A very popular television program recently dealt with physically mature men who refused to work and care for their own children. They either allowed their companions to support them and their children or moved into the home of the children’s grandparents and regarded the house as if it were a free furnished apartment with full service and board laid on. Those demands were being tolerated for the sake of the little children. In these two featured cases, it seems that there was no money for essentials, but plenty for a computer, electronic games to amuse themselves, and the phone and web to chat with others.
We think of these as isolated events, but they are as old as time itself. Paul in writing to the church in Thessalonica dealt with and answered it. We have all been acquainted with such situations, sometimes in the church, the extended family, or among acquaintances. Not all who claim to be Christians, produce the fruit of the Spirit, but in many such cases they take advantage of anyone who can be manipulated to tolerate the situation.
Paul said: “If any would not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.” 2 Thessalonians 2:10-14. What he has said is that no man has the right to be a parasite: if he is well, he has the responsibility to work.
Scripture is very strict in the matter of how one treats his his wife, his children and his parents and the elderly.
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