Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Thessalonians 3:10

10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you , that if any would not work, neither should he eat .

The words contain a reason, as the illative for, imports, but what it refers to is uncertain, most probably a further reason of the Apostles working with his hands, because when with them he left this command, that he that would not work should not eat; he would therefore practise himself what he commanded them, and not be thought to be as the Pharisees, binding heavy burdens upon others, and he not touch them himself.

And this is another of the Commandments which the Apostle gave them, which he declared his confidence that they would do, verse 4. and this command seems grounded upon the law given to Adam, In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat bread, Gen. 3.19. For when he recommends a practise, not directly grounded upon some word of God, or of Christ, or from infallible inspiration, he calls it a permission, as 1 Cor. 7.6. but when otherwise, he saith, I command, and yet not I, but the Lord, verse 10. and calls it the commandment of the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. 14.37. and this in the Text is not his alone, but the Lords, and is else where mentioned, as Eph. 4.28. Let not him that stole steal any more, but work with his hands, &c. 1 Cor. 7.20. God requires it of us as men, that we may be profitable in the Common-wealth, supply our own wants, and of those that depend upon us, have wherewith also to supply the wants of the poor, Eph. 4.28. to be kept from the temptations of idleness. Christianity doth not extinguish the profitable Laws of nature, or Nations.

Yet this general command admits limitations. If men have ability and opportunity to work, or if the ends of working are not otherwise supplyed· For he that lives out of the reason of the Law seems not bound by the Law; or if the work be mental and not manual, the Law is fulfilled; and the equity of the Law reacheth all men so far, as that none ought not to be idle and useless in the World: and the Apostles argument for it in the Text is cogent from Nature it self. Agreeable to that of Solomon, Prov. 16.26. He that laboureth, laboureth for himself, for his mouth craveth it of him; whereupon some judge these believing Thessalonians to be generally a people that lived by some handicraft Trade, or some other manual Labour. And the eating here intended is meant of relief from the stock and charge of the Church; Such should not be relieved, who will not work, as it is in the Text, who could, but would not, the fault being in the Will.