The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 354
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348 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES While laboring in Thessalonica, Paul had been careful to set before such ones a right example. ^'Even when we were with you," he wrote, "this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. ' ' ' In every age Satan has sought to impair the efforts of God's servants by introducing into the church a spirit of fanaticism. Thus it was in Paul's day, and thus it was in later centuries, during the time of the Eeformation. Wycliffe, Luther, and many others who blessed the world by their influence and their faith, encountered the wiles by which the enemy seeks to lead into fanaticism overzealous, unbalanced, and unsanctified minds. Misguided souls have taught that the attainment of true holiness carries the mind above all earthly thoughts, and leads men to refrain wholly from labor. Others, taking extreme views of certain texts of Scripture, have taught that it is a sin to work, — that Christians should take no thought concerning the temporal welfare of themselves or their families, but should devote their lives wholly to spiritual things. The teaching and example of the apostle Paul are a rebuke to such extreme views. Paul was not wholly dependent upon the labor of his hands for support while at Thessalonica. Eeferring later to his experiences in that city, he wrote to the Philippian believers in acknowledgment of the gifts he had received from them while there, saying, "Even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. ' ' ' Xotwithstanding the fact that he received this help, he was careful to *2 Tliess. 3:11,12,10. = Pliil. 4:16.