For even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat.”
10 He that will not labor. From its being written in Psalm 128:2 — Thou art blessed, eating of the labor of thy hands, also in Proverbs 10:4, The blessing of the Lord is upon the hands of him that laboreth, it is certain that indolence and idleness are accursed of God. Besides, we know that man was created with this view, that he might do something.
The apostle having commended their obedience for the time past, and mentioned his confidence in their obedience for the time to come, proceeds to give them commands and directions to some who were faulty, correcting some things that were amiss among them. Observe, The best society of Christians may have some faulty persons among them, and some things that ought to be reformed.
Commenting on 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15
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 used...