Twist­ing Scrip­ture: Andy Stan­ley Tries to Score Points with Non-Chris­tians and Mis­in­ter­prets Scrip­ture in the Process

A response to Andy’s Post on Face­book on Novem­ber 8, 2022

Today, most peo­ple see truth, includ­ing right and wrong, as sub­jec­tive, a mat­ter of their own pref­er­ences and opin­ions. How­ev­er, truth is absolute; right and wrong aren’t sub­jec­tive but objec­tive — applic­a­ble to all peo­ple at all times under all cir­cum­stances. Thus, “the rules,” as Andy Stan­ley refers to them, do apply to unbe­liev­ers, for all peo­ple stand guilty and con­demned before a holy God (see Ps. 14:1–3; Rom. 3:23; 6:23). It is mis­lead­ing at best and an out­right lie at worst to say, as Andy Stan­ley does, that “the rules [aren’t for unbe­liev­ers but] are for fam­i­ly.” And then to add “So, Chris­tians, let’s mind our own busi­ness.”

It’s also mis­lead­ing to say to unbe­liev­ers, “How you choose to live your life is none of our busi­ness.” How unbe­liev­ers live does have impli­ca­tions for all because of the soci­etal and cul­tur­al impli­ca­tions of wide­spread behav­ior.

Of course, Chris­tians who are judg­men­tal and who attempt to dic­tate to their non-Chris­t­ian neigh­bors, friends, and fam­i­ly mem­bers how to live are wrong to to so (see 1 Cor. 5:9–13); there is an ele­ment of truth in what Andy Stan­ley is say­ing. Far too much of what he says, how­ev­er; is way off base. The pas­sage Stan­ley uses actu­al­ly doesn’t fit the point he is try­ing to make.

Recall that Stan­ley quotes 1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 4:11–12. In its intro­duc­tion to 2 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans, the Hol­man Bible Hand­book notes that the time between Paul’s writ­ing his First Let­ter to the Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans and his Sec­ond Let­ter “must have been rather short, for the sec­ond epis­tle does not pre­sup­pose major changes in the inner con­sti­tu­tion of the Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans church or in the con­di­tions under which Paul was writ­ing….”¹ In oth­er words, in 2 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans, the apos­tle con­tin­ued to address some of the very same issues about which he had writ­ten in his ear­li­er epis­tle.

Appar­ent­ly some of the believ­ers in the Thes­sa­lon­ian church had become so focused on Christ’s sec­ond com­ing and so con­vinced His return was immi­nent that they had quit their jobs and were becom­ing depen­dent on oth­ers for their basic needs.² Thus, cer­tain fol­low­ers of Christ had become free­load­ers, and they had done so because of sev­er­al mis­guid­ed and dis­tort­ed beliefs they held about the Lord and their own Chris­t­ian lives. They were fail­ing to rep­re­sent Christ faith­ful­ly and respon­si­bly. Paul remind­ed them in 2 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 3:10–12, “For even when we were with you, we com­mand­ed you this: If any­one will not work, nei­ther shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a dis­or­der­ly man­ner, not work­ing at all, but are busy­bod­ies. Now those who are such we com­mand and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quiet­ness and eat their own bread.”

As we’ve indi­cat­ed, this prob­lem also is evi­dent in 1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans. Bible schol­ar War­ren Wiers­be writes of 1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 4:11–12 (the pas­sage that Andy Stan­ley quotes in the above clip) that the apos­tle was admon­ish­ing his read­ers to “earn their own wages and not become free­load­ers depend­ing on the sup­port of unbe­liev­ers.”³ Peo­ple with­out work are idle and tend to med­dle in oth­er peo­ples’ affairs,⁴ so the term “busy­bod­ies” (see 2 Thess. 3:11) is quite fit­ting.

It wasn’t that the Thes­sa­lon­ian Chris­tians were dic­tat­ing to the unbe­liev­ers in their midst how to live, but that they them­selves were liv­ing irre­spon­si­bly and there­by mis­rep­re­sent­ing Christ, the church, and Chris­tian­i­ty itself.

Andy Stanley’s use of 1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 4:11–12 as a plat­form from which to apol­o­gize to non-Chris­tians, there­fore, is mis­lead­ing on mul­ti­ple lev­els.

• It mis­rep­re­sents what was hap­pen­ing in Thes­sa­loni­ca in Paul’s day;
• it mis­rep­re­sents what a great many Chris­tians are attempt­ing to do when they seek to help non-Chris­tians under­stand their sin­ful con­di­tion and their need of Christ; and
• hear­ing Stan­ley say, “The rules don’t apply to you” gives unbe­liev­ers a false sense of secu­ri­ty regard­ing eter­ni­ty.

For the Woke­pe­dia Minute ver­sion of this arti­cle, go here.

Notes:

¹Hol­man Bible Hand­book, “2 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans,” (Nashville: Hol­man Bible Pub­lish­ers,  1992), 733.

²Ibid.

³War­ren Wiers­be, The Bible Expo­si­tion Com­men­tary, Vol. 2: Eph­esians-Rev­e­la­tion, (Wheaton, IL: Vic­tor Books, 1989), 177.

⁴War­ren Wiers­be, 178.