Here is the context of Paul's original statement.
2 Thessalonians 3 wrote:
Our friends, we command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from all believers who are living a lazy life and who do not follow the instructions that we gave them. You yourselves know very well that you should do just what we did. We were not lazy when we were with you. We did not accept anyone's support without paying for it. Instead, we worked and toiled; we kept working day and night so as not to be an expense to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to demand our support; we did it to be an example for you to follow. While we were with you, we used to tell you, “Whoever refuses to work is not allowed to eat.”
We say this because we hear that there are some people among you who live lazy lives and who do nothing except meddle in other people's business. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we command these people and warn them to lead orderly lives and work to earn their own living.
But you, friends, must not become tired of doing good. It may be that some there will not obey the message we send you in this letter. If so, take note of them and have nothing to do with them, so that they will be ashamed. But do not treat them as enemies; instead, warn them as believers.
It represents a bit of a shift from
John 6 wrote:
Jesus went across Lake Galilee (or, Lake Tiberias, as it is also called). A large crowd followed him, because they had seen his miracles of healing the sick. Jesus went up a hill and sat down with his disciples. The time for the Passover Festival was near. Jesus looked around and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, so he asked Philip, “Where can we buy enough food to feed all these people?” ( He said this to test Philip; actually he already knew what he would do.)
Philip answered, “For everyone to have even a little, it would take more than two hundred silver coins[a] to buy enough bread.”
Another one of his disciples, Andrew, who was Simon Peter's brother, said, “There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But they will certainly not be enough for all these people.”
“Make the people sit down,” Jesus told them. (There was a lot of grass there.) So all the people sat down; there were about five thousand men. Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God, and distributed it to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, and they all had as much as they wanted. When they were all full, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces left over; let us not waste a bit.” So they gathered them all and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left over from the five barley loaves which the people had eaten.
Compared to Jesus, Paul of Tarsus was just a busybody sourpuss who couldn't perform any miracles.
Jesus wrote:
I am the bread of life. Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.
26 Feb 2013, 11:58 am
