On Brotherly Love and Diligence (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12)

1 Thess. 4:9. But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write to you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

The brothers, love for whom is mentioned here, are Christians, as is clear from the following verse (1 Thess. 4:10). “He does not speak of love toward all, but of love toward the brothers” (Chrysostom). And moreover of love not as a feeling but as loving activity in deed: “The Apostle here pointed to generosity in monetary giving” (Theodoret). If deeds of this kind immediately came to characterize the Thessalonians, it is evident how fully they had received the spirit of Christianity. All Christians, on receiving the Spirit of grace, become one. And being united in spirit, they share in mutual charity, directing it especially toward the needy. Nevertheless, brotherly love is commanded to Christians everywhere in the epistles (Rom. 12:10; Heb. 13:1; 1 Pet. 1:22), sometimes as a reminder, sometimes as guidance in the manner of fulfilling it.

“You need not that I write.” The Apostles measured their word according to the needs of those who were to read their epistles. They wrote not in order to say as much as possible, but to satisfy the spiritual needs of their disciples. In speaking thus, the Apostle employed a form of expression that is encouraging and stimulating for the Thessalonians. He not only softens the rigour of the moral instruction, but also stirs up energy and imposes a certain obligation—to stand firm in what has been begun. Holy Chrysostom writes: “What does it mean that the Apostle sets aside, as it were, love—the foundation of every virtue—saying: there is no need to write about that? This proceeds from his great prudence and spiritual wisdom. By this he accomplishes two aims: first, he shows that this virtue is so necessary that there is no need even to teach it, for what is of special importance to all is known to everyone; second, by expressing himself thus, he instructs them more than he would if he turned to them directly with exhortation. For by supposing that they are living righteously—even if they are not—and therefore not pressing them toward it, he more readily brings them to such a life. Of course, if there were no need to write, one should remain silent and say nothing; but now, by saying there is no need to write, he has done more than if he had said there is a need.” Oecumenius adds somewhat to this thought: “By saying they are exemplary in this (brotherly love), he stirs them toward it even if they were not exemplary, so that they might uphold such an opinion and reputation of themselves.”

“Taught of God.” When and how? — Along with the receiving of the Spirit of grace. By the Holy Spirit, given to Christians, love is also poured into their hearts (Rom. 5:5). This Spirit instils not only the feeling of love, but also the ability to show love. He stirs up desires corresponding to the promptings of feeling, adds motives to them, shows the means, and inspires moral strength. The Apostle speaks as if to say: the Holy Spirit is in you, and He teaches you and disposes you to love one another. And so you do love—love has become a natural feeling in you. — There is nothing to teach. Of this inner instruction from the Spirit, holy John writes as of the fruit of the anointing (1 Jn. 2:27). Where God teaches, let man be silent. “See what honour he renders them, saying that God Himself teaches them this. You have no need, he says, to learn it from a man. Of this the prophet also speaks: and all your children shall be taught of the Lord (Is. 54:13). This serves as a powerful motive to fulfil the duty of love” (Chrysostom).

1 Thess. 4:10. And indeed you do it toward all the brothers which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brothers, that you abound more and more.

“You do it.” That there is indeed no need to write to them about brotherly love, as those taught of God, their deeds of love toward the brothers throughout Macedonia make clear. By referring their deeds to God as their source, he hallows them and thereby gives them a motive to continue. The Thessalonians were doubtless benevolent by their natural disposition. Having been with them personally and giving them lessons face to face, the Apostle gave a God-pleasing direction to this natural inclination. After receiving the grace that sanctified and transformed their nature, even that came to be from God.

“Abound more and more.” You know and you do it. There is no need to teach you how to live or to set before you motives for it. What remains is to wish you and beseech you to advance more and more in what you have begun. The purpose of the address is to remind them of the need to ascend ever higher in the perfection of brotherly love. That this reminder was not in vain, the Apostle testified later, writing to the Corinthians, where he says that they appeared “willing beyond their power,” not merely offering but even begging to be allowed to share in the grace and fellowship—and this not merely toward the Macedonians, but toward the saints, the Christians living in Judea and Jerusalem. The Apostle traces such a disposition in them to the fact that they had given themselves to the Lord. They were ready to give all they had for the brothers, placing their own lot in God’s hands, trusting that He who had commanded them to act thus would not leave them also without His providential care (2 Cor. 8:3–5).

c) On diligence (1 Thess. 4:11–12)

1 Thess. 4:11. And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.

Holy Paul mentioned brotherly love only in passing, as it were, merely to tell them: advance in it more and more. Now again he continues his discourse about those things in which there were disorderly persons among the Thessalonians. The Apostle had learned that among them some were restless, fond of wandering about the market-place; to such he prescribes quietness and staying at home. Others were neglectful of their own affairs; to these he commands to attend to their own business. Others were unwilling to work—idle and consuming what belongs to others, unable not only to help others but even to provide for themselves; to them: “work with your own hands.” That such persons were indeed among the Thessalonians is evident from the second epistle to them, where the Apostle writes: “for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread” (2 Thess. 3:11–12). The faults rebuked in the second epistle are precisely those against which the first epistle had written rules of good conduct, so as to avoid the necessity of rebuking them later. But since what is bad is not corrected all at once, rebuke proved necessary as well.

Although all of this regulated only the outward conduct of Christians, the Apostle nonetheless insists strongly on its being set right. For when the outward is disorderly, it is very doubtful that the inward is in order. Hence he urges them “to study”—to strive for this with all earnestness (cf. Rom. 15:20; 2 Cor. 5:9) — φιλοτιμεισθαι: to account it an honour, to pursue as a point of honour the conduct proposed.

“To be quiet”—not to flee to the desert for silence, but to shun rumour, noise, and agitation, and not only not to stir them up but not to participate in them either—to sit at home in order to avoid unpleasant conflicts with anyone, and in general to show a quiet, calm, peaceable disposition.

“To do your own business”—to do only what concerns each person at home and in his external dealings, what constitutes his duty and obligation according to his position. There is a moral weakness by which some, never at rest for a moment, busy themselves entirely with other people’s affairs while neglecting their own without attention. If everyone attended properly to his own affairs alone, according to conscience and with the fear of God, there would be more contentment, happiness, and order among people.

“Work with your own hands”—to labour, to have a craft, occupation, and bodily work by which one can earn one’s subsistence; not to live at another’s expense but to eat one’s bread in the sweat of one’s face; not to abuse others’ charity. Blessed Theophylact writes: “It happened that some were giving generously to the needy what they required, and the recipients, relying on their generosity, were negligent about engaging in work. And the Apostle rightly praised the one group and gave useful counsel to the other.” Holy Chrysostom expounds the thought at greater length: “Here he gives to understand how many evils idleness occasions, and, conversely, how many goods diligence brings. The duty of love toward one’s neighbours consists not in receiving from them, but in giving to them. And this depends on diligence—not to live in idleness but, by working, to give to others; for it is said: ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35). Poverty had come upon them from the plundering of their possessions. If he commands those whose property was plundered for Christ’s sake to support themselves by their own labour, how much more does this apply to others.”

“As we commanded you.” We commanded them not only to work, but also to attend to their own business and to lead a quiet life. But if he commanded it, it means those faults were noticeable among the Thessalonians, so that the Apostle had marked them at once and warned against them when he was with them and was teaching them personally.

1 Thess. 4:12. That you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing.

The goal of the proposed good conduct is to walk honestly before those who are without. Those without—that is, non-Christians, at that time pagans and Jews. The Church is the house of God. Those who are not in it are outside it—the outsiders. The Apostle commands them to conduct themselves properly among them and in their regard, so that even the visible behaviour of Christians may be pure, bright, worthy of general approval, and so that no one might have anything bad to say about them. So obligatory is it for Christians to appear visibly as a model for the life of all bystanders, to be lights for them. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven,” the Lord commanded all Christians in the person of the Apostles (Mt. 5:16). Honest conduct before those who are without is defined by the Apostle through all the rules set out before; and here he seems to gather them all into one, adding: “and that you may have lack of nothing”—so as not to ask anything from anyone, not to trouble anyone with one’s needs. “The words: ‘that you may walk honestly toward them that are without’ the Apostle interpreted by adding: ‘and that you may have lack of nothing.’ It is shameful, he says, to live in inactivity, not to provide what is needed by one’s own labour, but to love a beggarly life and to await others’ generosity” (Theodoret). Holy Chrysostom writes: “He did not say: do not shame yourselves by begging; yet he hinted at this, although he used a more lenient manner of expression, so as both to make them feel it (how unseemly this is) and not to grieve them too much. For if our fellow brothers are offended by such things, the outsiders, who seek a thousand charges and reproaches, are all the more offended when they see a man who is healthy, capable of feeding himself, begging for alms and needing others’ support. Because by this ‘the name of God is blasphemed’ (Rom. 2:24). But he laid none of this before them—only what could especially move them, namely the unseemly behaviour.”