Wherefore encourage one another, and build up each one the other, even as also ye do.
The verse closes a passage about the Lord's return and the day of the Lord with two plain instructions: encourage each other, and build each other up. A truth about the future becomes a tool for daily use. Paul then ends by telling the Thessalonians they are already doing it.
The word "therefore" points back to what has just been said — that Christ died for us so that, whether alive or asleep, we live together with Him. Comfort and building up are not asked for on their own; they rest on something already settled.
How the Spirit of God loves to carry us back to the death of Christ as the foundation of all our blessing! He reminds us here why Christ died for us. It was so that we would live together with Him — whether we are awake (still here when He returns) or asleep (gone to be with Him before He comes). God chose us for salvation, and living together with Christ is the full enjoyment of all He has given us.
The first half of the instruction reaches straight into grief over believers who have died. The comfort offered is not that death is small, but that it is not the end of the story.
Many of the saints have passed away, and if we are tempted to mourn over them, the apostle gives us these words at the direction of the Lord for our comfort... Are they lost because they have died? Certainly not. No. As I have explained, their spirits are with Christ while their bodies decay in the grave. But we know that when the Lord comes He will call them out of their graves and give them bodies like His own. That will be the complete and final triumph of Christ in redemption.
The same comfort covers present trouble, not just grief over death:
God has appointed us for salvation. Our privilege is to live together with Christ now, and very soon to be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. So in all the troubles and sufferings along the road, let us comfort one another.
"Build one another up" is the second half, and it describes a whole pattern of life together rather than a single act.
The Apostle also urges us to edify one another — that is, to build one another up in our most holy faith. A Christian company as God means it to be is made up of believers who love one another, comfort one another, and build one another up (1 Thess. 3:12; 4:9, 18; 5:11).
Another writer sets out three aims in building up, and comfort is one of them:
The simple meaning of edification is building up. A person receives the Gospel, and that lays the foundation. But a great deal has to be built on that foundation, so edification can continue through a long Christian life... Comfort is a third continuing need in the church. There are always people facing sorrow, trouble and disappointment, and they need something that lifts them above it. We might summarise this threefold end as building up, stirring up, and lifting up.
Paul says "one another," so the work runs both ways. Another writer applies the same call to every believer, each according to what he has been given.
This is the responsibility of all true Christians: to keep together instead of splitting up and scattering. We are to help one another in love, according to the measure of grace given and the nature of the gift received. It is mutual — "building yourselves up." It does not mean leaving the work to a special class of leaders, or complaining that we lack gifts. It means each one doing what he can for the blessing and good of all.
Paul does not scold. He praises what they are already doing, and still repeats the charge.
What a precious basis we have for encouraging one another and building one another up. God gives us every reason we need. But the apostle adds, "just as you are doing." They were already doing it, yet they still needed the reminder. Is it not true that those who work hardest are the readiest to admit they need reminding?
The New Testament letters show a pattern. Where the Lord's return is in view, calls to care for each other follow.
It is worth noticing that the strongest calls to Christian fellowship always come right alongside the teaching about the second coming... The letters to the Thessalonians are full of calls to build one another up, and the same pattern is clear there.
- Foundation. The instruction starts with "therefore." Christ died so that believers, living or dead, live together with Him.
- Comfort. This certainty first meets grief. Those who have died are with Christ, and He will raise them with bodies like His.
- Building. The Gospel lays the foundation, and a lifetime of building follows — building up, stirring up, and lifting up.
- Mutual. It is "one another" work, not the task of a special class; each does what he can for the profit of all.
- Commended. Paul praises a habit already at work while still urging it — the most diligent are the readiest to accept the reminder.
But we beg you, brethren, to know those who labour among you, and take the lead among you in [the] Lord, and admonish you,
Paul ends his letter to a very young church by asking them to notice certain people. They are the ones already caring for souls, and the question is how you recognise them.
The verse names three things these people do. One writer traces each word back to its root meaning:
In this verse we find three more duties of the overseer. First, he laboured. The word originally meant to grow weary. It tells of the toil that wearies a person. How well Paul understood this. Such is the toil and labour of the true overseer. "Are over you" is literally "set over". So it means to preside, or rule, or govern. But it also has the meaning, "To be a protector, or guardian, to give aid, to care for." How well that describes the work of a good shepherd. To "admonish" is to "put in mind", and so, to "exhort."
Some read the first word here as a formal act — a church election or public appointment. One writer checks the Greek word behind it and finds something warmer and simpler:
The word translated "recognise" (1 Thess. 5:12) is not recognise in the formal sense at all, but know. It means only to acknowledge by affection and respect, and in no way by a public act — "a regular vote of the church."
Paul has to ask them to know these people, and that tells you something about who they were. If they had held a formal position, he would not have needed to ask:
Doesn't the call "to know" those who labour and rule and preside suggest that this was not a class appointed to office? An office would have been obvious. Then there would be no need to urge people to recognise such labourers. The esteem and love was for their work's sake. An official place is not referred to.
The timing supports this. These believers had come to faith only recently, and another writer applies that fact to our own day:
Who were these people? I judge they were not elders, for spiritually they were only a year old. Are there none such now? I rejoice to know that there are many over me in the Lord. I rejoice to know that the Lord has given these men spiritual power, not ordination. And you know that water soon finds its level.
Being corrected is rarely pleasant, and the verse asks believers to value the very people who do it. One writer explains why this belongs in a list of things to appreciate:
Like the word of God itself, admonition must have a large place in what they say. They lead us in a path quite unlike anything the natural man craves and follows. In that path the weakness and folly that still cling to us become painfully clear. So admonition is in a special way a service of love — all the more because, when it truly is love, it must carry pain.
So what makes such a person worth knowing? Not a position, but the work itself:
It is not office which is in question here (if such existed), but the work which attracted and attached the heart. They ought to be known: spirituality acknowledged this working of God. Love, devotedness, meeting the need of souls, patience in dealing with them on God's part — all this commended itself to the believer's heart. And the heart blessed God for the care He gave to His children. God acted in the labourer and in the hearts of the faithful. Blessed be God, it is an ever-existing principle, and one that never grows weaker!
- Labour — the word means toil that wears a person out; the first mark of a leader is tiring work done for others.
- Lead — "set over" means to preside, and also to protect, guard and care, like a shepherd. They lead in the Lord, so their authority comes from Him.
- Admonish — to put someone in mind. Correction is a service of love, and the pain it costs is part of that love.
- Know — not a vote or a public ceremony, but affection and respect. If a title had made these people obvious, Paul would not have needed to ask.
- Today — the principle never grows weaker. God works in the labourer, and He works in the hearts of the faithful to recognise it.
and to regard them exceedingly in love on account of their work. Be in peace among yourselves.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But we exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly, comfort the faint-hearted, sustain the weak, be patient towards all.
Paul has just spoken about those who labour among the Thessalonians. Now he gives four short commands to the whole church: three groups needing three different responses, and one attitude that covers everyone.
It would be easy to leave this work to the people who lead.
But there is no encouragement here for the unloving, careless idea that those who labour are to carry the whole burden of the saints, especially the part that calls for moral courage and patience. The command falls not on the rulers only, but on the brothers in general. Only love can work this way. Love looks at the saints as they are in God's sight. It grieves at the ruin Satan would make in that holy garden of the Lord, and it is jealous for His will and glory.
The first group is marked not by one particular sin but by a refusal to submit.
Someone may refuse to submit to rule and to the Scriptural order of the assembly. He disobeys God's Word and goes on in self-will and disorder. Such a person is unruly, and the brothers who care for souls in the assembly must warn him. His soul is in a carnal state, and he cannot see where his conduct will lead him. The assembly's watchmen do see it. They are responsible to sound the note of warning, so that he may escape the serious consequences of that course.
Scripture holds its heaviest measures back. The command here is to warn — nothing more.
Some brothers have a hard spirit and enjoy sitting on the judgment seat. They might excommunicate saints for failings that call for patience and godly care, not for excommunication. For instance, we are told to "admonish the idle" (1 Thess. 5:14), not to excommunicate them... How slow the Spirit of God is to take drastic action; He would rather have the saints act lovingly, patiently and yet faithfully with evil among them.
The middle two commands are easy to blur together. One writer keeps them apart.
"Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak" implies a difference between these two which makes good sense. There may be real weakness where there is no faint-heartedness. A person may show no tendency to give way under the pressure of circumstances or of evil. Yet there is still a weakness that calls for the ministry of sympathetic love.
Does sharing strength with the weak leave you with less? One writer answers that fear.
"The weak" need support. For this I certainly am my brother's keeper, and if God has given strength to one, that person should share it willingly with others. We may be sure that our sharing in this will not lessen our own strength, but the opposite.
The last command widens out to everyone. The word for patience here has a particular sense.
"Long-suffering means patience with people; endurance means patience with things." The word means "a long holding out of the mind before it gives room to action or passion." Scripture uses it of God in His forbearance toward those who provoke Him.
The writer quoted earlier adds why this patience is owed. We are all a trial to one another, so "patience becomes a matter of justice quite as much as of mercy."
Put the four commands together and you get a picture of what a gathering of believers is for.
Finally, the church of God is a nursery and not an inquisition. If I am a true leader I warn the unruly. I do not put them under church or family censure for being unruly. I comfort the faint-hearted and I support the weak. Otherwise I would deserve the rebuke in Ezekiel: "The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed ... and with force and harshness you have ruled them."
- All — the verse hands pastoral work to every believer, not only to those who labour and lead.
- Warn — the idle live by self-will; we warn them where it leads, rather than exclude them.
- Comfort — the faint-hearted give way under pressure; they need comfort, not a warning.
- Support — the weak need strength shared with them, and the one who shares loses nothing by it.
- Patient — long-suffering is God's own bearing with people who provoke Him. We all try each other, so patience is justice, not a favour.
See that no one render to any evil for evil, but pursue always what is good towards one another and towards all;
This letter closes with a rule for a young church facing real hostility from the people around it. The verse asks two things at once. No one is to pay back a wrong. Everyone is to chase after good — inside the church and outside it.
The first half of the verse closes a door that is always open. The command is given to the whole church, and one writer shows what refusing revenge still leaves room for:
Revenge refused. We are to see that no one pays back evil for evil. There is the ever-present danger of answering the flesh with the flesh. We may have to stay silent when someone is spiteful, and even keep away from the one who acts that way (2 Timothy 4:14-15), but in any case we are not to pay back evil for evil.
Paying a wrong back costs the person who does it. The test gets harder when the wrong comes from a fellow believer:
The Thessalonians did suffer evil from the world around, but like their Master, they were not to return it. We need this as a constant reminder, because the flesh resents unfair treatment far too quickly. But to return evil for evil only makes me the same as my persecutor and untrue to my Christian character. We may find it even more of a test if a child of God treats us badly, but of course the same applies. He must answer for his conduct, no doubt, but I must answer for mine. To have the heart set on good is the real safeguard here.
One writer sorts every possible response into three, and ranks them:
To pay back evil for evil is brutish. To pay back evil for good is devilish. To pay back good for evil is Christian.
The standard here is not what a court would award. It is what God Himself is like:
Grace is the mark of the gospel. It is the spring in God Himself, as shown in Christ, and He wants the same in His children. Not human justice, which takes the side of the just against the unjust, but unselfish love, doing good to the evil and suffering evil from them. So He would have us not overcome by evil, but overcoming evil with good. Such is Christianity in practice, above heathenism and Judaism alike.
The verse does not stop at what to refuse. The second half gives something to chase, and to keep chasing:
Good to be pursued. While we avoid the evil, we are to "always seek to do good to one another and to everyone." The flesh loves to be busy with evil. These commands warn us not to be careless about evil, and even to deal with it when we must. Still, what we are to pursue is the good.
The good reaches everyone, not only fellow believers. One writer describes what people saved by Christ are now sent into the world to be:
People who have been led to find a Saviour in Jesus know the ransom of their souls by His blood. In Him, risen and glorified, they have received the free gifts of righteousness and eternal life. God makes them His ministers of love, of mercy, and of grace to a rebellious world... This is the highest honour put upon those who belong to Christ.
The command sits next to instructions about warning those who are out of line and helping the weak. All of it runs on one power source:
Giving up self-will, and a real sense of God at work and present with us, brings power. That power lets us warn those who are out of line, comfort the fearful, help the weak, and be patient with everyone... In no case were they to pay back evil for evil, but to follow what was good among themselves and towards all. All this conduct depends on communion with God, on His presence with us, which makes us superior to evil. He is this in love; and we can be so by walking with Him.
- Pressure. The Thessalonians were suffering real evil. The command assumes provocation, not a quiet life.
- Refusal. Paying evil back makes you the same as the one who wronged you — you answer for your conduct, he answers for his.
- Grace. The standard is not fair justice. It is God's own grace — unselfish love, doing good to the evil and suffering evil from them.
- Pursuit. Refusing evil is only half of it. The good is something to chase, not just to admire.
- Reach. The good goes to fellow believers and to everyone else. God makes His people ministers of love and mercy to a rebellious world. The power comes from walking with Him.