We command. — The fourth time the severe word is used in this very chapter. Perhaps “we order” might convey the meaning still more sharply. But immediately, lest severity provoke rebellion, he adds, “and we beseech,” alleging also the grounds on which he rests his appeal: “in our Lord” — i.e., “on the strength of our union in the Body of Christ.” (Comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:1.)
That with quietness they work. — The opposites of bustling, and of idleness.
Eat their own bread. — Not other people’s. This passage tempts us to take the marginal version in 1 Thessalonians 4:12 : “have need of no man.” The phrase is not fatal to the idea of there being a communism established. The bread would still be “their own” — i.e., they would have a right to it, supposing it had been earned for the community by hard work: otherwise, communism or no communism, the bread was stolen. The commentators aptly compare a rabbinical saying:” When a man eats his own bread he is composed and tranquil in mind; but if he be eating the bread of his parents or children, much more that of strangers, his mind is less tranquil.”