2 Thessalonians 3:10 (DRB)

Passage

For also, when we were with you, this we declared to you: that, if any man will not work, neither let him eat.

Nearby Context

2 Thessalonians 3:8 Neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing: but in labour and in toil we worked night and day, lest we should be chargeable to any of you.

2 Thessalonians 3:9 Not as if we had not power: but that we might give ourselves a pattern unto you, to imitate us.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For also, when we were with you, this we declared to you: that, if any man will not work, neither let him eat.

2 Thessalonians 3:11 For we have heard there are some among you who walk disorderly: working not at all, but curiously meddling.

2 Thessalonians 3:12 Now we charge them that are such and beseech them by the Lord Jesus Christ that, working with silence, they would eat their own bread.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "declared" and "neither". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "declared" and "neither", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 9's "Not as if we had not power..." into verse 11's "For we have heard there are some...", so "declared" and "neither" belong inside that flow. In 2 Thessalonians context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "declared" and "neither" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.