1 Thessalonians 4:12

It is especially to the last particular of the lengthened παραγγελία that the final clause, ἵνα περιπατῆτε εὐσχημόνως κ.τ.λ., applies: that you may walk honourably (honeste, Vulg.; Old Eng. honestly) toward those without, and have need of nothing. Εὐσχημόνως (cf. Romans 13:13; 1 Corinthians 7:35) means in decent, comely fashion, in such manner as to “adorn the doctrine of our Saviour God” (Titus 2:10) and to win respect for the faith from those who had not embraced it. For such regard shown by St Paul to οἱ ἔξω (Heb. הַחִיצוֹנִים), “the outsiders,” cf. Colossians 4:5 (identical with this, except that ἐν σοφίᾳ replaces εὐσχημόνως), 1 Timothy 3:7; Titus 2:8; and for the phrase οἱ ἔξω elsewhere, 1 Corinthians 5:12 f., Mark 4:11. On its distinction from οἱ λοιποί, see note to 1 Thessalonians 4:13 below. For περιπατεῖν, see note on 1 Thessalonians 2:12. Πρός, “in your attitude towards, converse with the outsiders”; cf. note on πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἦμεν, 1 Thessalonians 3:3. In a thriving commercial city like Thessalonica, indolence or pauperism, and unfitness for the common work of life, would bring peculiar disgrace on the new society.

μηδενός is ambiguous in gender; some interpreters render it, “may have need of no one”: the fact that χρείαν ἔχειν is frequently used with a genitive of the thing (e.g. in Matthew 6:8; Luke 10:42; Hebrews 5:12; 1 Corinthians 12:21 is not really different) “turns the scale in favour of the neuter” (Lightfoot); the context (ἐργάζεσθαι κ.τ.λ.) suggests “need” of sustenance,—ἄρτος (2 Thessalonians 3:8; 2 Thessalonians 3:12; cf. 1 John 3:17; James 2:15). The repetition of χρείαν ἔχειν (1 Thessalonians 4:9) is accidental. The sense of honourable independence, which was so strong in the Apostle (see 1 Thessalonians 2:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:9, &c.), he desires his converts to cultivate. The Church was from the first in danger of having its charities abused by the idle.