2 Thessalonians 3:6

How necessary it was to promote ὑπομονή with its attendant virtues of diligence and order at Thessalonica, is evident from the authoritative (ἐν ὀν. τ. Κυρίου) tone and the crisp detail of the following paragraph. Παραγγ., like ἀτάκτως, has a military tinge (cf. on I. 1 Thessalonians 4:2, and Dante's Paradiso, xii. 37 45). στελλ., for his own sake (2 Thessalonians 3:14), as well as for yours: a service as well as a precaution. The collective action of his fellow-Christians, besides preserving (1 Corinthians 5:6) themselves from infection and nothing is so infectious as an insubordinate, indolent, interfering spirit will bring home to him a sense of his fault. Lightfoot aptly cites the παράγγελμα of Germanicus to his mutinous troops: “discedite a contactu, ac diuidite turbidos: id stabile ad paenitentiam, id fidei uinculum erit” (Tacit. Annal., i. 43). The ἄτακτοι of 6 12 are excitable members who “break the ranks” by stopping work in view of the near advent, and thus not only disorganise social life but burden the church with their maintenance. The apostles had not been idle or hare-brained enthusiasts, and their example of an orderly, self-supporting life is held up as a pattern. Insubordination of this kind is a breach of the apostolic standard of the Christian life, and Paul deals sharply with the first symptoms of it. He will not listen to any pious pleas for this kind of conduct.