Note how Paul combines the note of authority with a certain amount of tenderness,

`we command and exhort'. The Apostle was no hard autocrat. He knew how to blend

firmness with love and so to handle wisely such difficult situations that sometimes arise

among believers. The words `by our Lord Jesus Christ' indicate clearly that he was

Christ's spokesman. It was as though the Lord Himself was speaking and commanding

and so always ought we to regard the teaching given through Paul. Paul the man is only a

channel, `less than the least of all saints' (Eph. 3: 8), but as the Apostle (sent one) of

Christ Jesus he speaks with all the Lord's authority. Would that professing Christendom

could grasp this truth. They would then cease to talk of `Pauline doctrine' or to set up the

teaching given through Christ in the days of His flesh as being superior to that He gave

through the Apostle. In both, the Lord Jesus is the Author of the teaching, but in each

case it is received through a human channel. His ministry when on earth being mediated

to us by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and His heavenly ministry through the witness

of Paul to us who are Gentiles, and the twelve apostles to the circumcision (Jew).

In the case of the Lord's earthly ministry, we have it on His authority that it was

limited to the people of Israel (Matt. 15: 24) and with this agrees Rom. 9: 3-5, 15: 8;

also that the fullness of revelation was yet future, awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit

(John 16: 12-14) and the time when in Resurrection and Ascension He Himself would

have no such limitations as to one people. The false idea that the `words of Jesus' (the

Gospels) give a higher revelation and are more authoritative than the epistles, are the

cause of much of the spiritual blindness and stunted spiritual growth that we see around

us today in the Christian world. This conception is a present exaltation in glory and the

church's close association with Him there, from being realized and enjoyed by the

believer. We who have had opened eyes in this respect need to combat such false ideas

with all the energy and wisdom possible, for, until these are removed from the mind, any

testimony concerning the unsearchable riches of Christ revealed in Paul's prison epistles

will be practically valueless.

So we see that, in the context we are dealing with, the Apostle could command as

from the Lord, and expect to be obeyed by the faithful. The indolent are charged to work

with quietness and eat what comes from their own labour, and then he writes to the whole

assembly. Paul exhorts them not to be `weary in well doing', that is, the `right of

honourable thing'. This is the only occurrence of kalopoieo in the N.T., but it is used in

the LXX, and the Apostle uses a like expression in II Cor. 13: 7, to kalon poiete `do

that which is honest', Rom. 7: 21 `to do good' and very similarly to II Thess. 3: 13 in

Gal. 6: 9 `let us not be weary in well doing'. A similar word agathoerges `to do good'

is found in I Tim. 6: 18.

Paul's last word to the idlers and busybodies is now given. All such are to be `marked

men' (`note that man'). Semeioo is from semeion, a sign, token or mark. The faithful are

not to mix with (have company with) such, in order to bring the offenders to a sense of

shame. Such discipline was remedial in its object and was not excommunication as

verse 15 shows.  Such were not to be regarded as enemies, but brothers who were

erring, with the hope that they would repent and reform their ways. The professing

church down the centuries has used the extreme discipline of excommunication far too