Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 106 · April 16
An Ambition to Be Quiet
“And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;”
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Jesus says that in the Sermon on the Mount.
Now set it beside what Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica: "And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you." Jesus tells you to shine where people can see it, while Paul seems to tell you to keep your head down. People reach for Paul's verse whenever they want Christianity kept private and small.
Start with the English, because that objection leans on a word whose meaning has changed. In 1611, to study something meant to make it your aim and to be eager for it. The Greek verb Paul uses means to be ambitious, and modern Bibles translate it "make it your ambition" or "aspire." So Paul is telling believers to set their ambition on a quiet life. That is an unusual thing to be ambitious about, and it says more than the objection allows.
Paul is also dealing with a real problem in that church. His second letter names it: "there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies." Some members had stopped working. They were living on other people's bread while taking a lively interest in everybody else's business. The reason Paul gives for correcting them is about the people outside the church: "That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without." So both verses have the same audience in mind, the people who are watching. Jesus calls the light good works, and Paul shows what good works look like on an ordinary Tuesday: you do your own job well, you pay what you owe, and you leave your neighbour's business alone.
That kind of quiet life is exactly the light Jesus meant, and Paul gives it a purpose worth having. The verse goes on: "that ye may have lack of nothing." Honest work, done quietly before God, keeps you from depending on anyone, and it lets your light be seen by the people who watch you most closely.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 106 is Between His Shoulders (Deuteronomy 33:12).