In this final section of the letter, Paul writes like preachers talk when they realize that 20 minutes of their 25 minute sermon are already gone, and they’re only half-way through their notes. His writing picks up tempo and becomes positively staccato. At the beginning of the letter, Paul wrote a sentence with 81 words. Now he fires off machine gun-style phrases: “warn the idle, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” In Greek, each of those phrases is three words long.
Though the phrases are short, the ideas are large and demand our attention. Paul is giving his friends something like a church member’s checklist with which they can evaluate themselves as they interact with the church. We’ll look at verses 12-15 today, but we’ll come back to the checklist when we finish the letter next week. Let’s read those verses: “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.”
The 1984 edition of the NIV translated verse 12 as, “Respect those who work hard among you…” The 2011 says to “acknowledge them.” The Greek is simply, “know” them. It seems like an odd thing to say: “Know your church leaders.” Doesn’t everyone know them? The pastor stands up in front and talks for twenty-five minutes every week.
And yet I’ve met pastors over the years who are profoundly lonely. They smile, they shake hands, they know everyone’s problems … but no one knows them. They have no one in whom they can confide. They carry their hurts and disappointments alone, and they think that is the way it has to be.
There was a pastor in town some years ago who was publicly rebuked by a member of his congregation. She accused him of negligence because he had not visited her or others in the church for months. Somehow, the woman did not know that her young pastor had been diagnosed with cancer and had been going through chemotherapy. On the day he returned to the pulpit, the day she rebuked him, he had to sit on a stool because he was too weak to stand. But she did not “know” him.
We need to get to know our next pastor. Learn what his interests are, what he likes and dislikes. Don’t be nosy but ask questions. Encourage him often. Find out how you can help him carry the load that he bears. Pray for him. In Paul’s words, “know him.”
These church leaders whom we must get to know are described with three phrases. In Greek, it is clear that all three point to one set of people who are described as “those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord, and who admonish you.”
First, they work hard. A pastor who doesn’t work hard is a pastor who should not work here. Paul, who was a tentmaker by trade – a man who worked in leather – understood what hard work is, and the hardest work he knew was serving the church.
They “care for you in the Lord.” Nearly all other versions, including the previous edition of the NIV, have something like, “who are over you in the Lord,” or “who lead you,” or “have charge over you.” The Greek word means literally, “who stand in front of you” – probably pastors, elders, and deacons. Notice that not everyone is qualified to “stand in front of you,” just those who work hard among you.
They also “admonish you.” The Greek scholar A. T. Robertson paraphrases this way: “they [put] sense into the heads of people.”[1] When I had only been here a couple of months (maybe less than that), our youth pastor came to me and said, “We have a problem. One of our leaders is doing something that sets a poor example for people.”
So, I went to that leader to offer some admonishment. It did not go well. But that leader, to their credit, thought about it, made changes, and proved to be one of Lockwood’s enduring treasures over the years. Admonishing people is in the pastor’s job description … but beware the pastor who enjoys it! The pastor who can admonish well is one who can receive admonishment well – that is, with humility – and benefit from it.
Paul says that we are to “hold [these leaders] in the highest regard in love.” The Greek is something like, “Esteem them abundantly.” The author of Word Studies in the New Testament says that church leaders are entitled to respect because of their office,[2] but that is not what Paul says. He says they are to be highly esteemed on account of their work. Not because of their title or the letters that pile up after their name, but because of their work.
“Because of their work” can mean one of two things or it can mean both. It can mean we esteem them highly because we see how hard they work on our behalf. But it can also mean that we esteem them highly on account of the work itself. We benefit the work (not to mention ourselves) when we esteem our leaders highly. People who are respected, who are honored and esteemed, find it much easier to get up and go to work than those who are criticized, ignored, and devalued. Highly esteemed leaders do a good job while the unesteemed dream about doing a better job … somewhere else.
A woman woke her husband up on a Sunday morning and said, “You need to get up or we’ll be late for church.” He just rolled over. She roused him again and told him to hurry or they’d be late. He said, “I don’t want to go to church.” She asked why. He said, “Because it’s boring. And people there are cold. And because nobody likes me.”
Her face hardened and she said, “But you’ve got to go to church.” He bleated, “Why?” So, she said, “Because it is not boring. Because the people there are not cold. Because people do like you. And because you are the pastor!”
A pastor who is esteemed will usually serve his church better than one who is not. The members of a church have far more to do with whether their pastor is energetic or sluggish, positive or negative, interesting or boring than they realize.
I have been grateful for the love and grace that has been shown to Karen and me over our many years here at Lockwood. I only ask that you esteem the next pastor as highly—or even more so. If you do, you will reap the benefits. Make sure that he knows that he is valued and important to the church family.
At the end of verse 13, Paul instructs the Thessalonians to “Live in peace with each other.” In Greek, unlike English, the word “peace” is a verb. We could translate, “Be at peace…” or more literally, “Peace it…” or (as people used to say) “Peace out among yourselves.”
We were talking a moment ago about the pastor’s energy and positive outlook. Nothing will rob a pastor of those faster than church family members who are in conflict with him or with each other. Notice that Paul sets no conditions on this and offers no exemptions. He simply says, “Be at peace.”
Well, that is easier said than done. There are always reasons for not being at peace. Reasons to stay angry, speak out, take offence, choose sides. The reasons for continuing a conflict are numerous and they are pressing. There is only one reason for being at peace: God commands it. But if you’re a follower of Jesus, that is reason enough.
In verse 14, Paul’s pans out to take in the entire church family and its relationships with one another. We have the wrong idea if we think that the care of the church rests only on the pastors, elders, and deacons. No matter how gifted they are or how hard they work, they cannot do it all. As Paul says elsewhere, “the whole body” – the entire church family – “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph. 4:16). God’s plan has always been for the church to care for each other.
That care is not always easy and it’s not always something that we want to do. Take, for example, Paul’s instruction in verse 14 to “warn those who are idle and disruptive.” The word “warn” is the very same one translated in verse 12 as admonish. Any of us might be called on to admonish a fellow Christian.
But before we do, we should humble ourselves before the Lord, be certain of our love for the person, and genuinely long for them to have the best life they can. If we can’t do that, we’re not the ones to do the admonishing.
In the case of the Thessalonian Church, there were people who were idle and disruptive. The NIV resorts to using two words to try to get across the sense of one Greek word. Etymologically, that word means “out of order” and could refer either to something that has ceased to work (is out of order) or to someone who is disorderly. The NIV 2011 doesn’t try to choose between them. If a Christian is idle, they are out of order and in need of repair. If a Christian is disruptive, they are out of order and in need of admonishment.
Repair and admonishment do not happen as often as they should, or as often as God intends, in the contemporary church. We are not close enough, do not love each other enough, do not trust each other enough to admonish. If someone does admonish, the usual result is anger, division, and departure. So, we cannot start with admonishment. We must start with love, intimacy, and trust, and that takes time to develop.
The next phrase in Paul’s litany is, “encourage the disheartened.” The Greek behind “the disheartened” is literally, “the little-souled.” These are people who have shrunk back from the fight. God’s intent for us is that we grow larger when we encounter hardship, but we’ve all had the experience of shrinking away instead. We can almost feel our souls getting smaller.
When that happens, we need someone to come along side us, get close to us, and urge us on. That is the idea behind the word translated “encourage.” We tell them, “You can do this. You can persevere. You can do it God’s way. And when you do, you will be an example to the rest of us. We’ll talk about your victory through Christ. It will be mythic. (The root of the word “encourage” here is μύθος, “myth.)
The disheartened are those who’ve had enough and cannot take any more. We say something to them like David said to Solomon: “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work … is finished” (2 Chronicles 28:20). Perhaps our words are different, but the attitude is the same.
The summer after my brother died, our Little League All-Star team, Elyria West, went to Williamsport and placed third. One more win and we would have been in the World Series. But I wasn’t there. I had quit mid-season, even though the All-Star team’s coach, who was my friend’s dad, had decided that I would be on the team.
I don’t know if it had anything to do with my brother’s death or if it was just that the pitching was getting better (and I wasn’t), but I lost all confidence at the plate. I was thoroughly disheartened, and my soul shrank. I hated to go to games. I needed someone to urge me on, to tell me that I could do it. I needed someone to put me in the batter’s cage and help me work out the kinks. But that didn’t happen. So, I told myself that the team was better off without me, and I quit.
That was an adolescent boy’s experience, but many adults – many of us – could tell similar stories. Only it is not baseball; it’s a marriage, or a job, or a season of illness. We’re telling ourselves that our family or our workplace doesn’t need us, and we are ready to call it quits.
But we need someone who will urge us on, bring life and freshness to our souls. We need someone who, after listening sympathetically to our lament, will tell us to be strong and courageous. We need someone who will remind us that the Lord will not fail us. We not only need someone like that; we need to be someone like that.
Paul also tells us to “help the weak.” This is not the usual word rendered “help.” This one means to hold fast to something or someone. When people are weak, in body, mind, or character, we hold onto them. We stick with them until they’re sure that we’ll be there when they need us.
Helping the weak is the opposite of scolding them, gossiping about them, or walking away from them. We might get the idea that healthy churches don’t have weak people, but we’d be mistaken. A healthy church has plenty of weak people—and sometimes we’re among them. But it also has plenty of helpers who hold onto the weak and don’t let go.
Paul next instructs the church to “be patient with everyone.” Why is it that we let go of the weak and walk away? Because we lose patience. Why don’t we live at peace with each other? Because we lose patience. Patience is more than a character trait we develop. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that grows in the lives of those who earnestly follow Jesus.
I’ve heard many people say, “Don’t pray for patience unless you want God to give you problems.” I think that is silly. It is good to pray for patience, because the only way for God to answer that prayer is to give you himself.
Finally, Paul tells the church members to “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong.” Revenge fantasies originate in our pain but then travel across the brain’s reward circuit, the nucleus accumbens. In other words, when people think about revenge they experience pleasure, and that experience is addictive.
Revenge is a road that Christians are forbidden to travel. When we see a friend who is about to get on that highway – or rather, low-way – we are to make sure that he or she doesn’t do it. We intervene. We pray with them, plead with them, and direct them back to the Lord. Otherwise, they will get lost on that road and spend their days wandering through a desert of resentment and anger.
Once again, we can’t help unless we are close enough to see what is happening and trusted enough to speak to it. The Greek says, “See to it that no one returns evil for evil,” but you can’t see that from a distance. We need to be close to each other. For the most part, the American church is not there, but Lockwood must move in that direction. I expect that will be a major part of the next leg of Lockwood’s journey.
So, let’s wrap this up by restating the church member checklist and seeing what we can tick off. First item: Know your pastor and church leaders. Can you check that one off?
Second item: Hold those leaders in the highest regard. How are you doing on that one?
Third item: Be at peace with each other.
Fourth: Admonish those who are out of order.
Fifth: Encourage the disheartened.
Sixth: Hold onto the weak.
Seventh: Be patient with everyone.
Eighth: See to it no one returns evil for evil but does what is good.
Paul’s checklist is helpful for giving us a sense of where we are as individuals and as a church, but to make progress in checking off the boxes, something else needs to happen. That something else comes in two parts: First, we intentionally draw close to God. We pray, we submit, we seek him until we find him. And second, we intentionally draw close to each other. We make it a point to know each other. We invite people to our homes. We join Sunday School classes, small groups, and D-Groups. We enlist in a ministry team.
When we are drawing close to God and each other, we will be able to check off all the items on the church members’ checklist. But more importantly, our satisfaction in Christ will soar, so will our confidence that we belong to him, and our lives will be filled with hope.
Draw close to God. Draw close to each other.
[1] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament.
[2] Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word studies in the New Testament (Vol. 4, p. 47). Charles Scribner’s Sons.
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