And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
Ver. 12. And labour, working, &c.] Whereas they might object, Are you hungry, thirsty, naked? It is because you are idle. No, saith he, "we labour, working with our hands" (a shame for you to suffer it), and yet can hardly sweat out a poor living. This one example of Paul is much pleaded in these times by men of perverse minds to dispute God out of his own. One apostle works with his hands, or two, now and then at pleasure; all the rest live upon the Church (for could those fishermen catch fish in the forests, deserts, or streets?), yet one Paul is set against all the rest of the apostles; yea, set together by the ears with himself; anything to save their purses.