16 KJV Bible Verses About Minding Your Own Business

1 Thessalonians 4:11

“And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;”

Reflection: Paul writes this after praising the Thessalonians for loving “all the brethren which are in all Macedonia” (verse 10), so minding one’s own business comes as part of brotherly love. The next verse gives two reasons: “That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.” A quiet life of one’s own work keeps a good name with outsiders and keeps a believer from depending on others.

2 Thessalonians 3:11-12

“For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.”

Reflection: Some in Thessalonica had stopped working and were busy in other people’s affairs instead. The Greek verb for being busybodies, periergazomai, is formed from the verb for working, ergazomai, and means to bustle about or meddle. Paul had already given the rule “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (verse 10), and here he tells such people to work quietly and eat their own bread.

1 Timothy 5:13

“And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.”

Reflection: Paul is advising Timothy about the church’s list of widows, and this verse describes younger widows who learn to be idle and go “from house to house”. Idleness and meddling come together here, as in 2 Thessalonians 3:11, and the meddling takes the form of talk: “speaking things which they ought not.” The next verse advises that they marry and guide a household, giving “none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.”

1 Peter 4:15

“But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.”

Reflection: Peter is writing to Christians facing a “fiery trial” (verse 12), and he tells them to suffer, if at all, “as a Christian” (verse 16), never as wrongdoers. His list puts the busybody beside the murderer and the thief. The Greek word, allotriepiskopos, joins “belonging to another” with “overseer”: someone who oversees other people’s affairs.

Proverbs 26:17

“He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.”

Reflection: The man in this proverb is a passer-by who joins a fight that has nothing to do with him. The proverb compares him to someone who grabs a dog by the ears. Verses 18-19 go on to the man who deceives his neighbour and then says, “Am not I in sport?”

Proverbs 20:3

“It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.”

Reflection: Ceasing from strife is called an honour, and the fool is the one who “will be meddling”. The proverb sets the two side by side as opposites: the honourable man stops a quarrel, and the fool is the one who meddles.

Leviticus 19:16

“Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.”

Reflection: This command belongs to the laws of Leviticus 19 that lead up to “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (verse 18). Going “up and down as a talebearer” stands in the same verse as standing against a neighbour’s blood. The next verse adds a duty of the opposite kind: “thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.”

Proverbs 11:13

“A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.”

Reflection: The talebearer and the faithful person are told apart by what they do with what they know. The verse before this one makes the same contrast about speech in general: “a man of understanding holdeth his peace” (verse 12).

Proverbs 20:19

“He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.”

Reflection: The talebearer reveals secrets, and the second line warns against keeping company with a flatterer. In this verse “meddle not with him” means do not mix with him.

Proverbs 17:9

“He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.”

Reflection: Covering a transgression here means not repeating it; the second line names the result of repeating it, friends separated. Proverbs 16:28 says the same of the whisperer, who “separateth chief friends.”

Proverbs 26:20

“Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.”

Reflection: Talk keeps a quarrel going as wood keeps a fire going. The next verse compares a contentious man to coals on burning coals, and verse 22 says the words of a talebearer “go down into the innermost parts of the belly.”

John 21:22

“Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.”

Reflection: After the risen Jesus tells Peter how he will die (verses 18-19), Peter turns, sees the disciple whom Jesus loved, and asks, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” Jesus answers with a question about Peter’s own path. The next verse records that a rumour spread that this disciple would not die, and corrects it: Jesus had only said, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?”

Galatians 6:4

“But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.”

Reflection: Paul has just told the Galatians to restore a brother overtaken in a fault and to bear one another’s burdens (verses 1-2). Testing one’s own work comes next, so that any rejoicing rests on what a person has done and not on comparison with someone else. Verse 5 adds, “every man shall bear his own burden.”

Romans 14:4

“Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.”

Reflection: Believers in Rome disagreed about food and about keeping certain days (verses 2-6). Paul compares judging a fellow believer to judging someone else’s household servant: the servant answers to his own master, and that master is the Lord. Verse 12 states the principle: “every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

Matthew 7:1, 3

“Judge not, that ye be not judged. …And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

Reflection: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pictures a man studying a speck in his brother’s eye while a beam sits in his own. Verse 5 does not forbid helping the brother: “first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

James 4:11

“Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.”

Reflection: James ties speaking evil of a brother to judging him, and judging a brother to setting oneself above the law. The next verse finishes the thought: “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”