If only you had hands, they’ll give you work. Work until you sweat, and you’ll eat like crazy. For the one who works, the work burns with fire in his hands. The work is bitter, but the bread is sweet. The beekeeper is bitter, but his honey is sweet. Time for work, but an hour for leisure. Half a shoulder the work is hard, if you put both of them together, it will be easier to do. The eyes look, but the hands do. Work is with the teeth, and laziness is with the tongue. If there was a desire, all work will improve. Garden work, and glory throughout the people. Work more - you will be remembered for a long time .Work with your hands is a holiday for the soul. Lunch is tastier for the finished work. An earned loaf is better than a stolen loaf. He who grinds bakes bread. Good people start their day with work. Think in the evening, and do it in the morning. When life is fun, the work goes well. Who If he doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat. He eats until he sweats, but works just to stay warm. Work bolder - you’ll live more cheerfully. Don’t put off today’s work until tomorrow. Your hands work, but your head feeds. If you get up early, you’ll work more. There’s a job for a willing worker .He who works tirelessly is never without bread. He who has work, has bread. Where there is work, there is plenty, but in a lazy house it is empty. He chops with two axes, but work is not an argument. Take your time, don’t rush, but work - don't be lazy. You're healthy enough to eat, but you're too weak to work. A man is great at work. When you're done with work - the day is short. Take on any work with eagerness. Without labor you can't even pull a fish out of the pond. God loves workers. When you've finished your work - go for a walk boldly. The master's work is afraid. Time is a fun time for the work. Water does not flow under a lying log. Out of boredom at all times. A favorite job, like a beloved wife, does not become disgusting. The eyes are afraid, but the hands are busy. A hard time is the beginning. Strike while the iron is hot. A good deed will save the soul and body. You don’t carry a craft behind your back. Work not for fear, but for your conscience. Cut down a tree up to your shoulder. From work you will not be rich, but you will be hunchbacked. From the labors of the righteous you will not build stone chambers, but you will put your soul in hell , so you will be rich. Work loves a fool, and a fool is happy to work. If you take up the tug, don’t say that it’s not strong. Quietly to work, running from work. If you turn sharply, you will break. Work makes horses die. Work loves praise. Deeds I don’t do it and I don’t run around doing nothing. I would drink and eat, but work wouldn’t come to my mind. You’ll always find flour on your hands. If you had a neck, you’ll find a clamp. If you don’t want to sew with gold, hit with a hammer. They move the clamps, and so do not lie in the arcs. Work carelessly (do nothing). Pour from empty to empty. The game is not worth the candle. What is the pay, so is the work. Carry water with a sieve. Dedicated to the work soul and body. Do everything wrong. Work loves fun. Work and hands - reliable guarantees in people. Work saves money, but drowns the wine. Work torments, feeds, and teaches. Work praises the master. Work is black, but money is white. Work until dawn, but don’t play like hell. Work until you sweat, eat bread when you want. Work - you will be full; study - you will be smart. You can work hard, but you can eat just right. A worker with a bipod, a lazy man with a spoon. Working children are bread for their father. Work from the shoulders, and even for the stove. The worker receives half a ruble, and the contractor a ruble. Working hands do not know boredom .The workhorse is on straw, and the idle dancer is on oats. Without excitement, without care, do not expect joy from work. As you go to work, so the work comes to you. A nag carries water, a goat shakes its beard - both work. He who serves well, neither about which he doesn’t bother. Looking at someone else’s work, you won’t be full. The work and the pay, the product and the price. The work and the worker know. The work loves fools. You work conscientiously, and you’re not ashamed to look people in the eye. It’s hard for him to live, who runs away from work. Good work makes an old man look younger. Work is not without care, but care lives even without work. Work praises the master. Work more friendly - it will be more faithful. Work what they force you to do, and eat what they give you. The guys work, but there are foals. You won’t work, you’ll stretch your legs from hunger. For the worker - half a ruble, for the master - a ruble. For the worker - work, for the owner - care. There’s so much work that the chickens won’t peck. Hardworking, like a bee. The working man is the master of everything. The work of a lazy person doesn’t like it. Work is not a wolf - it won’t run away into the forest. Work is not a bear - you can see it tomorrow. Work saves power, but laziness drowns it. Work grows moldy in its hands. Works like a child, but eats like a child. Works without putting hands on it. He works in jest, but eats in earnest. A workhorse runs on straw, but a fool dances on oats.

True, it sounded somewhat different: “If someone doesn’t want to work, then don’t eat.” And the Apostle Paul said this.

Here is how it was. The apostle's preaching about the second coming of Christ made such a strong impression on some residents of the Macedonian city of Thessalonica that they abandoned their business and began to wait for the end of the world. Having stopped working and refusing all participation in worldly life, they began to live at the expense of others. And then the Apostle Paul had to write them a special letter, which was then included in the Bible as the “Second Epistle to the Thessalonians.” In it, Paul called on Christians who had quit their jobs to come to their senses.

At the same time, the apostle cited himself and his companions as an example. “We did not eat anyone’s bread for free, but we labored and labored night and day, so as not to burden any of you.” Indeed, traveling preaching from city to city, Paul never lived at the expense of others. Everywhere he got a job and earned his own food. His example was intended to convince other Christians to act according to their conscience, and not to devour their neighbors.

It is difficult to argue with the truth of the apostle’s words, “If anyone does not want to work, then do not eat.”

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Bolsheviks, who dreamed of building a communist kingdom of justice on earth, took this simple and clear truth from Christians: “He who does not work, does not eat.”

Roman Makhankov

Thus, the words “he who does not work, neither does he eat” are firmly associated with the socialist system, and many still consider Vladimir Ilyich Lenin to be their author. But the leader of the world proletariat did not invent this phrase, but borrowed it from the Bible. After all, he - a graduate of a gymnasium and university - studied the Holy Scriptures and, most likely, knew well that the words “If anyone does not want to work, neither should he eat” belonged to the Apostle Paul. Surprisingly, while quoting and using the words of the Apostle in communist doctrine, its ideologists managed to simultaneously criticize them in anti-religious publications. For example, Soviet-era textbooks said something like the following: the phrase of the Apostle Paul “if anyone does not want to work, let him not eat” is a common formula for slave labor in a slave-owning society. Such is the paradox: the same idea is put forward in slogans and at the same time declared to be a preaching of slave morality...

So when and under what circumstances were these words spoken? To whom were they spoken and what meaning did the author put into them?

This story is almost two thousand years old. In the early 50s of the 1st century AD. The Apostle Paul comes to the Macedonian city of Thessaloniki (present-day Greek Thessaloniki) preaching Christianity. From him the Thessalonians hear for the first time about Christ: about His Resurrection, Second Coming and future general bodily resurrection. And, despite the fact that for the most “advanced” ancient Greek philosophy at that time, bodily resurrection was absurd (after all, the ancient world lived under the Socratic motto: “the body is the prison of the soul”), despite the amazement and ridicule of the pagan intelligentsia around the Apostle in Thessalonica A Christian community is formed very quickly.

Subsequently, the Apostle Paul spoke of her with great love and warmth, but even under such spiritual guidance, the Thessalonian Christians were not immune from errors.

The Apostle Paul's sermon about the second coming of Christ made such a strong impression on believers that many began to wait for the Savior literally from day to day. According to the Apostle, a strange situation with anonymous letters allegedly written on his behalf by Paul added fuel to the fire. Added to this was the frantic preaching of exalted people, whom they usually call false prophets. Many Christians, having heard and believed that the Second Coming is already coming, quit their jobs and the most necessary cares for a person.

Having learned about this, Paul had to take ink and papyrus and explain to the newly converted Christians things that were obvious to the apostles. This is how the letter appeared, which was later included in the New Testament under the title “Second Epistle to the Thessalonians.”

The idea expressed in the Message is as follows. The Lord will come, of course, suddenly and, perhaps, will come soon. But there are signs that the Second Coming is approaching: historical and spiritual events that are destined to happen first. After all, the Lord’s goal is not at all to take as many people by surprise as possible with His sudden appearance, but to ensure that a person, knowing the signs of the coming of Christ, remains faithful to Him in spite of everything. In the second letter to the Thessalonians, as the main sign of the imminent Coming, the Apostle speaks of the appearance of the Antichrist and the mass apostasy of people from faith in Christ.

Reminding Christians of the signs of the Second Coming, the Apostle writes: We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to distance yourself from every brother who acts disorderly, and not according to the tradition that you received from us, for you yourselves know how you should imitate us; For we did not riot among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread for free, but we labored and toiled night and day, so as not to burden any of you—not because we had no power, but to give ourselves as an example to you. imitation of us. For when we were with you, we bequeathed this to you: if anyone does not want to work, he should not eat. But we hear that some among you act disorderly, do nothing, but fuss. Such we exhort and persuade through our Lord Jesus Christ, that they should work in silence and eat their own bread” (chapter 3, verses 6-12).

It’s amazing how they managed to interpret these words as a formula for slave labor, because the context completely contradicts such an understanding! Of course, the Apostle was not a supporter of idleness, but from the context of the message it is clear that these lines were originally intended not for the builders of socialism or ancient slaves, but for Christians who were drunkenly awaiting the second Coming of Christ.

Moreover, the Apostle has this personal appeal to specific people who misunderstood him. For Lenin, this is a doctrine. But the doctrine no longer asks, but requires. That is why, for example, Joseph Brodsky, a poet, translator and philologist, ended up in exile, because he did not find a place for himself in the “table of ranks” that in Soviet times separated workers from “parasites.” According to this doctrine, many people were under attack: intellectuals, clergy, dissidents, in a word, all those whose work, in the opinion of the state, was not “socially useful.” And this state doctrine has little in common with the call of the Apostle Paul.

This is the story of the first misconception. But there is also a second thing. Nowadays, you can very often hear about people who leave their families, jobs and go to some pseudo-Christian sect, “predicting” that the Second Coming will be, for example, “on Tuesday, the fifth of December.” The property of citizens is sent to the same sect. As a result, the person is left without everything, the Savior does not come, and the “brothers”, under various pretexts, set a new date for the Coming. And hundreds of new adherents sell off everything they have acquired, part with loved ones, and stop working, seemingly under a plausible pretext. The Apostle Paul takes away this excuse from them, declaring that there is no excuse for idleness, no excuse, even with the most pious motives. The Apostle clearly says that apocalyptic hysteria, like the one that gripped Thessalonica two thousand years ago, is not a spiritual impulse, not humility before God, but nothing more than “vanity” and “disorder.”

Those who listen to the newly-minted prophets, who call in the name of Christ to give up everything and wait in crowds for the Savior on such and such a date at so many hours, and who obey them, are mistaken. Why? Read the letters of the Apostle Paul...

He who does not work does not eat - the words of the Apostle Paul in his second address to the Thessalonians (Thessalonians).

6. We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother who acts disorderly, and not according to the tradition that was received from us,
7. For you yourselves know how you should imitate us; for we did not commit outrages among you,
8. They ate no one’s bread for free, but labored and toiled night and day, so as not to burden any of you—
9. not because we do not have power, but to give ourselves to you as an example for us to follow.
10. For when we were with you, we commanded you this: if anyone does not want to work, he should not eat.
11. But we hear that some among you act disorderly, do nothing, but are fussy.
12. Such we admonish and convince by our Lord Jesus Christ, that they should work in silence and eat their own bread.

Thessalonians are residents of the city of Thessaloniki (now Thessaloniki), located in northeastern Greece, on the coast of the Aegean Sea. The city was founded by the Macedonian king Cassander in 315 BC. e. He gave the name in honor of his wife Thessalonica. Thanks to its favorable location, Thessalonica played a significant role in Greek trade with Asia Minor and the Black Sea region, which is why the city has always been distinguished by its wealth. Today Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece

Analogues of the saying “he who does not work, neither shall he eat”