Wednesday, July 27, 2011
1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
LIVE FOR "THE DAY" (3)
To live for "The Day" is to live in fellowship with like-minded believers. In several passages God compares our life of faith to a race. Here He reminds us that we are in this race together. It is an individual event in that each one has to cross the finish line himself, but we are running with a team. In this team of believers, we are to keep encouraging and strengthening one another.
In verse 11 we read, "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up ..." Now Paul gives us more specific instruction of how to do that.
God has graciously placed spiritual workers over you to teach you, admonish you and encourage you. They are like the coach of your team. They are there "to watch out for your souls" (Hebrews 13:17). You may not like a coach personally, he may be tough, but he is working for your good to help you win the race. Therefore, Paul says, about your spiritual coaches, "Esteem them very highly in love because of their work."
We also want to help our fellow team members. Paul urges us to "admonish the idle" or disorderly. If some team members are getting lax in their training, or beginning to go astray, we are to have enough love for them to admonish them; do whatever is needed to get them back on track.
Others may become weary along the way. We can give them a pep talk, encourage them by looking ahead to the finish line. The word for encourage literally means to "call to one's side." We can take them by the hand and run with them to help them through those difficult spots.
Some are weaker and should not just be left behind but helped along.
In this world of sin, our teammates may even snap at us or treat us wrongly. To help one another we must "be patient with them all," and not repay anyone's evil with evil, just as Jesus was patient and kind with His disciples and still is with us.
We are in this together, let us work to make sure that we all live for "The Day."
