READ: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12
“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and SO THAT YOU WILL NOT BE DEPENDENT ON ANYBODY” – 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (NIV)
A leader must not depend on anyone in order to command the respect of outsiders. Avoid begging in all its forms. Begging is begging whether presidents, politicians or pastors are doing it! Begging is begging even when it is given respectable descriptions such as “seeking investors,” “seeking aid” or “attending donor conferences.” The alternative to depending on others is to mind your own business and work with your own hands.
David said, “… I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25). Outsiders have no respect for you when you depend on them continually.
Snakes demonstrate that they are masters of independent living. They are able to survive on their own from the day they are born. To be wise as a serpent you must be able to be independent or non dependent.
It is a sorry sight to watch presidents of poor nations going around seeking gifts and loans from richer countries. Unfortunately, many nations that were colonised have not been able to survive without their colonial masters. They are simply not capable of independence. Many poor countries are failed states, incapable of governing themselves! They fought for independence but they are not independent at all. Hopelessly incapable leaders have governed these nations and led them on a downward spiral into deepening poverty.
Serpents, on the other hand, are independent from the day they are born and are able to successfully live apart from their parents. Most snakes can kill from the day they are born and often live alone from the first day of their lives. Serpents need no assistance and are able to launch out into a successful independent life.