The Value of Work

Πολλὴν, ὡς ἔγνων, πληθὺν ἀδελφῶν συναγήοχας, καλῶς μὲν ζῇν ἐθιζόντων, ἀργὰς δὲ χεῖρας ἐχόντων. Τοῦτο δὲ οὕτε παρὰ Χριστοῦ εὕρες τελοῦμενον, οὔτε παρὰ Παύλου τοῦ σοφοῦ διδασκάλου τηρούμενον. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἀμπελῶνα, καὶ ἐργάσίαν καὶ μισθὸν ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἐπαγγέλλεται· ὁ δὲ ἐργάζεσθαι ταῖς χερσι, καὶ μηδενὸς προσδεῖσθαι ἐδίδαξεν. Εἰ τοίνυν καὶ Χριστῷ πείθῃ τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ Παῦλον τὸν πάνσοφον, ἢ ἐργάζεσθαι παίδευσον, ἢ τὴν πρόφασιν διδαξον, ἀφ' ἧς καὶ τραφήσονται, καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν ἔξουσι, καὶ πονηρῶν λογισμῶν καθαρεύσουσιν, οἱ μήτε Χριστῷ πειθαρχοῦντες, μήτε Παύλῳ ἀκολουθοῦντες. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΜΘ', Παυλῳ Ἀρχιμαναριτῃ

It is known that you have gathered together a great number of brothers, and that they are happily accustomed to live having no work for their hands. This, you will find, was not what Christ accomplished, nor did that wise teacher Paul hold to it. For He promised that men shall earn reward  at work in vineyard, 1 and the latter taught that he who works with hands needs no help from another. 2 If, then, you obey the Divine Christ and imitate the most prudent Paul, either teach them to work, or show them the cause of how they are fed and have their peace, and so they will be cleansed from wicked thoughts, they who neither offer obedience to Christ nor follow the path of Paul Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 49, To Paul the Archimandrite 1 Mt 20. 1-6 2 1 Thes 4.11