2 Thessalonians 3:8 (KJV) Preachers Who Won’t Work

2 Thessalonians 3:8 (KJV)

Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:

I’d like to couple this passage with:
2 Thessalonians 3:10–11 (KJV)
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.

(Not that this coupling should be difficult, given the context.)

Paul worked with his own hands, earned his own living—he chose to do so in order that he was not “chargeable to any of you.”

He said he could have expected support, but he deliberately set a different example.
He commanded men to work.
Then he pointed out some who didn’t—but instead, were busybodies.

Could he have been speaking of some “would-be” preachers?

I’ve been privileged to be full-time in the ministry for more than thirty of the forty-some years I’ve served. I certainly wouldn’t criticize any who have been so blessed.

But I’ve also known some whose testimony was terribly marred in their community (even while being lauded as heroes of the faith among the brethren) because they were beggars—always asking for discounts or free services—and known to be late or negligent in paying bills.

I’ve known more than a few so-called preachers who are loathe to work, live in poverty, barely provide for their families, and look down on those who do otherwise.

Preacher, you do have the right to live of the fruits of your ministry.

But don’t be lazy.

Don’t be a busybody.

#WorkWithHonor #NotChargeable #MinistryNotMooching #LaborNotLaziness #BusyPreachingNotBusybodies

Preachers Who Won’t Work: and the Shame They Bring

📖 Are You Laboring or Loafing in the Lord’s Work?

Paul didn’t expect a handout—he worked with his own hands so he wouldn't be chargeable to any. In 2 Thessalonians 3:8–11, he not only modeled diligent labor but commanded others to do the same. Some were “working not at all, but are busybodies.” Sound familiar?

🔨 If you're serious about living a biblically grounded life, it’s time to get honest: Are you working with integrity in your calling—or coasting on the generosity of others?

✅ Take Action Today: Identify one area in your life or ministry where you can earn rather than expect. Then get to work—physically, spiritually, and financially.

💬 Question for the Comments:
What do you believe is the right balance between ministry support and personal labor?

📲 Hungry for more solid, biblical teaching? Visit marvinmckenzie.org for Bible studies, videos, and resources rooted in the King James Bible.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6800 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Thessalonians 3:8 (KJV) Preachers Who Won’t Work

2 Thessalonians 2:6 (KJV) The Tendency of Things

2 Thessalonians 2:6 (KJV) 

And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

There is a battle being waged in our text. This battle has raged since the fall of man and will continue until the coming of the Lord, when He will fight the final battle and end the war of all wars.

At stake is something Albert Barnes called “the tendency of things.”

• There is in our flesh a tendency toward sin.
• There is in our governments a tendency toward corruption.
• There is in this world a tendency toward antichrist.

But there is something that withholds this tendency.
There is something that restrains the revelation of the “man of sin.”

I suppose there has never been a time in history when antichrist was not present and prepared to reveal himself. But God has always had something in place to withhold him, to “let” him—to prevent his revelation until the time appointed by the Lord.

The Word of God says, “ye know what withholdeth.”
That’s amazing to me, because there is such controversy over this today.

• Some say it is the Holy Spirit.
• Some say it is the sovereign plan of God.
  

I believe it is both—but that it is manifested through the churches of God, just as it was in the days of Lot, when God would not judge Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot was removed.

The plan of God is that the antichrist may not be revealed until the people of God, filled with the Holy Ghost, are taken away—raptured, removed from this present earth.

Then, and only then, shall that Wicked be revealed.

#RestrainingTheWicked #TendencyTowardAntichrist #HolyGhostWithholds #ChurchStillMatters #RaptureBeforeRevealing

The Tendency of Things: What Restrains Evil

What’s holding back the rise of the Antichrist?

The Bible tells us you already know. But many are still debating it. The truth isn’t hidden—it’s revealed in 2 Thessalonians 2:6. God has always placed something, in the way of evil’s full expression. Want to know who? Want to know what withholdeth?

💬 Answer this in the comments:
Do you believe the restrainer is the Holy Spirit, the church, or both—and why?

📌 Take action today:
Talk to someone this week about why the church is still essential in God’s plan—not just for today, but for what’s coming next. Don’t wait. Speak truth in love and power.

📲 Hungry for more solid, biblical teaching? Visit marvinmckenzie.org for Bible studies, videos, and resources rooted in the King James Bible.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6800 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Thessalonians 2:6 (KJV) The Tendency of Things

2 Thessalonians 1:5 (KJV) Standing Strong Through Trials

2 Thessalonians 1:5 (KJV) 

Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:

It’s a historical fact that Christians often suffer while the wicked sometimes seem to triumph. In U.S. history, this has shaped a perspective that Christian holiness is always rewarded, and wickedness always punished. Many believe if someone is succeeding, they must be doing right; if struggling, they must be doing wrong.

But the Apostle’s message to the Thessalonian believers was the exact opposite.

This misunderstanding has led to a Christianity today with very little patience or faith in persecution and trials. That patience and faith, however, are the very proof—the manifest token—that God’s coming judgment is righteous.

We cannot change the fact that God’s judgment is coming and is just. But we can influence how others see it. Our attitude and behavior in suffering affect the power of our witness and the effectiveness of the gospel message.

I’m not saying those who struggle with patience and faith are unsaved. But the Word of God teaches us not to run from tribulation. Instead, we must trust God through it, knowing He is not ignoring the injustice we see. 

We must pray for those who will one day face His righteous judgment—unless they turn to the Lord.

#FaithThroughFire #WorthyInTribulation #GodsJudgmentIsRight #SufferingForHisKingdom #TrueChristianWitness

Standing Strong Through Trials: Why Patience Matters More Than Prosperit

Are you facing hardship and wondering why the wicked often seem to win? The Bible shows us that true faith is proven in suffering, not success. How are you showing patience and trust in God through your trials right now? Share your action step in the comments below.

Today’s action: Identify one challenge you’re facing and pray specifically for strength to endure it with faith. Then reach out to a trusted Christian friend or pastor and share your struggle—let them pray with you and hold you accountable.

📲 Hungry for more solid, biblical teaching? Visit marvinmckenzie.org for Bible studies, videos, and resources rooted in the King James Bible.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6800 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Thessalonians 1:5 (KJV) Standing Strong Through Trials

2 Thessalonians 3:2 (KJV) The Reasonable Faith of Christianity

2 Thessalonians 3:2 (KJV)

And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.

 

The Bible is an absolutely positive message. The point of it is positive. The plot is positive. The end of it is positive. But the Bible is a realistic message. It tells us where we are and how we got here. It also tells us what the consequences of this position are. These are negative in the extreme.   So it should not surprise us that the Bible also identifies negative characteristics and the relationship they often have with one another.  

 

Our passage addresses three negative men:  

- Unreasonable men  

- Wicked men  

- Men without faith  

 

I take it that it means a specific faith, faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

This negative characteristic, “having not faith,” leads to the others.  

 

Unreasonable 

It means out of place, amiss, improper. But it implies being injurious. To be unreasonable tends to the injury of both the unreasonable man and those around him. There is nothing more reasonable than the Christian faith. Begin where we know we are: broken, sinful, corrupt. God provides the only reasonable explanation. Consider the existence of all things. God’s creation is so much more reasonable than the accidental evolutionary explanation of modern science. Even the eternal end of man is reasonable compared to the idea of reincarnation or, worse, annihilation.  

 

Wicked

The word here is in contrast to others translated as wicked. It’s one that means hurtful in effect, as opposed to wicked in character or degenerate. In other words, no one has to be this nature of wicked. Faith cures it.  

 

The Devil is wicked in essential character. He can be nothing else. But with men, this is not the case. Faith in Christ results in a new birth that will turn the most wicked person into a new creature.  

 

The word translated as wicked also implies moral culpability. The wicked man is responsible for and will be judged for his sins. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23). Faith in Christ places the culpability upon Him, where He paid our price on the Cross.  

 

The answer to all wickedness is the reasonable faith placed in Jesus Christ. But since all men have not this faith, it behooves us to pray earnestly one for another, that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, even as we strive to win them.

 

#FaithInChrist  #ReasonableFaith  #DeliveredFromEvil  #BiblicalTruth  #GospelMessage  

The Reasonable Faith of Christianity: Four Steps to Embracing a Reasonable Faith  

• What’s one way that faith has impacted your life or someone you know?

• Look up evidence for the historical events surrounding Jesus’ life and resurrection. 

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Thessalonians 3:2 (KJV) The Reasonable Faith of Christianity

2 Thessalonians 2:1 (KJV) Misconceptions About the Rapture

2 Thessalonians 2:1 (KJV)

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

 

I think Albert Barnes has a right understanding of this verse as he writes, “It means, respecting his coming… As his views had been misunderstood or misrepresented, he now proposes to show them that there was nothing in the true doctrine which should create alarm… And by our gathering together unto him—there is manifest allusion here to what is said in the First Epistle, 1 Th 4:17, ‘then we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds;’ and the meaning is: ‘in reference to our being gathered unto him, I beseech you not to be shaken in mind, as if that event were near.’”

 

The Word of God appeals to the doctrine of the coming of the Lord and our rapture and gathering together as believers with the Lord when He comes.

 

But I disagree with Barnes’ final assessment that they had misunderstood him to mean the day is near. What the Word of God says in verse two is, 2 Thessalonians 2:2 (KJV)

That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

 

There’s a huge difference between “near” and “at hand.” In the one case, we see the day approaching. That’s a blessing. That’s an encouragement. In the other, the day is upon us—it’s happened. That would have been a tragedy because it would have meant the gathering together of the saints had already taken place and they had been left behind.

 

The implications are enormous and quite relevant in our current time, when so many have misunderstood the Bible to teach Christians will go through part or all the Tribulation. Second Thessalonians is in the Word of God to clarify and correct that misunderstanding. Before the Tribulation begins, before the man of sin is revealed, the Lord will come, as taught in 1 Thessalonians 4, and gather all the believers together with Him in the air.

 

And that is why we need not be shaken. There is no need to fear His coming because when that happens, we will be gathered to Him and escape the Tribulation. I’d be careful and pull away from anyone teaching otherwise.

 

#RaptureReady  #BibleTruth  #JesusIsComing  #BlessedHope  #EndTimesTeaching  

Misconceptions About the Rapture: Why Our Gathering Together Gives Us Hope

• What excites you most about Christ’s return?

• Live with anticipation, trusting in His promise and sharing that hope with others.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Thessalonians 2:1 (KJV) Misconceptions About the Rapture