Bible Strands
2 Thessalonians 3:10
For even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The author writes to the Thessalonian church, reaffirming a command already delivered in person, in response to members who are idle and meddling (v. 11).
The words — παρηγγέλλομεν (parēngellomen) is imperfect: "we were commanding," marking not a one-time remark but a repeated, standing instruction the recipients already knew.
The thread — The link between labor and sustenance runs from Genesis 3:19 (sweat as the condition of eating) through Proverbs 13:4 (the diligent are satisfied, the slacker craves in vain) to 1 Thessalonians 4:11 ("work with your own hands, as we instructed you").
Why it lands — The verse is not a general proverb about work; it is a recalled command issued to a specific group, so the reader is placed in the position of someone who has already been told and is now being held to it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
Cross-references
- Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
- Proverbs 13:4 The slacker craves yet has nothing, but the soul of the diligent is fully satisfied.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.
- Proverbs 20:4 The slacker does not plow in season; at harvest time he looks, but nothing is there.
- Proverbs 21:25 The craving of the slacker kills him because his hands refuse to work.
- Proverbs 24:30 I went past the field of a slacker and by the vineyard of a man lacking judgment.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:4 Indeed, when we were with you, we kept warning you that we would suffer persecution; and as you know, it has come to pass.
- John 16:4 But I have told you these things so that when their hour comes, you will remember that I told you about them. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
- Luke 24:44 Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
- Acts 20:18 When they came to him, he said, “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I arrived in the province of Asia.