1 Thessalonians 5
12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil. 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 25 Brothers, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27 I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. 28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Have you ever heard those commercials that conclude with those rapid-fire, barely-intelligible, hyper-speed disclaimers that no mortal person could ever understand? What about the drug commercials that have the same, but you can make out just enough of what is being raced through at the end to pick up some truly terrible possible side effects from the advertised drug? Here is one example I found (and edited and altered and added to and subtracted from, I hasten to add!):
“If you have seasonal allergies, [this medicine] may be right for you. Side effects…are uncommon, and include headache, nausea, vomiting, death, dizziness…dysentery, cardiac arrhythmia, mild heart explosions, varicose veins, darkened [mood], darkened soul, [ennui], lycanthropy…more vomiting, arteriosclerosis…diabeetus…mild discomfort, vampirism…spontaneous dental hydroplosion, [Count Choculitis], sugar high, [vertigo], even more vomiting, total implosion [of any lingering sense of hope or purpose or meaning], [fear of dolphins, fear of chihuahuas, the growth of additional toes, the appearance of a Finnish accent in your daily speech, lowering math scores, random bouts of shouting the word “Huzzah” in crowded spaces, blurred vision, mohawks, purple freckles, Harry Potter-itis, MORE vomiting]…and [a] mild rash.”[1]
Have you heard these commercials? It is terrifying! It also proves a couple of things. First, nobody is apparently listening these rapid-fire horror stories tacked onto the end or else none of these medications would ever be purchased again. Secondly, we need to listen to the end of too-good-to-be-true commercials because oftentimes what is promised in the body of the commercial is negated at the end.
It is enough to make one nervous about conclusions with too much crammed into them. But this is not always fair. Take our book, 1 Thessalonians. Here in the final verses of chapter 5, Paul puts so much into this that it sounds like one of those commercials. Herschel Hobbs said of our text, “Into his closing remarks Paul crammed a world of ideas.”[2]Indeed!
But there is one major difference: The end of 1 Thessalonians does not negate the rest of the letter, is not trying to slip something frightening past you, is not stealing with the left hand what it promised with the right, and can be 100% trusted!
Yes, there is a lot here, but it is really beautiful and encouraging and challenging.
God’s word does not deceive, even if it sometimes seems to overwhelm! This would be one such example. Let us pull up a chair, slow down the speed a bit, and listen closely to what Paul says about life with Jesus in the body of Christ. You will find here not deception but confirmation of all he said before!
The things that vary: Knowing what each other needs.
The bulk of our text is about relationships in the church. Paul offers two groupings of wisdom here: First, affirmations, things we should do and encourage in our relationships with one another. Secondly, corrections, things we should not do or encourage others to do in the body of Christ.
The Affirmations
We begin with the affirmations. What should we do and be for one another in the church? Paul begins with the posture of the church toward the leaders of the church.
12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.
What the ESV renders “respect those who labor among you” is more literally translated “recognize those who labor among you.”[3] Paul is calling for the members of the church to love and respect the leadership. This is, admittedly, a bit awkward to point out as a leader in the church! Yet, there is good reason for it. When church leaders are doing what they are supposed to do and being who they are supposed to be, it is a good and healthy thing for the church.
Love and respect do not mean a “head in the sand” posture or a “blank check” gift to leadership to do whatever they want. Abusive or corrupt leaders must be opposed by the people of God! Any attempt by church leaders to use these verses to silence sincere questions is unhealthy. Yet, a basic disposition of hostility and suspicion on the parts of church members toward leaders seeking to be faithful in the task to which they have been called is likewise unhealthy.
We then pick up the pace with a series of shorter instructions in verse 14.
14 encourage the fainthearted
14 help the weak
14 be patient with them all.
Hobbs interprets “the fainthearted” as the “little-souled who were tempted to quit.”[4] This is a more literal rendering: the “little-souled.” The fainthearted and the weak are those who are struggling, those who are suffering. These are the hurting. These are the wounded. We are called to “be patient with them all.”
Sometimes hurting people act out. Sometimes the wounded can wound. Patience is called for. Part of patience is seeking to understand why people behave the way they do.
Is your brother or sister despondent, grieving, agitated in body, mind, or soul? We are called to do three things with these hurting members:
- Encourage them.
- Help them.
- Be patient with them.
Think of how you yourself need to be ministered to in times of pain. Do you not need encouragement, help, patience?
Please note that all of these admonishments hinge upon us having actual relationships with each other. They hinge upon us actually being near to each other, close to each other, bound in love together.
You cannot encourage, help, or be patient toward somebody with whom your relationship is shallow and surface. Paul is calling for relational sensitivity, relational investment, caring, and love. Instead, too many of our relationships are shallow or hostile or unhealthy.
David Seamands once wrote:
Oh, the tragedy of interpersonal relationships among professing Christians. We are debt-collectors. We are grievance collectors.[5]
We wrong each other and keep record of perceived wrongs committed by each other. Truly, we need Jesus to help us and show us the way of love with one another. Relationships can be difficult. But they are also the vehicles for healing and grace and cross-carrying. We can wound and hurt and bleed in relationships. However, we can also choose to love and heal in relationships.
The Corrections
Paul also calls us to a series of necessary corrections in our relationships. First, we are to “admonish the idle,” to call upon the idle not to be idle any longer.
14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle
G.K. Beale points out that the word “idle” is unfortunate here since Paul is likely not referring to laziness (though laziness, of course, ought also to be discouraged). The word used is ataktoi and it “never meant anything like [lazy] in the ancient world, where it was used fairly abundantly.” Instead, it normally meant “not remaining in one’s place, out of order, undisciplined.” “Therefore,” writes Beale, the word “is better translated ‘unruly’” and “likely describes a particular class of delinquent people who are disrupting the community in a specific way…”[6]
We are to admonish, then, the unruly, those who cause trouble, those who seek and foment conflict in the body of Christ.
There is more:
15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
Paul, in Romans 12, writes:
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Do not obsess over getting justice in your interpersonal relationships, over balancing the scales, over exacting vengeance, over lex talionis, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Calvin Miller once wrote: “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth; a fair, satisfying and rapid way to a sightless, toothless world.”
Do good to one another and to everyone. Do not repay evil for evil.
What is more:
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.
The Holy Spirit seeks to grow us and nurture us in the truth. Do not despise the Spirit’s promptings. Do not ignore the Spirit’s voice. “Do not quench the Spirit.” One way we do this is by “despising prophecies,” despising the word of God, despising “Thus saith the Lord!” Listen to what the Lord is saying, even and especially when it is painful! Do not turn away! Be not only acquainted with divine truth, be immersed in it, saturated with it! And do not let others despise God’s truth!
In short:
22 Abstain from every form of evil.
We are to call both ourselves and one another away from all that is evil! We are to abstain from “every form” of evil. One of those “forms” is evil that is trying not to appear evil. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul writes:
14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
Beware, most of all, of forms of evil that masquerade as light.
The things that are always: Stepping into the superlatives.
Paul also provides us with a series of constants, superlatives, great virtues that we are to plumb to their depths and let grow, ever-expanding throughout the body of Christ.
13 Be at peace among yourselves.
16 Rejoice always
17 pray without ceasing
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
This is the flowering of the gospel:
- peace
- joy
- unceasing prayer
- thanksgiving
This is what grows in the soil of the kingdom when evil has been rejected and when we truly give ourselves to Jesus!
Notice the superlative language: always, without ceasing, in all circumstances. We simply cannot run too far with peace, joy, prayer, and thanksgiving.
Would you say these are superlatives in your life? Or are they occasional? Or are they absent? Do you live out peace, joy, prayer, and thanksgiving?
In his book Happy Church: Pursuing Radical Joy as the People of God, Tim McConnell passes along a great statement by Robert Louis Wilken. Wilken wrote:
The greatest gift the church can give society is a glimpse, however fleeting, of another city, where the angels keep “eternal festival” before the face of God.[7]
What a beautiful idea! The church is to offer the world a glimpse of another city where angels keep eternal festival before the face of God! My goodness! That is true! Yes! And we give the world this glimpse when we live out the constants, the superlatives!
13 Be at peace among yourselves.
16 Rejoice always
17 pray without ceasing
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
The Conclusion: The call to sanctification.
Now we move to Paul’s benediction, his conclusion.
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here we see the foundation for the call in verse 13 that we “be at peace among yourselves.” God is “the God of peace.” He can make this happen because this is who He is…and we are His people!
And Paul prays that the God of peace will “sanctify” (consecrate, make holy) his people.
Many have struggled with Paul’s reference to “spirit and soul and body” and many theories of interpretation have been put forward. The Anabaptist theologian Balthasar Hubmaier interpreted this to be a reference to (1) the earthly body, (2) the breath of life (i.e., spirit) breathed into man by God, and (3) that which animates the body (i.e., soul).[8] Regardless, it is clearly the case that the totality of our lives is to be “sanctified” and “kept blameless.” All of us. Every part.
Does this sound too good to be true? It is not! It is a certainty! Paul writes:
24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
What words of comfort are these! The Lord is faithful! He is at work in your life! He will complete His work in you! The same is promised in Ephesians 5:
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Yes, He will present us “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing”! We will “be holy and without blemish”! This is what God has called us to: submission to the Christ who is sanctifying us, changing us, conforming us to the image of Christ!
Lastly:
25 Brothers, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27 I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. 28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Paul’s strong call for the letter that we call 1 Thessalonians to be read “to all the brothers,” meaning “to the whole church,” is powerful. It underscores the great significance of the letter. It is vitally important that the church do these things, that the church be these things. The witness and integrity and vitality of the church is at stake!
In the 19th century, Matthew Arnold wrote “Dover Beach,” which, Mark Noll tells us, “likened the fate of traditional Christianity to the moonlit spectacle of a tide receding at night from a great beach.” Arnold wrote:
The Sea of Faith
Was once too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d.
But now I only hear Its melancholy, long withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.[9]
Arnold thought that the Christian faith was receding, sadly and tragically, from the shores of the world, “retreating” into irrelevance and nothingness.
But I do not think so.
Jesus is still here, and He is present in the love and encouragement that His people show for one another. He is present in the loving challenge we offer one another to turn away from that which is evil and to cling to Kingdom good and Kingdom hope! Jesus is present still in the proclamation of the church and in the reality of lost men and women turning and coming to Jesus in faith!
The faith is not retreating! Where it is, we have no one and nothing to blame but ourselves. But I see it! And I see it here! And I see it in you! And the world needs the gospel and the old, old story of Jesus and His love.
Let us be a Jesus people!
Let us show the world what such a thing looks like!
[1] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SideEffectsInclude
[2] Hobbs, Herschel. “1–2 Thessalonians.” The Broadman Bible Commentary. Gen. Ed. Clifton J. Allen. Volume 11 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1971), p.284.
[3] Hart, David Bentley. The New Testament. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017), p.410.
[4] Hobbs, Herschel. “1–2 Thessalonians.” The Broadman Bible Commentary. Gen. Ed. Clifton J. Allen. Volume 11 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1971), p.284.
[5] Seamands, David A. (2010-11-01). Healing for Damaged Emotions (Kindle Locations 518-520). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.
[6] Beale, G.K. 1–2 Thessalonians. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Ser. Ed. Grant R. Osborne. Volume 13 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), p.163–164.
[7] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Happy_Church/DvakCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22a%20happy %20church%22&pg=PA28&printsec=frontcover
[8] Gatiss, Lee, and Bradley G. Green, eds. 1–2 Thessalonians, 1–2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed. Timothy George. New Testament XII (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), p.57.
[9] Noll, Mark A. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity (p. 245). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.