”But at same also idle they are learning, going around the houses, but not only idle but rather also gossips and busybodies, speaking the [things] not being necessary.”
-Idle. The engine is running, but we’re not going anywhere. Wasting gas. That’s a problem, and Paul is trying to head it off at the pass. Because idle hands surely are the devil’s business. Doing nothing, certainly nothing good (up to no good. He (or she) who is slack in their work is brother to him who destroys (Proverbs 18.9)(which of course is the devil's business, cf John 10.10). Good for nothing. Useless. Literally. And that literally is the word in the Greek - it is a-ergon, NOT work, the negative of work. The absence of work. A younger, able-bodied woman who was put on church support when she was still able to work - at least the kinds of work which were available to women in that day - would be learning the lesson of not working, Paul says. Are they able to work? If they are, then they need to be working. But that is the question here. An older widow, a widow indeed would be one who was advanced in age enough to basically be unable to work. But if they CAN work, Paul says, if they are mentally and physically capable of work, then they ought not to be put on the rolls of receiving financial assistance, not from the church, nor from anyone else, really. Because you don’t want to send the message that non-work is okay. Not working is not going to work.
-Work, in fact, is god-like. Like our God, Who works (John 5.17), Who works great and marvelous wonders (Exodus 15.11), Who did complete His work and rested. We are commanded to work (2Thessalonians 3.10-12). We were MADE to work, to work heartily as unto the Lord (Colossians 3.23), to work hard (cf Acts 20.35, 2Thessalonians 3.8), six days a week, and then we rest (Exodus 20.9). Rest which is made that much sweeter by the knowledge that I worked hard. I earned this. It is food for the soul, in fact (John 4.34). In contrast, undeserved rest is one of those guilty pleasures which I can’t fully enjoy because it is tinged with guilt, laced with the bitter knowledge that I don’t really deserve this. Freeloading is for the birds - and actually, it isn’t, because even as Scripture tells us that God Himself feeds the birds, they must still work to gather their food.
-But when I shift into idle (neutral OR park, it doesn't matter), when I am going nowhere and doing nothing, too much time on my hands, not busy, not taking care of my business, I wind up sticking my nose into other people’s business. Instead of managing my own house and affairs, I’m going around to other people’s houses and getting wrapped up in their affairs, Paul says. I spend my time talking not just to other people but also ABOUT other people, wasting my time (and theirs), talking about things which are unhelpful and unnecessary. Babbling. Turns out my tongue is not idle at all. I wind up talking about people behind their back, not building them or my hearers up in the least. Lacking the self-control to apply myself to productive work, I lack the self-control to tame my tongue, which of course is a restless evil and full of deadly poison (James 3.8). Things ought not be this way. So unnecessary.
-Jesus said really only one thing was necessary - and He actually said it to someone who WAS in fact working hard, working so hard she was all hot and bothered that her sister Mary was not doing any work (cf Luke 10.40-42). So there is a balance - there is a time to be working, for those who are able to do so, and there is a time to sit at Jesus' feet and to rest. And may the Lord give us the wisdom and grace and strength of body and soul to live beautifully into both!
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