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| “…you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.” |
| —1 Thessalonians 4:9b |
Busybodies can become very annoying. Those who give unsolicited advice can also make the hackles rise.
It’s one thing to show genuine concern for others. It’s quite another to try to control another person through an unwanted intrusion into his or her life.
Of course, sometimes really good friends will ask for help or invite constructive criticism. In fact, really strongly bonded friends often have each others’ best interests in sync most all of the time.
Apart from such special friendships, it is much better if we take the advice the Apostle Paul gave to the people in the church at Thessalonica, as recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12:
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia.
Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
As we begin another day, let’s determine to make it our ambition to lead quiet lives, to continue to offer God-breathed love to those who cross our pathway, while we also avoid giving unsolicited advice and specifically mind our own business.
If we choose to do this, we will much better represent our Lord and Savior to a needy world.
