For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
All Commentaries on 2 Thessalonians 3:10 Go To 2 Thessalonians 3
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
We read in sacred Scripture, dearly beloved, that a holy understanding should keep those who are concerned about their soul’s salvation, as the divine Word puts it, “Holy understanding shall protect you.” If such holy understanding keeps a soul, that which is unholy not only fails to keep it but even kills it. Perhaps someone says, “Who can always be thinking of God and eternal bliss, since all men must be concerned about food, clothing and the management of their household?” God does not ask us to be free from all anxiety over the present life, for he instructs us through his apostle, “If any man will not work, neither let him eat.” The same apostle repeats the idea with reference to himself when he says, “We worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you.” Since God especially advises reasonable concern for food and clothing, so long as avarice and ambition … are not linked with it, an ordinary action or thought can be most rightly considered holy. The only provision is that those preoccupations should not be so excessive that they do not allow us to have time for God, according to the words, “The burdens of the world have made them miserable.”
