Be Responsible

Who do you hang around? How would you classify them? Are they trustworthy? Are they industrious? Are they people who are earning their keep? Or are some of them lazy and seeking to feed off other people? Have you considered that you should change who you hang around?

We make friends and acquaintances from all walks of life. Yet not all of them are healthy for us to be with. If they are a bad influence on us, we need to choose not to be with them. It can be a challenging decision if we are friends with them. But it is for our own good.

The Apostle Paul warns the church in Thessalonica to distance themselves from brothers and sisters who are irresponsible. He isn’t speaking about blood relation but people who had decided to follow Jesus. Their irresponsibility included them not working for a living, being busybodies, and living in sinful ways. When Paul is talking about people who were not working, he is only talking about those who are able but choose not to.

Why would Paul give this warning? We have all probably heard the saying that one bad apple can ruin the whole bunch. If you have ever let apples sit in a basket, you know this is true. A bruised apple that begins to rot will transfer the rotting to the apple next to it. The process repeats itself until every apple in the basket is rotten. Paul is telling us not be around people who are rotten lest the rottenness be transferred to us.

Not only should we distance ourselves from irresponsible people, but we should be responsible ourselves. We also need to be prepared to answer irresponsible people, if they ask why we are no longer hanging out with them. We must be honest while encouraging them to change their ways, not because we expect them to do so but because God expects them to.

I pray we all choose to be responsible. I pray we distance ourselves from irresponsible people. I pray each one of us seeks self-improvement by continually seeking to be more like Jesus. Be responsible. Seek self-improvement. Strive to be like Jesus. Be full of love, grace, and mercy.

2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother or sister living irresponsibly and not according to the tradition that they received from us.