On the “Top 100 list of Stupid Robbers,” McArthur Wheeler would surely be ranked first. Amazingly, the security videos of both banks that he robbed showed him walking into the banks without a mask and smiling at the cameras as he went by. During his arrest, an incredulous McArthur was heard to mutter: “But I wore the juice.” Apparently, Wheeler believed that rubbing lemon juice on his skin would render him invisible to videotape cameras. He reasoned that since lemon juice is used as invisible ink, and as long as he avoided a heat source, he would be completely invisible.
Avoidance of meaningful work will always lead to misadventure. That ability that God has put into each one of us to dream of better things must be engaged. But when it is assumed that hard work needn’t be a part of that equation, disaster is sure to follow.
Paul was so strong in his belief that the advancing Kingdom of Christ needed hard-working disciples, that he commanded the Thessalonian brethren: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat” (2Thess.3:10).
Remember, these non-working Thessalonian brethren were not doing nothing for nothing—they were standing around waiting for Jesus to return. In their minds, their belief in Jesus’ imminent return rendered them justified in their inactivity. Thus, they were living off the goodwill of their working brethren. Paul believed that indolence was a spiritual crime that was to be starved out of the church.
Our hapless bank robber above would receive the same Apostolic command as the rest of us who might also involve ourselves in dishonest gain:
“Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need” (Ephesians 4:28).
John Staiger
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