“And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;”
King James Version (KJV)
4:11 That ye study - Literally, that ye be ambitious: an ambition worthy a Christian. To work with your hands - Not a needless caution; for temporal concerns are often a cross to them who are newly filled with the love of God.
1Th 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business. The Greeks were naturally a restless people, often given to intermeddling in the business of other people. And to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. A Christian must not be an idler. A "loafer" cannot show forth the life of Christ. We gather, elsewhere, that some brethren at Thessalonica thought the time so short until the Lord would come that work was unnecessary.