For also when we were with you we enjoined you this, that if any man does not like to work, neither let him eat.
Paul is not giving a new rule here. He had already told the Thessalonians this face to face, because some had stopped working and were living off other people's labour. So how does a command this blunt fit with Christian generosity? And why did a church waiting for the Lord's return need to hear it?
The strange thing is that believers needed to hear this at all. One writer is amazed that Christians behaved this way:
Who could have thought that godly Christian men would be so thoughtless, to say no more, as to live without working? Who could have thought they would be so selfish as to expect support from those who did work, or who lived on what their work earned? Yet that is what was happening among the saints in Thessalonica, and the apostle had even warned them of it when he was there. This danger could appear anywhere and at any time. But it is most likely where saints are fresh and simple in the life of Christ: the very blessing exposes them to the peril.
The verse turns on the words not willing. It describes someone who refuses to work, not someone who cannot find work:
Suppose a lazy man who will not work, though he is able, and lives by borrowing. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 gives us direction here. It supposes a man who refuses to work when he can. There may be an excellent brother out of work and in need, and it is a privilege to help him. But God has given us Scripture to guide us in all cases.
Waiting for Christ does not excuse a disorderly life. Notice which letters press honest work hardest:
The apostle would not let disorderly ways bring reproach on this hope, or on the Lord Himself. So he points to his own example. And nowhere does he press the duty of honest work more than in the letters that most urge Christ's coming as the near and constant hope of the Christian.
Another writer puts the same point in sharper personal terms — work is not only for one's own supply:
Though I am not to be doubtful or worried about the future, I am still to labour, working with my hands at what is good so that I have something to give to others in need. Work is not simply a means of storing up provision for the future on earth, but of providing things honestly in the sight of all men, now.
Empty hours do not stay empty:
Those who do no business of their own are apt to become busybodies, as the apostle warns them in sharp words. Free time away from work is time for mischief. And meddling in other people's affairs, when you have no duty there, is itself mischief.
One writer calls honest work a mercy — it guards a person from worse things:
For children not yet converted, and for adults in the same state, work is a merciful help. It guards them against the dangers of idleness and against giving way to lust and passion. Even for the faithful it is good, just as refusing to work when a person has no means is bad. So the apostle states it in short, sharp words: if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. Given in the right way, this remedy would usually heal, and it would never fail.
The rule limits who we should support. It does not close the giver's hand:
The Lord makes the most just and tender appeals for the poor, and He also guards the rich. He condemns the lazy in the strongest terms. Such is the fullness and wisdom of Scripture. This is what we command you: "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat." Giving to those in need, as far as we are able, is one of our most sacred Christian privileges. But to support the idle would break the word of God.
Notice how ordinary the subject of this command is:
Christianity has a striking mark. Nothing is too great or high for the saint, and nothing is too little or low for God. He concerns Himself even with a duty as simple and small as a man working day by day and not living off his brothers.
- Refusal, not need. The verse targets a man who will not work though he can; a believer out of work and in need is someone it is a privilege to help.
- Hope, not excuse. The letters that press Christ's near return hardest also press honest work hardest. Disorderly ways dishonour the coming Lord.
- Idle, then interfering. Time freed from work does not stay empty. Those who do no business become busybodies, and free time turns into mischief.
- Rule as remedy. The command works like medicine. Work guards against idleness and its appetites. Holding back bread aims to heal a man, not to crush him.
- Give freely, fund no idleness. Scripture tells us to give freely to real need. It also forbids funding the idle. And God cares about something as small as a man earning his own bread.
For we hear that [there are] some walking among you disorderly, not working at all, but busybodies.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Now such we enjoin and exhort in [the] Lord Jesus Christ, that working quietly they eat their own bread.
Paul has just named the problem in the church at Thessalonica. Some believers had stopped working. They lived off others and meddled in everyone else's affairs. Now he turns from talking about them to talking to them. His remedy is short: quiet work and bread you have earned yourself.
The trouble did not start in laziness but in a wrong idea about the Lord's return that had been pressed on the church.
Verse 6 of this third chapter and the verses that follow make it clear. The mistaken ideas about the coming of the Lord, urged on the Thessalonians, had already borne evil fruit. It is always the way that bad company corrupts good habits. Some among them had become fanatical in their thinking. They were under the impression that the day of Christ was upon them, and they gave up their ordinary jobs. Having done this, they began to expect support from others.
Commentators differ on which idea did the damage. One writer traces it not to love for the Lord's appearing, but to fear that the day of judgment had already begun.
In my judgment it was not too much enthusiasm about the Lord's coming that made any of them neglect their daily duty. It may rather have been alarm about the day of the Lord, as if it had already begun. That fear made some unwilling to do honest work, and set them gossiping about their fears. The disorderly are not described as wicked people, but are still spoken of as brothers.
The Greek word behind "quietly" is not silence. It describes the person who leaves other people's business alone.
The word hesuchia expresses the general idea of "quietness," not "silence" as in the older translation. See also 2 Thessalonians 3:12, where it stands in contrast to interfering in other people's matters.
The command reaches past the symptom to its cause. And it comes with pleading, not only with authority.
But here too faith works by love; the truth builds up instead of destroying or scattering. Discipline has its measure, since the end is restoration. The meddling, and its cause, idleness, must both go. The name of the Lord was incompatible with both; but the apostle pleads as well as commands. So even what nature itself might teach is bound up with our Lord and Saviour. It is a question of God's kingdom, not of mere morality, as if we were only men, and grace and truth did not exist in Christ.
Paul does not simply say "please." He speaks under a name that carries weight.
Where it is "the Lord Jesus Christ," we have authority — as for instance, 2 Thessalonians 3:12, "Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread."
Scripture is full of calls to give generously to those in real need. What it refuses is the idle person who lives on what others earned.
Eating other people's bread in idleness was no part of Christian teaching, which commanded the opposite. The Word is full of calls to be generous and brotherly toward those in real need (Galatians 6:6; Ephesians 4:28; 1 John 3:17; 3 John 8). But eating the bread of others in idleness the Word plainly forbids. Those who had been doing the opposite were now to aim at eating their own bread. They could learn from the apostle, who worked night and day at his trade so as not to burden the saints.
Paul never cures the problem by taking their hope away. He leaves the expectation in place and adds the workbench to it.
This very posture of waiting for the Son from heaven had produced a certain evil. The Thessalonian saints were neglecting their present handiwork. The apostle does not try to change their posture at all. He urges them to hold it together with diligence and watchfulness, so that while their eye was gazing, their hand might be working (2 Thessalonians 3).
The verse aims at the idle, but the surrounding instruction touches the generous too. Misplaced kindness keeps the disorder alive.
The folly of their hearers keeps foolish talkers going. Bread eaten without cost must find someone ready to pay the cost. Here indeed a false generosity might do harm to many more than those who indulged in it. How little we think of the various ways in which we may become "partakers of other men's sins!"
- Cause. A wrong idea about the day of the Lord unsettled minds. Unsettled minds quit their jobs and started running other people's lives.
- Command. The correction comes in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is real authority, joined with pleading, because the aim is recovery, not removal.
- Quietness. The word means quietness, the opposite of interfering. The meddling and the idleness behind it must both go.
- Own bread. Scripture is full of calls to meet genuine need. It forbids living on what others earned instead of working. A false generosity makes you a partner in the fault.
- Result. Hope is never the enemy of labour: the eye gazes upward while the hand keeps working.