Investigating the Bible: The value of consequences

Meg Faville wrote in The Reader’s Digest about her family’s experience in Okinawa when a Fourth of July was celebrated. The military base always hosted a spectacular fireworks display. They were in the crowd, waiting for the event, when they saw three very tipsy airmen heading for the commanding officer. One of them walked up to the general, without a salute, and slapped the man’s arm. Then he said, “Say, what time do the fireworks start?” The general looked at him sternly for a long moment, and then replied, “Any minute, son. Any minute.” Some actions have immediate consequences, some are delayed. An apostle in the early church gave church leaders clear instructions on accountability.

The apostle Paul is recognized as a man of God who promoted loving behavior. He wrote 1 Corinthians 13 (see May 1 article). He also supported holding others accountable. He traveled to Thessalonica twice. In his second letter to the young church, he gave the leaders three guidelines for a responsible, healthy church.

Be the example. “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we might not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, that you might follow our example.” (2 Thessalonians 3:7-9, New American Standard Version used throughout). Paul was a scholar who also knew physical work. He made and repaired tents, in-demand work for traveling merchants who spent nights in deserts far from cities.

Don’t enable. Allow consequences. The early churches often shared meals. Some in the Thessalonian church took advantage of the free food and quit working. They used their extra time to complain. “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.” (2 Thessalonians 3:12).

One of my best jobs was as a program manager, then superintendent in an Oregon prison. State law allowed inmates who completed our six-month program to reduce their sentence by more than three years. It was called a boot camp, combining physical fitness, hard work cleaning highways and Oregon trails, and classes for earning their GED, overcoming addictions, and how to make pro-social choices. At the start, 60 anxious but eager inmates arrived; at the end of six months 30-35 “graduated” and left prison. Inmates were held accountable to work, attend classes, and make a sincere effort. We often gave second chances if their mistake was not serious.

Paul recognized that consequences are essential: “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: If anyone will not work, neither let him eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).

Sandra Day O’Connor’s father believed in the adage: “Experience is the name we give our mistakes.” She remembered when a newly appointed government conservationist ordered her father to move cattle to a new range in the middle of a hot Arizona summer. Her father objected, saying young calves wouldn’t survive the journey.

The new bureaucrat insisted, so her father had the government official join them when they left early with the large herd. By 10 a.m. it was 100 degrees and rising. Some of the little calves collapsed. By noon, the whole herd stopped. They rested for hours, letting the cattle find what little shade that was available. Finally, they forced the herd to move. Some cowboys carried calves on their saddles. Not all of them made it. The bureaucrat learned his lesson. He never again forced a cattle move if a rancher objected.

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) lives in Oregon and is a graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.).