What is the context?
Paul recognizes the believers’ love for others throughout Macedonia and asks them to keep increasing in it. He joins that encouragement with instructions to live quietly, attend to their own responsibilities, and work with their hands.
The aim includes a proper relationship with outsiders and avoiding unnecessary dependence. In this setting, love includes the willingness to shoulder ordinary responsibilities. Nothing here says that people who cannot work should be denied support; the closing instructions explicitly call for helping the weak.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads the instruction as a guard against a religious enthusiasm that neglects everyday work. Paul does not oppose Christian devotion to practical responsibilities. The paragraph itself does not state that every idle person had stopped working because of an end-times prediction.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.