Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Thessalonian 3:10
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
10. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you ] Better, For also: St Paul’s present charge on the subject repeats and reinforces what he said in his oral teaching; this we used to charge you same verb as in 2Th 3:4 ; 2Th 3:6 (see note), and same tense as in ch. 2Th 2:5 (“I was wont to tell you”), and 1Th 3:4 (see note). To this original “charge” the Apostle referred in 1Th 4:11, touching the same point; it formed part of “the tradition” which he and his fellow-missionaries “delivered” to the Thessalonians (2Th 3:6, ch. 2Th 2:15).
that if any would not work, neither should he eat ] In the Greek this is put vividly in direct narration: If any will not work, neither let him eat. A stem, but necessary and merciful rule, the neglect of which makes charity demoralising. But this law of St Paul’s touches the idle rich, as well as the poor; it makes that a discredit which one hears spoken of as if it were a privilege and the mark of a gentleman, to “live upon one’s means,” to live without settled occupation and service to the community “natus consumere fruges.”
The form of the Greek implies in this case a positive refusal to labour: the man wont work (Latin nonvult operari). Then it is God’s law that he shall starve.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you – It would seem from this that the evil of which the apostle here complains had begun to operate even when he was with them. There were those who were disposed to be idle, and who needed the solemn command of an apostle to induce them to labor.
That if any would not work, neither should he eat – That is, at the public expense. They should not be supported by the church. This was a maxim among the Jews (see Wetstein, in loc.), and the same sentiment may be found in Homer, Demosthenes, and Pythagoras; see Grotius, in loc. The maxim is founded in obvious justice, and is in accordance with the great law under which our Creator has placed us; Gen 3:19. That law, in the circumstances, was benevolent, and it should be our aim to carry it out in reference to ourselves and to others. The law here laid down by the apostle extends to all who are able to work for a living, and who will not do it, and binds us not to contribute to their support if they will not labor for it. It should be regarded as extending:
(1)To the members of a church – who, though poor, should not be supported by their brethren, unless they are willing to work in any way they can for their own maintenance.
(2)To those who beg from door to door, who should never be assisted unless they are willing to do all they can do for their own support. No one can be justified in assisting a lazy man. In no possible circumstances are we to contribute to foster indolence. A man might as properly help to maintain open vice.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Th 3:10
We commanded you that if any man would not work, neither should he eat
The law of labour
It is a curious circumstance that the first subject that disturbed the apostolic church was not of a profound character.
It was the question of temporal relief–the early budding of a poor law. From that time forth the mode and measure of the administration of charity has been a vexed question in church and state. Here St. Paul lays down the grand principle which is applicable to all relief. We have here a common law to guide all our alms, national and individual. It is a law against wilful idleness. This is plain from the context. But we are not to withhold the hand from the necessitous (2Th 3:13). Let us apply this law that labour is life and life is labour to–
I. The irrational creation.
1. The inanimate creation is Gods great chemical laboratory.
2. His animated creation is one enormous factory where the law of labour is rigidly enforced, from the royal eagle to the meanest reptile. The swallows skimming round us seem to be only sporting in the air. In reality they are working for their food, opening their beaks as they fly, and carrying home insects to their young. How many miles daily does a sheep walk to get its living? Look into the insect world (Pro 6:6; Pro 30:24) at the ant hills, spiders webs, coral reefs, marvels of scientific, artistic, and laborious industry. The law everywhere is–no work, no life.
II. The spiritual life of man.
1. Here we might imagine that another great law meets us in opposition–the law of grace. Scripture teaches us that we are saved not by our own endeavours but by Gods free and unmerited mercy. May we then lie down in antinomian security? That moment we cease to live. Antinomianism is spiritual suicide. Hear the word of God: Agonize to enter into the strait gate. Labour for the meat which endureth, etc. How is a Christian described? As a soldier, husbandman, pilgrim, and by other figures, every one of which implies exertion of the most strenuous character. Every promise is held out to the energetic; and not only so, but the result is proportionate. The diligent soul shall be made fat. The more we pray and toil, the richer will be our present harvest in peace of conscience, the sense of pardoning love, and in the world to come eternal glory.
2. And if this be true individually in what we have to do in working out our own salvation, how much more in our labours of love. Here nothing is done without toil. You need but look at all the benevolent institutions of the country to see that no real good is done without trouble.
III. Man in his natural state. Work was the law of Paradise; it only became a painful one after the fail. From the moment of its utterance, By the sweat of thy brow, this law has ruled all human life. There is not a man who has attained to eminence save in obedience to it. In our country, whose distinction is that the paths of fame and wealth are open to the meanest, it is a fact that the vast majority of our greatest men in Parliament, the army, science, the law, the Church, have sprung from the lower or middle classes. It is not the poor mechanic only, but all must work or die. But what about the born wealthy? Well, that is the result of their ancestors labour. It did not originally come by chance or fortune. And even those who are under no obligation to toil for their daily bread are obliged to have recourse either to it or to artificial labour in travel or sport to maintain their health and save their life. (Dean Close.)
Idlers
In writing to his step-brother Johnston, who had requested a loan of money, Abraham Lincoln says: The great defect in your conduct is, not that you are lazy, but that you are an idler. This habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty, and it is vastly important to you and to your children that you should break the habit. Go to work for the best money wages you can get, and for every dollar that you will get for your own labour I will give you another one. If you will do this you will soon be out of debt, and what is better you will have gained a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. (H. O. Mackay.)
No work, no pay
Here is a large vineyard. Many men and maidens are busy on the hillside. They are coming and going, and singing the vintage songs. Here is the master. He sees that the rules are kept. There must be no disorder, no profanity. Each must keep his place. The baskets must be clean. The master is counting the baskets that are brought to the vats. After each name he writes the number of baskets brought. At last the week is ended, and the men and maidens come to receive their pay. Here among them is a man whom the master has been watching day by day. He kept his basket clean; he kept his place; he used no profane language; he enjoyed the companionship of the others; he joined merrily in the vintage songs. But in all this time he gathered no grapes. What is your name? says the master. Menalque, says the man. I find your name upon the book, replies the master, but I do not find that you gathered a single cluster; there is therefore no pay for you. No pay? says the man. What have I done wrong? I have kept my place, used no improper language, kept my basket clean, and joined heartily in the songs. You did no wrong, says the master, but you did no work. There is nothing for you. No pay for me! exclaimed the man. Why, that is the one thing I came in the vineyard for. The pay constituted my chief interest in it. Is not this the history of thousands in the Lords vineyard? They come, their names are upon the book. They do no special wrong; they do not swear, or steal, or commit adultery. They break no rule. They sing the vintage songs. They hear sermons, if they are entertaining. They attend church, if it is quite convenient. But are they in any true sense labourers in Gods vineyard? Have they done any honest work for Christ and His Church? Have they performed one hard task, done one unpleasant duty, spoken one brave word, lifted one fallen sinner, lightened one heavy burden, crucified one loved comfort, or done any one thing or series of things that would justly entitle them to the name of labourer, or the hope of reward when the great day of reckoning comes? (R. S. Barrett.)
Work necessary for man
John the Dwarf wanted to be without care like the angels, doing nothing but praise God. So he threw away his cloak, left his brothers and the Abbot, and went into the desert. But after seven days he came back and knocked at the door. Who is there? asked the Abbot. John. John is turned into an angel, and is no more among men. So he left him outside all night, and in the morning gave him to understand that if he was a man he must work, but that if he was an angel he had no need to live in a cell.
The danger of idleness
Notice the invention used by country people to catch wasps. They will put a little sweet liquor into a long and narrow-necked phial. The do nothing wasp comes by, smells the sweet liquor, plunges in and is drowned. But the bee comes by, and if she does stop for a moment to smell, yet she enters not, because she has honey of her own to make; she is too busy in the work of the commonwealth to indulge herself with the tempting sweets. Master Greenham, a Puritan divine, was once waited upon by a woman who was greatly tempted. Upon making inquiries into her way of life, he found she had little to do, and Greenham said, That is the secret of your being so much tempted. Sister, if you are very busy, Satan may tempt you, but he will not easily prevail, and he will soon give up the attempt. Idle Christians are not tempted of the devil so much as they tempt the devil to tempt them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The cure for idleness
The wife of a certain chieftain who had fallen on idle habits, one day lifted the dish cover at dinner, and revealed a pair of spurs; a sign that he must ride and hunt for his next meal. (H. O. Mackay.)
How to deal with beggars
Oberlin was distinguished by his benevolence and charity; hence he was beset with beggars. Why do you not work? said he to a man one day. Because no one will employ me. Well, then, I will employ you; there, carry those planks; break these stones; fill that bucket with water, and I will repay you for your trouble. Such was his usual mode, and idle beggars were taught to come there no more. (J. L. Nye.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. If any would not work, neither should he eat.] This is a just maxim, and universal nature inculcates it to man. If man will work, he may eat; if he do not work, he neither can eat, nor should he eat. The maxim is founded on these words of the Lord: In the sweat of thy brow thou shall eat bread. Industry is crowned with God’s blessing; idleness is loaded with his curse. This maxim was a proverb among the Jews. Men who can work, and will rather support themselves by begging, should not get one morsel of bread. It is a sin to minister to necessities that are merely artificial.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The words contain a reason, as the illative for imports; but what it refers to is uncertain; most probably a further reason of the apostles working with his hands, because when with them he left this command,
that if any would not work, neither should he eat; he would therefore practise himself what he commanded them, and not be thought to be as the Pharisees, binding heavy burdens upon others, and he not touch them himself. And this is another of the commandments which the apostle gave them, which he declared his confidence that they would do, 2Th 3:4. And this command seems grounded upon the law given to Adam: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, Gen 3:19. For when he recommends a practice not directly grounded upon some word of God, or of Christ, or from infallible inspiration, he calls it a permission, as 1Co 7:6; but when otherwise, he saith: I command, yet not I, but the Lord, 1Co 7:10; and calls it the commandment of the Lord, 1Co 14:37. And this in the text is not his alone, but the Lords, and is elsewhere mentioned, as Eph 4:28; Let him that stole steal no more, but work with his hands, & c.: see 1Co 7:20. God requires it of us as men, that we may be profitable in the commonwealth, supply our own wants and of those that depend upon us, and have wherewith also to supply the wants of the poor, Eph 4:28, to be kept from the temptations of idleness. Christianity doth not extinguish the profitable laws of nature or nations. Yet this general command admits limitations; if men have ability and opportunity to work, or if the ends of working are not otherwise supplied. For he that lives out of the reason of the law seems not bound by the law; or if the work be mental, and not manual, the law is fulfilled; and the equity of the law reacheth all men so far, as that none ought to be idle and useless in the world. And the apostles argument for it in the text is cogent from nature itself; agreeably to that of Solomon, Pro 16:26; He that laboureth laboureth for himself, for his mouth craveth it of him. Whereupon some judge these believing Thessalonians to be generally a people that lived by some handicraft trade, or some other manual labour. And the eating here intended is meant of relief from the stock and charge of the church: such should not be relieved who would not work, as it is in the text; who could, but would not, the fault being in the will.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. For evenTranslate, “Foralso.” We not only set you the example, but gave apositive “command.”
commandedGreekimperfect, “We were commanding”; we kept charge of you.
would not workGreek,“is unwilling to work.” BENGELmakes this to be the argument: not that such a one is to have hisfood withdrawn from him by others; but he proves from the necessityof eating the necessity of working; using thispleasantry, Let him who will not work show himself an angel,that is, do without food as the angels do (but since he cannot dowithout food, then he ought to be not unwilling to work). It seems tome simpler to take it as a punishment of the idle. Paul often quotesgood adages current among the people, stamping them with inspiredapproval. In the Hebrew, “Bereshith Rabba,“the same saying is found; and in the book Zeror, “He whowill not work before the sabbath, must not eat on the sabbath.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For even when we were with you,…. At Thessalonica in person, and first preached the Gospel to them,
we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat; the Ethiopic version reads in the singular number, “when I was with you, I commanded you”; using the above words, which were a sort of a proverb with the Jews, and is frequently used by them, , or , “that if a man would not work, he should not eat” q. And again r,
“he that labours on the evening of the sabbath (or on weekdays), he shall eat on the sabbath day; and he who does not labour on the evening of the sabbath, from whence shall he eat (or what right and authority has he to eat) on the sabbath day?”
Not he that could not work through weakness, bodily diseases, or old age, the necessities of such are to be distributed to, and they are to be taken care of, and provided with the necessaries of life by the officers of the church; but those that can work, and will not, ought to starve, for any assistance that should be given them by the members of the church, or the officers of it.
q Bereshit Rabba, sect. 14. fol. 13. 1. Echa Rabbati, fol. 48. 4. & Midrash Koholet, fol. 65. 4. r T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 3. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This (). What he proceeds to give.
If any will not work, neither let him eat ( ). Recitative here not to be translated, like our modern quotation marks. Apparently a Jewish proverb based on Ge 3:19. Wetstein quotes several parallels. Moffatt gives this from Carlyle’s Chartism: “He that will not work according to his faculty, let him perish according to his necessity.” Deissmann (Light from the Ancient East, p. 314) sees Paul borrowing a piece of workshop morality. It was needed, as is plain. This is a condition of the first class (note negative ) with the negative imperative in the conclusion.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
If any would not work, etc. A Jewish proverb.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For even when we were with you” (kai gar hote hemen pros humas) “For even when we were with you all”, in face to face company, 1Th 2:1-7; 1Th 5:11-15. Paul’s labors and instructions were performed in a devout and discreet manner, always designed to help and to lift men.
2) “This we commanded you” (touto pareggellomen humin) “This we charged you”, “entreated or exhorted you” by love, not by mandate or edict, as a Lord over God’s heritage, 1Pe 5:3; Mat 20:25-28.
3) “That if any would not work” (hoti ei tis ou thelei ergazesthai) “That if anyone wills not to work”, does not will, or is too lazy to work; he breaks God’s law of livelihood, obligation of every man, to earn his livelihood by labor and toil, Gen 3:19; 1Th 2:9-12.
4) “Neither should he eat”. (mede esthieto) “neither let him eat”, of your labors, 1Th 4:1; 1Th 4:11-12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
10 He that will not labor. From its being written in Psa 128:2 —
Thou art blessed, eating of the labor of thy hands,
also in Pro 10:4,
The blessing of the Lord is upon the hands of him that laboreth,
it is certain that indolence and idleness are accursed of God. Besides, we know that man was created with this view, that he might do something. Not only does Scripture testify this to us, but nature itself taught it to the heathen. Hence it is reasonable, that those, who wish to exempt themselves from the common law, (710) should also be deprived of food, the reward of labor. When, however, the Apostle commanded that such persons should not eat, he does not mean that he gave commandment to those persons, but forbade that the Thessalonians should encourage their indolence by supplying them with food.
It is also to be observed, that there are different ways of laboring. For whoever aids (711) the society of men by his industry, either by ruling his family, or by administering public or private affairs, or by counseling, or by teaching, (712) or in any other way, is not to be reckoned among the idle. For Paul censures those lazy drones who lived by the sweat of others, while they contribute no service in common for aiding the human race. Of this sort are our monks and priests who are largely pampered by doing nothing, excepting that they chant in the temples, for the sake of preventing weariness. This truly is, (as Plautus speaks,) (713) to “live musically.” (714)
(710) “ De la loy et regle commune;” — “From the common law and rule.”
(711) “ Aide et porte proufit;” — “Aids and brings advantage.”
(712) “ En enseignant les autres;” — “By instructing others.”
(713) The passage alluded to is as follows: “ Musice, Hercle, agitis aetatem “ —(“By Hercules, you pass life musically”) Plaut. Mostellariae, Act in. Sc. 2, 40. — Ed.
(714) “ Plaute poete Latin ancien, quand il vent parler de gens qui viuent a leur aise, il dit qu’ils viuent musicalement, c’est a dire, en chantres. Mais a la verite on pent bien dire de ceux-ci, en tout sens qu’on le voudra prendre, qu’ils viuent musicalement;” — “Plautus, the ancient Latin poet, when he has it in view to speak of persons who live at their ease, says that they live musically, that is to say, like singers. But truly it may be well said of those persons, in every sense in which one might choose to take it, that they live musically.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
2Th. 3:10. If any would not work, neither should he eat.A stern, but necessary and merciful rule, the neglect of which makes charity demoralising (Ibid.). It is parasitism which is condemned.
2Th. 3:11. Working not at all, but are busybodies.Not working, but working round people, as we might represent St. Pauls play on the words. Their only business is to be busybodies.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.2Th. 3:10-12
Christianity and Work.
Christianity is the gospel of work. Its clarion-call thrills along the nerves of human life and summons the world to labour. It gives to work meaning, purpose, dignity, and exalts drudgery into a blessedness. While full of sympathy for the feeble and maimed, it has no pity for the indolent. Its Founder and first apostles were giants in labour, and their example animates the world to-day with a spirit of noblest activity. It is not the drone, but the worker, who blesses the world. Be no longer a chaos, writes Carlyle, but a world, or even a worldkin. Produce! produce! were it but the pitifullest, infinitesimal fraction of a product, produce it, in Gods name! Tis the utmost thou hast in thee; out with it, then. Up, up! whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
I. Christianity recognises the duty of every man to work for his own support.For even when we were with you, this we commanded, that if any would not work, neither should he eat (2Th. 3:10). The necessity of food involves the necessity of work. As every one must eat, so every one must work. The wife of a certain chieftain, who had fallen upon idle habits, one day lifted the dish-cover at dinner and revealed a pair of spurs, a sign that he must ride and hunt for his next meal. It is said that in the Californian bee-pastures, on the sun-days of summer, one may readily infer the time of day from the comparative energy of bee-movements alone; drowsy and moderate in the cool of the morning, increasing in energy with the ascending sun, and at high noon thrilling and quivering in wild ecstasy, then gradually declining again to the stillness of night. Is not this a picture of our life? Work is necessary for sustenance, for health, for moral development; and rest is all the sweeter after genuine toil.
II. Christianity is intolerant of an ignoble indolence.For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies (2Th. 3:11). The disorderly are the idle tatlers, who make a pretence of work by busying themselves with all kinds of things but their own duty. They are triflers, wasting their own time and other peoples; and they do serious mischief. In certain foreign parts, where insects abound in such swarms as to be a pest to the people and destructive enemies to young growing plants, an electric apparatus has been constructed to destroy the brood wholesale. The appliance consists of a strong electric light attracting the moths and insects, a suction-fan drawing them into a shaft as they approach the light, and a small mill in the shaft where the victims are ground up and mixed with flour, thus converting them into poultry-food. Cannot some genius contrive a means of putting an endshort of grinding them into chicken-food: let us be merciful, even to our enemies!to those social pests who go buzzing about our homes and Churches, worrying with their idle gossip and stinging with their spiteful venom the innocent and inoffensive? If these busybodies would devote, in doing their duty, the energy they waste, they would be able to produce quite a respectable amount of honest work. But they find it easier to sponge on the generosity and simplicity of others. They are parasites; and all parasites are the paupers of nature. Parasitism is a crimea breach of the law of evolution.
III. Christianity enforces the necessity of a steady and independent industry.We command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread (2Th. 3:12). The apostle, having the authority of Christ for what he counsels, commands; and as a man addressing his fellow-men, he exhorts and persuades. The law of Christianity is both stern and gentle: unbending in principle, and flexible only in manifold persuasions to translate the principle into actual living practice. It rouses man from yielding to a sinful listlessness and helps him to develop a robust Christian manhood. When an Indian candidate for the ministry was asked the question, What is original sin? he frankly replied, He did not know what other peoples might be, but he rather thought that his was laziness. Idleness is the prolific source of many evils: work is at once a remedy and a safeguard. A clergyman once said, A Christian should never plead spirituality for being a sloven; if he be but a shoe-cleaner, he should be the best in the parish. We are honouring Christianity most when we are doing our best to observe its precepts, Working with quietness and eating our own bread. An American preacher once said, You sit here and sing yourselves away to everlasting bliss; but I tell you that you are wanted a great deal more out in Illinois than you are in heaven.
Lessons.
1. Christianity encourages and honours honest toil.
2. Fearlessly denounces unprincipled idlers.
3. Is an inspiration to the highest kind of work.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Th. 3:10. Industry the True Charity.When the palace and church buildings of Caprarolo were completed, Borromeo, the great patron of idle almsgiving, came to see it, and complained that so much money had not been given to the poor instead. I have let them have it all little by little, said Alexandro Farnese; but I have made them earn it by the sweat of their brow.
2Th. 3:11. Idleness and Death.lian mentions a witticism of Alcibiades when some one was vaunting to him about the contempt the Lacedmonians had for death. It is no wonder, said he, since it relieves them from the heavy burden of an idle and stupid life.
2Th. 3:12. The Way to Value Quietness.How dull and quiet everything is. There isnt a leaf stirring, said a young sparrow perched on the bough of a willow tree. How delicious a puff of wind would be! We shall have one before long, croaked an old raven; more than you want, I fancy. Before many hours a tempest swept over the country, and in the morning the fields were strewn with its ravages. What a comfort the storm is over, said the sparrow, as he trimmed his wet feathers. Ah! croaked the raven, youve altered your mind since last night. Take my word for it, theres nothing like a storm to teach you to value a calm.G. Eliot.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Text (2Th. 3:10)
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you. If any will not work, neither let him eat.
Translation and Paraphrase
10.
(We set you an example of how you ought to work and support yourselves. You must all do likewise.) Because even while we were (in Thessalonica) with you, we kept commanding you that if any (man) did not desire to be working (and wouldnt work), dont let him eat.
Notes (2Th. 3:10)
1.
The saying, He who will not work shall not eat, is famous in American history. Captain John Smith of the Jamestown colony laid down that rule in Virginia.
2.
However, the principle is much older than John Smith. Paul said practically the same words to the Thessalonians. And the principle goes clear back to the time of Adam when God said, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat breat, till thou return unto the ground. (Gen. 3:19). He who is able to work and unwilling to do so shall not be fed. Compare Eph. 4:28; Rom. 12:11.
3.
Christianity is a religion for working men. Jesus was a carpenter. (Mar. 6:3). Peter was a fisherman. Paul was a tentmaker. (Act. 18:3).
4.
In the first letter to the Thessalonians Paul wrote about this matter of people who would not work. There he besought and exhorted them to, Do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. 1Th. 4:10.
5.
Evidently the loafers had not paid attention to Pauls exhortation in his first letter. So now in this letter, Paul states the matter as a command and puts some real teeth into it. No work, no eat.
6.
The statement, We commanded you, is in an imperfect tense, which indicates repeated action in past time. Therefore we have rendered it in our translation, We kept commanding you.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(10) For even.The sequence of thought is a little difficult, but it seems best to regard this for as connecting its sentence, not with 2Th. 3:9, but rather with 2Th. 3:6. It does not give the reason why St. Paul and his companions worked: because we strictly enjoined you to work, and therefore could not be idle ourselves. Rather, it justifies the reiteration of the command: We do not hesitate to command you now to repress this disorderly conduct, so contrary to the example set you; for, in fact, when we were with you we used to lay down this law. So Theodoret takes it: It is no new thing that we write to you.
We commanded.The tense in the original is that of constant re-assertion, which brings out once more the thorough grounding which the Apostles gave at once to their converts. (See Note on 2Th. 3:6 : the tradition; also the Note on 2Th. 2:5.) The same definite precept is referred to in 1Th. 4:11.
If any would not work.The word would stands for is not willing, refuses. To any weakness or incapacity for work, except in himself, St. Paul would be very tender; the vice consists in the defective will. The canon (in the original) is laid down in the pointed form of some old Roman law like those of the Twelve Tables: If any man choose not to work, neither let him eat. It does not mean, let him leave off eating, putting it to the mans own conscience to see the necessary connection between the two things (Gen. 3:19); but, let him not be fed. The Thessalonians are not to be misled into a false charity: giving food in Christs name to persons who are capable of working and able to get work, and are too indolent to do so. The support which is here forbidden to be given to these disorderly persons might come either direct from the private liberality of individuals, or from some collected church fund administered by the deacons. It does not seem at all impossible that this Thessalonian Church, which St. Paul himself declares to have taken the churches of Judaea for a model (1Th. 2:14), may have copied its model in adopting some form of communism, or, at any rate, some extensive use of the agap which we see to have been in use at Corinth, established by the Apostle at the very time of writing this Letter (1Co. 11:21). Such a supposition would give much more point to St. Pauls canon, as well as to other phrases in both these Epistles, and would enable us to understand better how this discipline could be actively enforced. That the ordinary agape was a matter of considerable importance to the poorer classes is evident from 1Co. 11:22.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Not work eat He is scarce a Christian, whatever his rank, who, possessed of the ability, does not earn his own living. It is a sad account he has to give at the judgment-seat who has not made the world better by his having lived in it. And he who does so earns his living, and the final reward, whether he has worked with his brain or his hands. St. Paul’s converts were doubtless mostly artisans, and he set the example of working with his hands, not because his preaching was not a most arduous and powerful work, but in order to make the idlers among them work at all. Paul’s maxim is based on the primeval law of Gen 3:19, that “eat bread” should depend on “the sweat of thy face.” And hence saith an old Rabbi: “Whoso laboureth not on the sixth day what shall he eat on the Sabbath?”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For even when we were with you, we used to command you this, “if any will not work, let him not eat”.’
This might confirm a lazy tendency among Macedonians, for Paul had made it a particular emphasis in this church, repeating it continually. There is no evidence for such a statement elsewhere and it may be specifically Pauline. The principle was simple, no work, no food. This would, of course, only apply to those who could work. The fact that he had taught it to them from the start of his ministry is against the popular idea that the attitude arose later as a result of a wrong attitude to the second coming, although that may have given them a further excuse. It made not working seem spiritual.
The sin of idleness is widely recognised. The Romans said, “By doing nothing, men learn to do evil.” Isaac Watts wrote: “For Satan finds some mischief still, for idle hands to do.” The Jewish Rabbis taught, “He who does not teach his son a trade, teaches him to be a thief.” All recognised that idleness leads to bad behaviour.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Th 3:10. That if any would not work, &c. This sentence occurs in many of the Jewish writings, and seems to have been proverbial: and both our Lord and his apostles frequently adopted those proverbs or sayings which were in general u
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Th 3:10 . A further reason, along with the example of the apostle, which should preserve them from .
] co-ordinate with the in 2Th 3:7 . cannot serve to bring out (so Hofmann), so that it would be explained, with Theodoret: , . For is no new additional idea, but only again resumes what was at least already implied in 2Th 3:7-8 . must accordingly be taken with , and the emphasis lies on , which is placed first. The meaning is: for even when we were with you, this we commanded you .
] namely, what follows: . . .
, ] was a Jewish proverb; see Schoettgen and Wetstein in loco . It has its root in the expression in Gen 3:19 , that man in the sweat of his brow shall eat his bread.
] Bengel: Nolle vitium est.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
Ver. 10. That if any would not work ] In the sweat of thy nose shalt thou eat thy bread, was the old sanction, Gen 3:19 ; yea, Paradise, that was man’s storehouse, was also his workhouse. They bury themselves alive, that, as body lice, live on other men’s labours; and it is a sin to help them. Seneca professed, that he had rather be sick in his bed than out of employment.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
10 .] , and we carried this further: we not only set you an example, but inculcated the duty of diligence by special precept. The is co-ordinate with that in 2Th 3:7 . The does not bring out . as a new feature, as Thdrt., for of this period the last three verses have treated but it brings out , on which the stress lies, as an additional element in the reminiscence. This seems to me clearly to be the force here, and not the merely conjunctive, as Ellic. maintains, , viz. what follows.
. . .] Schttgen and Wetst. quote this saying from several places in the rabbinical books.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Th 3:10 . Precept as well as example ( DC [36] , ii. 2). As is perhaps implied in , is a maxim quoted by the apostle, not from some unwritten saying of Jesus (Resch) but from the Jewish counterparts, based on Gen 3:19 , which are cited by Wetstein, especially Beresch. rabba , xiv. 12: “ut, si non laborat, non manducet”. Cf. Carlyle’s Chartism , chap. iii (“In all ways it needs, especially in these times, to be proclaimed aloud that for the idle man there is no place in this England he that will not work according to his faculty, let him perish according to his necessity”). The use of here and in 1Co 11:11 ( cf. Mat 19:4 f.) proves, as Titius argues ( der Paulinismus unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Seligkeit , 1900, p. 105), that the original divine ideas of the Creation are fulfilled and realised in the light of Christ’s gospel; the entire process of human life culminates in the faith of Christ, and therefore no unqualified antithesis can be drawn between ordinary life and Christian conduct.
[36] CG Hastings’ Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (1907 1908)
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
if. App-118.
would = is . . . willing. App-102.
neither. Greek. mede.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
10.] ,-and we carried this further: we not only set you an example, but inculcated the duty of diligence by special precept. The is co-ordinate with that in 2Th 3:7. The does not bring out . as a new feature, as Thdrt., for of this period the last three verses have treated-but it brings out , on which the stress lies, as an additional element in the reminiscence. This seems to me clearly to be the force here, and not the merely conjunctive, as Ellic. maintains, , viz. what follows.
…] Schttgen and Wetst. quote this saying from several places in the rabbinical books.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Th 3:10. , when) They had already seen the necessity of this commandment among the Thessalonians.- , if any will not) To be unwilling is a fault.- , let him not eat) An Enthymeme.[25] Supply, But every man eats: therefore let every man labour. Paul does not mean, that such a man should have his food immediately withdrawn from him by others; but he proves from the necessity of eating the necessity of labouring, by throwing out this pleasantry, let such a one show himself as an angel.[26] There is a similar Enthymeme at 1Co 11:6.[27]
[25] This is the oratorical Enthymeme, wherein the argument is confirmed from its contrary. The logical Enthymeme is a covert syllogism.-ED.
[26] i.e. Let him do without food, as the angels do.-ED.
[27] If the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn (But she is not shorn; therefore let her be covered).-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Th 3:10
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat.-There was and is no obligation resting on a Christian or a church to help or feed an idle, lazy sponge who is able to work. This is true of both men and women. The obligation is imperative to help the helpless. Christ is personified in these. In so doing we help Christ. But Christ never was personified in an individual, man or woman, able but unwilling to work for a living. Christ has no sympathy for such people, every true Christian, like Paul, is unwilling to be a tax, to be a burden upon others when it is possible to help self. Cases present themselves frequently that are difficult to determine what to do. An able-bodied, lazy father and husband leaves a worthy and struggling wife and children to suffer. It is impossible to help them without helping him in his laziness. One course seems right in this case to relieve the personal and present needs of the wife and children as far as possible, show a sympathy for them, and withhold from him, while dealing candidly and firmly with him. It will work a cure if anything will.
[Paul saw that the gospel was to be propagated chiefly by its splendid effects on the lives of all classes of society, and he realized that almost the first duty of the church was to be respected, and so he not only exhorts the individual members to independence, but he lays down the principle that no economic parasite is to be tolerated in the church. This forms an important complement to the teachings of Jesus.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
when: Luk 24:44, Joh 16:4, Act 20:18
that: Gen 3:19, Pro 13:4, Pro 20:4, Pro 21:25, Pro 24:30-34, 1Th 4:11
Reciprocal: Gen 47:3 – What is Gen 47:22 – for the priests Exo 5:17 – General Jdg 19:16 – his work Pro 13:25 – the belly Pro 14:23 – but Pro 19:15 – and Pro 20:13 – Love Pro 31:13 – worketh Mat 11:1 – commanding 1Th 4:2 – General 2Th 2:5 – when 2Th 3:6 – after
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
GAMBLING
If any would not work, neither should be eat.
2Th 3:10
The moral way of acquiring wealth and property is to labour for it. So far as property comes to us, it either must be given us or we must inherit it; but it is immoral to strive to obtain it without working for it.
I. This, accordingly, is the evil of gambling, that men play for money because they are mean-spirited enough to want it without honestly earning it. In every form of gambling the gain of one man is anothers loss. The gamester can get nothing from God by his play: nor anything out of nature: he can only get out of his neighbour. And as no one consents with his whole will to lose, the gain is robbery.
II. The domestic and public evils which flow from this vice are at once widespread and stupendous. What homes it has desolated! What lives it has destroyed! What children it has orphaned! What hearts it has broken!
III. True manliness requires that we have an inner life: an inner intellectual life, through the due education of our powers; and an inner spiritual life through the indwelling within us of the Holy Spirit of God. It needs that the fear of God lay hold of our people before the demon of gambling will be cast out of the social life of the land. But the demon must be cast out if the Kingdom of Heaven is to come.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
A RIGHTEOUS CONDITION*
In harvest-home God is reminding you not only that it is He Who supports you, but He teaches you how, and on what conditions, He supports you. God gave us our lives as a free gift. He continues our lives only on certain conditions. Harvest-home is the time when God intends us to notice this. It is a time of rest from labour. For though God gives the harvest, man has had to till the land, and sow the seed, and reap the crop.
I. If God gives, man also has had to work.Teaching us this, that when God created man with all his powers and capacities, God meant those powers to be exercised, otherwise the man should not continue to live. It is Gods great protest against idleness. If any man will not work, neither let him eat. There is no harvest without labour.
II. The idle man is breaking Gods first law.I hardly know which is worst, the man who works so hard as to shut out the thought of God Who gives him the reward of his work, or the man who is idle and will not work at all. Certainly they are both very far from God, but perhaps the idle man is the furthest off in the end, for Satan is sure to fill his soul with evil.
III. God gave us our active powers to be used.He gives us our harvest, but He gives no harvest except we sow as well as reap. The fact that Gods way of supporting the lives which He has given us is by way of work, is Gods proclamation against all idleness. It is Gods warning to all who are not actually forced to work for their bread that God expects them to do something with the powers and faculties which He has given themsomething useful to their neighbour, something for Gods honour and mans welfare. God Himself rests notMy Father worketh hitherto is the word of Christ, and if man needs rest it is because of the weakness of his nature. It is only while actively engaged in useful labour that man truly lives.
Illustration
God gives us our spiritual life. But He only supports it on condition of our exerting the powers of our spiritual lives. We must be active, living, working Christians; our spiritual life, our religion, must be an active one, our religious energies must be exercised, or else God ceases to sustain our religion, and then in the world to come all good dies out of us; our spiritual lifei.e. our goodness, all that in us is like unto God, dies finally. This is the Second Death, the death of goodness. From it may God deliver us!
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
2Th 3:10. When we were with you refers to the time after coming from Philippi. The teaching now put in writing in this epistle, was given to them in person when among them, which is referred to in his first epistle, is very severe on people who are lazy; such have no right to the provisions produced by others. Of course we know the apostle does not expect these idlers to go on a “hunger strike” and die of starvation. However, he does lay the command before them that they go to work, and as a means of enforcing the order, he states that if they are not willing to work, they have no right to eat. This brings the brethren into the command, forbidding them to feed those who are not willing to work.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Th 3:10. If any would not work, neither should he eat. This seems to have been a proverbial expression among the Jews, and the idea was inculcated by the Rabbis, sometimes in the very words used by Paul. It was the fundamental law of labour, early impressed on the Jewish mind by the necessity of daily gathering the manna. And it is the law which condemns gambling and every mode of acquiring a livelihood without producing or doing anything for the good of the community. There is perhaps a touch of irony in the expression, insinuating that if a man claims exemption from ordinary worldly conditions, he should be consistent and thorough in doing so; if he is so new a creature, so heavenly and spiritual as to be above earthly labour, he should also be superior to all need of earthly nourishment.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. The solemn charge given by the apostle for every man to follow some lawful calling, and be found in the way of an industrious diligence; if any (being able) will not work, let him not eat (any part of the church’s charity). So that the sin of idleness was directly contrary to the apostle’s command, and to the apostle’s example.
Mark, It is not those that cannot work, but those that will not, whom the apostle excludes from the church’s charity: poor men that will not work when they can, do forfeit the bread of charity from men; the rich men that live idly, do by that sin forfeit their food to God, yea, even their lives and their souls too; if any man would not work, neither should he eat.
Observe, 2. The apostle exhorts every man to eat his own bread: implying, that the bread of idleness is stolen bread; idle persons shall be judged as thieves, though they eat that which was freely given them; drones deserve no honey, what they eat is stolen from the industrious bee; that is truly our bread which we labour for ourselves, or recompense those who get it for us by their labour. God has sent no man into the world to be idle; but as the providence of God disposes of every man, though he has never so much worldly wealth, yet he must be some way useful and serviceable in his generation.
Observe, 3. One of the bad effects of idleness pointed at by our apostle; namely, an intermeddling (as busy-bodies) in other men’s matters: an idle person that doeth nothing to any good purpose, yet has a deal of business to answer for, done to very bad purpose; not for labouring, but busy trifling, the busy-body’s business is very unprofitable business; the mind of man cannot be wholly idle, but must be employed in something, if not in doing good, of necessity in contriving evil; usually none are so busy in other men’s matters as they that neglect their own; those disorderly persons, who did not work at all, yet were busy-bodies, and as such censured by our apostle: I hear there are some among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy-bodies.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
The Command for the Disorderly
Paul spoke with authority, as is shown by his use of the word “command.” However, he also spoke in love, with a desire to encourage the brethren in the right direction, as is shown by his use of the word “exhort.” He plainly told the disorderly that they needed to go back to work, earn their living and cease being in charge of everyone else’s business ( 2Th 3:12 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
For even when we were with you [and so even before we wrote you our first epistle], this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat. [This precept is founded on Gen 3:19 . It forbids the Christian to exercise that false charity which genders beggary and becomes the parent of manifold crime.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
10. For when we were with you, we commanded this to you, that if any one does not wish to work, let him not eat. The Bible is the plainest of all books, solving every problem of duty so clearly as to leave al without excuse. Well are we assured that he who runs may read, and the wayfaring men, though fools, may not err therein. (Isaiah.) On this great problem of material sustenance, O how plain and simple, If any one is not willing to work, let him not eat! When the first American settlement, founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, having consumed the supply brought over from England, and finding the Indian resources exceedingly meager, starvation began to look them in the face, their only hope is to fell the forest, and cultivate the rich virgin soils. But how can they do this, when nearly all of their colony are goldsmiths, having come over in search of the precious metals, and their tender hands never hardened by the ax, maul, and hoe. In their emergency, fortunately they elect Captain John Smith president, whose first law proclaimed in the Colony is a transcript of this laconic mandate of the apostle Paul, Those who do not work shall not eat. Soon cloth coats are stacked, sleeves rolled up, and all hands blistered while the Colony is vocal with the roar of the ax, the thunder of the maul, and the crash and smash of falling trees, whose burning brush lights the firmament by night; and they are all feasting on peas, potatoes, and roasting-ears. With the enforcement of this simple law of heaven, earth teems with plenty, and beggary takes her everlasting flight; hireling preachers all transformed into shouting evangelists.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, {c} neither should he eat.
(c) What will we do then with those fat lazy monks, and sacrificing priests? A monk (says Socrates, book eight, of his Tripartite History) who does not work with hands, is like a thief.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul reminded his readers of his well-known instruction that he frequently repeated when he was with them. If anyone refused to work, his brothers and sisters in Christ should not provide for him. Paul may have been referring to a Jewish proverb based on Gen 3:19 a: "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread." [Note: Robertson, 4:59.] The idle in this case were not unable to work but unwilling to work.