2 Thessalonians 3:8

neither did we eat bread for naught at any man's hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you:

That part of the apostolic behavior which Paul particularly stressed as an example to the Thessalonians was that of his working for a living, rather than living off the labors of others. As an apostle Paul had the right to be supported by the brethren; but both in Corinth and in Thessalonica he renounced it in order to avoid any suspicion regarding his true motives in the preaching of the gospel. Furthermore, it was his way of emphasizing that all men should work to support themselves.

CONCERNING WORK

Man's great happiness is served by work; even Eden was not a place of idleness, but of work (Genesis 2:15). All Scriptural glimpses of the invisible creations above invariably reveal them in a positive attitude of performance and creative activity. Even the angels on Jacob's ladder (Genesis 28:12) were not posed in attitudes of fixed and static devotion, but were ascending and descending upon it. Christ declared that "My Father worketh even until now, and I work" (John 5:17). Children, therefore, of a working God and beneficiaries of the blood of a working Saviour should honor their calling by a life of diligent, faithful work.

The philosophy of doing less and less for more and more is a blight upon mankind. It is a delusion. Gross laziness will destroy any people foolish enough to indulge in it. Without depreciating any of the marvelous social gains of the current generation, one may truly say that America was not built by a forty-hour, five-day week; and the issue has not yet been determined whether or not such a work-week will be sufficient to preserve our nation and hand it down to posterity. If the slave states of communism outwork us, they shall, in the end, destroy and supersede us.

How deplorable it is that government has tipped the scales to the advantage of the loafer and freeloader who claim, as a right, the privilege of being supported in idleness. It is hard to decide which is the more reprehensible - the professional shirker, or the government which harbors and sustains him. In the words of James I. Vance, "God is on the side of the worker. The worker has rights; the willful idler has none."[12] This basic ethic shines in a passage like this chapter.

Neither did we eat any man's bread ... "This is a Hebraism, for 'neither did we get our sustenance.'"[13]

[12] G. B. F. Hallock, One Hundred Best Sermons (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1923), p. 434 (sermon by James I. Vance).

[13] P. J. Gloag, op. cit., p. 64.