Laziness

As I was studying this evening, I came across a section of a passage and commentary worth typing for you here:

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 ESV (11) and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, (12) so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

"They had learned very well that the Lord would be returning in mighty power, and evidently they felt that it would be very soon. Accordingly there was no point in continuing in some steady job. It was much more realistic, they evidently thought, to be about the business of proclaiming the near end of the world. If they had need of this world's goods in the meantime, why, there were others, Christian brethren, who could be relied upon to come to their rescue. This kind of thing can be done from a sense of serious purpose. But, human nature being what it is, it can easily degenerate into downright laziness and idleness. Men can be so taken up with the spectacular, with excitements over the near approach of the Lord, that they pass over the important things of everyday life. So Paul gives his attention to such matters, and counsels these brethren to mend their ways."

Morris, Leon. The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1979, 132.