Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-12-02

CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
Original
BUSYBODIES.

REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
Gorgnal]
BUSYBODIES.
This word is found at least three times in
the translation of the New Testament in COM
mon use The word so translated is different,
in each instance, in the original Greek. In
I'd Thes. 8: II, periergadzomsaous is the word
used. In 1st Timothy, 5 :l3, periergoi is the
word rendered busybodies. In 1st Peter, 4th
and 18th, another -allotrioepaskopos-
used.
In the third chapter of the second epstle
to the Thessalonians, Paul gives sundry d.
rections concerning the manner in which dis
orderly persons are to be treated. The disor-
derly persons referred to were not drunkards,
or adulterers, or Sabbath breakers; but idlers.
ave have heard" says the Apostle, that
there are among you" that is, members of the
church OF Thessalonica, ''some persons who
conduct themselves disorderly." Their dis.
orderly conduct consisted in this: They did
nothing-had no trade, vocation or calling
BY which they could make an honest living,
and busted themselves about trifes. The
best description that can be given of the per-
sons that Paul, in the third chapter of Thes-
salonians, calls "disorderly," is to say they
we're lazy, without energy, never, or seldom,
engaged in doing anything profitable, and
ever employing themselves in some tritiing
thing ..
If we will picture to ourselves man or
woman too lazy to work, and thus make
comfortable subsistence, we will have present
ed to our minds the disorderly persons spoken
of in this place by Paul. These persons were
not immoral, in the usual sense of that word,
for the Apostle directs that they be treated as
members of the Church, entitled to its privi.
leges. No doubt, the same kind of disorderly
persons may be found in Christian congrega'
tions of the present day. Of such it may be
said, they are good kind Of people; but, un-
fortunately for themselves, for all those whom
God, in his providence, has made dependent
upon them, for the visible church and for so.
ciety at large, they are good. .for-nothing sort
of people. Of them it may be further said,
they do little positive harm but less positive
good.
With regard to the manner in which these
lazy Christians are to be treated, Paul is very
explicit. Those who walk orderly, or those
who labor and thus provide things honest in
the sight of all men, are commanded, in the
name of Jesus Christ, to withdraw from all
social intercourse with "those who do nothing
except vain things" They are directed to
notify all those who triAe away their timejn
ideness, that unless they work and eat their
own bread" that is, 60 to work and provide
for themselves and households, they will be
debarred the privilege of associating with
those who do make such provision.
No doubt the busybodes spoken of in the
third chapter of second Thessalonians, were
tinged with of1icousness, for it is notorious
fact that those who have no regular business
of their own, are generally, if not always, of:
fcious. From such persons it is the duty of
all good Christians to withdraw themselves
socially. The busybodies of whom Paul
speaks in second Thessaonisns, were, most
probably, both male and female; but those
spoken of in first Timothy were females.
In the fifth chapter Of the first epistle to
Timothy, Paul gave his friend and "son in the
faith" instructions as to the manner in which
he should govern the church. One class of
troubers in the church of God, in PauPs time,
we're the idlers who had crept into it. Paul
had no time for those drones, it mattered not
whether they were men or women, single or
married, widows or widowers. Since Paul
wrote as he was moved by the Holy Spirit,
and as no Scripture is of any private inter.
probation, may we not conclude that God has
no patience with idlers? The busybodies
concerning whom Paul charges Timothy, were
young widows. Some of these, he says, learn
to be idle and CAD about from house to house.
This would be bad enough but they did not
stop here but contracted the habit Of talking
and meddling with other peoples business.
Idle women, it seems from the Apostle, as
we'll as idle men, are prone to become oftieious.
No doubt, the officious meddlers in the time
of Paul and Timothy were, as that class are
now, adopts in disturbing the peace and har-
mony of Christian congregations These
lazy idlers traffic in scandal, which they zeal
ously retail while gadding about from house
to house. They are tools in the hands of the
great arch enemy of souls. The busybodies
spoken of by Peter are very different char
acters from those spoken of by Paul in his
letters to the Thessalonians and Timothy.
The busybodies of Peter are found in bad
company. They cap the climax of which
murderers, thieves and evil doers form the
steps,
The word "allotriospiskopos' is very signi6
cant. 1t is very uncommon word. So far
as we are aware, it never occurs only in the
fourth chapter of the first epistle of Peter.
There is no difficulty, however, in fixing, def
ntely, its meaning. For anything that we
know to the contrary, Peter "coined' the
word to describe class of the human family
that no other single word will describe. "AL
lotrioepiskopos' signifies self:constituted bish-
op, or overseer of other men and their affairs.
The Apostle does not say that there were, in
any of the congregations or among any of the
professed Christians to whom he addressed his
letter, any of these would-be.bishops but
that such thing was possible is taken for
granted. There has always been in the world,
class of men who never have any business
of their own, but who set themselves up as
the overseers, or bishops of the affairs of eve.
ry one in the community. The Apostle Peter
classes them with murderers, thieves and mis-
chief:makers. 1t is scarcely possible to ex.
press the contempt in which both Paul and
Peter held these usybodies, and the judg
ment of all men is in perfect harmony with
that of the inspired Apostles. What can be
more disgusting than to see lazy lounger at