2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

Section V. Discipline for the Disorderly

Ch. 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

In his former letter St Paul had found it needful to exhort his readers to live a quiet life and to attend to their daily duties and pursuits. Some members of the Church were of an idle and improvident disposition. The Day of the Lord, they supposed, was imminent, and worldly occupations would therefore soon be at am end; the only business worth minding any longer, so they said, was to prepare for His coming. Their conduct was likely to bring discredit on the whole community; and they did it a material injury, by throwing the burden of their maintenance on their hard working and charitable brethren (see notes on 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). These men were "the disorderly" of 1 Thessalonians 5:12-14 (comp. 2 Thessalonians 3:7 below); they gave trouble to the officers of the Church, whom the Apostle in the First Epistle urges the Thessalonians loyally to support (ch. 1 Thessalonians 5:12), while they united to "admonish" the offenders. This evil, which should have been checked by the reproofs of the first letter, had grown to larger proportions. The startling announcements that were made respecting the Second Advent, tended to aggravate the mischief. Indeed these rumours so unhinged the minds of some of the Thessalonian Christians, that it must have been difficult for them, however diligently inclined, to pursue their common avocations. And the Apostle, having calmed the agitation of his readers by what he has written in the second chapter, proceeds now in strong terms to rebuke the disorder which had thus been unhappily fostered and stimulated.

The chief points in St Paul's charge on this subject are the following: (1) First, and last, he enjoins the avoidance of those who persist in disorder, 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:14(whom notwithstanding he still, and pointedly, calls "brethren," 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:15); (2) he recalls his personal example and teachingin their bearing on this matter, 2 Thessalonians 3:7; and (3) he solemnly charges the offenders to amend, 2 Thessalonians 3:12.