Mind Your Own Business

Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Good morning Zebras,

Until yesterday I thought this verse was only about salvation, but this morning on a hunch I looked the verse up read it in context and then I checked to see what the commentaries had to say about it.

This verse is part of the Sermon on the Mount and it begins a section that talks about not only salvation but how we live our life. The New American Commentary on Matthew says: The rest of the Sermon on the Mount adds no new commandments but encourages obedience to those already given while warning against disobedience. By three illustrations, Jesus makes plain that there are ultimately only two categories of people in the world, despite the endless gradations we might otherwise perceive…These three illustrations contrast those who select the narrow rather than the wide gate and road, those who bear good rather than bad fruit, and those who build their homes on solid rock rather than shifting sand. In each case the first category refers to those who hear, obey, and are saved; the second, to those who only hear and so are destroyed. In each case eternal life and judgment are at stake.

Salvation comes from God alone, but our lives should show evidence of that salvation.

The reason God started me thinking about all of this, is the verse He has currently laid upon my heart. 1 Thessalonians 4:11 (NIV) and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you

Minding your own business is a narrow road, really narrow. Most things that happen around us do not really concern us. We think they do, but they don’t.

For example, how my husband lives affects me but it really isn’t “my business,” it is his. He doesn’t need me to tell him what to do, he has God for that. And to some extent that goes for my almost grown children as well. My job in both cases is to pray for them, support them, and love them as God has called me to do and let Him guide them.

When I worked, I used to get crazy about how other people did their job until I realized it really wasn’t any of my business. My business was to do my job to the best of my ability “working for God and not men” and leave everything else in God’s hands.

Then there is ministry. God has called us to work together for the kingdom. To use our variety of gifts to advance the gospel and that happens best when everyone does what they are supposed to do and trusts others are doing the same.

And the more I thought about it, the narrower the road became until I realized that my business is to love God with all my heart, mind and soul, to live a life honoring to Him, and to love others as myself. Period. Everything else is His business.

Love,
Jill