Verse 12
‘Now those who are such we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they work with quietness and eat their own bread.’
To such he brings a command from ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’. The use of the full title brings home the seriousness of the command. It is from ‘the Lord’. To ‘eat their own bread’ means bread that they have paid for themselves. The emphasis on working ‘with quietness’ suggests that the gossip and tittle-tattle had caused great harm. They were not to be chatterers and talebearers. Some, however, who relate their behaviour to second coming teaching, suggests that it means calmly and quietly rather than in their present over-excited state. But it is noteworthy that there is no suggestion anywhere that their idleness arose in this way, which seems rather strange if it is true.
Talebearing is condemned in the Old Testament. Leviticus 19:16 forbids being a talebearer, ‘revealing secrets’, breaking trust and being faithless to their friends (Proverbs 11:13). Such things should be kept between the two parties concerned (Proverbs 25:9).
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