But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. ( I Thessalonians 4:10-12 ESV)
Independence
In the film, The Princess Pride, a character uses the word, “inconceivable” a lot, in situations that are very conceivable. So finally, someone else tells him, “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”
Independence is a similar word, today.
It seems these days that ‘independent’ means free to let someone else work on our behalf, pay for our desires, and do the heavy lifting in actions, words, and deeds. But that is not independent.
Paul reminds us that independence, politically, economically, and socially means being able to do what we believe needs to be done.
And Christians uniquely understand that, because we understand the delegation of authority and opportunity. We are not self-made people, we are God-made people. And therefore we can know our capabilities, opportunities, and obligations. And we can do them, independently, not expecting anyone else to do them for us.
We are peculiar, we are independent.
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So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.