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2 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonianschapter 3

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Speaks with:2 Thessalonians 3×81 Thessalonians 5×31 Thessalonians 4×41 Corinthians 16×22 Corinthians 4×21 Thessalonians 2×2

Summary

Chapter summary

Finally, brethren, pray for us. The Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil. Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. Even we are to be imitated: we were not disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man's bread for nought. If any will not work, neither let him eat. Be not weary in well doing. Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. The Lord of peace himself give you peace always. JFB reads the chapter as the apostolic discipline of work and brotherly rebuke.

Context

Epistle · Paul — 2 Thessalonians overview

  • A. 1–5 Pray That the Word Runs Swiftly
  • B. 6–15 If a Man Will Not Work, Neither Let Him Eat
  • C. 16–18 The Lord of Peace, and Paul's Own Hand

The outline

  1. A.Pray That the Word Runs Swiftlyvv. 1 to 5

    Read vv. 1 to 5 →

  2. B.If a Man Will Not Work, Neither Let Him Eatvv. 6 to 15

    Read vv. 6 to 15 →

  3. C.The Lord of Peace, and Paul's Own Handvv. 16 to 18

    Read vv. 16 to 18 →

The world behind this chapter

2 Thessalonians 3
When
The second missionary journey · c. AD 51
Where
Closing orders about members of the church who had stopped working
Who first heard it
A congregation feeding people who had quit their jobs, some of them expecting the end within weeks

The history

Educated Greeks and Romans looked down on manual labor. A gentleman lived off land, rents, or a patron; work with the hands was for slaves and the poor. So a church where the founder had worked a trade night and day was already a strange community.

The client system made idleness easy. A poor citizen could attach himself to a wealthy household, show up each morning to greet the patron, and be fed for it. Transferred into a church, that habit would look like a brother living permanently off the generosity of the group.

The wordplay in the chapter is exact: the idle were not busy but were busybodies. In a network of house churches, people with nothing to do and free access to other people's homes did real damage.

The remedy is social, not violent — keep away from him, do not treat him as an enemy, warn him as a brother. That is a small community's only enforcement tool, and it depended on everyone using it together.

What it meant to them

Some had drawn a straight line from 'the Lord is coming' to 'so why plant a crop.' Paul cuts the line: the surest sign that you believe the future is that you show up for work in the present.

For the working members carrying the load, the chapter told them that generosity has limits and that saying so is not a failure of love.

Sources cited

  • Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
  • Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on 2 Thessalonians 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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