2 Thessalonians 3:10

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat. For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are busybodies.

If any will not work, neither let him eat ... This stern injunction may not be attributed to mere peevishness on Paul's part. As Clarke said, "This is not an unjust maxim."[14] The shameful and unwholesome results of a weak and foolish system of charity which ignores this principle were outlined thus by W. F. Adeney:

I. It injures the recipient. Idleness is a sin; and some of the worst trouble they had in Thessalonica came from that source. The indolent are tempted to many vices. The independence of the recipient is destroyed and he becomes something less than a man through habitual and constant dependence upon others for support.

II. It injures the giver. The encouragement of idleness is a sin that must be attributed to the thoughtless or foolish scatterer of God's gifts upon the undeserving.

III. It injures those who are truly needy. It is a case of taking the children's bread and giving it to the dogs. The idlers are the more insistent and clamorous for support in their idleness; and all that is given to them is no longer available for those who have just claims upon the charity of others.

IV. It injures the community. It destroys initiative, diminishes industry, and propagates the worst element in society. The idle part of the population of great cities are the canker of civilization, in which are bred and incubated every vice and crime. Some, alas, must be cared for by others; but, when they are able-bodied, "the state that gives bread should compel labor"![15]

The wisdom of Almighty God shines in this apostolic injunction. Of course, this law can be ignored for a time, as long as the stored-up capital of previous working generations remains to be passed out, dissipated, given away and wasted; but at last the poverty of a great nation will come as an armed man, and the entire society will pay the penalty in blood and tears.

A number of commentators have sought to find the source of this injunction in some Hebrew proverb, Roman law or Greek maxim; but the view here is that of Morris, who saw in it a Scripture first spoken by Paul himself.[16]

Although it is not stated definitely in the text, one of the things that seems to have entered into the prevalence of gross idleness Paul sought to diminish and check was a notion on the part of the idlers that Christ was coming soon and that there was no further need to work. It is not, however, this or that motive for idleness that makes it a sin, sin being the proper name of it, no matter what the motive; and therefore Paul wisely left the motivation out of view.

[14] Adam Clarke, op. cit., p. 576.

[15] W. F. Adeney, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 21,2Thessalonians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 85.

[16] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 146.