Believers must not refuse to work

⁶ Our friends, you must stay away from every believer who is living in a lazy way. We tell you this with the authority that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to us. Lazy people like that are not living in the way that we taught you. ⁷ You yourselves know that you ought to copy our example. You know that we were not lazy when we lived among you. ⁸ We always paid for the food that anyone gave to us. We worked hard all the time, during the day and at night. We did that so that we would not make trouble for any of you.