1 Thessalonians 4: Mind Your Own Business

Introduction

A few months ago, while he was praying, Antonio Morra had a vision. He saw a dark, ill-defined figure, but he understood that it was the enemy. All he could make out was a very wide mouth with flies coming out of it. He points out that Beelzebul, one of the names of Satan, can be translated "lord of the flies." A fly has no strength, but it is annoying: in the vision, they hovered near the ears and buzzed like whispers.

This message was born from that vision. Its title is "Fatti i fatti tuoi," which means: mind your own business. In Naples, everyone knows the proverb: "Whoever minds his own business lives a hundred years." Not every Neapolitan proverb is biblical, the preacher says with a smile, but this one is, at least in part.

He observes that the culture he grew up in pushes people to get involved in other people's affairs, and he sees something demonic in it that must be deliberately resisted. Social media has amplified the problem: in the past, the woman leaned over her balcony to keep watch on the building and the neighborhood; today, "the balcony is a phone," and it opens onto the whole world. The result is a permanent inner restlessness.

Message Outline

1. A Warm Church, but a Restless One

The starting text is 1 Thessalonians 4:11, read in an uncommon translation: your greatest aspiration should be to live a quiet life, to mind your own affairs, and to earn your living by your own work. The preacher adds that this verse should appear "every third TikTok video."
Thessalonica was a port city in Macedonia, full of trade, comings and goings, and paganism, "a bit like our Naples."
Paul had preached there with power, but persecution forced him to flee before he had time to train the believers (Acts 17). So he writes them letters.
He commends them: their faith in God is known everywhere (1 Thessalonians 1:8) and their love for one another is plain to see (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10). It was a warm, close-knit church.
But when ranks are close, there is a risk of restlessness. Some were so convinced that Jesus was about to return that they had stopped working and went from house to house meddling in other people's affairs.
Paul has to correct them in 2 Thessalonians 3:11: some are not working, but are busy with trivial things.
The preacher dwells on the Greek: Paul uses the same root twice, the one for work. Some "do not work," yet in reality they have not stopped working: they are doing another kind of work, to which Paul adds the little word peri, "around."
They do "work around." Instead of being at the center of what God asked of them, they stay on the periphery and let themselves be absorbed by other people's affairs.

2. Make Quietness Your Trophy

The verb translated "aspiration" evoked success in those days: an athlete's gold medal, or the statue or city a king had built for his own glory. Today we would think of the Ballon d'Or or a World Cup.
Paul takes this concept and turns it upside down: "Your greatest aspiration is to mind your own business and live a quiet life." The culture of God's kingdom is often the opposite of what society offers us.
"Be ambitious. Make quietness your trophy." Make what God has asked of you your greatest ambition, and forget what everyone else is doing.
Some people spend hours watching what others do and judging them, instead of devoting that time to what God asked of them.
Living quietly does not mean slumping on the couch. Paul went through everything: beaten, mistreated, traveling by boat and on horseback, constantly on the road. Yet that was his quiet life, because his life was in Jesus and he took no interest in what others were doing.

3. The Most Tolerated Sin in the Church

"We have a poison among us," says Antonio Morra, speaking of the whole Italian Church and beyond. That is why he preaches on this subject at least once a year: God's Word has the power to change a culture and, like an insecticide, to kill the flies and shut the enemy's mouth.
This sin is gossip, slander, and discord. Of course, no one calls it that: "I have to tell you something, but keep it between us," "I'm worried about this brother, but listen to what he did," "I'm only telling you because I care about him."
Romans 1:29-30. Paul draws up a list of sins to show that everyone has sinned. He includes the "whisperers," a word that imitates the sound of whispering: someone who speaks in a low voice because he knows he shouldn't say it, but can't help himself. And Paul puts him in the same list as murderers. We would give him a three or four on a scale of a thousand.
James 4:11. "Don't speak against one another, brothers." This is one of the negative "one another" commands of the New Testament. The Greek word katalaleo means to speak against, to speak from above: slandering puts you in the position of someone who thinks he is better.
Talking about other people's problems numbs us to our own. We don't necessarily aim to be the best of all, but we at least want to be better than our neighbor. Instead of working to become like Jesus, we take the easy road: discrediting the other person to make ourselves look good.
Titus 2:3 and 1 Timothy 3:11. Paul writes to his spiritual sons about mature women in the church who, instead of teaching what is good to the younger ones, had become slanderers. This word, which made the preacher tremble as he studied it, has the same root as diabolos, the title of Satan: the accuser, the slanderer, the one who divides.
"When we speak ill of a brother or a sister, Paul says: you are doing the devil's work." The devil doesn't need help; he is already a master at accusing us. Quoting a theologian, the preacher adds that the devil no longer has access to God's presence to accuse us, but he uses our mouths to accuse our brothers.
"Lord, help me, I never want to lend my tongue and my mouth to the enemy."

4. Poisoned Sweets and Wood for the Fire

Why does gossip attract us so much? The words of a gossip are like delicacies (Proverbs 18:8). They please the palate because they make us feel important and well informed. "It's sugar for pride," and too much sugar poisons.
The preacher tells a story that several pastors repeat, without knowing whether it is authentic. A woman confesses to her pastor that she has spoken ill of several brothers and sisters for a long time. He asks her to climb the bell tower with a down pillow, open it, and let the wind carry the feathers away. Then he asks her to go and gather them all back up. Impossible. "The Lord forgives you, but now go and recover all those words," which have arrived exaggerated and distorted among people who now think ill of the other person.
Today, on the internet, the feathers travel even faster.
He makes clear that he is not targeting anyone: "We don't use this pulpit to strike. If I have something to say, I will come and say it to you."
"For lack of wood, the fire goes out. Without gossip, a quarrel dies down" (Proverbs 26:20). Slander has two faces: the one who lights the fire and the one who adds wood. Whoever listens to a rumor and feeds it is an accomplice.
"Why does everyone come and tell me things?" That is not a good sign: it means your ears are wood for the fire.
The holiest answer is sometimes: "If you like, I'll go with you to see that person." And if the other refuses: "Me, I listen to the apostle Paul's advice. I mind my own business."

5. "What Is That to You? You Follow Me"

In John 21, the risen Jesus restores Peter, who had denied him three times, with three questions: "Do you love me?" Then he entrusts his sheep to him and says: "Follow me."
At that moment, Peter sees John coming and asks: "Lord, what about him?" Jesus had just given him back his future, and Peter is already looking at someone else.
Jesus' answer: "If I desire that he stay until I come, what is that to you? You follow me" (John 21:22). What he said, what he did, what is that to you? "I already have more than enough for you; don't waste your time."
The disciples were often in competition. They were no worse than we are: most of them were in their twenties, sometimes immature.
This is also the lesson of the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16): the one who worked only one hour receives the same wage. You received what you were meant to receive; let the Lord decide.

6. Love Carries the Boulder, Meddling Rummages Through the Backpack

Minding your own business does not mean losing interest in everything and everyone. The preacher relies on two verses from Galatians 6.
"Bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2). The Greek word baros refers to boulders that no one can carry alone. A brother from the church shared his testimony: struck by an aggressive cancer, he thanked God that he was no longer on the margins of the Church but within the body, where those close to him helped him carry that weight.
"For each man will bear his own burden" (Galatians 6:5). Here the word is phortion, the soldier's backpack: the daily load, the responsibilities God has entrusted to you. No one can carry it in your place; if you carry two, three, or four backpacks, they become boulders.
"Love sees the boulder and wants to help. Meddling sees the backpack and says: show me what you have inside. Love carries the weight; gossip tells about it."

7. Before You Speak, Who Are You Offering Your Mouth To?

Before speaking, ask yourself: is it necessary? Is it useful? Does it build up, or am I doing the enemy's work? Building up is the opposite of slandering.
If you can't build up, keep quiet: "Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is counted wise" (Proverbs 17:28).
If God has truly put a burden on your heart, go and say it to the person concerned, not to a hundred thousand others, with all the love you can: "If you like, I'm here to walk with you under this boulder." And ask yourself whether the third person you are talking about knows, or whether you are acting behind their back.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, advises never speaking about someone without first praying for them for several days, because prayer destroys gossip. It is hard to speak ill of someone you are interceding for.
The tongue is small, but hard to tame (James 3:5-8). "Wait, Antonio, before you speak: who am I offering my mouth to? The devil or Jesus?" He chooses Jesus, who says: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
If you commit yourself to God's work, you will have so much to do, so many burdens to carry, that you will no longer have time to rummage through other people's backpacks.
The preacher longs to hear the King say to him one day: "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21), "you did what I asked of you, not what the others were doing."
He invites us to a "dangerous" prayer, echoing Isaiah 6:5-7, where a burning coal purifies the prophet's lips: "Lord, purify my lips, purify my words, purify my heart."
He concludes with Peter, "an impetuous man, forged by the hand of God." According to Christian tradition (not the Bible), Peter was fleeing Rome during the persecution when he saw Jesus going back there. He returned, was arrested, and asked not to die like his Lord, judging himself unworthy: he is said to have been crucified upside down.
"Peter, do you love me? Then what is that to you? Follow me. Mind your own business. Live a quiet life. Follow me and I will take you where you cannot go on your own, but it will be an extraordinary adventure."

Key Takeaways

Paul turns the idea of success upside down: your greatest ambition should be to live quietly and do what God has entrusted to you.
Slander is not a minor sin: the Bible places it next to murder and gives it the same root as the devil's name.
Listening to a rumor and feeding it is adding wood to the fire. Without a gossip, the quarrel dies down.
Faced with other people's lives, Jesus says to you: "What is that to you? You follow me."
Love helps carry the boulder that is too heavy; meddling rummages through the other person's backpack.

Personal Application

How much time do you spend, on your phone or elsewhere, watching what others are doing rather than what God asked of you?
When someone comes to tell you something about another person, are you wood for the fire, or do you offer to go and see the person concerned?
Before your next conversation about someone who is absent, can you ask yourself: is it necessary, is it useful, does it build up?
For whom could you pray for several days before daring to speak about them?
Who around you is carrying a boulder that is too heavy, and how could you help carry it without rummaging through their backpack?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "live quietly and mind your own affairs" mean in 1 Thessalonians 4:11?

Antonio Morra explains that Paul takes a word used for the greatest ambitions, like a victory at the Games, and turns it upside down: your greatest ambition should be to live quietly and do what God has entrusted to you. That does not mean staying on the couch: Paul himself was beaten and traveled constantly, but he took no interest in what others were doing.

Why is slander so serious according to the Bible?

Paul places whisperers in the same list as murderers (Romans 1:29-30). James uses a word that means to speak against someone, from above, thinking yourself better (James 4:11). And the word translated "slanderers" in Titus and 1 Timothy has the same root as diabolos, the accuser. For the preacher, whoever speaks ill of a brother is doing the devil's work.

Does minding your own business mean not caring about anyone?

No. Antonio Morra relies on Galatians 6: burdens too heavy for one person must be carried together (verse 2), but each person carries his own daily load (verse 5). Love sees the boulder and helps carry it; meddling wants to look inside the other person's backpack. Love carries the weight; gossip tells about it.