Regarding Work, How Do You Reconcile 2 Thessalonians 3:10 With Romans 4:5?
2 Thessalonians 3:10 – For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.
Romans 4:5 – But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
In these two verses, Paul is using the word work in completely different senses. In 1 Thessalonians, he’s using the term work to just mean manual labor, what someone does to earn a living. And he’s just saying to some of the Thessalonians, “Stop being lazy and trying to live off the handouts of other people and get to work.” So, there’s that sense in 1 Thessalonians.
In Romans, he’s using work in what we might almost call a theological sense. He’s talking about work as opposed to faith, trying to earn our own right standing before God by what we do, what we’ve done, or what we promise to do. Paul makes it very clear in Romans that we cannot come to a right relationship with God by earning it through our works. A right relationship with God only happens in and through faith in Jesus Christ.