Bible Gateway passage: 2 Thessalonians 3 - New Living Translation
Paul’s Request for Prayer - Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a...
6 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers [or, “from every brother”] who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received [or, “you received”] from us. 7 For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. 8 We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. 10 Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”
11 Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business.
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Verse 8 is too much.
I’ve read that farm work is extremely tedious and repetitive. So, pitching in as a visitor is different than doing it week after week after week.
And really, if someone offers you food, you normally should graciously accept it.
And that last verse, I guess there’s a fine line between witnessing to others and “meddling.”
