Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
Paul and his fellow workers possessed the right to receive support for their ministry, yet they deliberately chose not to use that right in order to make themselves an example for believers to follow. They labored night and day to support themselves rather than living off others, not because they lacked power or entitlement as ministers, but to set the pattern others should imitate. At Thessalonica, the first place where preaching was combined with earning a living, they worked with their hands while proclaiming the message, accepting no food without paying for it. They conducted themselves in an orderly way, eating no one's bread for nothing and working with labor and travail night and day so as not to be chargeable or burdensome to anyone.
He adopted this pattern of diligence in temporal matters alongside untiring zeal in the cause of Christ especially for those who refused to work with their hands. At Thessalonica some lived idly, walked disorderly, and acted as busybodies, expecting others to provide for them though able to work themselves. His self-supporting labor therefore backed his command that those able to work should not live in idleness. The labor itself commends physical exercise and useful work as good for everyone.
The verse means believers must not neglect daily duties and resign themselves to idle waiting because of eager expectations of immediate deliverance. When the round of daily life and expected opposition appear doubly forbidding, their work is still appointed by God and calls for steadfastness in faith. That steadfastness includes sharing with others the light received rather than giving way to sloth and aimless excitement.
The example requires believers to withdraw and withhold fellowship from every brother who persists in walking disorderly. It applies the rule that those unwilling to work should not eat, calls for ceasing to be idle busybodies, for working quietly and providing their own bread, and for not growing weary in well doing. Sloth and aimless excitement are to be reproved, and anyone who persists in disregarding this instruction is still to be admonished as a brother and not treated as an enemy. Believers are sustained amid life's toils and trials by the peace of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul and his fellow workers possessed the right to receive support for their ministry, yet they deliberately chose not to use that right in order to make themselves an example for believers to follow. They labored night and day to support themselves rather than living off others, not because they lacked power or entitlement as ministers, but to set the pattern others should imitate. At Thessalonica, the first place where preaching was combined with earning a living, they worked with their hands while proclaiming the message, accepting no food without paying for it. They conducted themselves in an orderly way, eating no one's bread for nothing and working with labor and travail night and day so as not to be chargeable or burdensome to anyone.
He adopted this pattern of diligence in temporal matters alongside untiring zeal in the cause of Christ especially for those who refused to work with their hands. At Thessalonica some lived idly, walked disorderly, and acted as busybodies, expecting others to provide for them though able to work themselves. His self-supporting labor therefore backed his command that those able to work should not live in idleness. The labor itself commends physical exercise and useful work as good for everyone.
The verse means believers must not neglect daily duties and resign themselves to idle waiting because of eager expectations of immediate deliverance. When the round of daily life and expected opposition appear doubly forbidding, their work is still appointed by God and calls for steadfastness in faith. That steadfastness includes sharing with others the light received rather than giving way to sloth and aimless excitement.
The example requires believers to withdraw and withhold fellowship from every brother who persists in walking disorderly. It applies the rule that those unwilling to work should not eat, calls for ceasing to be idle busybodies, for working quietly and providing their own bread, and for not growing weary in well doing. Sloth and aimless excitement are to be reproved, and anyone who persists in disregarding this instruction is still to be admonished as a brother and not treated as an enemy. Believers are sustained amid life's toils and trials by the peace of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.