2 Tesalonicenses 3:4-14

4 Además, confiamos en el Señor que ustedes hacen y seguirán haciendo lo que les ordenamos.

5 Que el Señor les guíe el corazón a un entendimiento total y a una expresión plena del amor de Dios, y a la perseverancia con paciencia que proviene de Cristo.

6 Exhortación a vivir correctamente
Y ahora, amados hermanos, les damos el siguiente mandato en el nombre de nuestro Señor Jesucristo: aléjense de todos los creyentes
que llevan vidas ociosas y que no siguen la tradición que recibieron
de nosotros.

7 Pues ustedes saben que deben imitarnos. No estuvimos sin hacer nada cuando los visitamos a ustedes.

8 En ningún momento aceptamos comida de nadie sin pagarla. Trabajamos mucho de día y de noche a fin de no ser una carga para ninguno de ustedes.

9 Por cierto, teníamos el derecho de pedirles que nos alimentaran, pero quisimos dejarles un ejemplo que seguir.

10 Incluso mientras estábamos con ustedes les dimos la siguiente orden: «Los que no están dispuestos a trabajar que tampoco coman».

11 Sin embargo, oímos que algunos de ustedes llevan vidas de ocio, se niegan a trabajar y se entrometen en los asuntos de los demás.

12 Les ordenamos a tales personas y les rogamos en el nombre del Señor Jesucristo que se tranquilicen y que trabajen para ganarse la vida.

13 En cuanto al resto de ustedes, amados hermanos, nunca se cansen de hacer el bien.

14 Tomen nota de quienes rehúsan obedecer lo que decimos en esta carta. Aléjense de ellos, para que se avergüencen.

2 Tesalonicenses 3:4-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 THESSALONIANS 3

In this chapter the apostle requests of the Thessalonians, that they would pray for him, and other Gospel ministers; and he puts up prayers for them, gives them rules about dealing with disorderly persons, and concludes the epistle with his usual salutation. The request to pray for ministers is in 2Th 3:1 the petitions to be made for them are, that their ministry might be succeeded, and their persons preserved and delivered from evil minded men, destitute of faith in Christ, 2Th 3:1-2 and, for the consolation of the saints, observes the faithfulness of God engaged in their behalf to establish them in the faith they had, and to preserve them from everything and person that is evil, 2Th 3:3 and expresses his confidence in them with respect to their walk and conversation, 2Th 3:4 and then prays for them that their hearts might be directed into the love of God, and patience of Christ, 2Th 3:5. And next follows an order to withdraw from every disorderly walker, particularly idle and slothful persons, 2Th 3:6 and from such a lazy idle life the apostle dissuades by his own example, who behaved not disorderly, nor ate the bread of others, but wrought with his own hands, though he had a right to a maintenance without it, but did this to set an example to them, 2Th 3:7-9. He puts them in mind of a precept of his when among them, that such who would not work should not eat, 2Th 3:10 and the order he now gave, and the precept he reminds them of, were not without reason; seeing there were disorderly idle persons, and busy bodies, among them, whom the apostle exhorts and beseeches, in the name of Christ, to be industrious, and eat their own bread, as the fruit of their labours, 2Th 3:11,12 and as for the other members of the church, he exhorts them to diligence and constancy in well doing, and to mark those that were incorrigible, and have no conversation with them, yet dealing with them not as enemies, but admonishing them as brethren, 2Th 3:13-15. And closes all with prayers, that the Lord would give them peace, and grant his presence to them, and with his usual salutation, written with his own hand, as a token of this being a genuine epistle of his, and by which every epistle of his might be known, 2Th 3:16-18.