39 matching verse commentaries
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. The apostle had a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought.... Or freely, at free cost, without paying for it; he signifies, that what they ate, they bought with their own money, and lived on no man, without giving him a valuable consideration for what they had; though if they had not paid in money for their food, they would not have ate it for nought, since...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Not because we have not power,.... To forbear working, or require a maintenance from the churches to whom we minister, since Christ has ordained, that they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel; see 1 Corinthians 9:4. This the apostle says to preserve their right of claim, when and where they should think fit to make use of it; and lest...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For even when we were with you,.... At Thessalonica in person, and first preached the Gospel to them, we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat; the Ethiopic version reads in the singular number, "when I was with you, I commanded you"; using the above words, which were a sort of a proverb with the Jews, and is frequently...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. A very capital rule, indeed. There are some so very spiritually minded that to soil their hands is also to soil their conscience. They are afraid of hard work. They think it is unspiritual; whereas there is nothing in the world, next to the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For we hear that there are some,.... This is the reason of the order or command given in 2 Thessalonians 3:6 for withdrawing from disorderly persons. When the apostle was with them, he observed that there were idle persons among them, and therefore gave orders then, that if they would not work, they should not eat; and in his former epistle,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Not doing their own business, and therefore putting their noses into everybody else’s business. If they had minded their own affairs, they would have left other people alone. There are such people alive now. We must not be surprised if we meet...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now them that are such,.... For this was not the case and character of them all. Did such practices generally obtain, no community, civil or religious, could subsist. And the apostle wisely distinguishes them from others, that the innocent might not be involved in the charge. We command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ; using both authority and...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. The best bread and the sweetest, is our own. We are to work for it. We are to work with quietness. I suppose to some that is very hard work, but they must labour after it, for quietness is a Christian grace, it is indeed a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But ye, brethren,.... The rest of the members of the church, who were diligent and industrious in their callings, minded their own business, and did not trouble themselves with other men's matters, took care of themselves, and their families, and were beneficent to others: be not weary in well doing; which may be understood generally of all well...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. This kind of Christian discipline ought to be carried out still, in reference not only to this one ease of busybodies, but...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if any man obey not our word,.... Of command, to work quietly, and eat his own bread, now signified "by this epistle", particularly in 2 Thessalonians 3:12, note that man; some read this clause in connection with the preceding phrase, "by this epistle", or by an epistle; and so the Ethiopic version, "show", or "signify him by an epistle"; that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yet count him not as an enemy,.... As an enemy of Christ, and the Christian religion, as the Jews and Pagans were; or as an enemy of all righteousness, as Elymas the sorcerer was; as one that has an implacable hatred to good men, and a persecutor of them, and has an utter aversion to them and their principles; nor deal with him in an hostile,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now the Lord of peace himself,.... The Prince of peace, who is peaceable himself, and the author of peace in all his churches, and who requires peace, calls for it, and encourages it: give you peace always by all means; both a conscience peace, through the blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ, and faith in them, which passes all...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. What a sweet benediction! And how he heaps the words together, as if peace was one of the greatest blessings a church could have. Indeed, dear brethren it is the essential to all other blessings. I am quite certain that we never should have enjoyed here the long years of perpetual...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write. I suppose he always wrote a part of each epistle. Probably through the failure of his eyesight he was unable to write the whole of it with his own hands, but employed some one of his brethren to be his amanuensis. But, in order...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The salutation of Paul with mine own hand,.... In writing his epistles, the body and substance of them he used an amanuensis, but the salutation he wrote with his own hand: which is the token in every epistle; by which they might be known to be true and genuine, and be distinguished from counterfeit ones: and the rather he mentions this, that they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. This was the sign or token; [See comments on Romans 16:20] The subscription to this epistle is, "The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians was written from Athens"; though it seems rather to be written from Corinth. In the Syriac version it is said, "the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. So with great courtesy and a comprehensive prayer he finishes his letter.