Some within the Thessalonian church were not working and had become dependent on others to sustain them (3:10–12). They were “disorderly” (KJV; NIV: “idle and disruptive”) in that they did not heed the apostles’ example (3:7–9) and verbal instruction (3:10). Some suggest that the reason the Thessalonians were not working to earn their bread was that they believed that the day of the Lord had come or was at hand (2 Thess. 2:1–2). Paul, however, does not directly link the present discussion with the church’s confusion about the end times. More likely, these believers had, from the beginning, resisted the apostolic instruction to abandon their status as dependent clients of rich patrons (see 1 Thess. 4:11–12; 5:14). Paul’s teaching here does not, however, absolve the church from its responsib…