For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be a burden unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
All Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 2:9 Go To 1 Thessalonians 2
John Chrysostom
AD 407
“The sleep of a working man is sweet, whether he eats little or much.” Why does he add, “whether he eat little or much”? Both these things usually bring sleeplessness, namely, poverty and abundance; …. But the effect of hard work is such that neither poverty nor excess disrupt this servant’s sleep. Though throughout the whole day they are running about everywhere, ministering to their masters, being knocked about and hard pressed, having little time to catch their breath, they receive a sufficient recompense for their toils and labors in the pleasure of sleeping. And thus it has happened through the goodness of God toward humanity, that these pleasures are not to be purchased with gold and silver but with labor, with hard toil, with necessity and every kind of discipline. Not so with the rich. On the contrary, while lying on their beds, they are frequently without sleep throughout the night. Though they devise many schemes, they do not obtain much pleasure…. For this reason also, from the beginning, God tied the man to labor, not for the purpose of punishing or chastising but for amendment and education. When Adam lived in idle leisure, he fell from paradise, but when the apostle labored abundantly and toiled hard, writing, “In labor and travail, working night and day,” then he was taken up into paradise and ascended to the third heaven! Homilies Concerning the Statues
