Summary:

When the Thessalonians overreacted to learning about the Rapture by quitting their jobs, it caused several problems. First, it led to the creation of “busybodies” (v.11), people who meddle into the affairs of others. Plus, busybodies are usually “tattlers” (I Tim. 5:13), or idle talkers. And once tattlers start down the road of idle talking, it is not long be-fore they are “speaking things which they ought not” (ITim.5:13). Since most of us love to meddle in the affairs of others and tell them how to work out their salvation, Paul tells us: “work out your own salvation” (Phil.2:12).

Paul commanded these busybodies to go back to work when he was in Thessalonica, and in his first epistle to them (IThes.4:11), and now here again (IIThes.3:12). But he also chooses to “exhort” them. This is a New Covenant word. Under the Law, God never exhorted the Jews to do anything, He commanded them, and they knew it was obey or else. But under grace Paul can’t issue an “or else,” so with this third command he chooses to exhort them. Under grace, you can remind other adult sons that they will reap what they sow if they ignore Paul’s warnings, but adult sons don’t always care. This is why Paul told Timothy to “exhort with all longsuffering” (IITim.4:2). Under grace, all grace pastors can do is convey Paul’s commands and then suffer long if God’s people reject them.

“Quietness” is a lack of strife (Pr.17:1), a lack of trouble (Job 34:29), and a lack of fighting (IChr.22:9). In telling the Thessalonians to work “with quietness,” he was telling them they could avoid strife, trouble and fighting with their brethren. You see, there was money involved. In telling the busybodies they should work and “eat their own bread,” it implies they were eating the bread of their brethren who had not quit their jobs. Not working creates more than just busybodies and tattlers, it creates moochers.

If you think I’m reading too much into that phrase “eat their own bread,” notice Paul tells the brethren they were sponging off of not to get weary in helping people (IIThes.3:13). We know he’s not changing the subject and moving on here because in Verse 14 he instructs them about what to do about the moochers.

Now he’s not telling them to continue to help the moochers; he told them to distance themselves from them. But you know how it is. If you help people who are unworthy of your help long enough, it makes you hesitant to want to help those who are worthy of it, so Paul tells them not to get burned out on helping others.

When Paul spoke about obeying “our word by this epistle,” remember, his words were God’s words. To despise them was to despise God’s words (I Thes. 4:8). God spoke through Paul’s words as He did all Bible writers (IPe.1:21).

People say we elevate Paul over the Lord Jesus, but in the Tribulation, when Trib saints look to John’s book of Revelation to guide them, will they be elevating John over the Lord? No, they’ll just be recognizing that he wrote about the time in which they will live. In the same way, it is not elevating Paul over the Lord to say that Paul wrote about the time in which we live, the dispensation of the grace of God (Eph.3:1-9). Are we elevating President Obama over President Lincoln when we choose to obey the laws that govern our country now? No! Then why would anyone think we are elevating Paul over the Lord when we choose to follow the rules that govern our dispensation?

When Paul says that they should have “no company” with these busybodies (IITh.3:14), it reminds us of how he told the Corinthians “not to keep company” with the fornicator (ICor.5:11). This puts not going to work in a serious class of disobedience. Even unbelievers know they should work to provide for their own families (ITim.5:8), and “to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

Notice this shunning measure is not punitive, it is restorative. It is done to make the busybody “ashamed” (IIThes.3: 14). Shame is a powerful motivator, and shunning to achieve it is a time-honored Bible tradition (Num. 12:14). God used it to cause His people to seek Him (Psalm 83:16).

Summary:

Paul was raised a scholar (Acts 22:3) but he had a trade (Acts 18:1-3), so was able to say he didn’t eat any man’s bread “for nought” (IITh.3:8) or for nothing. That is, he paid for his keep. Paul had to work “night and day” (3:8) to pay for his own needs and those of his helpers (Acts 20:34).

He did this even though he had the “power” not to do this (IITh.3:9). When he told the Corinthians he had the power to “forbear working” (ICor.9:1-6), he wasn’t implying that being an apostle wasn’t hard work. He told Timothy to give himself “wholly” to the ministry (ITim.4:13-15), and he wouldn’t ask him to do anything he wasn’t doing himself. Giving yourself wholly to studying and teaching the Word is hard work (Eccl.12:12).

No, he meant he had the power to “forbear working” as a tentmaker. He gave up this right in Corinth (ICor.9:12,15) because they were a big church, the only church Paul wrote to that was too large to meet in a home (ICor.11:18cf.22), and they were in a wealthy city. Because of this, “ten thousand instructors” had descended on the church, all claiming to be spiritual leaders, and all wanting to be paid.

That means when Paul hit town, he knew he had to do something to distance himself from these religious hucksters, so he didn’t do what he usually did when he entered a city. He usually went straight to the synagogue (Acts 13:13,14; 14:1; 17:10). He eventually got to the synagogue in Corinth (18:4), but first he got a job (18:1-3) to show he wasn’t after their money like all the religious profiteers. This way they knew he wasn’t lying when he told them he didn’t want their money, he wanted them (IICor.12:14).

Paul also gave up his right to forbear working in Ephesus, as we’ve seen he told the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:34). He prefaced that remark by saying he hadn’t coveted their gold (v.33) because he’d probably been charged with coveting their gold. People probably suspected he put the idol-makers out of business so that he could swoop in and start a church and start collecting the money that people used to spend in worshipping Diana. In addition, since Paul added that he worked with his hands in Ephesus to teach the elders to give to the weak (v.35), we know this was another reason he gave up his right to forbear working.

In Thessalonica, Paul gave up his right to forbear working as “an ensample” to them (IITh.3:9), knowing that some had quit working when they heard the Rapture was imminent. To address this error, he reminded them that from his very first visits with them he had told them if any wouldn’t work, he shouldn’t eat (3:10). Notice that he didn’t say if any couldn’t work he shouldn’t eat, he was addressing those who could work but had ceased working.

Even under the Law, if you lost your job, no one handed you a free lunch. Farmers were told not to glean their crops too carefully so that the poor and unemployed could follow the reapers and earn their meals (Lev.19:9,10).

It is human nature to overreact to the thought of imminent deliverance. After Moses told Israel they were about to be delivered (Ex.4:29-31), they couldn’t quit their jobs as slaves, of course, but they may have slacked off enough to give merit to Pharaoh’s charge that all that talk about going into the wilderness to sacrifice to God had “let” or hindered them from their burdens (Ex.5:4,5). It is natural to overreact to the thought of imminent deliverance, but doing what comes naturally is never a good thing (ICor.2:14).

If you’re thinking this wasn’t much of an Easter message, I assure you that working for a living is part of living the resurrection life of Christ (Phil. 3:10). “The power of His resurrection” was the power that enables us to do good works. When the unbeliever does good works it is sin (Mt.7:22,23). So if Paul says we should work with our hands the thing which is good (Eph.4:28), surely going to work is a good work—if you are a believer. If you are not a believer it is a sin (Pr.21:4). Going to work is a good and righteous thing to do, but if you are not saved, it is a work of self righteousness, something that is filthy in the eyes of God (Isa. 64:6).

Summary:

As the apostle of the Gentiles (Rom.11:13) Paul has the authority to command us (IIThes.3:6). But when he called those under his command his “fellowsoldiers” (Phil.2:25), we know he never looked down on the people he commanded, for the word “fellow” means equal. Likewise, as the “masterbuilder” of the church (ICor.3;10), he considered the builders under his command to be his “fellowlabourers” (Phile.1:24). All this means that as a good leader he’d never command us to do what he himself wouldn’t do (ITim.6:12 cf. IITim.4:7), as we’ll see later in this passage.

To command us “in the name of our Lord” means to say what the Lord said and shut up (cf. ISam.25:5-9). That’s important because commanding us to “withdraw” from a brother (IITh.3:6) doesn’t sound like something Jesus would do, it sounds like something Paul added to the instructions he received from the Lord.

But there are two Pauline reasons to “withdraw from a brother. First, if he isn’t teaching right (ITim.6:5; IITim.3:5-8). You’ll be accused of breaching the unity of the Body if you withdraw from false teachers, but those who teach other than Paul breach the unity (Rom.16:17). When we teach Pauline truth we are repairing the breaches they cause, like Israel’s priests (IIKi.12:5), something God will reward (cf.Isa.58:12).

But we are also to withdraw from those who aren’t living right (ICor.5:11-13), and we know that’s the context here since Paul says to withdraw from those “that walketh disorderly” (IITh.3:6). When Paul told them about the imminence of the Rapture, they got so excited they quit their jobs (IIThes.3:11). This impatience was why Paul prayed the Lord would direct them “into the patient waiting for Christ” (IITh.3:5).

This was a problem Paul had to address in the first epistle (ITh.4:11). Notice Paul warned those who had quit work before telling others to shun them, and then he also told the others to warn them as well (ITh.5:14). That word “unruly” is the same Greek word as “disorderly” (IITh.3:6). Only when these measures don’t work should we take the additional step of withdrawing from these brethren. Of course, those who are too “feebleminded” or “weak” to work are excluded from the instructions to withdraw from those who would not work (ITh.5:14).

Those who didn’t work weren’t following the “tradition” Paul delivered them (IITh.3:6 cf. ITh.2:9). This means in commanding them to work, he was showing himself to be a good leader who wouldn’t do anything he asked those serving under him to do, as we noted earlier.

In commanding them to follow him by working, we see a dispensational difference. While here on earth ministering to the Jews (Mt.15:24) the Lord told His followers to quit their jobs (Mt.4:18,19; Lu.5:27). This was because the Lord preached “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt.4:17), and He meant the kingdom in which Israel would be a kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:6). And what do we know about priests? The priests, the Levites, had no inheritance in the promised land (Deut.18:1), no way of supporting them-selves other than the tithes of the other 11 tribes. But in the kingdom of heaven on earth, all Jews will be priests (Isa.66:20) and live off the support of the tithes of the Gentiles (Isa.61:6). This is why the Lord told His followers to quit their jobs, to be ready to be priests in the kingdom.

But Paul says that we are to follow the Lord as he followed Him (ICor.11:1). To follow the Lord today you have to keep working in order to have “lack of nothing” (ITh.4:11,12). This too is a dispensational difference. God has never wanted His children to lack for the basic necessities of food and clothing (ITi.6:8), but the means by which we obtain these things has changed. To have “lack of nothing” in Moses’ day, you had to collect manna (Ex.16:15-18; Deut.29:5). When the Lord sent the 12 out to preach without provisions, they didn’t lack (Lu.22:35), since the people they ministered to supported them as He said they would. At Pentecost they had no lack because they pooled their resources (Acts 4:34,35). But to have no lack in the dispensation of grace, you have to go to work!

Summary:

To put “confidence” in someone (3:4) means to put your trust in them (Psalm 118:8). Since the Lord was trustworthy, Paul had “confidence in the Lord” (3:4) concerning many things. He was “confident” he was saved (II Corinthians 5:6-8), because he was “confident” that the Lord would keep him saved (Phil.1:6).

But how could Paul tell the Thessalonians that he had “confidence in the Lord touching you” (3:4). Well, the Thessalonians were an exemplary church (ITh.1:7), they had done what he’d commanded in the past, so he was confident they’d continue to do what he commanded. But how could he “have confidence” in the Corinthians “in all things” (IICor.7:16) even “great confidence” (8:22). Well, you’ll notice these references were from Paul’s second letter to them. Evidently they’d done some of the things he commanded in his first letter to them

But the past good performance of the Thessalonians was no guarantee they would continue to do what he commanded, so how could Paul say he had confidence in them—and the Galatians (Gal. 5:10)? Their past performance had left him “in doubt” of them (Gal.4:20), not with confidence in them.

True, Paul had “confidence in the Lord” in them, but the Lord wouldn’t make them obey the apostle’s commands.

Well, when the Lord first told Paul He was going to save people by grace and just expect they’d do what He commanded because they were grateful to be saved, I think Paul had his doubts because he had no confidence in men. But he had confidence in the Lord concerning them, and this confidence reflected God’s own confidence in us.

We see this confidence illustrated when Paul reminded Philemon he should do what he asked him to do since he had led him to the Lord (Phile.1:19), a picture of how we should do what God asks just because we are grateful He saved us. When Paul went on to express confidence that Philemon would obey him (v.21), it expresses God’s confidence we’ll do what He says. Religion says that you can’t tell someone they can’t be lost or they’ll refuse to obey God, but God says He is confident we’ll do “more” than He says under law (Phile.1:21b). Religion says you can’t tell believers they don’t have to tithe or they won’t give at all, but God is confident that those who can afford to will give more than ten percent.

Paul was confident they were already doing what he commanded even though he was gone (3:4). Compare this to how Moses predicted after he left they’d cease to obey (Deut.31:217-29), and that was the pattern under the Law (Judges 2:18,19). Under grace, God’s people do “much more” in the absence of a spiritual authority (Phil.2:12).

There are commands under grace, Pauline commands (ICor.14:37). Paul makes over 600 imperative command statements, some of which sound like the ten commandments (ITh.4:2,3), of which he repeats 9 of the 10

In Paul’s benediction he expresses a desire that the Lord would “direct” the Thessalonians. Proverbs 16:9 makes it sound like men devise a way and God overpowers their will to direct them in another way. Verses like that make Calvinists believe God causes our every move, but that would make Him responsible for our sin. God directs men with His Word (Isa.40:13). There is no evidence He directed Cyrus (Isa.45:13) audibly. Rather, when he learned that God had surnamed him centuries before his birth (Isa.45:1-4), he figured he’d better do what His Word said to do! Of course, you have to be willing to let God’s Word direct you, as Cyrus was. That’s the meaning of Proverbs 3:5,6. If you’ll let the Word direct you, you’ll find life as easy as cutting wood with a sharp tool (Eccl.10:10). There’s a reason God says the way of the sinner is hard (Pr.13:15)

God’s love for us (3:5) isn’t something their hearts needed to be directed into, for His love was shed abroad in their hearts (Rom.5:5,6). Paul was hoping their hearts would be directed into loving God, which always means keeping His commandments (Ex.20:6; Deut. 10:12; John 14:21; IJohn 5:3). In context, of course, he meant Pauline commandments, including “the patient waiting for Christ” (3:5).

Summary:

Paul asked every church he wrote to pray for him, except the Galatians, and it is easy to understand why. When you put others under the law, you bite and devour them (Gal.5:15), you don’t pray for them. But Paul knew the Thessalonians were a loving church (ITh.4:9), and so asked them to pray for “us” (IITh.3:1) himself and Silvanus and Timothy (1:1).

This shows it is okay to ask for prayer for yourself, especially since Paul says that you should pray for “all saints,” and you are one of the saints (Eph.6:18)! It is also okay to pray “in every thing” (Phil.4:6). But here’s the thing: Paul didn’t ask the saints to pray for him so he could have an easier life, he asked for their prayers so he could serve the Lord (Eph.6:18-20; Col.4:3). Even when he prayed for his thorn to be removed it was because he thought he could be stronger for the Lord, so the Lord had to explain otherwise (IICor.12:9). So while it is okay to pray for yourself and everything that concerns you, the more you mature in the Lord, the more you will be mostly concerned with serving the Lord and pray like Paul.

“The word of the Lord” (3:1) to Israel was a threat of judgment (Ezek.6:3), but today the word of the Lord is found in Acts 13:38,39 (cf.v.49). The Greek word for “free course” is always translated “run” elsewhere. Paul was asking them to pray the word would be able to run “free” of the hurdles he’d seen runners have to jump at the Isthmian games in Corinth, from whence he wrote this epistle. We should pray this too, and then make sure we are not one of the hurdles by hurting God’s testimony, refusing to help the work or help finance it, or criticizing it.

The word is “glorified” (3:1) when it is believed (Acts 13:48). The word didn’t have free course “with” the Thessalonians 3:1) when Paul established the church (Acts 17:1-9), but it did now that he was gone, and he was asking them to pray that it would now have free course with him as it was with them. Of course, Paul knew he’d be delivered “from unreasonable and wicked men,” knowing he couldn’t die till he’d finished his course, like John (Acts 13:24,25) and the two witnesses (Rev.11:7). You see, Paul also had a course and a testimony (Acts 20:24) and he knew he couldn’t die until he’d finished testifying by writing his epistles (IITim.4:6,7).

But if he knew he couldn’t die till then, why did he ask them to pray for his deliverance? He was asking them to pray according to God’s will. We see the same thing in his letter to the Corinthians, where he knew he’d be delivered, but asked the Corinthians to pray for it also (IICor.1:8-11).

These “unreasonable” (3:2) are unsaved Jews who don’t respond to God’s offer to “reason” with them (Isa.1:18). Paul also reasoned with Jews who didn’t believe (Acts 17:1-4l 18:1-6), but unsaved religious Gentiles were also a problem for him (Acts 19:29-34).

But we know Paul was also asking to be delivered from saved religious men when he adds, “for all men have not faith, but the Lord is faithful” (3:2,3).Since the word “faith” can mean faithful (Rom.3:1-3), Paul was comparing the Lord’s faithfulness to the faithlessness of believers, who can be just as “unreasonable and wicked” as unsaved men.

In declaring that God will be “faithful” to do what He says He will do, the thing that Paul said He would faithfully do was to “stablish” them (3:3). That word, like all words, has different meanings depending on the context. In 2:16,17 the hope of the pre-trib Rapture could “stablish” them, but we know that depended on their faithfulness or they wouldn’t have been “shaken” and “troubled” (2:2). The stablishing here is speaking about the stablishing where the Lord will stablish us “unblameble in holiness before God” (IThes.3:12,13) when He returns to heaven with us.

That return will be before the Tribulation, and that is how the Lord plans to “keep you from evil” (3:3), i.e., the evil of the Tribulation. We have no guarantee that we will be saved from any other evil. If you don’t understand this, you will charge God with unfaithfulness when wicked men harm you.