1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

1 Thess. 5:12-22 Relationships and behavior within the church

Paul now turns to his expectations for how the Thessalonians should live with each other in the church.  In verses 12-13, he describes how the leaders of the local church should act and how the “congregation” (the members of the local church) should treat them.

In verse 12, what 3 things does he say the leaders do?

They “labor” among you, they have a leadership role over you, and they “admonish” you.

Different Christian denominations have different terms for these leaders of the church: priests, ministers, pastors, deacons, elders, etc.  In the following questions, the term “priests and ministers” will be used, but please translate that into whatever terms you use in your church.

In what ways do our local priests and ministers “labor”?  What is the “work” they do?

In what ways should we defer to them as our leaders?

Do your priests/ministers admonish you?  If so, how?  If they don’t, should they, and if so, how?

How important is it to have people in your life who will “admonish” you?  And how should they do it so that it is effective and not just off-putting?

In verse 13, what 3 things does Paul ask the members of the church to do in support of the leaders?

He asks them to show their leaders “esteem,” love them (agape), and be at peace.

Why is it important to “esteem” our priests and ministers and to show them “love”?

Are there ways you could show them more appreciation for the work they do?

Are there ways you could show more appreciation or support for the other church employees, who do so much unsung work?

Paul adds that the Thessalonians – the members of the congregation – should be at peace with one another.  Why is peace important?

Why is being at peace with the other members of your church such an important part of loving the leaders of your church?

What do you do to help bring about or maintain peace in your church?

In verses 14-15, Paul moves into a longer list of things the members of the church should do with each other.  What does he tell them to do?

Why is he concerned about people who are idle (he also mentioned them in 4:11)?

What would it look like to admonish people who are idle?

How might you encourage the fainthearted and help the weak?

Why is patience so important?  How does it help us deal with the idlers, the fainthearted, and the weak?

Verse 15 could be a good rule for life in a variety of circumstances.  What does Paul tell them to not do and to do in verse 15?

Don’t return evil for evil.  Always seek the good for each other and for all.

The first half of verse 15 says: Don’t return evil for evil.  Why is this an important rule?  What might this stop us from doing, and what are the kinds of circumstances where we need to remember this?

The second part of verse 15 goes further.  The first part only tells us what not to do.  The second part tells us what to do instead.  Why is seeking the good of “each other” important?  And how does it counteract our tendency to focus on ourselves?

But Paul goes even further.  He tells us to seek the good of “all,” meaning everyone else, too.  In order to be the kind of person who always does what is good not only for myself, and not only for just me and you, but also for everyone else, how might we need to change how we think about the situations we are in?

How does this approach to interpersonal relationships reflect the way God does things?

How does this approach to interpersonal relationships challenge you?

In verses 16-18, Paul focuses more on what is going on inside of us – in our inner selves. What does he say?

How can we rejoice always?  (What have we to rejoice about even when things are going wrong?)

How can we pray without ceasing?

For a simple way to approach the habit of praying constantly, you might explore the very short book The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, an uneducated 17th century monk who spent most of his time working as a cobbler and in the kitchen of the monastery.  It can be bought very inexpensively, but it can also be found online at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

How can we give thanks in all circumstances?  What might we give thanks for when we are experiencing illness, mistreatment, or misfortune?

How might this attitude of rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks at all times revolutionize your relationship with God?

How might it revolutionize your relationships with the people in your world?

In verses 19-22 where Paul talks about prophetic utterances, he is probably talking about the kinds of manifestations of the Spirit that appear to have been common in the early church and are sometimes seen in charismatic communities in our time.  What is the balance he is seeking?

Paul seeks to allow people to speak freely in response to the movement of the Holy Spirit, but with testing and discernment by others.  How might this be a good approach to inspiration in general?

1 Thess. 5:23-28 Paul’s closing prayer and greeting

Paul ends with prayer (verses 23-25) and greetings (verses 26-28).

In his prayer, what does Paul ask of God?

Looking at verse 23, what would it take for you to embrace the goal of being “perfectly” (NABRE) or “entirely” holy?

Paul’s hope is that the lives of all God’s people would be entirely without blame or fault, “spirit, soul, and body” – i..e, in all aspects of their being.  God is working to perfect us.  How do our spirit, soul, and body all play a role in the perfecting process that God wants to work in us?

What does Paul add in verse 24, and how is it an encouragement?

Do you live as though God is faithful and will accomplish your perfection in Christ?  How might that insight transform your life?

In verse 25, Paul also asks them to pray for him.  Why is that important?  What does it tell us about Paul?

In verse 26, Paul tells them to greet “all the brothers” with “a holy kiss.”  A kiss was a common form of greeting in his time.  It was used in Christian communities and very early in the life of the Church it became part of the ritual or liturgy.  (The Roman Catholic Church reclaimed it as a formal part of the liturgy after Vatican II.)

In light of verse 27, however, there may be more to verse 26 than meets the eye.

Paul orders, in unusually strong terms (roughly equivalent to “I charge you under oath”), that the letter be read to “all.”  He says this right after he tells them to extend the holy kiss to “all.”  We do not know why he felt the need to issue such a stern order to have the letter read to everyone in the Christian community.  Scholars speculate that there might have been factions developing and Paul wanted to make sure his words reached everyone.  But we don’t need to assume that there were factions in order to make sense of verse 27.

Paul wanted to make sure that his letter reached everyone – even the idlers (5:14), even the ones who were not peaceful (5:13) or patient (5:14), even the ones who were not walking as children of the light (5:4-8), even the ones who were not living in sexual holiness (4:3-8).  Greet all of them, he says, with a holy kiss, and make sure this letter is read to all of them.

Paul wants his letter to reach even those who are not living the holiest of lives.  Why is it important that we keep reaching out to all of the people in the church, not just the ones who are consistently living holy lives?

How might your church be more welcoming of people who are not (and maybe not anywhere near) perfect?

How might you be more welcoming of people who are not living a fully Christian life as you perceive it?

Paul ends (5:28) where he began (1:1), with grace: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.  How can you grow in being the kind of person who extends God’s grace to everyone?

Take a step back and consider this:

We need a Christian community.  First, we humans are social creatures and need other people.  Second, it is difficult to become like Christ without spending time in a community that is dedicated to living like Christ.  Third, we cannot abound in love (3:12), encourage each other and build each other up (5:11), support those who are weak or fainthearted (5:14), or do the many other things Christians are called to do, if we are not living in a Christian community.  We need to be around people in order to minister to them.

Christian communities also offer opportunities to become more like Christ in another way.  Spending time with other people opens us to interactions that may have some friction, which become additional opportunities to grow in holiness (5:23) as we try to serve our Lord together.

They also give us a place to ask questions and answer questions (3:10; 4:13).  We can explore together who God is, what he is trying to accomplish in our world, and how we can participate in God’s work in the world.

It is fair to say that we need to be in a Christian community to be all we are intended by God to be.

The fact that Paul ends his letter by urging that the holy kiss be extended to everyone and that his letter be read to all tells us how important he thought it was that everyone be supported and included in the community of believers.

What is your church or Christian community?

How is your Christian community important to you?

How does your church enable you to be all you are meant to be?

How could your church do more to enable others to grow in Christ, and what part might you play in that effort?

How does your church challenge you to grow in Christ, and what might God want you to do in response?

What is one practical piece of advice or insight or attitude that Paul offers in this letter, that you can take to heart and pursue within the context of your Christian community?