Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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;
11. and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business ] Lit., that you be ambitions to be quiet an example of St Paul’s characteristic irony; the contrast between ambition and quiet giving a sharper point to his exhortation, as though he said, “Make it your ambition to have no ambition!” The love of personal distinction was an active influence and potent for mischief in Greek city life; possibly the Thessalonians were touched with it, and betrayed symptoms of the restless and emulous spirit that afterwards gave the Apostle so much trouble at Corinth. Comp. 1Ti 2:2, where he makes it an object of prayer, “that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life.” Eager and active as his own nature was, St Paul much admired this kind of life, and deemed it ordinarily the fittest for the cultivation of Christian character, and (study), he continues, to be occupied with your own affairs. This, too, was to be their aim and ambition, in contrast with the busybody, gad-about habits to which some of them were inclined (see 2Th 3:11, and note).
Those who meddle with other people’s business, commonly neglect their own; and idleness goes hand in hand with officiousness. Accordingly St Paul adds, and to work with your hands. Most of the Thessalonian Christians were probably handicraftsmen of one kind or other. Even for the few who possessed larger means the Apostle may have thought manual labour a good discipline; comp. note on ch. 1Th 2:9, and 2Th 3:7-12. He perceived the danger, especially marked in this Church, arising from the unsettling effect which great spiritual excitement is apt to have upon the pursuance of the ordinary duties of life. Hence this had been a subject of his warnings from the beginning even as we charged you (comp. 1Th 4:2). The Apostle Paul combined in his teaching a lofty spirituality with a quick sense for practical necessities.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And that ye study to be quiet – Orderly, peaceful; living in the practice of the calm virtues of life. The duty to which he would exhort them was that of being subordinate to the laws; of avoiding all tumult and disorder; of calmly pursuing their regular avocations, and of keeping themselves from all the assemblages of the idle, the restless, and the dissatisfied. No Christian should be engaged in a mob; none should be identified with the popular excitements which lead to disorder and to the disregard of the laws. The word rendered ye study ( philotimeomai), means properly, to love honor, to be ambitious; and here means the same as when we say to make it a point of honor to do so and so. Robinson, Lex. It is to be regarded as a sacred duty; a thing in which our honor is concerned. Every man should regard himself as disgraced who is concerned in a mob.
And to do your own business – To attend to their own concerns, without interfering with the affairs of others; see the notes on Phi 2:4; compare 2Th 3:11; 1Ti 5:13; 1Pe 4:13. The injunction here is one of the beautiful precepts of Christianity so well adapted to promote the good order and the happiness of society. It would prevent the impertinent and unauthorized prying into the affairs of others, to which many are so prone, and produce that careful attention to what properly belongs to our calling in life, which leads to thrift, order, and competence. Religion teaches no man to neglect his business. It requires no one to give up an honest calling and to be idle. It asks no one to forsake a useful occupation; unless he can exchange it for one more useful. It demands, indeed, that we shall be willing so far to suspend our ordinary labors as to observe the Sabbath; to maintain habits of devotion; to improve our minds and hearts by the study of truth, to cultivate the social affections, and to do good to others as we have an opportunity; but it makes no one idle, and it countenances idleness in no one. A man who is habitually idle can have very slender pretensions to piety. There is enough in this world for every one to do, and the Saviour set such an example of untiring industry in his vocation as to give each one occasion to doubt whether he is his true follower if he is not disposed to be employed.
And to work with your own hands, as we commanded you – This command is not referred to in the history Acts 17, but it is probable that the apostle saw that many of those residing in Thessalonica were disposed to spend their time in indolence, and hence insisted strongly on the necessity of being engaged in some useful occupation; compare Act 17:21. Idleness is one of the great evils of the pagan world in almost every country, and the parent of no small part of their vices. The effect of religion everywhere is to make people industrious; and every man, who is able, should feel himself under sacred obligation to be employed. God made man to work (compare Gen 2:15; Gen 3:19), and there is no more benevolent arrangement of his government than this. No one who has already enough for himself and family, but who can make money to do good to others, has a right to retire from business and to live in idleness (compare Act 20:34; Eph 4:27); no one has a right to live in such a relation as to be wholly dependent on others, if he can support himself; and no one has a right to compel others to labor for him, and to exact their unrequited toil, in order that he may be supported in indolence and ease. The application of this rule to all mankind would speedily put an end to slavery, and would convert multitudes, even in the church, from useless to useful people. If a man has no necessity to labor for himself and family, he should regard it as an inestimable privilege to be permitted to aid those who cannot work – the sick, the aged, the infirm. If a man has no need to add to what he has for his own temporal comfort, what a privilege it is for him to toil in promoting public improvements: in founding colleges, libraries, hospitals, and asylums; and in sending the gospel to those who are sunk in wretchedness and want! No man understands fully the blessings which God has bestowed on him, if he has hands to work and will not work.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. That ye study to be quiet] Though in general the Church at Thessalonica was pure and exemplary, yet there seem to have been some idle, tattling people among them, who disturbed the peace of others; persons who, under the pretence of religion, gadded about from house to house; did not work, but were burdensome to others; and were continually meddling with other people’s business, making parties, and procuring their bread by religious gossipping. To these the apostle gives those directions which the whole Church of God should enforce wherever such troublesome and dangerous people are found; viz: That they should study to be quiet, , to hold their peace, as their religious cant will never promote true religion; that they should do their own business, and let that of others alone; and that they should work with their own hands, and not be a burden to the Church of God, or to those well meaning but weak and inconsiderate people who entertain them, being imposed on by their apparent sanctity and glozing conversation. An idle person, though able to discourse like an angel, or pray like an apostle, cannot be a Christian; all such are hypocrites and deceivers; the true members of the Church of Christ walk, work, and labour.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And that ye study to be quiet: he exhorts to quietness, and yet to be diligent; and probably he might see this needful, either by what he himself had observed amongst them, or by what he had heard of them, as appears by what he writes in his Second Epistle, 2Th 3:10,11. To be quiet is to be of a peaceable temper and carriage, as the Greek word importeth both; and stands contrary to strife, contention, division, either upon a civil or religious account. And to
study to be quiet, because the thing may be difficult, especially in some circumstances of times, places, and persons. And the Greek word implies an ambitious study. Quietness we should pursue with a holy ambition, as that which is honourable to ourselves and our profession, Pro 20:3. The same word is used 2Co 5:9, where it is rendered we labour, & c. Study is properly the exercise of the mind, yet it here comprehends any kind of labour. This agrees with what the apostle elsewhere exhorteth to, Heb 12:14; see 1Pe 3:11.
And to do your own business: he next commendeth to them diligence, and that in our own business; and this he prescribeth as a good way for quietness, contentions often arising from meddling in the affairs of other men which concern us not; for which he rebukes some in this church, 2Th 3:11. But yet only to seek our own things is a great fault, and lamented by the apostle, Phi 2:21. We are to concern ourselves in the affairs of others when called to it, and not otherwise; and then we may reckon them among our own things. A Christians calling is either general or particular, and what falls not within the compass of one of these, is to be accounted not our own business. And our doing and suffering ought to be kept within the sphere of our calling; for to suffer otherwise, is to suffer as busybodies, which the apostle cautions against, 1Pe 4:15; as a bishop intruding himself into anothers office, to which the word there alludes.
And to work with your own hands; this condemneth idleness, and living out of a calling; we are not only to keep within our own sphere, but to stretch forth our hands to work. The same precept he gives to the Ephesians, Eph 4:28, not to steal, but to work with their hands, that they may not only eat their own bread, 2Th 3:12, but have to give to him that lacketh. Not that there is no other work but that of the hands; the ministers of the gospel are excused from that, 1Co 9:6, but not from work; there is the work of the head, and the tongue, and the foot, and the lungs, as well as of the hands; but either under one species he comprehends all, or it may be he fitteth his speech to the condition of the people to whom he writes, who generally had such occupations wherein they wrought with their hands, Thessalonica being a great place of trade. And the apostle speaks of the churches of Macedonia as a poor sort of people, 2Co 8:2, and liberal beyond their power; though some among them might be tempted to idleness by the charity of others to them, which, as some conceive, was the occasion of the apostles thus writing. But if men have estates, and upon that account need not work, yet no man is to be idle: mens time, parts, or other talents are to be employed, and account thereof is to be given, Mat 25:19; and the unprofitable servant is cast into outer darkness, Mat 25:30. Some way or other every man is to work, and may work, for profit to himself and others, unless under some invincible impediment.
As we commanded you; he means, when he was with them. He might probably observe some occasion for this commandment. Industry is of good report with all; and by meddling in others affairs, and unquiet carriage and idleness, they might dishonour their Christian profession among the heathen, which might be the chief reason of this commandment: and the apostle doth not act herein as a civil magistrate, commanding about civil affairs for the public welfare; but as a minister of Christ, with respect to a spiritual end, as appears by what follows.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. study to be quietGreek,“make it your ambition to be quiet, and to do your ownbusiness.” In direct contrast to the world’s ambition,which is, “to make a great stir,” and “to bebusybodies” (2Th 3:11;2Th 3:12).
work with your own handsTheThessalonian converts were, it thus seems, chiefly of the workingclasses. Their expectation of the immediate coming of Christ led someenthusiasts among them to neglect their daily work and be dependenton the bounty of others. See end of 1Th4:12. The expectation was right in so far as that the Churchshould be always looking for Him; but they were wrong in making it aground for neglecting their daily work. The evil, as it subsequentlybecame worse, is more strongly reproved in 2Th3:6-12.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And that ye study to be quiet,…. To live peaceably in their own families, and to give no disturbance to other families, by talebearing, whispering, and backbiting; to behave with quietness in the neighbourhood, town, or city, they dwell in, and to seek the peace thereof; and to lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty, in the commonwealth, and under the government to which they belong; and not to create and encourage factions, divisions, animosities, and contentions, in their own church, or in any of the churches of Christ; and it becomes saints to make this their study, to be very solicitous for it, to strive for it, and pursue after it: the word used signifies to be ambitious of it, as what is a man’s glory and honour, to emulate and strive to outdo each other, as who shall have the honour of being the quietest person, and the most peaceable member in the community:
and to do your own business: or private business, or what is proper and peculiar to a man’s self; to abide every man in his own calling wherein he is called, and attend the business of it, and not thrust himself into other families, and officiously take upon him, under a pretence of zeal, affection, and friendship, to inspect, direct, or manage the business of others: in short, he should not meddle with other people’s business, but mind his own: and this is what the Jews call , “the way of the earth”, or the business of life:
“there are four things, (they say a) in which a man should employ himself continually, with all his might, and these are they, the law, and good works, and prayer, and the business of life;”
upon which the gloss has this note by way of explanation,
“if a man is an artificer (let him attend) to his art; if a merchant to his merchandise, and if he is a soldier to war;”
and which may serve to illustrate the apostle’s sense:
and to work with your own hands; the reason of this is, because there were some among them, who would not work at all; see 2Th 3:11 and by this instruction it appears, that the members of this church, in common, were such as were brought up to handicraft trades and businesses, and were poor and mean; and this was the general case of the primitive churches: it pleased God to choose and call the poor of this world, to whom the Gospel was preached, and they received it; few of the rulers among the Jews believed in Christ, and not many mighty, rich, or noble among the Gentiles were called; some there were, and in this church there were some of the chief women of the city, Ac 17:4, and though these and others of the better sort, as well as ministers of the Gospel among them, who laboured in the word and doctrine, were not obliged by this to perform manual work and labour, yet were not exempted from all concern in the exhortation; it being proper and necessary, that all sorts of persons be employed in one sort of business or another, and to use diligence and application in it: the apostle’s view being chiefly to inveigh against sloth and idleness, and to exhort to labour and industry as the most effectual method to preserve peace and quietness, and to keep persons from being troublesome and hurtful, in families, churches, and commonwealths: the reasons enforcing this follow in this and the next verse,
as we commanded you; and the command of an apostle carries weight and authority with it, and ought to be obeyed; yea, they not only strictly enjoined a diligent application to business, but set them an example themselves, see 1Th 2:9.
a T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 32. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
That ye study to be quiet ( ). First infinitive dependent on (verse 10, we exhort you), the second on (old verb from , fond of honour, , ). The notion of ambition appears in each of the three N.T. examples (1Thess 4:11; 2Cor 5:9; Rom 5:20), but it is ambition to do good, not evil. The word ambition is Latin (ambitio from ambo, ire), to go on both sides to accomplish one’s aims and often evil). A preacher devoid of ambition lacks power. There was a restless spirit in Thessalonica because of the misapprehension of the second coming. So Paul urges an ambition to be quiet or calm, to lead a quiet life, including silence (Ac 11:18).
To do your own business ( ). Present infinitive like the others, to have the habit of attending to their own affairs ( ). This restless meddlesomeness here condemned Paul alludes to again in 2Th 3:11 in plainer terms. It is amazing how much wisdom people have about other people’s affairs and so little interest in their own.
To work with your own hands ( ). Instrumental case (). Paul gave a new dignity to manual labour by precept and example. There were “pious” idlers in the church in Thessalonica who were promoting trouble. He had commanded them when with them.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Study [] . P o. Make it your aim. Comp. Rom 14:20 (see note); 2Co 5:9. Often in Class. Lit. to be fond of honor : hence to strive for honor, to be ambitious.
To be quiet [] . Note the paradox, strive to be quiet. For similar instances see Rom 1:20, unseen things clearly seen : Rom 1:22, wise, be fooled (comp. Horace, Od. 1, 34, 2, insaniens sapientia) : 2Co 8:2, poverty abounded unto riches : 2Co 7:10, repentance, not to be repented of. The disturbances rebuked in the second Epistle may have begun to show themselves, so that there is a possible allusion to the idle busybodies of 2Th 3:11.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And that ye study to be quiet” (kai philotimeisthai hesechazein) “and that you all strive eagerly to be quiet”; to avoid meddlesome strife, talebearing, stirring trouble, worming around as a busybody, 1Pe 4:15; Pro 26:20; Jas 3:14-16.
2) “And to do your own business” (kai prassein ta idia) “and to practice (your) own things, matters, attend to your own business,” Devotion to God does not and will not lead one to neglect an honorable pursuit of a job, for each is a social being and must work to honor God, Gen 3:19; Eph 4:28.
3) “And to work with your own hands” (kai ergazesthai tais chersin humon) “even to work with your own hands”; idle minds and hands and tongues become workshops and tools of Satan and demons; Christianity teaches that labor according to ones talents is honorable, Act 20:34-35; 1Th 2:9-10.
4) “As we commanded you” (kathos humin pareggeilamen) “Even as we enjoined you all”; In spite of Paul’s commands and example of working with his own hands, some of the members quit working, made debts they could not pay, and let their families come to need, idly looking for the advent of the Lord. They were to look and wait in hope, yet also work as they awaited, anticipated His coining, even as Paul did, 2Th 3:7-12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11 Maintain Peace. I have already stated that this clause must be separated from what goes before, for this is a new sentence. Now, to be at peace, means in this passage — to act peacefully and without disturbance, as we also say in French — sans bruit , ( without noise.) In short, he exhorts them to be peaceable and tranquil. This is the purport of what he adds immediately afterwards — to do your own business: for we commonly see, that those who intrude themselves with forwardness into the affairs of others, make great disturbance, and give trouble to themselves and others. This, therefore, is the best means of a tranquil life, when every one, intent upon the duties of his own calling, discharges those duties which are enjoined upon him by the Lord, and devotes himself to these things: while the husbandman employs himself in rural labors, the workman carries on his occupation, and in this way every one keeps within his own limits. So soon as men turn aside from this, everything is thrown into confusion and disorder. He does not mean, however, that every one shall mind his own business in such a way as that each one should live apart, having no care for others, but has merely in view to correct an idle levity, which makes men noisy bustlers in public, who ought to lead a quiet life in their own houses.
Labor with your hands. He recommends manual labor on two accounts — that they may have a sufficiency for maintaining life, and that they may conduct themselves honorably even before unbelievers. For nothing is more unseemly than a man that is idle and good for nothing, who profits neither himself nor others, and seems born only to eat and drink. Farther, this labor or system of working extends far, for what he says as to hands is by way of synecdoche; but there can be no doubt that he includes every useful employment of human life.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Th. 4:11. Study to be quiet.R.V. margin, Go: be ambitious. An example of St. Pauls characteristic irony: the contrast between ambition and quiet, giving a sharper point to his exhortation, as though he said, Make it your ambition to have no ambition! (Ibid.). To do your own business.To be occupied with your own affairs.
1Th. 4:12. That ye may walk honestlyThe adverb here is used to match the verbto walk with a dignified and gentlemanly bearing. St. Pauls ideas of gentlemanlinessworking with the handswould not suit the youth of gentlemanly habits who wants to be adopted where he will have nothing to do. And may have need of nothing.What a nobly independent soul! What a splendid text these verses would make for some plain words to Christians who indulge in sharp practices, or waste until they have to throw themselves on any one who will support them!
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Th. 4:11-12
A Pacific Spirit another Proof of a True Sanctification.
To pass from the subject of brotherly love to the necessity of maintaining a quiet and peaceable disposition was for the apostle a natural and suggestive transition. Love and peace are twin virtuesTwo lovely berries moulded on one stem. Brotherly love can have no place in the heart from which peace has fled and where war and discord reign. The quiet spirit is not a weak, meaningless, cowardly condition of mind, but contains in it all the elements of patient endurance, unconquerable bravery, and inviolable moral power. It is not the quietness of the shallow lagoon, on whose surface the heaviest storm can raise but a few powerless ripples; it is rather the profound calm of the ocean, which, when roused by the tempest, is overwhelmed in its impetuous onset. Christ is likened to the lambgentle, harmless, pacific; but when His fury is once let loose upon the ungodly, the distracted victims will shriek for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. A pacific spirit is another practical evidence of possessing the genuine sanctification so earnestly commended by the apostle. Observe:
I. That a pacific spirit is to be studiously cultivated.And that ye study to be quiet (1Th. 4:11). The word study signifies to seek after an object with a holy and active ambition, as though it were the highest honour to possess it. How different this is from the restless spirit of the world! There is nothing some people dread so much as being quiet. They delight in a row; and if one does not happen as frequently as they wish, they make one for themselves. The political agitator, the avaricious money-getter, the fiery advocate of war, all seek to attain their selfish ends in the midst of tumult and confusion. Nor is the sacred circle of the Christian Church, which should ever be the abode of peace and harmony, free from the violence of the irrepressible disturber. There are some people who never will be still; you cannot hold them still. They are full of endless suggestions for other people to carry out. Their tongue is a perpetual clatter. They fly from one department of work to another, and create distraction in each. They are always on the go. No sooner have they related to one, with such evident satisfaction, the details of the latest uproar they were in, than they are off to brew another. They try ones temper; they harry ones nerves; they break ones peace most cruelly. To such people it would be the severest task to obey the apostolic injunction, That ye study to be quiet, and yet no one in the world has more need to do so than they. A pacific spirit cannot be secured without much self-denying effort; but it is a jewel worth all the trouble and all the sacrifice (Pro. 20:3; Col. 3:12-15).
II. That a pacific spirit is attained by a persevering industry in personal duties.
1. That personal duties have the first claim upon our efforts. Do your own business (1Th. 4:11). Attend first to your personal concernswhatever comes within the compass of your general or particular calling. The man who is inattentive to his own special duties cannot with any reason dictate as to the duties of others. To do ones own business is the best safeguard against idleness and meddling curiosity. Solomon declared, Every fool will be meddling. An officious interference with the business of others creates discords. All strifesdomestic, social, ecclesiastical, and politicalmay be traced to meddlesomeness. The meddling man is a fool, because he gratifies his own idle curiosity at the expense of his own well-being and the happiness of others. See that the business you do is your own business, and that you let that of your neighbours alone. Be not eavesdroppers, hearkening what is said or done in your neighbours house. Wide ears and long tongues dwell together. They that love to hear all that may be told them do also love to blab out all they hear (Jewell).
2. That personal duties demand genuine hard work.And to work with your own hands (1Th. 4:11). The claims and enjoyments of religion do not release us from the necessity of toiling for our daily bread and providing things honest in the sight of all men. True religion rather consists in doing all the work of life with consistency, diligence, and perseverance. Manual labour is not the only form of genuine industry. The industry of some of our public men is something amazing. There is no greater foe to piety than idleness. It is the beginning of many other evils, and has been the origin of many a career that has ended with the prison and the gallows. An idle man is always something worse. His brain is the shop for the devil, where he forges the most debasing fancies and plots the most pernicious schemes. Many take more pains to go to hell than almost the holiest to go to heaven. Hirome used to say that a man who labours disheartens even the devil himself.
3. That industry in personal duties is enforced by apostolic precept.As we commanded you (1Th. 4:11). The apostle frequently took occasion to enforce upon his converts the importance of diligence in ones daily business, and set them an example in his own conduct (2Th. 3:7-8). Honest labour is not beneath the dignity of any, and he who works the hardest has the greater influence in enforcing industry upon others.
III. That a pacific spirit, combined with diligence, recommends Christianity to those outside the Church.That ye may walk honestly towards them that are without (1Th. 4:12). Industry is no small part of honesty. A lazy man can never be an honest one, though his chastity and fidelity were as renowned as Josephs, if that were possible to a mere idler. A restless, trifling busybody does unspeakable damage to religion. Many, who are Christians by profession, are often more heathenish in practice, and the blindest among the aliens are swift to detect and pronounce judgment on their dishonesty. The unbelieving world, on the other hand, is impressed and attracted by the peaceful and diligent behaviour of the faithful. Human nature is powerfully influenced by appearances.
IV. That a pacific spirit, combined with diligence, ensures an honoured independence.And that ye may have lack of nothing (1Th. 4:12). It is more blessed to be able to give than to receive. What a mercy it is neither to know the power and misery of those temptations which arise from pinching poverty, nor yet to be necessitated to depend upon the cold-hearted, merciless charity of others. The patient, quiet persevering plodder in the way of Christian duty may not always be rewarded with affluence; but he is encouraged to expect, at least, a modest competency. And the very spirit he has striven to cultivate has enriched him with an inheritance, which few possibly attaincontentment with his lot. He whose is the silver and the gold will care for His loved and faithful servants (Psa. 37:25).
Lessons.
1. Quarrelsomeness and indolence cannot co-exist with a high degree of sanctity.
2. To secure the blessings of peace is worthy of the most industrious study.
3. The mightiest aggressions of the gospel upon the world are made quietly.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE
1Th. 4:11. Study to be Quiet.
I. Make it our meditation day and night and fill our minds with it.
II. Put our meditation into practice.
III. We must unlearn many things before we can be taught this.
1. Cast out self-love.
2. Covetousness.
3. Pull back our ambition.
4. Bind our malice.
5. Empty ourselves of all suspicion, surmising, and discontent.
IV. Mind our own business.
1. Because it is becoming.
2. Brings advantage.
3. It is necessary.
4. We are commanded to do so.Farindon.
Mind your own Business.
I. The Bible contains little encouragement for the idler.
II. The text enjoins diligence not only in business, but in ones own business.
III. The counsel of the apostle is supported by the best wisdom of the world.It becomes a man, said Herodotus, to give heed to those things only which concern himself.
IV. The apostle takes it for granted that ours is a worthy business.
V. Only by diligence in the care of your own souls will you be able to do really effective work for Christ.A. F. Forrest.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Text (1Th. 4:11-12)
11 and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you; 12 that ye may walk becomingly toward them that are without, and may have need of nothing.
Translation and Paraphrase
11.
And (we beseech you) to make it your goal (because of your love of honor) to lead a quiet (settled) life, and to keep busy with your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, just as we commanded you;
12.
So that (by thus working) you may walk (or live) in a manner that will present a good appearance to those (who are) outside (of the kingdom of Christ), and (so that) you may have a lack of none (of the necessities of life).
Notes (1Th. 4:11-12)
1.
There is nothing that some people dread as much as being quiet. They delight in a row, and if one is not in progress, they stir one up.
2.
The Greeks were naturally mercurial and restless. (McGarvey.) Note how the Athenians sought only to hear some new thing. Act. 17:21.
3.
We must study to be quiet. This means to make it our ambition to live a quiet settled life. A peaceful spirit cannot be attained without studied effort. The word study (Gr., philotimeomai) means to be fond of honor . . . to be ambitious, to strive earnestly, to make it ones aim. (Thayer)
4.
Being quiet (Gr., esuchadzo) means to lead a quiet life, rest, keep quiet. It describes those who are not running hither and thither, but staying at home and minding their business.
It is very hard to live quietly in our age with its blare, honking horns, hurry, clatter, rush, activities, TV, etc. How can we be quiet? We grant that it is not easy, but its rewards are great.
5.
The exhortation to Study to be quiet, is repeated as a command with greater force in 2Th. 3:12. Obviously they did not heed Pauls exhortation to work in this letter. So a stronger approach was used.
6.
We should be ambitious to work at our own business and not meddle in other peoples business. The Greeks were a restless people, often given to intermeddling in the business of other people.
7.
Every fool will be meddling. Pro. 20:3. Christians do their own business and leave other peoples business alone. Be not eavesdroppers, or news droppers. Wide ears and wide tongues dwell together. (Jewell)
8.
Supporting ourselves by working with our own hands is definitely commanded in Gods word, See Eph. 4:28. Pauls own hands often supported him. Act. 20:34. He left us an example, and Pauls example of a gentleman is not one whose hands are too dainty for work.
Many people make it their lifes pattern to do just as little work as they can get by with, and then to depend upon unemployment compensation, or state, county, or federal welfare to care for them. Such people need the nobly independent attitude of Paul.
9.
Many Bible interpreters have speculated that the Thessalonians were loafing and living off their Christian brethren, because they expected Christ to come at any moment. There is utterly no hint in the Scriptures that this was the case. Nothing in the Scriptures connects any false ideas about Christs return with the people not minding their own business.
10.
Paul gives two reasons why they should be quiet, and mind their own business, and work:
(1)
To present an honorable appearance to outsiders.
(2)
To lack none of the necessities of life.
11.
1Th. 4:12 brings out the stern reality that people on the outside of the church view our manner of living as being more important than what we teach, and that idleness and parasitic behavior are especially reprehensible to them. Human nature is more impressed by appearances than by doctrines.
12.
A spirit of quietness, combined with honest labor, brings to us a satisfying independence, causing us to have need of nothing. (The Revised Standard Version renders nothing as nobody. This is a permissible rendering, as the word may be either neuter or masculine. We should have need of nothing, and have to depend on nobody.)
13.
With the close of 1Th. 4:12, we end, the section 1Th. 4:1-12, which is entitled The Walk of the Christian. Notice again, and memorize the six points in this section:
(1)
Abound according to the apostles teaching; 1Th. 4:1-2
(2)
Abstain from fornication; 1Th. 4:3-8
(3)
Practice brotherly love; 1Th. 4:9-10
(4)
Study to be quiet; 1Th. 4:11
(5)
Do your own business; 1Th. 4:11
(6)
Work with your own hands; 1Th. 4:11-12
STUDY SUGGESTION
Turn now to the Did You Learn? questions at the close of chapter four [see Chapter Comments], and see if you can answer questions 1 to 26.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(11)And that ye study to be quiet.The word means more than study; and that ye make it your ambition to keep quiettheir ambition having formerly been to make a stir among the Churches. It is a strong use of the rhetorical figure called oxymoron, or combining words of contrary meaning in order to give force and point to the style. The warnings in this verse are not directed against defiance of the law of brotherly love, but against a thoroughly wrong mode of showing that love: the unquietness, meddlesomeness, desultoriness with which it was accompanied are not so much instances of unkindness to the brotherhood as scandals to the heathen. Hence the conjunction at the beginning of the verse has something of an adversative force: We beg you to be even more abundantly liberal, and (yet) at the same time to agitate for perfect calmness about it. It is commonly supposed (but proof is impossible) that the unsettlement arose from belief in the nearness of the Advent.
Do your own business.Not merely was each individual to do his own work, but the whole Church was to refrain from interfering ostentatiously with other Churches. In all languages, to mind ones own business signifies rather the negative idea of ceasing to meddle than the positive idea of industry.
Work with your own hands.Apparently the Thessalonians had been so busy in organising away from home that they had had no time to see to their own industry, and so (see end of next verse) were beginning to fall into difficulties. The words with your own hands are supposed to indicate that most of the Thessalonian Christians were of the artisan class.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Study to be quiet A slight caution against what has perhaps alloyed the purity or endangered the continuance of this love. Harmonious love cannot well endure and abound unless each one keeps his place and performs well each his respective part. Love can hardly exist among a community of idlers, and pauper parasites upon others’ bounty.
Do your own business It would seem as if some of the Church imposed upon the liberality of others, neglecting industry, and looking in some degree to donations for a support. Lunemann objects that this supposes the Church divided into two classes of givers and takers. But it only implies that there were some known to Timothy who negligently depended too much on the liberality of their brethren, and so endangered the harmony and love of the Church. There is no allusion, either here or in 2Th 3:6-12, to any influence derived from the expectation of the immediate advent of Christ as producing this neglect of business. At the time of writing this first epistle, indeed, it does not appear that Paul understood that there was any commotion about the immediate Coming. Evidently Timothy had brought him no such information. On the contrary, the excitement therefrom arose after this epistle, and not from St. Paul’s previous preaching, but from causes detailed in the second chapter of the second epistle.
With your own hands As Auberlen (in Lange’s Bibel-Werk) suggests, the Thessalonians were doubtless mostly handicraftsmen. And we may add the idlers, predisposed to live upon others, were, no doubt, all hand workers. Paul, therefore, here utters no rebuke on brain workers, who are as truly workers as mechanics are.
As we commanded you And set the example. 2Th 3:8-10.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And that you are ambitious to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you. That you may walk honestly towards those who are without, and may have need of nothing.’
The general impression here is of some who were going about in an excited way, creating a great stir, criticising, chattering, gossiping, constantly passing on unrequested spiritual advice, avoiding normal work and living off others ‘by faith’, presumably in view of the near return of Christ (2Th 3:11). This is not to condemn those who are truly called of God to a particular ministry and trust God to supply their needs through the ‘hospitality’ of faithful Christians, but it does warn about taking up such a position too lightly on one’s own initiative. All the Apostles journeyed ‘by faith’. But their call was sure and approved by the whole church.
‘Be ambitious to be still (quiet in the sense of at rest).’ A deliberate paradox. He was warning them against being frustrating ‘busy-bodies’ (2Th 3:11 compare 1Ti 5:13) at other people’s expense. This would suggest that in view of what they saw as Christ’s near return some thought that working was futile, and that rather they should meet with fellow-Christians all the time, talking excitedly about their own opinion on Christian things, looking constantly into other people’s lives in order to advise them or put them right, advising them in accordance with their own wrong ideas, discussing other Christians behind their backs with a view to ‘helping’ them while only upsetting them, regularly backbiting, claiming to stir everyone to faithfulness, while only being annoying, and so on (this is taking the best view of them). It is a caricature of what a real pastor should be. Rather, says Paul, they should be ambitious to settle down and support themselves, and do physical or mental work and not be so ‘spiritually’ active on their own cognisance. They will do the church far more good.
‘And to do (practise, carry out) your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you.’
Rather these people should spend more time looking to their own affairs and the affairs of their families, should attend to their work and business, and should get down to some honest day’s work, just as Paul had previously told them to do. Unlike the Jews (all Rabbis were expected to have a trade), the Gentiles did not look favourably on physical work. But Paul points out to them that it is not spiritual to be idle. These important words are a remedy for when we begin to worry that in the light of the Lord’s return we are spending too much time on mundane things.
It is, of course, as so often, a matter of balance. There can be no doubt that some Christians are too taken up with their own affairs, and could do to give more assistance to the church and to evangelism in their ‘leisure time’. But our efforts should be prayerfully determined and not over-hectic.
‘That you may walk honestly towards those who are without, and may have need of nothing.’ His advice is so that they might treat fairly and honestly and decently ‘those who are outside’. This may mean outside their own circle, or outside their own families, or outside the church. Those who live off others on their own cognisance cheat everybody. Those who are busybodies cause harm to others. Those who are seen as parasites are a bad witness to the world.
‘And may have need of nothing.’ By working as others do, and have to, they will then be able to provide for their own needs and not be in a state where they have to receive help from others to meet their basic physical needs.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Th 4:11. That ye study to be quiet, &c. Idleness is utterly unbecoming a reasonable creature, and is not only a great vice itself, but the seed of many and greater vices. Nothing can be a higher scandal to any denomination, or profession, than lazy, pragmatical, officious people, who mind every body’s business but their own. They are a common nuisance, and ought to be discouraged, if the churches would have peace, and recommend religion. But, indeed, idleness, in every sort and degree, stands condemned by the Christian institutes. See Act 20:34. Rom 13:13. Eph 4:28. Col 4:5. 2Th 3:7-13. 1Pe 4:15.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Th 4:11 is attached to the preceding in the loosest grammatical connection. It has been thought that 1Th 4:11 is only a further development of the preceding exhortation. So Olshausen, who finds in the whole section, 1Th 4:9-12 , only an exhortation to love, and in such a manner that 1Th 4:9-10 refer to love to fellow-Christians, and 1Th 4:11-12 to love to man in general. To the latter in particular, inasmuch as the Thessalonians were required to give no occasion to those who were not Christians to blame anything in the professors of the gospel. But evidently the apostle, when he exhorts his readers to give no offence by their conduct to those who were not Christians, considers this not as the fulfilment of the commandment of love to man in general, but as a matter of prudence and discretion , in order in such a manner to counteract the prejudices against Christianity, and so to pave the way for its diffusion in wider circles. Comp. also Col 4:5-6 . Others suppose that to the exhortation to a warning against its abuse is attached; as some in the church practised liberality, so others made use of this liberality as an occasion of leading an idle life. So already Theodoret: , , ; and after him Estius (“Hac eorum liberalitate quidam pauperiores abutentes, otio et inertiae vacabant, discurrentes per domos et inhiantes mensis divitum atque in res alienas curiosi, adeo ut hoc nomine etiam apud infideles male audirent”), Benson, Flatt, Schott, de Wette (wavering), and Koch. But against this view is decisive (1) That such a sharp division of the church into two different classes is not justified by the context; for, on account of the close connection of 1Th 4:11 with the preceding, those of whom is required are the same with those to whom the exhortation to . . . is addressed. It accordingly follows, that as the church as such was distinguished by active brotherly love, so also the church as such (not a mere fraction of it) did not possess the qualities mentioned in 1Th 4:11 . (2) According to this view, the stress is placed only on , whereas the demand to and is entirely left out of consideration. And yet it apparently follows, from being placed first , that the main point lies on these, whilst the idleness blamed in the readers is evidently described only as a consequence or result of the neglected .
Accordingly, as a closer connection of ideas, than that which the form of the grammatical construction appears to indicate, is not without force demonstrable, we must, mindful of the rapid transitions which are peculiar to the Apostle Paul, especially in the practical parts of his Epistles, consider 1Th 4:11-12 as a new exhortation, internally distinct from that in 1Th 4:9-10 , and which only happens to be united with it, as both refer to the moral furtherance of the Christian life.
] is to be taken together: to make it your ambition to live quietly , and the juxtaposition of the two verbs is an oxymoron , as in the usual course of things every is properly an impulse to shine by actions . [52] Calvin takes by itself, referring it back to the command to brotherly love: Postquam enim admonuit, ut crescant in caritate, sanctam aemulationem illis commendat, ut mutuo inter se amore certent, vel (?) certe praecipit, ut se ipsum unusquisque vincere contendat, atque hoc posterius magis amplector. Ergo ut perfecta sit eorum caritas, contentionem in illis requirit. So also Hemming, and already Theophylact, leave this and the usual construction a matter of choice. But the omission of before would be harsh. On , comp. Rom 15:20 ; 2Co 5:9 ; Kypke, II. p. 189. The counterpart of is , 2Th 3:11 , and , Plat. Gorg. 526 C.
The disquiet or unsteadiness which prevailed in the church is not to be sought for in the political (so Zwingli: Nemo tumultuetus, nemo motum excitet; and, but undecidedly, Koppe: seditioner adversus magistratus Romanos; comp. also Schott, p. 121), but in the religious sphere. It was, as it appears, an excitement of mind which had been called forth by the new world of thought produced by Christianity; but an excitement, on the one hand, risen to such an unnatural height that worldly business was neglected, and idleness stepped into the place of a regular laborious life; and, on the other hand, manifesting itself by such a fanatical spiritual zeal that the Christians by such a line of conduct must fall into discredit with those who are not Christians. It is not improbable that the thought of the impending advent of Christ formed the centre part of this excitement. At least this, by a natural association of ideas , would give the reason why Paul after 1Th 4:11-12 suddenly interrupts the course of his admonitions, in order, exactly at this place, to attach instructions concerning the advent, whilst 1Th 5:12 ff. shows that he intended to give various other admonitions.
The exhortation of the apostle in 1Th 5:6 ; 1Th 5:8 , to be prepared for the unexpected entrance of the advent, which might be abused in favour of such an excitement, is not decisive against the reference to an apocalyptic fanaticism (against de Wette, who for this reason supposes only “pious excitement in general”), because that exhortation intervenes between preceding (1Th 5:4-5 ) and succeeding (1Th 5:9 ff.) consolatory expressions , and, accordingly, loses all that is alarming about it; the addition of that exhortation was too naturally and necessarily required by the explanation of the circumstance itself, that Paul should have suppressed it from mere fear of a possible abuse.
] same as , to be mindful of one’s own concerns, without wishing to take the oversight of the concerns of our neighbour. If the above remarks are not incorrect, Paul thinks on the unauthorized zeal, by which they had used the advent as a means of terror, in order to draw before their tribunal what was a matter of individual conscience, and by which a care for the salvation of their neighbour was assumed with an objectionable curiosity, would be more correct Greek than . See Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 441 f.; Kypke, II. p. 338 f. Comp. Dio Cass. lx. 27: .
] means nothing else than to work . Incorrectly, Flatt: to gain one’s maintenance by work; Baumgarten-Crusius: not to be ashamed of work. From the addition , it follows that the Thessalonian church was mostly composed of the working class. Comp. also 1Co 1:26 . Calixt, Pelt, Schott, Hofmann, and others erroneously find expressed in the words any imaginable business. Paul mentions only the business of hand labour, and to apply this to regular business of any form or kind is entirely to sever it from this meaning of the expression.
] refers not only to , but to the whole of 1Th 4:11 . It would seem from this that these disorders already prevailed in their beginnings during the apostle’s personal residence in Thessalonica. There is nothing objectionable in this inference, as (1) from 2Th 2:5 it appears that at the publication of the gospel in Thessalonica the advent had been the subject of very special explanations; and (2) the effect of such explanations on the minds of Gentiles anxious about salvation must have been overwhelming. Baur, p. 484, therefore is entirely mistaken when he maintains that exhortations, such as those given in 1Th 4:11-12 , could not have been necessary for a church recently founded.
[52] Bengel: politica erubescit .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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;
Ver. 11. Study to be quiet ] Gr. Be ambitious of peace; as earnest and eager after it, as the ambitionist is after honour; who commonly rides without reins, rides over other men’s heads to compass his desire. The original is, , love the honour to be quiet, or to rest and live in silence and not to be noted or noticed, ut qui vivens moriensque fefellit, affecting rather quietness from the world than any great acquaintance with it.
And to do your own business ] Not oaring in other men’s boats, not meddling in other men’s bishoprics,1Pe 4:151Pe 4:15 . Tu fuge ceu pestem, . Choler in the gall is useful to the body; but if it overflow, the body grows distempered. Let every man keep to his place, and affect to be no meddler, not to suffer as a busy body, Intra pelliculam tuam te contine, keep within your circle; eccentric motions cannot be right.
With your own hands ] Or else with your own brains, as students, which is by far the harder labour.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11 . ] to make it your ambition to be quiet have no other than that of a quiet industrious holy life. Thl. (as an alternative) and Calvin would take alone, and understand it “optima mulatio, quum singuli benefaciendo se ipsos vincere conantur:” but thus the omission of any copula before . would introduce great harshness into the sentence.
. , , , . , , . . Phryn. ed. Lob., p. 441: where see examples in the note.
From . . . . , it appears that the members of the Thessalonian church were mostly of the class of persons thus labouring. Observe the present infinitives, indicative of continued habit.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Th 4:11 . . (oxymoron). The prospect of the second advent (1Th 4:13 f., 1Th 5:1-10 ) seems to have made some local enthusiasts feel that it was superfluous for them to go on working, if the world was to be broken up immediately. This feverish symptom occupies Paul more in the diagnosis of his second letter, but it may have been present to his mind here. For instances of this common phase in unbalanced minds compare the story of Hippolytus ( Comm. Dan. , 4:19) about a Pontic bishop in the second century who misled his people by prophesying the advent within six months, and also a recent outburst of the same superstition in Tripoli ( Westminster Gazette , Nov., 1899) where “the report that the end of the world will come on November 13” produced “an amazing state of affairs. The Israelites are sending their wives to pray in the synagogues, and most workmen have ceased work. Debtors refuse to pay their debts, so that trade is almost paralysed.” . Plato uses a similar expression in his Republic , 496 D ( ); but of the philosopher who withdraws in despair from the lawlessness of a world which he is impotent to help (see also Thompson’s note on Gorg. , 526 c ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
study. Greek. philotimeomai. See Rom 15:20.
be quiet. Greek. hesuchazo. See Luk 23:56.
do, &c. = attend to your own affairs. Compare 2Th 3:11.
commanded. Greek. parangello. See Act 1:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11. ] to make it your ambition to be quiet-have no other than that of a quiet industrious holy life. Thl. (as an alternative) and Calvin would take alone, and understand it optima mulatio, quum singuli benefaciendo se ipsos vincere conantur: but thus the omission of any copula before . would introduce great harshness into the sentence.
. , , , . , , . . Phryn. ed. Lob., p. 441: where see examples in the note.
From . . . ., it appears that the members of the Thessalonian church were mostly of the class of persons thus labouring. Observe the present infinitives, indicative of continued habit.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Th 4:11. ) that you study (be ambitious) to be quiet) An Oxymoron.[15] Political ambition is ashamed to be quiet. Its opposite is [to be busybodies, opposed to, with quietness-work], 2Th 3:11-12. It is therefore added here, , to do your own business. There is, however, a strict propriety imparted to the word from 1Th 4:12, at the end.[16]-, to labour) It was necessary to mention this to men who had acquired a taste for heaven. Men immersed in the world labour of their own accord. The admonition increases in force at 2Th 3:6-7.
[15] See App. The figure by which things contrary (as here ambition and quiet) are acutely and wisely joined together.
[16] i.e. Having nothing which you need to solicit ambitiously from others.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Th 4:11
and that ye study to be quiet,-Not meddlesome, or busy- bodies in other peoples matters. [For the word study the margin has be ambitious to be quiet. Paul here combines words of contradictory meaning in order to give point and force to the exhortation. The love of personal distinction was an active influence and potent for mischief in Greek city life; possibly the Thessalonians were touched with it, and betrayed symptoms of the restless and emulous spirit that afterwards gave Paul so much trouble in Corinth. He makes it an object in prayer: I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men; . . . that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. (1Ti 2:1-2.) Eager and active as his own nature was, Paul much admired this kind of a life and deemed it ordinarily the course filled for the cultivation and development of Christian character. Though he may escape the excitements of social and political life, the Christian is exposed to the more subtle dangers of religious excitement, always a. chief hindrance to love of the brethren; for as fever prevents the due discharge of the functions of the body, so does excitement the healthy activities of the spirit.]
and to do your own business,-He instructs them to attend to their own affairs, and not to interfere with the affairs of others. This would prevent the impertinent prying into the affairs of others, to which many are prone, and produce that careful attention to their calling in life, which produces thrift, order, and competence. The Lord requires no one to give up an honorable calling, and countenances idleness in no one. [The Christian should be punctual, prompt, and energetic. It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. (Mar 13:34.)]
and to work with your hands,-Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (Gen 2:15.) And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast harkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (Gen 3:17-19.) Labor was not the curse, mortality or death was the curse. Labor was the antidote to the curse, as it would employ him in the ways not hurtful.
even as we charged you;-While he was with them he commanded them to labor with their hands, and this command had often been given to them. It is a duty that should be taught to all Christians.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
that: Pro 17:1, Ecc 4:6, Lam 3:26, 2Th 3:12, 1Ti 2:2, 1Pe 3:4
study: Rom 15:20, 2Co 5:9, *Gr.
and to do: Mar 13:34, Luk 12:42, Luk 12:43, Rom 12:4-8, Col 3:22-24, 2Th 3:11, 1Ti 5:13, Tit 2:4-10, 1Pe 4:10, 1Pe 4:11, 1Pe 4:15
to work: Act 20:35, Rom 12:11, 1Co 4:12, Eph 4:28, 2Th 3:7-12, Tit 3:14, *marg.
Reciprocal: Jdg 19:16 – his work Rth 2:3 – gleaned Neh 4:15 – every one Psa 34:14 – seek Pro 12:11 – tilleth Pro 16:26 – laboureth Pro 17:14 – leave Pro 21:5 – thoughts Pro 31:13 – worketh Pro 31:27 – General Isa 19:15 – General Hab 2:5 – keepeth 1Co 7:20 – abide 1Co 7:33 – careth 1Th 4:1 – ye have 2Th 3:6 – walketh 2Th 3:8 – but 2Th 3:10 – that
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Th 4:11. To study means to be concerned, and be quiet denotes to be settled and not meddlesome. It is explained by the apostle in the same sentence where he says to do your own business. To work with your own hands means to engage in some manual labor or occupation that will bring them an income. Paul had given these instructions orally when he was in their midst. (See 2Th 3:10.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Th 4:11. Make it your ambition to be quiet. The Greeks were naturally restless and ambitious. Juvenal in a well-known passage (iii. 76) satirizes their unsteadiness, their flying from one pursuit to another, their readiness to engage in anything which promised remuneration without hard work, to open schools for grammar, or rhetoric, or geometry, or drawing, or wrestling; to tell the will of heaven, or to dance upon the tight-rope; to administer medicines or charms. They were especially ambitious of municipal offices, in which their ready tongue might save them from hard labour, and give them an opportunity of intermeddling with other mens affairs. This natural excitability and idleness of the Greeks had found nourishment in the expectation which the Thessalonians had apparently formed regarding the speedy approach of the end of the world; and probably also in the circumstance that they were called to a heavenly citizenship which might seem to exonerate them from earthly drudgery, and to a brotherhood from which they might expect to receive support. That some of the Thessalonians were walking disorderly and refusing to work, and acting as busybodies, we read in the Second Epistle. These were in all probability persons who wished to be regarded as spiritual, eager for the Lords coming, capable advisers and instructors of other men. To these Paul says, Let your ambition lead you not to a flighty, excited, bustling, indolent life, assuming to be superior to, but in reality dependent on, the labour of other men, but to a tranquil, steady, unostentatious engagement in your own ordinary occupations.
Work with your own hands. From this it may probably be inferred that the bulk of the Thessalonian converts were labouring men or mechanics.
As we commanded you. Even while yet with them, Paul had seen symptoms of the restlessness which afterwards developed into what he could only call disorderly conduct-symptoms so significant that the same injunctions to a quiet demeanour and industrious pursuance of their ordinary callings were even then necessary.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
It is supposed by some, that the charity and bounty of these Thessalonians, mentioned in the foregoing verses, occasioned some persons to be idle and carry tales from house to house, seeking by such flatteries and insinuations to maintain themselves without working; the apostle therefore commands every man to work at some calling, that they neither be a burden to the church, nor give a scandal to the heathen.
Study to be quiet, that is, to be of a peaceable spirit and temper; and the original word imports an ambitious study; it ought to be our ambitious desire to live quietly and peaceably with all men; and to live so with some men will require study, and earnest endeavour:
If it be possible, live peaceably with all men, says St. Paul, Rom 12:18. Implying, that there are some men that it is impossible to live peaceably with; and whereas he adds, doing our own business, and working with our own hands; that apostolical injunction requires, that every person be well employed, and found in the way of an honest and industrious diligence, for no man is sent into the world to be idle; and as it is every man’s duty, so it is also his privilege, to have a calling: the want of which exposes to innumerable temptations, for the devil finds an idle person always ready to run of his errand.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
and that ye study to be quiet [The Greeks were naturally mercurial and restless. How much they needed this advice to be quiet, or steady, will be seen in Paul’s second Epistle, where he reproves them for their wild fanaticism, built upon false hopes of Christ’s immediate coming], and to do your own business [without being meddlesome], and to work with your hands, even as we charged you;
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
4:11 {7} And that ye study to be quiet, {8} and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
(7) He condemns unsettled minds, and such as are curious in matters which do not concern them.
(8) He rebukes idleness and slothfulness: and whoever is given to these vices, fall into other wickedness, to the great offence of the Church.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Three aspects of behavior demonstrate love for others. First, a person who leads a restful rather than a frantic life avoids disturbing the lives of others. He or she also enjoys life more himself or herself. Second, one who tends to his own affairs does not meddle in the business of others. Third, the person who works to provide for his or her own needs and the needs of his or her family does not put a burden on others to support him or her. Greek culture degraded manual labor, but Christianity together with Judaism viewed it as an honorable pursuit (cf. Eph 4:28; Col 3:17). [Note: Thomas, p. 274.]
". . . it was not Paul’s intent that the church disrupt society or overthrow governments. Rather, he encouraged Christians to be good citizens and exemplary members of their families and of their society but to do so in a manner consistent with the teachings of Christ. Only in this sense was the Pauline gospel intended to change society. It set out to change the individuals who made up society while awaiting that climactic event when the power of God would truly change the world forever." [Note: Martin, p. 138.]