Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
All Commentaries on 2 Thessalonians 3:12 Go To 2 Thessalonians 3
Basil the Great
AD 379
This we must also keep in mind—that he who labos ought to pefom his task not fo the pupose of ministeing to his own needs but that he may accomplish the Lod’s command, “I was hungy and you gave me to eat,” and so on. To be concened fo oneself is stictly fobidden by the Lod in the wods, “Be not concened fo you life, what you shall eat, no fo you body, what you shall put on,” and he adds, “fo the heathens seek afte all these things.” Eveyone, theefoe, in doing his wok, should place befoe himself the aim of sevice to the needy and not his own satisfaction. Thus, he will escape the chage of selflove and eceive the blessing fo fatenal chaity fom the Lod, who said, “As long as you did it to one of these, the least of my bothes, you did it to me.” No should anyone think that the apostle is at vaiance with ou ule when he says, “that woking they would eat thei own bead.” This is addessed to the unuly and indolent, and means that it is bette fo each peson to ministe to himself at least and not be a buden to othes than to live in idleness. The Long Rules, q...
