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2 Thessalonians 3:15
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15 Yet [kai] count [hegeomai] him not [me] as [hos] an enemy, [echthros] but [alla] admonish [noutheteo] him as [hos] a brother. [adelphos] KJV-Interlinear
15 And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. NASB
The busybody is our context, and how we are to deal with them is our subject.
During your lifetime, you will come into contact with many people under many sets of circumstances. Whether family or friends, neighbors or strangers, countrymen or foreigners.
And in every case the Bible give you adequate information as to how to conduct yourself in all of your social situations. Most of it is based on simple common sense.
The Christian life is not a competition whereby we are all out to beat everyone else, nor to get even with others, nor to make the lives of others difficult. The Christian life is not there so that we can prove others wrong, nor to intimidate or threaten or force others to see things our way.
One day history will end for humanity. One day we will all be in heaven or the Lake of Fire. Those of us who are in heaven will never see those who are eventually lost forever, and by the grace of God, our memories will soon forget them. That is a good thing, for heaven is not going to be a place of perpetual grieving. Time heals all things.
But we are now here on this earth, and knowing that one day those who we do know, will be in heaven, a perfect place, then in eternity we will have more than enough time to get to know everyone who has ever lived, from Adam till the end of human history.
That is a lot of friends, a lot of conversations and a lot of laughs over most of the dumb things that we all did, and such.
You gain nothing by perpetuating anger or mistrust or revenge against anyone, when it is God who will eventually deal with everyone, based on facts, not emotions, reality, not imagined hearsay.
So, do not count the busybody as an enemy, or one who is hostile, just because they have wrong ideas, wrong habits, wrong motives, or are simply annoying.
There will always be someone who will try to cheat you, argue with you, or just make mistakes.
Your objective is Christ, and your relationship with Christ, through doctrine. Through doctrine, means the learning and growing up process to spiritual maturity, not your getting even with others.
Brother, is a reference to a family member. And indeed, in Christ we are all members of the family of God as Christians. And our spiritual family relationship is not one of squabbling, but one of closeness through truth.
The Lord deals with everyone in His good time. So we are to again, make our case (admonish – warn, set straight though your views) when confronted by busybodies, and if they continue in their harassment, then we simply back off and do not deal with them.
God will step in and will deal with them as only He can, and in accordance with His plan, not ours. It may be decades before there is a resolution, and that should be none of our concern.
After all we should not be in any hurry to condemn, but to be patient.
No one gains anything by seeing others suffer at our own hands. None gains anything be seeing others punished at our own hands. And remember this topic is concerned with social relationships, not aspects of crime or war.
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