Section 44
14 If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. 15 Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
Paul anticipates that some of the Thessalonians may not obey his instructions, so he gives direction as to the way they are to be treated. It is most probable that it is some among the idlers that he has in mind, though his words are general enough to cover disobedience to anything he has said throughout the letter.
14 The argument takes a slightly new turn.29 The use of the present tense, "obey," views the matter, as is common in Greek letters, from the point of view of the recipients. By the time they get to this point they have read the letter, they have heard the injunctions,30 and any refusal to obey is present, not still future. "In this letter" is literally "through the letter." The occurrence of "letter" with the article toward the end of a letter almost always means the letter just being written. Thus NIV almost certainly gives us the sense of it. We should perhaps notice that some interpreters prefer to take this expression with the words that follow, giving the meaning "designate that person by letter." They understand Paul to mean that he wants to be informed in writing about such a happening. However, it is not likely that this interpretation is correct. We have already noted that the usual Greek usage is against it. So also are the word order and the general sense of the passage. Paul is telling the members of the church what action they should take, not asking for an opportunity to take action himself. "Take special note of him"31 means more than simply "notice" him. It means "mark him out," though the means whereby this is to be done is not specified. The word was originally neutral and might mean mark out for good as well as for ill, but in time it came to have a somewhat sinister significance. It came to mean marking out for blame, as here.
The treatment of such a person is withdrawal of fellowship. This is a limited punishment compared with that laid down for the Corinthians in a more serious situation (1 Cor. 5:9-13). There, too, withdrawal of fellowship is spoken of (the verb used is the same as that here,32 these being the only two passages in the New Testament where it occurs). But in Corinth the offense is more serious, and so is the penalty. It is specifically laid down that the Corinthians are not to eat with such a person, and that they are to put him away from among them. Here he is still to be regarded as a brother (see the very warm statement of v. 15). The treatment is primarily intended to bring him back to his rightful position. At the same time it is a punishment. He has ignored, first the teaching originally given by word of mouth, then the injunctions of the first letter and now of the second. Clearly this shows a measure of obduracy. It is no longer possible to regard such a person as being in good standing with the church. He must be disciplined 33 Our difficulty in combining the two thoughts of withdrawing fellowship and treating the person as a brother should not blind us to the fact that Paul expected the church to be capable of both at once. Neither could be neglected.
The purpose of this discipline is "that he may feel ashamed." Always Paul has in mind his repentance and reinstatement. Findlay draws attention to the fact that the verb is in the passive (as it usually is in the New Testament), with the meaning "to be turned in (upon oneself)" (CGT). It is this process of reflection on the enormity of one's actions that Paul wishes to see effected in the unruly.
15 Paul's thought that the offender must still be regarded as a brother now becomes explicit. The "yet" of NIV should probably be omitted. While it could possibly be understood from the Greek34 it is more natural to take the connective as meaning simply "and." The point is that Paul is not contrasting the behavior outlined in this verse with that in the previous one, but carrying on a consistent line of thought. Throughout this whole section he aims at having the dissident reclaimed in a spirit of love. The actions enjoined in verse 14 are just as kindly intentioned as those in this verse.
It is noteworthy that Paul puts the injunction not to treat the offender as an enemy before that to admonish him. He is eager to protect the brother's standing, and to be sure that what is done to him is done from the best of motives and secures the desired result. The enforcement of discipline is a difficult matter, for it is easy for people to become censorious and unnecessarily harsh in the process. Paul's words are directed against any such eventuality. His "but" between the two clauses of this verse is a strong adversative. They are to be far from treating the offender as an enemy. The verb contains the idea of a rebuke for wrongdoing, but Paul always uses it with a certain tenderness.35 It is the rebuke of a friend. It is most appropriate here with its combination of the two ideas of a steady refusal to have any truck with the evil thing and a genuine concern for the well-being of the wrongdoer.