2 Thessalonians 3:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus he speaks here. In the first epistle, however, he says, "that you may walk properly." Why? Perhaps because nothing of this kind had yet occurred. Indeed, elsewhere, when exhorting, he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). The words "that you may walk properly" were not spoken on account of any disorder. Therefore he also added, "that you may lack nothing" (1 Thess 4:12). Here, however, he points to another need for which one must labor: one should do what is good and useful for all. Therefore he says further, "But you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good" (2 Thess 3:13). In general, a man who can work but remains idle necessarily becomes meddlesome.

Since our mind is in constant motion, when we do not occupy it with useful works, it gives itself to useless works, as was said above. It begins investigating how others live, and from this passes into gossip, idle talk, and empty talk. Therefore one must labor, working with one's hands. A person who has strength to work but gives himself to idleness ought not even to ask alms. You will say: I pray and fast. But this is not the work of hands. Even while doing this, you can also have manual labor. If you neglect this, you are subject to judgment as one who loves idleness. They will say: why then is the one who teaches not forced to work? He has a more important and more difficult work, which will not allow him to occupy himself with manual tasks. But upon you, a private person, nothing of this kind rests. You sin by neglecting labor.

Certain others go about, as they say, claiming that they devote all their time to prayer and do no work. They make piety a pretext for laziness and a means of gaining money, but they think wrongly. Let them say, then, that they are better than the holy apostles, who worked when free time remained, though they labored to exhaustion for the word of God. How then do they pass over what was written by blessed Paul: "Some among you walk disorderly, working not at all, but meddling"? The Church does not receive those who act in this way. It is certainly necessary for those who struggle in peaceful dwellings to pray harmoniously and intensely. But there will be no harm, and rather great profit, in laboring.

For we have now heard that some among you walk disorderly, doing nothing, but acting wickedly and giving themselves to idleness. By this they harm their neighbors and destroy their own souls.

For idle living is naturally accompanied by empty talk, loquacity, and useless curiosity.

Compare 1 Thess. 4:10-11.

What traits of the proper life of individual members of Christian society are indicated here? First, stillness, that is, a way of life free from rebelliousness, excessive fussiness, and agitation, and likewise from dissipated distraction and restlessness. Second, work proper and fitting for each person according to his calling and position in society. Third, eating one's own bread, that is, obtaining the means of life only by one's own honest labors and not at another's expense. They must not, for example, be contrived by deceit, idle begging, theft, and the like. Such eating of one's own bread would determine for every Christian the proper measure of lawful means of life available to him. In this way it would save him from many sorrows and calamities. Even among people of means, life should be marked by diligence, not idleness, so that they too may not be deprived of the possibility of tasting the sweet and, as it were, sacred bread of labor.

Together with living at others' expense, the Apostle rebukes idle wandering and empty talk, in which idle people who do nothing usually engage. The Apostle reminds them of his stern injunction: not to eat without having labored. Then, by Christ the Lord, he implores them to work in order to obtain their own bread and to avoid a vain and noisy life in the streets. According to the explanation of Blessed Theodoret, "the Apostle said, 'neither let him eat,' not to those who give, but to those who live in idleness. A few words later he advises those who give not to look at the evil conduct, but without hesitation to show them the generosity proper to them." "Our mind is ever-moving.

At the same time the Apostle reminds the Thessalonians of his saying, which he often repeated to them (παρηγγέλλομεν): "If anyone will not work, neither let him eat." That is, one who consciously refuses work, though he has strength for it, is unworthy to receive support from others. The Apostle recalls this commandment because among the Thessalonians there are people who seem to be constantly busy, but in fact do absolutely nothing (περιεργάζοντες). The Apostle commands such people to earn their own bread, and to do so with silence, that is, by concentrating on their own work.

Having explained the grounds of guilt in those being rebuked, he points out the fault itself. It is as though he said: among you, despite such binding motives for orderly conduct, there are persons who behave quite improperly. In what the disorder of these persons consisted has already been indicated. They are those who walk disorderly, that is, who live tactlessly, irregularly, and not according to the order established by the Apostles. This is contrary to the honorable walk he required in the first epistle (1 Thess 4:12). They do nothing. This does not mean that they sit with folded hands, but that they wander idly. They have no liking for remaining at some serious and steady work.