Make It Your Ambition

by David Gibson

Does the expression “the quiet life” strike you as appealing or dull?

Paul urges Christians “to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands” (I Thessalonians 4:11 NASB). Addressing Christians who have too much time on their hands—lazy busybodies—Paul urged them “to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread” (II Thessalonians 3:12).

Good examples

Aquila and Priscilla were not among those needing Paul’s reprimand. They supported themselves as tentmakers and hosted the church in their home in more than one city. They assisted Paul, helped Apollos, and no doubt aided many others as well. This godly Christian couple has their counterparts today in members of local congregations who humbly go about their tasks, making no fuss or bother for anyone else. Such individuals are society’s greatest assets, whether society acknowledges this fact or not.

The advantages of the quiet life

Such folks help keep our nation from slipping further away from God. They may be largely unknown, but God sees what they do, and He will reward them. And don’t we spare ourselves a lot of unnecessary tension when we can learn to live in this way?

In the words of John Greenleaf Whittier’s hymn:

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.