I Thessalonians 5:12-13
Paul seems to change the subject here to the Christian's attitude toward others in the congregation. Of course, a proper attitude toward leaders will yield a proper attitude toward one's fellow Christians; in the same way, an unhealthy attitude toward leaders will yield an unhealthy attitude toward fellow believers.
They are to "live in peace" among each other. In Mark 9:50 the Lord called upon the disciples to "be at peace" with one another; This was part of a lengthy response to John's report of their having seen someone, not of the apostolic band, casting out devils and their attempting, apparently unsuccessfully, to stop.
Respect and harmony within the Christian community is essential for any kind of effective ministry, especially that kind of ministry discussed in the next verses.
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While on our vacation, we drove past a lot of churches. Several of them had those sophisticated electronic signs that allow you to flash whatever message you want to those passing by. They showed time and temperature, upcoming events, service times, and sermon titles. One sermon title got my attention because I knew I’d be preaching from this text when I returned.
Sorry I didn’t catch the preacher’s name but the title may not have been original with him, anyway. More important, I didn’t want you to think I had thought it up. The title—a long one—was “The World At It’s Worst Needs the Church At Its Best.”
Paul’s final counsel to the Thessalonians focused to a large degree on how the church might be at its best. Much of what Paul says in these verses is intended to help the congregation be the kind of church that honors Christ and develops healthy believers.
He begins by discussing the role and contribution of leaders in the church. He reminds us that an openness to being taught and guided is important to a church which would be at its best.
Although the early church was a most egalitarian institution, a democracy, with each member being gifted by the Spirit to help strengthen and carry on the church's task, there were leaders. Their leadership was not rooted in power but in loving servanthood.
In most cases, those leaders emerged from within the rank and file of the congregation. They weren’t elected to these positions, they seemed to work their way into them. As Lenski says, “their taking the lead is done in a truly Christian way.”
The structure of local churches seemed to vary from place to place in the early church; Paul would sometimes used terms like “elder” or “overseer” with out making much distinction between the roles. A pastor might be an elder but not all elders appear to have been pastors.
In this passage, Paul doesn’t uses special titles for those doing the work he has in mind. Instead, he focuses on the character of the work and the contribution it makes to the congregation. Those who perform such a ministry, whether they possess a title or not, should be respected and appreciated. With this in mind, I think we can apply what Paul says to folks like Sunday school teachers and others who hold jobs not mentioned at all in the New Testament.
Of course, that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes some Christians refuse to appreciate or listen to them. This seems to have happened even though these leaders conducted themselves in a most Christian manner. There may have been several reasons for such resistance.
They may resent the leaders intrusion into their lives. Paul describes the leaders as “warning” or “admonishing” the Christians against all that is wrong.
The word, which is also translated as "counsel" and "advise," is noutheteo and means "to put in mind," to caution someone or to reprove them gently. It involves using what they ought to know as Christians to issue a warning against some notion they have embraced or some behavior they have begun to demonstrate. Calling people to moral living means calling them to thoughtful living.
There may have been a time when the preacher or teacher could warn people away from certain behaviors without giving any rationale, but in many ways that day has past. They may contradict the leaders of the church in an attempt to justify some behavior which is being challenged by the leader.
They may possess an unteachable spirit. Back in the late ‘60s our culture began to think that students—even high school students—should be able to tell their teachers what to teach. The outcome has been that many people just don’t believe they have anything to learn from either a Sunday school teacher or a pastor.
They may be rebels at heart, refusing to submit to any other person attempting to instruct or correct them. Some of the great heresies that have harmed the church have been born from such a spirit. [Indeed, the word heresy comes from a Greek word that means “to choose,’ in the sense of choosing a faction. All mature belief involves some degree of choosing but heresy is choosing against overwhelming evidence to the contrary; for example, the Gnostic notion that Jesus only appeared to be human was a heresy because the notion was chosen despite the evidences of his human nature found in the gospels.]
They may feel they are socially superior to their leaders or teachers.
For example, it’s easy to imagine a situation in which a Christian whose social status placed him in the middle or even upper-middle class of Thessalonian society found himself sitting in a congregation listening to the teaching or admonition of a fellow-believer who was a slave.
We don’t know of that happening in the Thessalonian church. But in our churches, we know there are those who won’t listen because they believe being better-educated, socially superior, or wealthier exempts them from submitting to teachers whose station in life is differs from their own.
They may be reacting to some other authority figure in their lives (a parent, an employer, a teacher, a spouse) to whom they cannot show disrespect as safely as they can to the pastor or other Christian leader.
They may wish to usurp the leadership role in the church in order to gain some sense of importance for themselves.
They may bear a grudge against a former pastor or leader and transfer their anger to anyone filling that role.
This is clearly unfair but it is a reality in the life of many churches.
[Over the years I have become convinced the occasional troublemaker in our churches suffers from some emotional or psychological disorder. This disorder, often undiagnosed, may explain why some individuals react disproportionately to perceived slights or insults; why church leaders are often the targets of their anger. At my Texas church, a deacon (Bill) missed a meeting where a contractor explained how he would redesign the doors of the church. When Bill returned another member (Matt) showed him what the contractor had in mind. Bill sought me out and complained,“Matt treated me like an idiot, trying to tell me about those doors. I know more about building than he does.” Knowing that Matt had never shown a tendency to insult anyone and that Bill tended toward paranoia, I attempted to smooth the matter over. Several years later, when I returned to the community for a wedding, Bill cornered me at the reception to renew his complaint against Matt. Unfortunately most churches and most pastors are not trained to deal with this kind of disorder in members, disorders masquerading as personality quirks which we explain as “just the way they are.” We can recognize the signs of depression but not issues like “narcissistic personality disorder,” “dependent personality disorder,”or some other trait resistant to prayer, reason, and compromise.]
Nothing Paul says suggests there was a marked resistance to leaders among the Thessalonian Christians. But Paul knew how easy it was for such attitudes to develop.
Christians who want their church to be at its best should strive to maintain openness to being taught and guided by God-gifted leaders.
We can maintain such an openness by promoting a loving appreciation of what these leaders do for the church.
1. They model commitment to the work of the church. “They work hard….” The idea is that of manual labor, exhausting effort. It was an effort born out of the Christian love these leaders had for their fellow-believers.
2. They help protect the church from error and wrong-doing.
That was the goal of the tough work of admonition and warning. Leon Morris described the attitude of the leaders who did this tough work. He said that “while its tone is brotherly, it is big-brotherly.”
In a world filled with conflicting world-views its easy to become confused and fall prey to doctrinal error. Faithful Christian leaders can help protect us from that.
We can maintain such an openness by guarding the unity of the church.
One of the best ways to undermine a leader is to sow seeds of division in the church.
Dealing with those divisions adds to the work of the leader and complicates any efforts to bring the church together in the work of building the Kingdom.
Paul isn’t calling on us to ignore obvious problems or harmful situations in the church. They must be dealt with so they won’t become even more troublesome. Caring enough to confront does more to preserve real unity than ignoring problems will ever do.
A proper attitude toward leaders will yield a proper attitude toward one's fellow Christians; in the same way, an unhealthy attitude toward leaders will yield an unhealthy attitude toward fellow believers.
They are to "live in peace" among each other, as a family of “dear brothers and sisters.” In Mark 9:50, the Lord called upon the disciples to "be at peace" with one another. This was part of a lengthy response to John's report of the disciples’ having seen someone, not of the apostolic band, casting out devils and their attempting, apparently unsuccessfully, to stop the strangers.
Respect and harmony within the Christian community is essential for any kind of effective ministry, the kind of ministry which will help the church be at its best.
Conclusion
I wonder if Paul understood the problems he was creating for those pastors who would one day try to open up this passage for their congregations.
When you’re talking about honoring the leaders of a church, it’s hard not to be self-conscious.
Just keep in mind that Paul was not just talking about pastors. He was talking about all those who provide some form of leadership in a church.
At the same time, remember that Paul is laying down principles which can help us be better participants in the church.
If we would support our leaders—whatever their title—I think we should begin by understanding the challenges they face. They are trying to teach truth to a culture which has largely rejected the very notion of truth. They are trying to inspire commitment in a people who have dozens of conflicting priorities. They are trying to lead men and women who just don’t like being led.
If we would support our leaders—whatever their title—I think we should abandon unrealistic expectations. Several years ago there was a prominent pastor in our denomination whose preaching was greatly admired. He was asked to speak at almost every national meeting and many state meetings. Many pastors wished they could preach like him and many churches wished their pastors could produce sermons like his.
One year I heard him preach twice, on two different occasions. Though the meeting were miles apart I just happened to attend both. He preached the same sermon at both. It was an excellent sermon. No wonder. He had had plenty of opportunities to hone and improve it.
Then, too, it became known that he had—on his church’s payroll—a research assistant who did a lot of the spadework for his sermons, including finding those powerful illustrations and pertinent quotations his sermons were known for.
There’s no way an ordinary pastor who had to put together two or three new sermons each week, working on his own, could match that kind of sermon.
Sunday school teachers face the same challenge when people who listen to carefully edited radio and TV Bible teachers wonder why their teacher can’t teach like Dr. So And So.
Some of our Baptist traditions anger some people, especially people who don’t understand them. I know a member who was always angry at our deacons because they wouldn’t tell people what to do.
A few years ago a woman became very angry at me because a church vote went differently than she wished. She believed that I, as pastor, should overrule the vote. She asked what no Baptist pastor would do. She left the church.
Ultimately, if we would support our leaders, we would recognize that sometimes God wants us to be led—to be led to become the church at its best.
