Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. — 1 Thessalonians 5:12-14 NIV
Before we get into our main passage, I think it’s important that we get some context by acknowledging Paul’s encouragement to the believers in Thessalonica earlier in his letter to them. In Chapter 4 we read these verses:
As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. — 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2 NIV
Often when reading the letters to the church we can get wrapped up in thinking that the churches then and now are always in need of correction and while correction is often beneficial, sometimes they just need a good encouragement to keep on doing what they’re doing—living a life that is honoring to God!
You see, they were likely already doing this. But Paul still found it necessary to encourage them to keep on keeping on the right path. And so, with that in mind, let’s proceed.
Acknowledge those who work hard among you
Acknowledge those who work hard among you. This is one of those things I am sure that many of us think, “Yeah, if I’m working hard, I would like to be told I’m appreciated.” But how often do we neglect to give that very same appreciation we’d like when our brother or sister is working hard among us—be it at serving in the house or the church or elsewhere?
It’s important for us to notice what others are doing and not take them for granted—this helps both us and them. It helps us to remain grateful and helps them in preventing bitterness build up by letting them know they are appreciated.
Those who care for you in The Lord
…who care for you in The Lord.
The example Paul is using here is talking specifically about those who have some spiritual shepherding role over us. And while I do think that it is aimed clearly at pastors, I believe it’s possible to extend this to elders and brothers & sisters who serve in various ministries around the church.
The key here is that they care for you! They love you, they want to see you grow, they want to see you have healthy relationships, they want you to experience true life with Jesus—and they want to help you in all of these ways!
And admonish you
And because they want to see us grow, they admonish us—that is, they warn us. When we are heading into areas that would lead us astray, they warn us. When we are giving in to temptation, they warn us. When we are allowing the lies of Satan or the flesh to consume the way we live, they alert us to them and remind us of the truth.
Because they want to see us healthy, they warn us about what will do us harm.
Hold them in high regard
Because they love us and work hard among us and are willing to do the unfun job of warning us when we are going down a bad path, we should be willing to hold them up. They should naturally be held in high regard in our mind and our speech.
As an example, when you respect somebody, you generally speak highly of them and look up to them. You find that your natural tendency is to believe the best about that person in any given circumstance. Without fooling ourselves or being blind to sin, I think that this is what The Lord would have us to do. Doing so properly honors God because you are honoring His servant that He sent to take care of you.
Live in peace
Now I know this one is easier said than done. But living in peace with each other really is a big deal: Jesus even prayed about it asking for God to help us (John 17:21) and it comes up super often in the epistles as well (2 Corinthians 13:11, Romans 12:18, Romans 14:19).
It’s also something the enemy is vehemently against. Oh sure, he may permit us a façade of peace, but real inward peace is expressed by true and honorable outward actions even when you’re not a fan of the other person. Now that is something different and Satan will attack that every chance he gets because when we can live in peace, we can really begin to live as God wants us to.
Warn those who are idle and disruptive
However, living in peace sometimes requires confrontation and as this verse indicates, we should not shy away from calling out disruptive behavior.
The word Paul uses here is “ataktos” literally the disorderly—those who are out of order or slack in performing their duty. This shows up in idleness and in outbursts both of which can be harmful to the body of Christ as a whole and in the local expression of it (the local church).
When we or someone we know in the body becomes disorderly by acting out of order, things might get done, shouting might get heard—but at the cost of peace. And the things that do get done are not always the things that should get done. Shouting matches rarely produce good results.
But there is another danger in being disorderly and that is of becoming slack, or lazy, or idle. In this case, the body is harmed by inactivity. We each have a part to play in God’s mission here on earth. That is why when we neglect that mission, we not only cause harm to the mission of others since we all work together but we become less effective for our King than we could be.
And while neither of these deal with our salvation, as the apostle notes, it is worth us calling out these behaviors in an effort to live peace-filled and productive lives within the body of Christ.
Encourage the disheartened
But calling out idleness and outbursts are not the only things that are needed when it comes to living an effective peace-filled life in the body of Christ. We also need to be there for each other and one of the ways that we can do this is by encouraging those who are disheartened or discouraged.
Those who have lost courage or hope need us to come alongside them to share with them the comfort that we have received from Christ (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) so that they can be comforted by the Prince of Peace as well and have the courage they need to press on in this life of honoring and serving the King!
Help the weak
And speaking of encouragement, one of the best ways to do this aside from verbally reminding them of the truth is to actually come along and help our weaker brother or sister in whatever their need is.
Weak in this case is “asthenes” a word that refers to someone being morally or physically ill. And both of these need addressed because they are both important to living a healthy life.
If we are physically ill, it can be hard to get around to do things such as cooking or cleaning the house even and when we cannot do things such as these it is easy to become discouraged and disheartened. And when we are discouraged or disheartened, we can easily slip into being slack in our duties or having disorderly outbursts.
And when we become morally weak, we lead ourselves closer to temptation and often become angry or slack in our duties. It is also very easy for physical sickness to lead to moral weakness and it drains our bodies and emotions making it harder to fight temptations, the flesh, and the evil one.
Are you seeing how this is all connected?
Be patient with everyone
This is another one of those things that are easier said than done but it is crucial especially when dealing with weak, idle, or disruptive people in order to live at peace within the body of Christ.
One thing that I think will help us here is by putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes. How often when you are sick or discouraged do you wish that somebody would show you grace? After all, it’s not like you want to stay that way, I think deep down most of us don’t want to be discouraged even though feeling that way at the moment may feel more comfortable than fighting for joy or inviting God into the healing process.
After all, God was patient with us in all of our failures. And patience, when done well, produces peace-filled communities.
Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong
Now, I don’t know about you, but as a generalization, we as Christians seem to do a really good job of saying this but it is far from what many of us desire.
If you’re anything like me, there is at least a fraction of a moment where when somebody wrongs my family I desire to make things hard for them. But this is not the way of Christ and is not in line with the new nature He has given us.
Our God has given us a new nature that allows us to fight that old instinct of tit-for-tat getting back. And instead, seek peace even when we or those we love are treated poorly. And in doing so, we can successfully fulfill the command of “do not pay back evil with evil but with good” and “do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil by good” (see Romans 12:17 and Romans 12:21).
By taking the time to bless instead of curse, we can begin to take ground back from the enemy for the unity of the church.
…but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else
And not only for our fellow believers but for everyone else as well! This means that no one in your life is exempt from you being good to them.
As a personal note, something I’ve noticed is that the way to start this (as often as I may fail at it) is to begin in the mind. How we think about another person can really influence our actions toward them. Are we praying for their wellbeing, are we assuming positive things about their motives or negative things more often, do we remember good things about them or only their failings?
When we think highly of other people, this truly does help us to see and seek opportunities to do good to them and for them.
Tying it all together
So as we are going about our week, let’s do our best with God to acknowledge those who work hard among us and care for us by holding them in high regard and by listening to their admonitions. To live at peace with each other even when that means calling each other out from time to time or helping each other up when our fellow believer is weak or disheartened. And to be patient with everyone as we walk according to the love that we have received in Christ Jesus!
And please pray for me also, that God will help me to live out these commands as well. 🙂
For more from Tom, check out his new book, No Fake Christians!: Paving A Way To Genuine Faith.
Find yourself on a better path towards genuine faith.
What’s genuine faith all about? Does the way we live our lives truly reflect our claim as followers of Jesus? It’s time for a spiritual check up to see which areas of our lives are urgently needing God’s healing and deliverance.
No Fake Christians! is an open and loving rebuke as it talks about the things that we, Christians, should and should not do. It challenges us to take a hard look at our own spiritual life and how that is played out in our actions and attitudes.
