1 Thessalonians 5:12-14 | Life Together

Well, I want to greet you. Good morning. My name is Ben. I'm a member here at First Baptist Church of Artesia, and it's my joy and privilege to bring you the word of God this morning. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to 1 Thessalonians 5:12-14. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 12-14. If you're a visitor with us and you don't have a Bible, there should be Bibles in front of you in the pews. If you don't have a Bible that you own, please go ahead and take that Bible, take it home. We'd love for you to have a copy of God's word. And this is the word of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-14. The big numbers are the chapter numbers, and the small numbers are the verse numbers. And it reads:

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, brothers and sisters: warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone. — 1 Thessalonians 5:12-14 (CSB)

Pray with me. Father, what we know not, teach us; what we have not, give us; and what we are not, make us for your Son's sake. Amen.

As we turn to another book in the New Testament, I want to just take a moment for us to step back and look around in this room. Look around you and see the faces and other people that you find in this room. What we're doing now, and what we're doing together, is similar to what happened in the early church in Acts 2:42-46. This is what it reads. This is the day of Pentecost. Peter has proclaimed the gospel. The Spirit has descended on God's people. Jesus has risen up from the grave and ascended into heaven.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. — Acts 2:42-47 (CSB)

That is a picture and a glimpse of what God's people did in the earliest days of the church. Peter, along with the other disciples, the other apostles, and the saints that were saved and were baptized, would gather together, hear the word, sing the word, pray the word, and gather together. That is a small picture of another book that we'll consider and see as we look at the book of 1 Thessalonians, a letter that the Apostle Paul, a missionary, wrote to this specific church, the church in Thessalonica.

As we consider this passage, I want us to know that before we reach chapter 5, Paul has already addressed so many things leading up to this point. He's given thanks for the way that the Thessalonians have displayed and preached the gospel. He's commended them for their conduct before the community. He's even told them how they're not to be idle, not to be lazy, in order for them to be able to have a good testimony among those whom they're regularly with. If in Acts 2:42, almost 2,000 years ago, God's people gathered, obeyed, and listened, on September 21st, 2025, on this day, we gather to listen once more to God's preached word. And as we look at the passage before us, verses 12 to 14, this is our primary point for this morning: Care for Christ's church.

We'll consider that in two points: first, care for your leaders in verses 12-13, and then care for one another in verse 14. Care for your leaders, verses 12-13, and then care for one another in verse 14.

Caring for Your Leaders

And so the first words that come to us as we read verse 12 are, 'Now we ask you, brothers and sisters.' Since we're jumping into chapter 5 of this book, we might not immediately see the importance of what Paul calls the Thessalonians. He says, 'Brothers and sisters,' and he uses this in chapter 1, verse 4:

For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, — 1 Thessalonians 1:4 (CSB)

He says it again in 1 Thessalonians 4:

Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing—do this even more. — 1 Thessalonians 4:1 (CSB)

This language of 'brother and sister' is something that Paul has been using since the beginning of this book. Why is it significant to point that out? Because 'brother and sister,' especially in their context, is something that you would only use to refer to family. So in what sense was Paul a brother and a sister to the Thessalonians? Well, the section right before this, he says in chapter 5:11, that the Thessalonians were already building one another up. This is something that had already been happening, them building each other up, and yet he reminds them again. He appeals to them. He asks them, gives a request on this basis: 'brothers and sisters.'

If someone were to ask you how many brothers and sisters you have, you would probably have an immediate answer. You'd look at your family tree or just remember how you were growing up. You'd count how many siblings were around you, probably ones that you may have gotten in fights with. For an only child, that's zero. For me, that's one. I had one brother growing up. My brother was a part of my family, and then the counting stops there. And yet, in 1 Thessalonians 1:4, Paul appeals to these brothers and sisters and describes them in a particular way. He says in verse 4 of chapter 1, 'For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God.'

Paul is making this appeal to the church of Thessalonica on this basis: 'We are family because we are in God, loved by God, brothers and sisters in Christ.' There is something about our relationship to one another that is more foundational than even our blood relatives. And what distinguishes that relationship is God's love for His own. The society that the Thessalonians had grown up in had clear boundaries. If you were part of a household, then the immediate family of the person who's in charge of the household would be counted. And yet those who were slaves, at the lowest rung of that specific household, wouldn't necessarily be counted among the family members. And yet what Paul is saying to the Thessalonians, who were of different statuses, had different lots in life, he was calling them brother and sister, more familial and more intimate than any other person in the world.

So how should we understand Paul's description of 'brother and sister'? As we've already considered in chapter 1, verse 4, the love of God changes the way that we relate to one another as those who are part of His church. And so, to my brothers and sisters, consider these words from Paul as he continues in verse 12, 'to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you.' And so we take this next portion in three parts. First, the Apostle Paul is asking the Thessalonians to do something. The first of which is to give recognition. Secondly, verse 13, to regard them very highly. And thirdly, be at peace among yourselves. How do we care for our leaders? We give recognition, we regard them very highly, and we are at peace among ourselves.

Giving Recognition to Leaders

When Paul is telling us to give recognition in relation to our leaders, these leaders are doing three things in particular: they're laboring, they're leading, and they're admonishing. So what does it mean to give recognition in light of those three descriptions? Do we simply go up to our leaders and say, 'Keep up the good work,' give them a pat on the back? Is that what it means to give them recognition, or is there something more that Paul's trying to get at? Something he's trying to draw on. And to get a better answer, we consider the three functions that the leaders in Thessalonica were performing.

So we take the first one: 'to those who labor among you.' The leaders in Thessalonica were laboring. This word that Paul uses to describe the work is something that he often uses when the work that's being done is in relation to the Lord. When he's preaching the gospel, when he's stirring up other people, when he's evangelizing, these are the works that Paul often associates the word 'laboring' with. In Colossians 1:28, Paul describes the end for which he's laboring; he labors that everyone would be presented mature in Christ on the final day. And the word 'laboring' carries with it an intense exertion, similar to the kind of exertion that some of the members experienced last week as they were running the marathon. It's the kind of laboring that isn't just doing chores throughout the day or doing the laundry at the end of a hard day. It's a kind of laboring that requires intense effort and focus.

How much more difficult is it to struggle and to toil when you're uncertain of what the result will be? Because in one sense, Paul was expending his efforts and energies towards something that he might never see the results from. What do I mean? When a pastor comes up and preaches, he doesn't ultimately know what will happen with the word as it goes out. The only thing that he does know is that the word of God is sufficient for Christ's people, and Christ's people, in the working of the Spirit, helps them obey and lead lives worthy of their calling. And yet, the pastor can't manufacture salvation in the heart of the hearer. So Paul, in one sense, was toiling and laboring and struggling for something that there could have been a chance he would have never seen the fruit of.

It's true not only for pastors but anyone who's ever been faithful in laboring to see Christ formed in somebody else. It's the moments of, 'I've spent week after week, day after day with this person, and yet they still can't seem to understand this verse. Why is their life not changing?' Those are the questions that plague the mind of the person who wants to see Christ formed in you. And yet, it's not because we're given certain results that we do the work that God has called us to do. For the pastor, there can be moments of doubt that can settle in: Is preaching week after week, verse after verse, book after book, really working? Is the text making sense? Is the congregation being edified? Are people growing in the Spirit? Is this striving and struggling helping the sheep lighten their burdens?

I've had many conversations with pastors who have had trouble sleeping because as they rest, in their mind are the sheep: the sheep's struggles, the sheep's weaknesses, their sorrows, their joys, their hopes. And yet at the end of the day, a faithful pastor will entrust all of his cares to the Lord. Christ is the chief shepherd. And yet, as faithful undershepherds, they won't so easily relinquish the opportunity to step into suffering, even if it means it's only relief for a moment. And so Paul asks us to care for our leaders, to give recognition to those who labor among you. They aren't just laboring and striving for a random group of people. Paul says that these are the leaders who labor *among you*. So leaders of the church labor among the congregation. The sheep know their shepherd, and knowing them and knowing their worries, fears, doubts, and hopes. In the same way that you would know that a shepherd had been with sheep, so a pastor should smell like his flock; he should know the worries, fears, and anxieties of the members in as much as he's able to.

Not only are we supposed to give recognition because they labor, but they also 'lead you in the Lord.' The second part of verse 12. The faithful leader is the one who leads you not just generally, but leads you *in the Lord*. There are different kinds of leaders. There are managers in an office, CEOs for companies, troop leaders in the Boy Scouts. The world measures the effectiveness of leaders based on how much they're able to get done with the personnel and resources that they might have. Whether it's net income that a company makes at the end of the year, whether it's how many Girl Scout cookies that you've sold over the span of three months—I'm not entirely sure how long Girl Scout cookies are sold—but we're able to easily measure success from the world's viewpoint because we see a dollar sign, we see inventory, we see a budget of a church rise or get smaller.

So how do we evaluate how elders, pastors lead? Should we evaluate them based on how many baptisms the church has had in a span of a year? Should we evaluate it according to how much the church is able to amass to spend on good things for the gospel? If we're only trying to see improvement from a secular point of view, sure, we could do that. And yet, the better question for us to ask is this: How much do we value spiritual things? Do we value spiritual things? Because if we can confidently say that we measure spiritual leadership by these other metrics, then how can we rightly evaluate someone who leads us in the Lord? Does it matter to us if we're able to read and understand our Bibles better because we've sat under faithful preaching for a long time? Is it valuable to us to see a model of somebody boldly and yet lovingly proclaiming the gospel, discipling others? Is it valuable to us to see somebody praying for the saints of the church? Do we value those things that are not so easily seen on a stat sheet? Because the world will try to tell us to live a certain way, and often it's the faithful undershepherd, wielding both rod and staff, who loves the sheep enough to guide them home. That even if the sheep bite, the shepherd resolves to hold them tightly.

Christians of all people should be able to see those that have been put over them by God and to be able to say, 'The spiritual good that has led me in the Lord is sufficient.' We of all people should be able to see the love and care of a pastor for the flock. We as members of First Baptist Church of Artesia should rightly weigh the care of our own undershepherd at this church. Don't take lightly a faithful pastor who leads in the Lord, because what else in this life is more important than being led in the Lord? And that's true for anyone who attends a faithful church with faithful shepherds who preach the word. We give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord.

And thirdly, 'and admonish you.' Admonishment—we kind of stay away from that word because often we associate criticism with admonishment. And sometimes criticism can be harsh. And yet the kind of admonishment that is looked for here is the kind that calls out to somebody when they've forgotten something or they're not remembering how they ought to live. Admonishment can be hard, both for the one admonishing and the one being admonished. And yet it's interesting how we can take news or criticism differently depending on who it's coming from. If we're convinced that our way is better, depending on the person who comes up to us, we'll respond with grace or we'll respond with fury. And yet, there are plenty of instances in life where we know that discipline or correction is necessary. When children are misbehaving, parents discipline because the behavior isn't good. Properly admonishing disciples looks like connecting what love looks like with how we're behaving and how we live. It's drawing that line between what is happening as a result of what I've done and what is true. I'm experiencing this pain. I'm experiencing this punishment or this discipline, but why is that happening? What undergirds it is love. What undergirds it is the reality that this person loves me more and is trying to correct something in me. So then God, who sits in the heavens and does all that He pleases, would not just cause suffering for no reason or would bring us through trial for no reason.

In Colossians 3:16, Paul shifts that emphasis of admonishment not only in the elders, but he makes it a responsibility of one another. He roots admonishing one another as the result from letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly. That if we're to be a church that obeys the word of God, then we're to be a church that is willing to be a part of one another's lives and point out sin. That a faithful leader and a faithful member desires each person to be formed more and more into the likeness of Christ. That a loving pastor doesn't admonish to destroy and belittle. A loving pastor admonishes that you would be built up in Christ. One author writes it in this way: that while the tone of admonishment is brotherly, it is big brotherly. That if we're in a family, and truly we are as brothers and sisters, then there is need for admonishment when we're seeking each other's good.

High Esteem and Peace

And to speed things along, the second portion of how we care for our leaders is that we're to 'regard them very highly.' We're to regard them very highly in love, notice, 'because of their work.' We honor and give recognition to those pastors and leaders who are worthy of it because of their work. The assumption that Paul makes here is that the leaders of the Thessalonians were already doing this work. They were laboring among them. They were leading them in the Lord. They were admonishing them. And so he calls them to regard them, give honor to them because of the work that they do.

Experientially, we know we're being pastored when our pastors get to know us. Pastors should know their congregation because that's part of the job description. But what Paul is emphasizing in this section is coming at it from a different angle. Yes, pastors should know their congregations, and yet to give recognition and to highly esteem, congregations should also seek to know their pastors. One pastor says this about the passage: 'The recognition and appreciation for spiritual leaders is a purely spiritual exercise possible only to spiritual persons. Non-spiritual persons cannot recognize and would not acknowledge spiritual workers or their work.' Which is to say, if your pastor has taught you faithfully what the word of God says and you've grown from it, rejoice. If your pastor has come alongside you and your leaders have cared for you, rejoice. Our pastor loves us and he desires to know you in the same way that Christ loves us and knows us.

And yet that isn't just left for the leaders of the church to know and care for one another. Paul shifts his attention in the following verses, beginning in verse 14. The transitory phrase is, 'Be at peace among yourselves.' That's actually included with the section before. But it's Paul not just saying these are the things you ought to do, but when he says, 'Be at peace among yourselves,' he's including the leaders in that. Be at peace amongst each other. Hold the kind of peace that the God of peace brings all over the world. The peace that is in perspective is the kind of peace that's described when God orders creation. When Adam is in the garden and he names the animals, when Adam and Eve are in the garden and they're doing what God has commanded them, that is the kind of peace that is being brought forth. As man exercises dominion on behalf of the God who created them. 'Be at peace among yourselves,' which is something that you are already doing.

Caring for One Another

So, care for your pastor. That is how you'll care for the church. And yet, secondly, care for one another. Brothers and sisters, care for one another. Notice how Paul revisits that same phrase and just changes one word at the beginning. In verse 12, he says, 'Now we ask you, brothers and sisters.' In verse 14, he says, 'And we exhort you, brothers and sisters.' And he gives four exhortations: to warn the idle, to comfort the discouraged, to help the weak, and to be patient with everyone.

As we turn to this first one, that you're to 'warn those who are idle,' the word for 'warn' is the same word for 'admonish' that we see earlier. In the same way that the pastor admonishes the sheep, we at the same time admonish one another. What does that mean? Be watchful of one another, care for one another. Don't let the fear of not being liked be the reason why you don't speak up when sin happens. If we truly love one another and want to see Christ formed in us, that requires some friction to tell someone that you're not living how you're supposed to live.

And who are the ones being admonished in verse 14? The ones that are idle, the ones that are idle in the congregation, those who haven't heeded Paul's instructions in 1 Thessalonians 4, look at it with me in 11-12:

to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone. — 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (CSB)

The idle in their midst were living in a way that was damaging the testimony of the church. They were individuals that had disordered passions and priorities. What's interesting is that in considering 1 Thessalonians, some of them actually became idle because when they heard the message that Jesus was returning soon, they took that to mean, 'If He's coming soon anyways, I can let go of all my responsibilities. I don't need to do anything else because Jesus is coming back.' And beloved, it's true: Jesus is returning. His return is imminent. And yet, if we were truly convinced that the gospel of Christ is what saves, then knowing that Christ is returning soon should propel us to action, not idleness, because there are those who have yet to hear His word.

Secondly, we're asked to 'comfort the discouraged.' This is a different charge from the previous one. If for the first they're warned because they're idle, secondly, we're called to comfort the discouraged. When we look at this passage, there are different categories that are listed. And before we're too quick to say that we fall in those who are idle, discouraged, weak, or if we're the ones that are doing the actions, be mindful that at any given day and at any given time, we can be in any one of these. Paul calls on the Thessalonians to comfort the discouraged. And who was discouraged? What were they discouraged about? Sometimes we think that our personalities can carry the day, in that if somebody comes to church or we're meeting with a friend over lunch and maybe their disposition is either solemn or downcast, they just look sad. For me, my instinct is to crack a joke, so that maybe that can ease the tension. And yet sometimes doing that to try to lighten the mood isn't actually the right way to behave. That to comfort the discouraged sometimes looks like just being in the presence of someone who's disheartened.

For the Thessalonians, there were some people who were discouraged because family members, close ones, had just passed. And they know that the Lord is coming soon and that there's a bodily resurrection, but they were confused about how that all works out. And so they were discouraged, whether over the death of a loved one or over something else. Many were distraught. And yet, believing that the charge for the Thessalonians was to comfort the discouraged, that those who were timid needed encouragement. They needed to be cheered up and helped along the way. If the first set was to be admonished, these are to be encouraged and comforted and cared for. The commentator says, 'Let such souls who instinctively fear the worst learn to take courage from the gentle Lord who would not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax.' Please don't beat one another over the head with the Bible. I'm sure many of us have been on the receiving end of the outpouring of verses as we're trying to wrestle with hardship. And yet sometimes that's precisely what somebody needs. We need to be discerning and mindful of when there is a moment to speak or when it is a moment to just sit and be with people.

So the third one says, 'Help the weak.' That we warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, and we help the weak. There were some in the congregation in Thessalonica that were considered to be weak, whether physically, materially, spiritually, or morally. It's clear that there were people who were considered to be weak in the congregation. And Paul's response, his command to them, was to help them. It carries the idea of coming alongside, bearing up those who were weak, whether in the faith or anything else. And we can read a passage like this and assume that we are the ones in the position of heeding all of these verses. And yet notice that Paul isn't specific about who should be the ones doing these things. He means for all Christians in the Thessalonian church to do what he's calling them to do. Because in moments, we may need to be encouraged because the weight of the world is too cumbersome. In moments, we may need to be the one whose lives need to be corrected so that we could be those who live like Christians. Whether it be admonishment or idleness, discouragement or being weak, in moments we need to be warned, admonished, and disciplined according to the word of God. And the struggling Christian is no lesser a member of the body of Christ than those who are doing well in their faith. It's simply an acknowledgment that we're all lacking something. The answers aren't in us. Sufficiency is not in us.

And then Paul gives a final commendation and command: that if we're to warn those who are idle and we're to comfort the discouraged and help the weak, 'be patient with everyone.' The final command brings all of these things that we've talked about in view: Be patient, patience for all. The word 'patience' is undergirded by the idea of forgiveness. That in order for someone to exercise patience, they must be ready to forgive. And think about it: In order to exercise patience, we willingly choose in part to put ourselves in situations where we can be frustrated or there are forces out of our control, other people behaving differently than what we would want. And yet forgiveness and patience says that regardless of what that person does, my disposition will be to love and care and wait. And we can respond patiently if we know who's been patient with us. We can have a forgiving attitude if we recognize that God has forgiven us. Patience is short when the measure of goodness is our own selfishness. And yet patience is long when goodness is measured by the One who forbears towards sinners, the good Shepherd.

The Foundation of Christian Community

We've gotten this far, and honestly, what we've read just now seems to be a long list of things that we need to do. Yes, to care for our leaders. Yes, to care for one another. And yet for the church, can this kind of community truly exist? A community that gives recognition and regards highly those who care for them and are over them? Can there be a community that exhorts brothers and sisters to warn those who are idle, to comfort those who are discouraged, to help the weak, to be patient with everyone? Because sometimes we look up and that doesn't seem to be the place that we're in.

And yet when we feel as though we've breathed our last breath, exerted our final effort, we look at these things and say that this is too hard to do with this church, we remember that Jesus is the one that binds us together. The reason the church of Christ is able to do these things is not because we have power in ourselves to do what God calls us to do. At the beginning, we mentioned that the apostles in the beginning were gathering, breaking bread, spending time fellowshipping with one another because they were convinced of this reality: I am more a brother to you, a sister to you, because in Jesus Christ, we are united with something more sure than what is biological.

That in the beginning when God created the world, He created all things good. And yet man, in his wickedness, in his desire to be God, sinned, thrown out of the garden, and man would be against man, man would be against God. And yet God, out of His great love... We ask the question, why can this community exist? Why does First Baptist Church of Artesia exist? Because Jesus came, sent by God. You know why these commands are hard to do? Because they are, if we only trust in ourselves. And yet it was Jesus who came, died for our sins. He warns as one who is gentle and lowly. He comforts as one who hung on a tree. He helps as somebody whose body was broken on the cross. And he was patient through Abraham's sin, through Adam's sin, through Israel's sin, through Peter's sin, to your sin, to my sin. The reason we gather is because my relationship to all of you is fundamentally and foundationally upon the blood of Jesus, which colors all of our relationships.

A pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church says this about his church: 'We also toil to that end, the end of maturing in Christ with eyes half focused on the glorious yet broken congregations in front of us; eyes half focused on the beauty of what they are becoming.' May we love the community God has given us in our churches. May we love who they are, who they are becoming, and what God intends to do through them. Beloved, I had you look around earlier, before at the beginning of the message. Think thousands of years from now in heaven, as we look around at one another perfected, where the cares of this life aren't so heavy, when our desires and the discipline of our lives is to love God and to love His people perfectly.

And as we move towards that day, so we care for our leaders. So we care for one another. We care for Christ's church because He knows our names. He's been with us from the beginning until the end. Though we don't have natural affection in of ourselves, affection is found in the one who's united us to each other. As Christ forgives, we forgive. As Christ loves, so we love. That we can warn the idle, comfort the discouraged, help the sick, and be patient with all of them because Christ has done it for us. That our example is our Savior and He will not fail us.

A Call to Fellowship

And hear these last words from Bonhoeffer: 'The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body. They receive and meet each other as one meets the Lord in reverence, humility, and joy. But if there is so much blessing and joy, even in a single encounter with one brother and one sister, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God's will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians.' That's our privilege: to gather at this church, at this time, and in this place.

Let's pray. Father, we trust you that as we care for one another, that we can only do so by your grace. Help us love our leaders and those that you will raise up. Help us love one another to see Christ formed in us. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.