Add parallel Print Page Options

10 Even when we were there with you, we told you this rule: ‘If anyone refuses to work, you should not give food to him.’[a]

11 We say this because someone has told us news about you. They have told us that some people among you are living in a lazy way.[b] Those people do not work at their own jobs. Instead, they cause trouble to other people who are working. 12 We have something to say to people who are lazy like that. We warn them with the authority that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to us. They must stop causing trouble. They must work properly, so that they get their own food to eat.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 3:10 See 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9.
  2. 3:11 In his first letter to them, Paul told the Christians at Thessalonica that they must work. See 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12. But some of them were still refusing to work. They thought that Jesus would return to the earth very soon. So they may have thought that they did not need to work. In this letter, Paul has already explained that Jesus will not return so very soon. Certain things must happen first. See 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. So now, Paul tells them again that it is right for them to work.