2 Thessalonians 3:14 Commentary and Bible Study

Look at this very carefully. This is about the duty of withdrawing again. ‘If any man obey not our word.’ Is the apostle repeating himself? Is this just verse 6 repeated – ‘Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves’ from the disorderly? The answer is, no. He is adding to the command.In verse 14 he is talking not about the disorderly people of verse 6, but the non-disorderly people who will not separate from the disorderly people. It is important to see the second layer of meaning coming in here. So he first says, you cannot have close fellowship with the disorderly. You should not have them at the Lord’s table, you should not have them in your convivial love feasts, you should not have close fellowship with them as though nothing in the world is the matter. And if you do, and you ignore the command and you do not like it and you say, but that is my friend, so that you continue to have close fellowship, ignoring the apostle’s command, then you in turn have to be separated from.‘If any man obey not our word by this epistle,’ – that is, to separate from the disorderly – ‘note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.’ There are other things which Paul teaches call for immediate expulsion, but here the aim is to bring a true believer to be ashamed. So there must be a level of recoiling from the person who refuses to carry out the apostles’ command, so that God can minister to him and he will be shocked and say, ‘My conduct is not acceptable. I have disappointed my brothers and sisters in the Lord by disobeying the command to withdraw myself from the disorderly. I am shocked and I am ashamed and I review my conduct.’ That is the hope; that is the prayer.