By Rev. Dr. Bernabe C. Pagara
Rev. Dr. Bernabe Pagara, Dean of the CPU College College of Theology, delivered the Baccalaureate message on November 10, 2019 at the Rose Memorial Auditorium.
(This message was delivered during the College Baccalaureate Service on November 10, 2019, at the Rose Memorial Auditorium)
“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.” 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
We would like to congratulate the CPU Administration, Board of Trustees, deans, principals, supervisors, directors, heads, faculty, staff, alumni, students, and parents for the renewal of CPU’s autonomous status as well as the second-best performing academic institution in Western Visayas this 2019 according to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities of the Cybermetrics. The rankings are based on a university’s web presence, impact, and openness, and excellence. (Iloilo Metropolitan Times).
The “Summum Bonum of Life” is the title of my homily. Summum bonum is a Latin phrase which means the principle of goodness in which all moral values are included or from which they are derived. In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the highest good is a state where the desire to perform one’s duty is accompanied by happiness. The question is, “What is the summum bonum of your life?”
Allow me to say “Thank you!” to our Registrar, Ms. Charissa Deocampo, for her timely suggestion for our homily this morning. She said, “I think it’s a good message for our graduates during the Baccalaureate Service to ponder upon the topic in the Daily Bread today which is “Finding a Quiet Life.” An excerpt says, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The question is born in curiosity, and the answer is often heard as an indication of ambition. We don’t want to discourage children from pursuing their giftedness or passions but maybe we could encourage them that whatever they choose to do, they do with a quiet spirit.
In his privilege speech, Board Member Matt Palabrica called for urgent attention to address the rise in mental illness and suicide among the youth. He said a total of 179 suicide cases involving youth aged nine to 21, were recorded from 2016 to June 2019, some 35 of which resulted in death. Methods that were used ranged from suicide by hanging, use of chemical poison, use of guns, to willful drowning. “Family-related problem(s) topped the reason for committing suicide, followed by love life or break-up of the relationship.
Also, alarming (are) problems related to school, most probably the inability to cope with academics, bullying, or other reasons.” The municipality of Leon listed the most cases of suicide with nine; Cabatuan and Passi City with six each; Badiangan with five; and Alimodian, Anilao, Dingle, Igbaras, Lambunao, Miag-ao, and San Joaquin, with four each. DepEd regional information officer Dr. Lea Belleza said: “Our young people are at crossroads. They need guidance,” as she stressed the importance of creating a caring, happy atmosphere in schools. “Sa ila panimalay ginaakigan na sila, pag abot sa school akigan pa gid sila. It shouldn’t be like that.” Schools should be places where there is compassionate open communication between teachers and students, she added.
The question is, “Why were some of these young people resolved or succumbed to commit suicide?” “Don’t they experience a life that is quiet, that is peaceful?”
As to the context of the passage just read, Thessalonica was a big city—a bustling metropolis with a lot of activity. Paul said, “Make it your business and your ambition to live a quiet life.” The Greeks were very active people, who had a love for personal distinction—and Paul knew there would be danger of their being occupied with less important affairs, thus neglecting to give their best to spiritual matters.
Though there is a great urgency in the imminent coming of the Lord, Paul did not command the Thessalonians to live lives of noisy. Instead, they were to make an ambition. He gave them a general admonition that would cover whatever specific plow they put their hand to, and in today’s profession or job … to be an engineer, a pastor, an educator, a chemist, a pharmacist, a medtech, a lawyer, a doctor, a nurse, a hotel manager, an agriculturist , a businessperson, a technician, a social worker, a guidance counselor, an IT expert, a lifestyle enthusiast, a librarian, and the like. Paul wrote, “Make it your ambition or your aspiration to lead a quiet life.” What did Paul mean by that exactly? What is the highest good of your life?
I would like to suggest three things or advices from Paul about responsible living in a form of an acronym, that is, LAW. The first letter is L which stands for “LEAD”.
I. To Lead a Quiet Life (An Ambition to be Quiet)
In that phrase, Paul used the two verb forms in almost a contradictory fashion. “Make it your ambition” (from philotimeomai) means to be zealous and strive eagerly, even to consider it an honor, whereas “lead a quiet life (from hesuchazo) means to be silent, not speaking out inappropriately, remaining at rest and tranquil. In anticipation of the Lord’s return, believers are to lead peaceful lives, free of conflict and hostility toward others, which is a witness to the transforming power of the gospel.
In the KJV, the phrase “make it your ambition” is “ye study to be quiet.” The word “study” means literally, “be ambitious.” Hiebert notes that the verb “hesuchazo” basically means “to be at rest” and was used of silence after speech, rest after labor, peace after war; it was also used of tranquility or peace of mind; here it is used to urge the living of a calm, restful life.
The present tense … stresses that they must constantly strive to lead such a life. They must eagerly endeavor to be eminent in the effort “to be quiet,” live tranquilly and restfully. It is as though Paul said, “You have been ambitious to make a noise in the world; reverse your aim: be ambitious of quiet.” Probably the Church at Thessalonica was largely composed of working-men. There was a danger lest the new privileges of Christianity should make some of these men foolishly anxious to make themselves conspicuous. In the excitement and expectancy about when Jesus would return, Paul urged them to keep calm to go back to work because God is in control, as for instance, when strong earthquakes in Mindanao were experienced, only God can control, not Mr. Quiboloy. We should aim at doing much good without attracting attention to ourselves. The Christian should not clamor for recognition.
He/she should be content that his/her work prospers, though he/she remains obscure. We should be too busy with work to have much time for talk. The noisy man is too often the quarrelsome man. In the ambition to sound a name abroad, bitter envy and jealousy are excited.
There are some Christians who make a great noise. Their religion seems to be formed on the model of the earthquake, and the whirlwind, and the fire, and knows nothing of the “still small voice.” They have to learn that in “quietness and confidence” lies their strength.
- Denton narrated a conversation between the pastor and her member in the church. A certain woman once called upon her minister to tell him how much her mind had been hurt. Her pastor received her with all tenderness and inquired into the cause of her distress. She went on to say, “She could assure him that her mind was very much hurt indeed, but she did not know how to tell him.” The minister judging it must be something serious, urged her to be explicit upon the subject of her distress. At last, she said, “It is the length of your bands in the pulpit“(a pair of strips hanging at the front of the neck as part of a clerical academic dress) “Oh,” said the minister, “I will take care that/// that distresses you no more.” So fetching his bands he said, “Here is a pair of scissors, cut them to your wish.” After she had done this, she thanked him and professed to feel her mind relieved. “Well, my friend,” said the minister, “I may tell you that my mind has also been very much hurt, perhaps even more than yours.” “Oh, sir, I am sorry for that; what, sir, has hurt your mind so?“ He replied, “It is the length of your tongue. And now, as one good turn deserves another, you will allow as much to be cut off as will reduce it to about its proper length.“ It need not be remarked that she was speechless, and it is hoped, learned an important lesson with respect to that unruly member (W. Denton).
Another lady went to a “tongues meeting,” and the leader thought she was interested in speaking in tongues. He asked her, “Madam, would you like to speak in tongues?” She answered, “No, I would like to lose about forty feet off the one I have now!”
Guzik’s comment brings this verse home: The quiet life contradicts the hugely successful modern attraction to entertainment and excitement.
This addiction to entertainment and excitement is damaging both spiritually and culturally. We might say that excitement and entertainment are like a religion for many people today.
This religion has a god: The self.
This religion has priests: Celebrities.
This religion has a prophet: Music video channels.
This religion has scriptures: Tabloids and entertainment news and information programs.
This religion has places of worship: Amusement parks, theaters, concert halls, sports arenas;
And we could say that every television is a little chapel.
The religion of excitement and entertainment seduces people into living their lives for one thing – the thrill of the moment. But these thrills are quickly over and forgotten, and all that is important is the next fun thing. This religion conditions its followers to only ask one question: “Is it fun?” It never wants us to ask more important questions such as, “Is it true?” “Is it right?” “Is it good?” “Is it godly?”
People these days love loud noise. However, we need to live the quiet life so that we can really take the time and give the attention to listen to God. When we live the quiet life, we can listen to God and get to know Him better. (1 Thessalonians 4). The second letter is A which stands for “ATTEND.”
II. To Attend to Your Own Business (To Mind your Own Business)
Paul issued them a follow-up exhortation, “For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.” Those who did not attend to their own business were “acting like busybodies” (periergazomai, “wasting their labor”), running around meddling in everyone’s problems. May ari man di bala sini nga klasi sang tawo or estudyante sa CPU?
Paul’s exhortation here is that the believers should not go out into their town telling everybody how to live their lives.
The three classes addressed here are fanatics, busybodies and loafers (don’t work hard); and, as Hendriksen noted, “Often one and the same person is all three!” Someone joked, “To do nothing is tiresome because you can’t stop and take a rest.”
Busybodies are carriers of gossip, disturbers of the peace, troublemakers, and thorns in the body of the believers wherever they appear. Loafers are especially detestable. While doing little or nothing on their own behalf, they require attention, goods, and services of others that might be far better employed than in the maintenance of idlers and spongers off others. The antidote for all three classes is concisely stated in the great work ethic of the New Testament.
Have you ever said to someone, “Mind your own business?” Or, has anyone ever said that to you? Say to your neighbor, “Mind your own business.” It’s a hurtful thing for anyone to say to another person. In Paul’s case, it perhaps points to a tendency to interfere in the running of the church by those who were not church officers.
Christianity forbids us to be envious of the more prosperous condition of other people. It is not for us to snatch at their privileges to the neglect of our own duty. Every man has his Divine vocation. It is the Christian’s duty to find his special vocation and to follow it, whether it leads him up the Beulah heights or down through the valley of humiliation. In the Church let each man find his/her own place and do his/her own work. There is a diversity of gifts. One has a gift of speech, another a gift of deft (expert/skillful) handiwork. Let neither be ambitious to usurp the place of the other.
Christians should be too busy with their own work to have time to judge their neighbors. We are workmen, not judges. To his own Master each man stands or falls.
A worthy paraphrase suggests, “Keep your nose clean and keep it out of others’ lives! Mind your own business. Attend to your own business. /// The third and last letter is W which stands for “WORK.”
III. To Work with Your Hands (“To Do Your Own work”)
Paul believed that manual labor would be good for them, so he commanded them to work with their hands. He challenged them to remember how he worked hard to support himself when he was with them before. Paul was certain it would be better if, when Jesus returns, He found them productive and working.
This duty is clearly brought out in the Revised Version, which omits the word “own” before “hands,” so that we read the clause, “Work with your hands.” Thus, we have a direct recommendation of manual labor. Manual labor is necessary. There is hard, rough work of this kind that must be done. It is cowardly to shirk it. Any work done with a good purpose is honorable. The work of the carpenter is often more honorable than that of the financier. The dirtiest work is not always done by the roughest hands. The crowding of the sons of working men into the ranks of clerks is not a healthy sign if it betokens or shows a shame of honest toil.
Paul recognized and acknowledged the danger of idleness. One of those great British preachers of a past generation provided this insight in one of his sermons: “If we cannot be holy at our work, it is not worth taking any trouble to be holy at other times . . . . If experience proves anything, it proves that nothing is worse for most people than to have nothing to do but be religious . . . . The daily life of toil . . . . does not rob us of the Christian life; it really puts it within our reach.” There can be no better preparation for the coming of Christ than to be faithful in ordinary duties. The man who is doing his work faithfully at the right time (the second coming of Jesus Christ) is ready to meet Him. As Ward expressed it, “This is the charter of dignity for manual labor … work is not beneath the dignity of a free man.” Christianity did not hesitate to insist on the dignity of common labor.
Now, if you lead a quiet life, attend to your own business, and work with your hands, what happens?
Paul concluded …. “so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.”
The purpose underlying Paul’s exhortation on work and motivating all his other injunctions was evangelistic so that the Thessalonians would behave properly toward outsiders. For him, the key to evangelism was the integrity Christians manifest to a sinful, confused, and agitated world. When believers display diligent work attitudes and habits and live in a loving and tranquil manner that respects others’ privacy and does not intrude or gossip, it constitutes a powerful testimony to unbelievers and makes the gospel credible.
Allow me to narrate the story of Ann Hasseltine which reflects a lifelong illustration of a Quiet Sacrifice or Quiet Offering.
“Young Ann Hasseltine was a woman consumed by the world. She attended all the highest fashion parties and quickly became a woman of class in 18th century America. Though her father was the co-founder of Bradford College, Ann cared much more for improving her appearance than her mind. Eventually, God showed her the emptiness of her pursuits. She wrote in her journal that Jesus “appeared to be just such a Savior as I needed. A view of His purity and holiness filled my soul with wonder and admiration. I desired to commit myself unreservedly into His hands.”
“The change in her life was obvious to all. She sought practical holiness and studied diligently because she felt it was her obligation to improve her mind for the glory of God.”
“A few years later she met Adoniram Judson, a man called to be a foreign missionary. He later wrote to Ann’s father for his permission to court Ann. But his request was different than what was typical for the day.
“I have to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world. To expose her to every kind of distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death,” he wrote. Ann’s father agreed and the two married the next year. Two weeks after their wedding, Adoniram and Ann Judson set sail for India. Due to political problems they were refused entry. Rather than returning home, they landed in Burma and began sowing the seeds of the gospel.”
“Life in Burma was difficult for both Adoniram and Ann. Adoniram would spend weeks away from their home on preaching tours. This left Ann at home without another Christian companion. Their firstborn child died at seven months old.”
“Some years into their ministry, the British Burmese War began. Adoniram was accused of being a British spy. He was moved from camp to camp, eventually landing in what was called Death Prison.”
“Ann, with their newborn daughter in town, would plead with prison guards and government officials for her husband’s life. Food was scarce for Ann. But she took what she could find and gave it to Adoniram. She moved into the corner of a jailor’s house and lived there for two years.”
“When the war ended and Adoniram was released, he finally laid eyes on the wife that kept him alive. Her head was shaved, she was shrunken (became smaller in size) to the last stages of emaciation (to cause to lose flesh so as to become very thin). Adoniram moved her to governor’s house where she began to recover.”
“The Judsons moved to the areas of Burma controlled by the English because they would have the freedom to evangelize. Three days after their relocation, Adoniram was called away to help the British government in their negotiations with the Burmese. The trip lasted longer than either expected and, five months after he left, Adoniram received a letter that said, “Mrs. Judson is no more.” She died a month earlier.”
“Ann’s life was filled with difficulty. But it was also filled with the presence of the living God. She wrote in her journal, “Every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy.”
“Why would she endure all this pain and suffering? She sought a great treasure. She wrote, “This is the reward of all our exertions (laborious efforts both physical and mental), ‘Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’”
God never promised His children a life of ease and comfort. Ann Judson’s life is proof of that. But she held to the promise God makes all His children: that He will be with them, especially in difficult times.
That presence was the treasure Ann pursued. It never disappointed or left her wanting.
Graduates, this should be your ambition, aspiration and goal, finding a quiet life, a life of quiet sacrifice, the summum bonum of life: to live a quiet life. Speech is good—but often times silence is better.
Centralians ought to impact the lives of those that claim to be Christians in such a way that they, in turn, impact their work, culture, and community in a positive way. The question is not whether we will impact our work, culture, and community, that is a given. The issue is whether that will be a positive or a negative influence.
A brilliant young concert pianist was performing for the first time in public. The audience sat enthralled as beautiful music flowed from his disciplined fingers. The people could hardly take their eyes off this young virtuoso. As the final note faded, the audience burst into applause. Everyone was standing – except one old man up front. The pianist walked off the stage disappointed. The stage manager praised the performance, but the young man said, “I was no good, it was a failure.” The manager replied, “Look out there, everyone is on his feet except one old man!” “Yes,” said the youth dejectedly (brokenhearted), “but that one old man is my teacher.”
Do we have the same desire for God’s approval as that pianist had for his teacher’s praise? Our Lord’s approving smile is what really matters.
At this juncture, may I request all the faculty to please rise to show your affirmation that these graduates are to be praised for their performance. Let us give them and their proud parents a big round of applause for the job well done.
Graduates, when you find your work or job after CPU, the truth of Christ will be adorned and bridges will be built for the gospel, not for money, not for gain, not for recognition, but finding a quiet life for God and for His kingdom. As Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” Augustine said, “Love God first and do whatever you please,” meaning “for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.” When you love God, probably you won’t do things, which can harm him. Would this be your godly principle, aspiration, and goal, the summum bonum of your life, to obey the will of God? And what is God’s will for you? This is it, “We are all scattered like salt and light in all legitimate vocations to lead a quiet life, to attend to our own work and to work with our hands.” Dear graduates, CPU loves you. Again, be the salt and light to the world and experience this summum bonum. Congratulations and God bless!
Let us pray.
Give us grace, O Lord, to work while it is day, fulfilling diligently and patiently whatever duty You appoint us; doing small things in the day of small things, and great labours if You summon us to any; rising and working, sitting still and suffering, according to Thy word. Lord of the stillness, call forth in our hearts the peace and purpose that shows itself in a gentle and quiet life. Help us find peace within, no matter what is going on around us, now and in the future. Amen.
References
Adeney, W.F. The Industrial Life. https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/adeney/the_industrial_life.htm
A Lifelong Illustration of Quiet Sacrifice. https://mediagratiae.org/blogs/media-gratiae-blog/a-lifelong- illustration-of-quiet-sacrifice
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Clarke, Adam. “Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:11”. The Adam Clarke Commentary.
Coffman, James Burton. “Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:11”.
Gail Momblan. 2019, https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1082046
Gray Matters. https://www.nextsunday.com/a-quiet-life-living-at-peace-with-ones-self/
Harmon, Robert. The Quiet Life.
https://dailyguardian.com.ph/suicide-rate-in-iloilo-alarms-ippo/
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https://gracegems.org/Miller/quietness.htm
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http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=34359
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/1-thessalonians-4.html. Abilene Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/1-thessalonians-4.html. 1832.
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Lowe, John. To Work With Their Hands, https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/lesson-13-to-work- with-their-hands-john-lowe-sermon-on- quiet-life-234772?page=3&wc=800
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Robertson, A.T. “Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:11”. Robertson’s Word Pictures of the New Testament. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rwp/1-thessalonians-4.html. Broadman Press 1932,33. Renewal 1960.
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Wiersbe, W. Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989.