of "working not at all." In verses 7, 8, he demonstrates that he did not behave disorderly because he did not eat any man's food without paying for it, but supported himself by secular labor engaged in by day and by night.
To walk disorderly, in this context, is to live in idleness and sponge off of the other brethren. To read anything else into it is to ignore the setting entirely and twist the scripture to fit a preconceived idea or notion. But what should be done to a person who simply will not keep a job and earn his own bread? The teaching is plain.
(1). The brethren are commanded in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, "Withdraw yourselves from every brother who walketh disorderly," that is, who falls into idle habits. Note that this is not congregational or corporate action. It has no relationship to public or formal discipline. It is individual. No action is taken on the idle person. Nothing is done to him. He is simply left where he is while the brethren step back from him. Observe that the one from whom they step back, or from whom they hold themselves aloof is a brother, although a lazy one who is living in idleness.
"Withdraw" is from stello which means "to gather up." It was used for gathering up and binding one's loose outer garment to keep it from coming in contact with that which would soil or contaminate it. It was used for furling the sails of a ship to keep them from striking together and suffering damage. It is the term which would apply when a mother called her children into the house to protect them from threatened danger. It is easy to see how it came to mean "to avoid, to hold aloof."
The brethren in Thessalonica were simply commanded to refrain from extending hospitality to loafers and slackers. They were not to feed them for the command was that "if any would not work neither should he eat" (verse 10). If one of these dawdling drones appeared at the front door just before mealtime he was to be offered a job instead of food. If he refused the former he was to be refused the latter. One who shunned honest toil was to be shunted from the table. It was just that simple.
(2). The idle busybodies were commanded and exhorted to get a job. "That with quietness they work and eat their own bread." The term "busybody" is especially interesting since it is a play upon words. In the original it incorporates the word for "work." In verse 11 Paul uses the verb ergazomai, to work, and follows it with periergazomai, busybodies. Those who neglected their own work, which should have been central in their own lives were flitting and buzzing around telling others how to conduct their business. The prefix "peri" means "around" as in periphery. W. E. Vine says a free rendering of the passage would be, "Some who are not busied in their own business, but are overbusied in that of others."
"Quietness" is from hesuchia. It implies that tranquillity which arises from within and causes no disturbance of others. The Greeks had a different word for that serenity which proceeds from without but it would not have been as appropriate here. The idle brother was to secure a job and earn his own keep, without creating problems and complications for others in the congregation.
(3). "And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and
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The phrase "have no company with him" is intended to forbid the extending of hospitality. It would preclude the social gatherings to which the idle might flock and at which they would eat at the expense of others. The word "ashamed" is from entrepo, and refers to "a wholesome shame which involves a change of conduct."
(4). Although the offender is to be noted and hospitality refused while he persists in his idleness, the record says, "Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." Refusal to furnish food for such a person does not mean he is to be treated as a heathen. He is simply a lazy and indolent brother, who must be shunned to be saved from his course. When a man cannot be reached through appeal to his heart he may have to be reached through appeal to his stomach. So long as his head is empty and his stomach is full little can be done.
It is almost impossible to imagine how the tangled maze of disciplinary action--boycott, excommunication and congregationalism exclusivism has grown out of this passage. We can only conclude that when men seek for justification for their sectarian attitudes they will find it. The expression "Withdraw yourselves" provided the handy passage to satisfy their partisan needs and they swooped down and appropriated it as a new weapon in the arsenal of factionalism. Perhaps the King James Version is partly responsible and if some of the other versions had been used the brethren might have been saved the embarrassment of confessing their mistaken application. Here is the way it reads in The New English New Testament:
These are our orders to you,
brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: hold aloof
from every Christian brother who falls into idle habits,
and does not follow the tradition you received from us.
You know yourselves how you ought to copy our
example: we were no idlers among you; we did not
accept board and lodging from anyone without paying for
it; we toiled and drudged, we worked for a living night
and day, rather than be a burden to any of you--not
because we have not the right to maintenance, but to set
an example for you to imitate. For even during our stay
with you we laid down the rule: the man who will not
work shall not eat. We mention this because we bear that
some of your number are idling their time away, minding
everybody's business but their own. To all such we give
these orders, and we appeal to them in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly for their living.
My friends, never tire of doing
right. If anyone disobeys our instructions given by letter,
mark him well, and have no dealings with him until he is
ashamed of himself. I do not mean treat him as an
enemy, but give him friendly advice as one of the
family.
(This is one of a series of articles dealing with scriptures wrested from context and meaning, to justify and condone the factional attitude so prevalent in our day. One of these expositions will appear each month during 1965 and these will be gathered into a book to be called "The Twisted Scriptures" which will be ready for mailing, March 1, 1966. Only 2000 copies of this 192 page volume will be printed and advance orders are being taken at $2.49 each, payable upon delivery. We suggest that you reserve several copies as the book will become more valuable as time goes on. Address your request for reservations to MISSION MESSENGER, 139 Signal Hill Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63121).