Approved Workmen

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 

Don’t Neglect Prophecy 

Grab your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5. This section is short that we are taking on this week. We will Lord willing pick up our pace again and take bigger chunks, but this topic is tough to handle briefly and so we’re gonna take a whole sermon to look at vv. 19-22. 

The apostle Paul writing to the church of Jesus Christ at Thessalonica says: 

1 Thessalonians 5:19–22 (ESV) 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil. 

Five instructions.  

Depending upon your interpretation of this passage they are either all interconnected, similar to our instructions last week on inner-life attitudes of joy and prayer and thanksgiving before God. These are either all relating to the issue of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church through the prophetic word. Or, vv. 19, 21 and 22 are spiritual encouragements about living a godly life and v. 20 is the only verse that deals with prophecy. 

At the risk of testing your patience by repeating myself ad nauseam, I’m going to re-iterate a presupposition for interpreting the Bible. Do not approach the Scriptures with a conclusion and then attempt to prove it from the text. Do not approach the Scriptures with a conclusion and then attempt to prove it from the text. 

A good indicator that you need to watch yourself is when you read a text and it makes you feel a bit of discomfort because it doesn’t appear to line up with your beliefs. At that moment you can either begin to reinforce your perspective through what is known as confirmation bias—where you weight the data that you like, and you dismiss the data you don’t. You start out to disprove the other side rather than first objectively looking at the data. 

In the process you miss out on being shaped by truth and having your theology refined. 

So, we come to this passage and it deals with prophecy. Just for fun, here’s the basic ways this passage is approached, embellished for illustrative purposes. 

• The prophecy avoider. Talking about prophecy is alarming because it is dangerous. They come to a passage like this and get hit with the prophecy dumbstick. Prophecy? What prophecy? This passage isn’t really about prophecy. And even if it was, we all know that prophecy is just preaching. This passage means don’t disregard preaching the written word and don’t disregard the written scriptures. Move right along. Nothing to see here folks (MacArthur,  

• The prophecy accepters. Prophecy is an ongoing ministry of the Spirit in the church today. And in fact, this is proof positive that prophetic haters will exist in the church, they will despise prophecy and they shouldn’t. This also gives us the manner by which we test prophecy in the church and keep the good stuff and reject the bad. This passage validates a new category of prophecy that may or may not be true (Wayne Grudem, John Piper, D. A. Carson, Sam Storms, C.J. Mahaney). Called the “open-but-cautious” view. 

We just need to figure out what it meant to this church, and then we can figure out how to draw out the timeless implications for us. 

As you know, Paul has been dealing with how to strengthen the church and make it healthy. He is giving instructions on preventative maintenance to the body. It’s akin to a well-doctor visit where you don’t have any major ailments (at this time there are no major doctrinal issues in Thessalonica, no major moral issues) so these are instructions for how to stay healthy. 

• Love and honor your leaders (12-13). Shepherds bear a burden of the care of your souls before God and give an account. Understand the burden. Pray for them. Satan loves to divide sheep and shepherds because it undermines ministry. This is a preventative. 

• Minister to the strugglers (14-15). The church is a hospital, not for the healthy but the sick. God chooses the weak and not the strong. We are to help each other without favoritism. A call to be in one another’s lives and take spiritual responsibility for others. 

• Humble, dependent relationship with Christ (16-18). The Christian life is to be one of great joy and peace and gratitude as we depend upon our God in prayer. We saw how these attitudes preserve the body. 

And now, today we come to the matter of cultivating a discerning church that loves and submits to the truth. A discerning church that loves and submits to the truth. 

5 Tips for Protecting the Prophetic Word in the Church (a flourishing prophetic ministry) 

1. Don’t resist the Spirit (19) 

1. Don’t limit God’s word by your own opinion (20) 

1. Be a discerning listener (21a) 

1. Embrace good teaching (21b) 

1. Keep your life pure from evil (22) 

5 Tips for Protecting the Prophetic Word in the Church 

1. Don’t resist the Spirit (19) 

This passage is one that gets a wax nose. Whatever you believe about prophecy becomes how you approach this passage. Why? It’s so brief. It’s so few words. It’s eight words in the original. So, you’ve got to figure out what God wants us to understand from these eight words.1 

Paul frontloads the concepts with the verbs listed afterward… 

19 Do not quench the Spirit.  

Quenched2 appears elsewhere in conjunction with putting out a fire. The imagery of the Spirit as a fire when at work is used in Isaiah 4, Matthew 3 and Acts 2. It’s a sign of his energy. 

That is just almost too tempting for me because it just preaches so well. Don’t extinguish the Spirit’s flaming fire in your life. Let the Spirit burn within you until you are consumed. 

Sometimes I’ll send Paul Ellsworth some song lyric ideas I’m writing, and I’d say this idea of burning and fire and the Spirit definitely has some legs on a CCM hit. 

As enjoyable as that may be—Paul’s talking about the Spirit burning anyone. It’s an idiom. We use these to communicate the same idea all the time: 

• He’s a wet blanket 

• She put a real damper on the mood 

• His last glimmer of hope was dashed 

• That really doused my big plans 

The Spirit isn’t burning. Quenching is an idiom that just means down stifle or shut down the Spirit’s work.3 Now this seems like a conceptual parallel with not grieving the Spirit in Ephesians 4:30. In that context it is focusing on the relational elements of your connection to God. 

Paul says there by whom you were sealed. The whom. It’s personal. 

If you are in Christ, you have a very special and precious relationship with the Spirit of God. The Spirit’s work in the life of the believer is irreplaceable: as he calls, quickens, regenerates, sanctifies, pours the love of God into our hearts, frees us from sins tyranny, places us into the body of Christ, enables us with grace-gifts to serve others, translates our prayers, leads us back to the Father and preserves us until we are with Christ in eternity.4 

The thought there is that when you and I treat obedience carelessly then we are hurting the indwelling Spirit who seals us.5  

Generally speaking, how you grieve or quench the Spirit is to neglect the truth. Stop reading your Bible and stop submitting to what you find in it. Neglect and unbelief are the path. Calvin says this is a warning against indolence (laziness) in spiritual things. It’s a warning against neglecting your soul and yet even so, the hope isn’t just more effort, but dependent striving.6 

For although God works efficaciously in his elect, and does not merely present the light to them, but causes them to see, opens the eyes of their heart, and keeps them open, yet as the flesh is always inclined to indolence, it has need of being stirred up by exhortations.  

But what God commands by Paul’s mouth, He himself accomplishes inwardly. In the meantime, it is our part to ask from the Lord, that he would furnish oil to the lamps which he has lighted up, that he may keep the wick pure, and may even increase it.7 

God’s preservation through exhortations that drive us back to him for a fresh supply of strength to follow him. We are commanded not to quench. 

5 Tips for Protecting the Prophetic Word in the Church 

1. Don’t resist the Spirit (19) 

1. Don’t limit God’s word by your own opinion (20) 

Calvin says that v. 19 is generic and now v. 20 is specific. I don’t believe there’s an abuse of prophetic gifts in Thessalonica because the instruction here is so short. 

20 Do not despise prophecies, 

What are prophecies? Communicating a message of direct revelation from God by speaking or writing. Communicating a message of direct revelation from God by speaking or writing. It could include foretelling future events before they come to pass. But that’s a dimension of prophecy. Prophecy could also include preaching—they key is the source of the revelation is directly from God to the individual prophesying. 

Active prophetic ministry in Thessalonica. And Paul has to say to the church… 

Don’t hold them in contempt. Don’t disregard them. We have little work on in terms of the context, but if we stick to the words themselves this much is clear: the Thessalonians were not embracing the God-given, Spirit-enabled exercise of prophecy within the church. Despising here could be to simply regard it as without merit—worthless—a waste of time. 

How they were doing this is a matter of speculation. 

Perhaps they were not allowing prophets to speak during the service. They were cutting power to the mic every time a prophet would get up to share. Perhaps they were listening, but then dismissing such things as not being authoritative messages from God. However, it was a low ministry priority for them. 

My best guess from the context is that they had gotten some bad prophecy and they decided to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. 

They had gotten duped and said, “we’re gonna cut that part from the order of service on Sunday mornings. No more prophecy. No more funny stuff.” 

The reason I’m inclined to think this is two reasons. The first is grammatical. Look with me at how v. 21 begins: 

but  

Grammatically this is a direct, correlating relationship. Don’t disregard, but (instead, in contrast)  

test everything; hold fast what is good. 

He doesn’t say don’t disregard prophecy but put it center stage during your church services. Don’t disregard prophecy but elevate it above the other gifts. He doesn’t say, prophets don’t stop prophesying but keep exercising your gift. 

No. Rather he says in effect, don’t kick it the curb because of some bad experiences, but instead test what you hear. The solution is to evaluate the prophecy for its validity. Grammatically it’s clear that some bad prophecy was in play. 

Second, we find bad prophecy addressed in 2 Thessalonians 2. In the very next letter Paul says: 

2 Thessalonians 2:1b-2a … we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word… 

A spirit or a spoken word. A spirit was another word for a prophetic word. 

Not only that, but they had previously been in idolatry (1:9) meaning mysticism and incantations were part of their old worship. So they would have been skeptical. 

We get this. I got sick one time after eating honey and peanut butter from that peanut butter machine at Winco as a kid. I didn’t eat peanut butter and honey for years. And the smell of that machine when I’d walk by it would always make me feel queasy. It probably wasn’t sickness from the machine, but that didn’t matter. 

One bad experience with prophecy and you write the whole thing off. 

You go to a church service expecting to hear truth and some prophet gets up and promotes another Jesus. Says something that shakes your faith. Makes you doubt your salvation. Causes your peace to be disrupted as you hear a message supposedly from God. 

You’d be on board with cancelling open mic night at church… no more prophecy.8 

But the problem is prophecy is a good gift from God to the church. And so, Paul says, “nah, hold on… breathe… test it and then cling to the good.” 

The problem was they were trying to filter out and protect themselves by error through their own approach. They were trusting in their own opinions more than in God’s Word and their fears caused them to cut off the Spirit’s ministry in the church. 

5 Tips for Protecting the Prophetic Word in the Church 

1. Don’t resist the Spirit (19) 

1. Don’t limit God’s word by your own opinion (20) 

1. Be a discerning listener (21a) 

test everything;  

Put it to the test. Everything. Word for proving it. Take what you hear and test it by the book. 

Celebrating how God used Martin Luther and his famous stand where he’s saying that he will be convinced he’s in error through Scripture and plain reason. 

This is what the church does. The church is the pillar and support of the truth. The Thessalonians thought they would protect themselves by disallowing certain ministries in the church because of the potential for error. 

They knew better. 

Just imagine being in Thessalonica. 

You’ve got no New Testament. No systematic theologies have been written. No Apostles Creed. No Nicene Creed. No church councils. No Reformation. No Westminster divines. No church history. 

Pretty different from 21st century America. 

We need to explain a few things here: 

What is the NT gift of prophecy? 

Longer discussion, but here’s the summary. Prophecy has its foundation in the Old Testament. And in the OT there is no such thing as an “oops” I didn’t get it quite right category. 

Deuteronomy 18:21–22 (ESV) 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. 

Deuteronomy 13:1–5 (ESV) 1 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 

No passage clearly distinguishes a neoprophecy in the NT. But this view is built from 1 Corinthians 12-14 and the passage here before us. 

And in fact, Peter connects the OT prophet to the NT prophet. Quoting Joel talking about prophecy in the NT: 

Acts 2:16–18 (ESV) 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17 “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 

What do we know about this prophecy? Let’s pull out some concepts from 1 Corinthians 12… 

• 12:27—it’s a gift to the church. 

• 12:29-30—not all believers are endowed with that gift. 

• 13:2—prophet powers hyperbole… love is necessary + superior and more important for edifying the body than any gift. 

• 13:8—fade away 

• 13:9-10—What’s the perfect? τελος is complete. When Jesus comes? No. The comparison is to a child becoming mature and leaving behind the immature and childish things. 

• 13:13—faith, hope and love abide (but faith and hope cease when Jesus comes). Hebrews 11:1 teaches that faith is seeing the unseen. Hope is going to go away when we receive the object that we are hoping in. 

• 14:1—prophecy is good it builds the church. 

• 14:2-5—prophecy is superior to tongues 

• 14:29 

• 14:39 

Ephesians 2:20—it’s foundational. 

Ephesians 2:19–20 (ESV) So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 

The church was being established… 

The apostolic age, like many OT times, was an age of revelation. The prophet had a supernatural gift whereby he was able “to reveal to his listeners new truth from God.”9 

One of the reasons people have a hard time with the idea that these gifts aren’t operating today is because they can’t find a verse that specifically supports that. What’s often overlooked is the starting assumption regarding God’s revelatory ministry. 

As you read through the Old Testament you find many times where God is speaking to one person in the whole world at that time. Occasionally it would overlap, and he might be speaking to a couple. Or there would be periods of time when God wasn’t talking to anybody at all. 

In fact, between Malachi and John the Baptist there was 400 years of what? Utter silence from heaven. Then you have Jesus. Then you have Pentecost. And then you have a God doing a new work on the earth through the church and as we would expect we find revelation and miracles… it was always the case. It fits the pattern. 

Hebrews 1:1 (ESV) Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, 

It was a unique season in history. A new work of revelation until the Scripture was completed. 

His function as a spokesman for God included foretelling (prediction) and forthtelling (preach- ing), in either case on the basis of possessing supernatural knowledge (cf. John 4:19; Eph 3:3-5). In order to claim the gift for today, some writers have identified the gift of prophecy with inspiring and enthusiastic preaching,10 or congregational prophecy, “based on a ‘revelation’ from the Holy Spirit yet not possessing the authority of God’s own word.”11 This is totally out of keeping with all biblical data.12 

Bob Kauflin in an article entitled, “How Do We Make Room for the Gift of Prophecy” refers to “prophetic impressions”13 This is where a member from the church gets up to share with the congregation a message or an impression that they believe God is telling them to tell the church. 

He admits that not all contributions will be “home runs” but that having two pastors near the microphone to screen contributions before they are shared is a good practice and a way to obey the command here in 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 to test prophecies. 

While I love Bob Kauflin’s ministry and have benefited greatly from it. We sing hymns he has written. And I appreciate his desire to involve the congregation in ministering to one another. I believe it’s a total misunderstanding of this passage. 

Kauflin holds to a neoprophecy that is articulated most comprehensively by Wayne Grudem and supported in various ways by other pastors and theologians such as Gordon Fee, C.J. Mahaney, John Piper and Sam Storms. 

For many of these testing essentially means, “pray about it and then go with your gut… if you sense peace then it’s from the Lord and if you don’t it’s not.” I know they mean well, but I find that an alarming way to begin to say things and cite your source as the divine creator of heaven and earth. 

Some define prophecy not as a direct, flawless revelation from the Spirit, but as faithfully preaching the word of God to a church congregation. This appears incorrect, since prophecy elsewhere in the Bible seems always to be connected with a direct revelation by the Spirit. Others, however, explain prophecy as a direct revelation of the Spirit, which can nevertheless be mixed with some error. The likelihood is that prophecy in the New Testament is the same as in the Old (a direct, infallible revelation from God) and that the discernment of a prophecy throughout the New Testament is a matter of distinguishing between true and false prophets.14 

The key issue is this: false prophecies are just that. False. Pseudo. Fake. Nowhere in Scripture do we find a situation where God’s people are told to figure out what the mixture of a prophecy is: this one’s 50/50; we’ve got a 90/10 split on this one. 

It’s obvious because we are talking about the source of the message. 

In high school I was very aware of designer purses. I guess I was trying to find common ground with my friends’ mom’s or something. In the 90’s it was Kate Spade all day long. You had the $300 Kate Spade at Nordstrom and then $30 Kate Spade on the cart outside TJ Maxx. No one ever picks apart either one trying to figure out which components of the purse are authentic and which are fake. 

It’s either 100% genuine or 100% fake. There’s no partially authentic and partially fake. 

Matthew 24:24 (ESV) For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 

1 John 4:1 (ESV) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 

Matthew 7:15 (ESV) Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.  

1 John 4:1–6 (ESV) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 

1 Corinthians 14:29 (ESV) Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 

1 Corinthians 12:10 (ESV) to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 

You have a responsibility to test what you hear. Teachers give an account, are judged strictly. But guess what? Hearers are also judged. No teacher gets every interpretation right. You are to test what you hear against the standard of truth in whatever ability God has given you. 

Although Paul here doesn’t give the criteria for examining prophetic utterances, John Stott (The Message of 1 & 2 Thessalonians [IVP Academic], pp. 128-129) suggests five tests based on other Scriptures: 

The first test is the plain truth of Scripture. Like the Bereans, we are to examine the Scriptures to see if what someone is saying is true (Acts 17:11). The second test is the divine-human person of Jesus (1 John 4:1-3). Anyone denying either His full deity or full humanity is a false teacher. The third test is the gospel of God’s free and saving grace through Christ. Anyone who preaches a different gospel is eternally condemned (Gal. 1:6-9). The fourth test is the known character of the speaker. Jesus said that by their fruits we will know false teachers (Matt. 7:15-20). The fifth test is the degree to which what is said builds up the hearers. An authentic message will strengthen, encourage, and comfort the church, as well as convict those in sin (1 Cor. 14:3-4, 24-25, 31). 

But the main problem is this—how do you test a word from the Lord against Scripture if it isn’t pertaining to Scripture? Hey church, I think God wants some of us to sell our houses and downsize so that we can better influence various parts of the city and use the proceeds for other activities. I’ve just invoked God’s revelation to me. Or so I think. 

You have to judge if that’s true or not. How? 

We might be able to recognize it is something that would generally line up with a practice in Scripture. But practically how would you validate/invalidate? 

The responsibility of NT prophets to weigh the prophecies of others does not imply that true prophets were capable of giving false prophecies, but that false prophets could disguise their falsity by occasional true utterances.15 

B.B. Warfield: 

Miracles do not appear on the page of Scripture vagrantly, here, there, and elsewhere indifferently, without assignable reason. They belong to revelation periods, and appear only when God is speaking to His people through accredited messengers, declaring His gracious purposes. Their abundant display in the Apostolic Church is the mark of the richness of the apostolic age in revelation; and when this revelation period closed, the period of miracle working had passed by also, as a mere matter of course.16 

Prophecy in the New Testament is the same as prophecy in the OT; it is a continuation of the same office and function.17 

5 Tips for Protecting the Prophetic Word in the Church 

1. Don’t resist the Spirit (19) 

1. Don’t limit God’s word by your own opinion (20) 

1. Be a discerning listener (21a) 

1. Embrace good teaching (21b) 

hold fast what is good. 

See prophecy is a gift of the Spirit that was blessing God’s people. 

1 Corinthians 14:3b …the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 

There’s edification here. Strength. Encouragement. Comfort. Help. And if you make a wholesale abandonment of prophecy, you’re gonna miss out on this crucial blessing. 

Rather than throw it all away, cling to the good. Hold it fast. 

This is another reason the possibly true prophecy category is problematic. If a teacher says something and binds you to it, but you can’t verify it in Scripture you are obligated. 

Revelation is a gift to us from God. 

Consider the personal nature of God’s revelation to his people… 

Hebrews 1:1–3 (ESV) Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 

From a God who condescends to make himself knowable… 

John 1:14–18 (ESV) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. 

Jesus came in part, to explain God to us. The detriment of not having revelation… 

5 Tips for Protecting the Prophetic Word in the Church 

1. Don’t resist the Spirit (19) 

1. Don’t limit God’s word by your own opinion (20) 

1. Be a discerning listener (21a) 

1. Embrace good teaching (21b) 

1. Keep your life pure from evil (22) 

22 Abstain from every form of evil. 

Now if you grew up memorizing scripture in the KJV like I did, you learned this as: 

1 Thessalonians 5:22—Abstain from all appearance of evil. 

Great principle, wrong passage. 

Most people’s discernment on abstaining from evil is this—does Scripture explicitly forbid me from doing something? By that I’m not advocating for making rules to define what does and doesn’t please God. 

But I’m talking about the freedom of Christian conscience in the fear of the Lord that seeks to live a life that’s pleasing to Christ… Paul describes it as a worthy walk. To walk worthily. To walk in a way that is in measure Christ himself. 

How does turning away from evil effect your discernment and your receptivity to the ministry of the Spirit? We have seen many times that discernment is intimately connected to your practice of the truth. 

Mark 9:31–32 (ESV) for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. 

Lose discernment… unlike those who practice… 

Hebrews 5:14 (ESV) But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. 

Practicing what? Believing and submitting to truth. And so immediately we recognize that we need the Spirit of God to do this work in our hearts. How devastating to tell someone your sin will blind you to truth, but you need truth to deal with your sin. It sounds like a catch 22. 

But God is gracious. He promises to give wisdom to those who ask, to give mercy to the humble, to draw near to those who draw near to him. We draw near by faith, trusting him to reveal things to us that we cannot otherwise see. 

I’d say the Spirit’s work was pretty effectual in those disciples. 

Paul wants the ministry of the Spirit to abound in that church in all truth.  

Hosea 4:6 (ESV) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 

It comes from a great God who never lies… 

Titus 1:2 (ESV) in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began… 

Communion 

The God of good gifts who has given us revelation and spoken to us, also gave us himself. That’s always the greatest expression of love—to give of oneself. My life for yours. No greater act of love has even been known that God taking on flesh and becoming the substitute for all who trust in him. 

Unfair for a righteous man to be punished for sin. And yet that’s the means by which we are given freedom. The just for the unjust. The innocent for the guilty. The spotless for the stained. He was the perfect lamb of God. 

And he is honored when we remember him. And it is also good for us to remember his death for us. If you belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ, then welcome. You are invited to partake and to fellowship around his table. 

The bible refers to this time in various ways, one is communion. This is from 1 Corinthians 10:16 that describes what we do as a participation, a fellowship, a communion with Christ’s work. It means that we get the privilege of identifying with him in a close association. It’s a time that we reconsider our relationship. 

In that, we want to come prepared with reconciled relationships within the body of Christ and reconciled relationships with our Lord. We want to take a couple of minutes and prepare our hearts for this fellowship. I’ll close that in prayer and then we’ll sing… 

PRAY 

• Romans 10:3—not submitting to the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own. 

• Every guilty thought 

• Every evil deed 

Sing… 

Communion reminds us of the love of God for us… 

The Heidelberg Catechism gives us a wonderful answer to the question: 

How does the Lord’s Supper remind you and assure you that you share in Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross and in all his gifts? 

In this way: Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup in remembrance of Him. With this command He gave these promises: First, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup given to me, so surely was His body offered for me and His blood poured out for me on the cross. Second, as surely as I receive from the hand of the minister and taste with my mouth the bread and the cup of the Lord as sure signs of Christ’s body and blood, so surely does He Himself nourish and refresh my soul to everlasting life with His crucified body and shed blood. 

As surely as… we gain assurance as we partake. One minister puts it this way: 

Do you doubt what your eyes are seeing, what your hands are receiving, what your mouth is tasting? Then don’t doubt that Christ was sacrificed for you, loves you, and will continue to care for you!18 

See this is a comfort to us. Imagine the comfort it was to the first apostles who had seen Jesus and been with him physically and then were without him physically… 

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”  

Take. Eat. Remember. And Believe. That Jesus willingly gave his body for you. Let’s fellowship in it together. 

As you know, the bread was the first part of the ordinance. Then came the cup. 

1 Corinthians 11:25—In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 

This new covenant is a better covenant. A better relationship through promise. And as we saw, this promise is made by a God who cannot lie. This covenant says that you have been bought with and cleansed by the precious blood of the lamb slain for you.  

Blood purified and cleansed things in the old covenant. It does so in the new as well, but it does so permanently. So, this is a reminder that you are clean. 

Take. Drink. Remember. And believe. That you now are secure in the blood of Jesus for you. 

Let’s remember Jesus together as we partake of the cup. 

Our Lord is coming back for us and until he returns, we proclaim his death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:26)… in fact as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup. We are going to sing about that now and so I invite you stand together. 

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 

Grab your Bibles with me and open them to 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5. We transitioned last week in this letter from eschatology to a section filled with instructions for how to maintain a healthy church. 

We said these verses from 12-22 are all about relationships. First, how you relate to your leaders in the church, then how you interact with others, and finally your relationship with the Lord.  

1. Regarding your leaders (12-13) 

1. Interacting with others (14-15) 

1. Trusting your Lord (16-22) 

Last week we looked at the obligation and privilege of the sheep to love and honor their shepherds. And the corresponding blessing that comes from that command. It strengthens the church. It makes the pastors job a joy and not a pain. It protects a key relationship that needs to be maintained for a church to remain strong. 

Last week we looked at sheep and their shepherds. This week we move to dealing with other people (really everyone else you could say). And the bulk of this instruction is about how to deal with difficult people. 

I love that about Scripture. It’s unapologetic and its raw. 

Instead of pretending that relationships will be easy. We are instead told plainly how to deal with difficult people. And if I could frame up a trajectory here for how to think about this text, it’s showing us how things are supposed to look in the body of Christ. 

What are we naturally predisposed to in the flesh? We gravitate toward certain kinds of people—who are the people that others like to associate with? People who are attractive and impressive (King Saul); people who are rich (Proverbs). People who are happy. People who are gracious. And appreciative. The flatterers. Why? Because those are relationships where you get something out of it for yourself. The Bible calls this partiality and it’s where you favor people based upon what’s rewarding to you. 

Regarding relationships in this way is part of the old life. To be a consumer rather than a servant. 

Christ has a higher calling for his bride. The church is a hospital. It’s a place for spiritually sick people to come and find care for their souls. And it isn’t based upon how much you deserve that care. And it certainly isn’t based in what you can contribute. 

The church is a community of people transformed who put on display the glory of Jesus Christ by loving others the way our Savior has demonstrated love toward us. 

Ministering to difficult people is challenging. It’s easy to ignore them. It’s easy to get angry with those who present challenges and don’t shape up. It’s easy to write people off in your heart when they have mistreated you. But Jesus presents an entirely different approach to life in the body of Christ. 

He presents a body where the spiritual misfits and the down-and-outers, and the strugglers find strength and encouragement and care. The church is to be counter cultural in the way that we love one another and support one another, even when we are at our worst. 

Early on in our family life even before Susie and I had children we were encouraged to cultivate our home as a refuge. It was great advice. To cultivate the atmosphere of the home to be a safe place.  

Certainly, that we would deal with issues. Confront sin.  

But to work hard, as best as we’re able to make it a place filled with love and encouragement and care. To know that when you are in our home you aren’t going to get belittled, or torn down, or ignored. You’re not going to have your own little life to yourself apart from the rest of us. 

No, there’s a mindset that we are all in this together and we will lovingly bear up with one another’s weaknesses. That’s a blessing to me. Difficult work experiences. Difficulties in the church. You know that in the home everyone has each other’s back. There’s a loving commitment to help one another even when we are at our worst.  

And we talk about it that way. Hey kids, daddy’s weak and struggling right now. Pray for daddy. Hey kids, one of your siblings is in a rough spot and it’s testing you, how can love and serve them in spite of being wronged? To create an environment that is characterized by graciously bearing up with one another and helping one another in this race called life. And to know that when you come into this home, you are accepted where you’re at. 

We don’t do that perfectly, but that’s our aim. And its exactly how things are supposed to look in the church. If I could sum it up, we sinners stick together. It’s not a club membership for the people who have it all together. Its where sick people come to find the boundless love of Jesus Christ through the hands and feet of his people. 

In the church of Jesus Christ, difficult people aren’t to be merely tolerated. They aren’t to be avoided. But lovingly ministered to not as projects, but as beloved brothers and sisters who need help. 

Let’s pray again… God pour out your love on us, and make it abound through us toward one another—that your good and wise plan would be true of us. 

Sub-Introduction 

1 Thessalonians 5:12–28 (ESV) 12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 

5 Practices for Bringing Jesus to Troubled People 

1. Warn the line crossers 

1. Encourage the discouraged 

1. Help the weak 

1. Endure the difficult 

1. Bless the cruel 

Here’s how this passage is structured: Paul gives a persona (a type of person in the church) and then he gives a one-word instruction for how to deal with them. 

Now these are not exhaustive categories. By that we mean to say there are other types of people to minister to in the body This isn’t exhaustive.  

Furthermore, these aren’t comprehensive labels. By that we meant to say that you may be weak in an area or dealing with someone who is a line crosser, but that’s not comprehensive of their walk with the Lord at any given moment, and certainly not permanent. 

14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, 

5 Practices for Bringing Jesus to Troubled People 

1. Warn the line crossers 

admonish the idle, νουθετεῖτε τοὺς ἀτάκτους, 

νουθετέω: to counsel about avoidance or cessation of an improper course of conduct, admonish, warn, instruct1 

You perhaps recognize the νουθετέω word. It makes its way into our vocabulary in the study of the mind, which is the νοῦς. The nouthetic counseling movement which has been rebranded as the biblical counseling movement was borrowing from this biblical word. It was aimed at changing the inner life through the thoughts. 

If you were distill down then, how people change, fundamentally, it is through the renewing of our minds. Truth comes in and we begin to evaluate and reason differently. 

Who needs to be admonished?  

Well, all of us. But here is one particular type of believer that Paul has in mind. It’s someone who is out of step. They are not in order. This word is used in various ways to mean someone who is disorderly. Insubordinate. Undisciplined.  

Idle is not the best representation of this word. Several English translations capture it better with: undisciplined, disorderly, wrong doers, those who are not living right, and my personal favorite in terms of getting the sense, the unruly. That’s the persona here. 

The reason its translated idle in some of your translations is because Paul uses it in the next letter to this church:  

2 Thessalonians 3:11–13 (ESV) For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. 

They weren’t working in the way they were supposed to be. But the contrast is that they are busybodies. So they are doing the wrong things, not merely lazy. And furthermore, Paul had two other better words to choose if the issue were merely idleness or laziness. 

Outside of the New Testament the word for line crosser: 

… refers to military officers who neglect their duty or to “an army in disarray” and out of its ranks, as well as to “undisciplined and insubordinate soldiers.” Likewise, one ancient author uses the word to refer to the Roman authorities who “have the right to expect from the [Roman] senate one whose life is licentious and disorderly.”2 

There’s a pattern here it would seem.  

The way I like to remember this person is the habitual line crosser. You aren’t running around correcting every speck in your brother or sister’s eyes. You aren’t a faultfinder. You aren’t overly critical. But you can identify patterns of disobedience in others that need to be identified, with the corresponding truth, and then urged to obey. To admonish someone means to say 1) here’s what you’re doing; 2) here’s what the Bible says; 3) let me encourage you to obey. 

We warn because we love. Just consider how admonishment is written about in the New Testament. We see it done: 

• Persuasively and urgently with tears (Acts 20:31) 

• As a parent would plead with a beloved child (1 Corinthians 4:14) 

• In wisdom (Colossians 1:28) 

• And knowledge (Romans 15:16) 

• Using the word of Christ (Colossians 3:16) 

• Not as some uninvolved distance spectator, but as a brother would from one brother to another (2 Thessalonians 3:15) 

Is this present in your life? Are you admonishing others? Are you being admonished? The flesh shrinks away from it in two ways. One, by keeping life so private and controlling your image before others that you avoid being admonished and two, by keeping relationships superficial and comfortable so you don’t have to step out and admonish someone else. 

I call these terminally superficial relationships. That weakens a church. When everyone makes friends, who tell them what they want to hear and not what they need to hear. When conversations stay in a comfortable level. We’re missing out if we don’t learn to graciously give and receive admonishment when needed. 

At CBC these are two statements that are part of joining the church: 

Will you seek out mature believers to disciple you, and will you also disciple others? (1 Corinthians 11:1; Romans 16:15; Matthew 28:18-20). 

Will you be willing to humbly give and receive correction and spiritual counsel, being careful to flee from pride and hiddenness in your life? (2 Timothy 2:24-26; Matthew 7:1) 

This is what bodylife looks like. Now you might be unskilled in it. That’s okay. The Bible says you have what you need: 

Romans 15:14—I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.  

I know our flesh pulls away from it. We don’t have the right words. We aren’t sure that it’s our place. Our lives aren’t completely together yet. It’s easier to just shoot the breeze and have a good time. 

Just trust the Lord and do it. Look, a church that is involved in this is a healthy church. Because we help one another live lives ordered by Christ. It’s about his supremacy. His honor. His reputation. 

Pray about it and then go. Even this week. If you haven’t done it, it gets easier as you do it because you begin to realize how important it is. You begin to see how selfish it is not do it. And you begin to see the fruit from it. 

The dearest people to me in the Lord admonish me. By God’s grace let’s help each other.  

So we’ve established the driving focus of this text, the next points roll rather simply now. 

5 Practices for Bringing Jesus to Troubled People 

1. Warn the line crossers 

1. Encourage the discouraged 

encourage the fainthearted, παραμυθεῖσθε τοὺς ὀλιγοψύχους, 

Encourage the fhe fainthearted. Fainthearted, which is a great translation, is translating the word: ὀλιγόψυχος. You’re familiar with an oligarchy (rule by a few) and ψυχή (the soul). Literally then this is a small-souled person. 

It’s used physically. So, someone with a physically weak heart finds themselves what, easily winded. Out of breath. 

In the Thessalonian context this was likely those who were beleaguered by trials. 

Now correlate it spiritually. This is someone who gets dismayed. Overwhelmed by life. Overwhelmed by the call of Christ our captain. Sanctification is overwhelming. Obedience is overwhelming. It’s a lack of confidence in God and what he’s doing. All they can see is the size of the trial. The size of the problem. 

There may be a tendency to focus on self and one’s own lack. History of past failures. 

The mountain seems to big to climb. They don’t feel up to the task. 

Little faith Jesus calls it in Matthew 6. Easily dismayed. Easily losing courage. Easily wanting to give up or give in because it feels like to much. This person needs others to come alongside and provide encouragement.  

The very same way the ministry of the Spirit of God is described as the comforter in John 16 so you are to be to others. 

Reminding them of God’s faithfulness. Evidences of his work in their life. Reminders to look to what is unseen and not to what is seen. 

I recall being a season of faint-heartedness and I had called one of my pastors and I was in acute need during that time period. And as I have reflected back on those meeting and phone calls what I remember is that I didn’t receive any special hidden wisdom in our meetings. I wasn’t given the secret key to the Christian life.  

But I was pointed back to the truth and encouraged to believe the basics I knew, but I couldn’t access them by faith in the moment I needed them. My experience felt like it was outside of God’s control and I was in a different category. And to have a dear brother just slow me down and stand firm at my side—that’s encouraging the faint-hearted. 

The anxious. The timid. The despairing. The hopeless. 

This person doesn’t to be admonished because they aren’t unruly. They need to be given gospel truths and reminded of the steadfast, strong love of God for them through Christ. 

5 Practices for Bringing Jesus to Troubled People 

1. Warn the line crossers 

1. Encourage the discouraged 

1. Help the weak 

help the weak, ἀντέχεσθε τῶν ἀσθενῶν, 

Devote yourself to the weak. Weak is the perfect word here. It means the sickly. The feeble. Those with incapacities. Those with limitations. Those who are helpless. 

These are the spiritual down-and-outers. 

You are to grab hold of them and hold fast. Not let go. 

People who struggle to obey. They are prone to failure. Of course, we all fall short of God’s glory every day. But this is a habitual weakness. 

They have a home in the church. A place in the body. And Paul calls the entire church to be devoted to these people. 

Literally they need help. 

This would of course still include the ministry of the word, but it would entail more than that as well… it would entail  

These are the people that tend to fall through the cracks. They are the disenfranchised.  We are to have classes within the church of those who are in and those who are not. We don’t all have the same gifting and function and role, but there aren’t to be divisions among the have and the have nots. That happened in Corinth with devastating results. At the Lord’s Supper some were hungry and some were feasting. 

But Those who tend to get overlooked. 

Jesus said that we are to minister to the least because that’s how he ministers to us. 

1 Corinthians 1:26-27— For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 

The church isn’t the club for strong people. It’s a place for weak fools to find strength and wisdom in Christ. 

That’s the game plan for how to minister to others. Not everyone is going to excel in all of these. Some of you aren’t the most empathetic. Others of you could hardly confront someone if your life depended upon it. We want to grow in our ability to minister to others. 

But what about when it doesn’t go well. 

What happens when someone doesn’t embrace your ministry. They are stubborn. I mean you could have not been clearer with the truth in that meeting. You were so gracious and faith-filled in your response, and they’re unimpressed. 

Nothing changes. Nothing happens. Nothing gets better. 

5 Practices for Bringing Jesus to Troubled People 

1. Warn the line crossers 

1. Encourage the discouraged 

1. Help the weak 

1. Endure the difficult 

be patient with them all. μακροθυμεῖτε πρὸς πάντας. 

Let me state the obvious—difficult people require patience. 

Unruly people sometimes stay unruly for a loooong time. Discouraged people sometimes get settled in their patterns of discouragement. And yes, weak people sometimes don’t become strong very quickly, or ever. 

The first time you say it is easy enough. But what if you have to keep saying it. What if you have to keep supporting and encouraging? Positive outlook on what God is doing. 

Simply embrace God’s plan for change. Look at the disciples… look at the churches… look at your own life. To be patient here (μακροθυμέω) is:  

to bear up under provocation without complaint, be patient, forbearing3 

One of the hallmarks of love. The ability to absorb wrongs. Absorb inconvenience. Absorb challenges and persevere in the relationship. Slow to passion. Slow to anger. You got a long fuse. 

Even when provoked, not being quick to anger, but bearing up. Timothy is told that a characteristic of an elder is a man who has the ability to be patient when he is wronged (2 Timothy 2:24). 

Typically, what we think of is that we are generally patient except for in a few relationships or with a few types of people who rub us the wrong way. That’s the very point. It’s the challenging ones that identify your lack of patience. Easy to be patient when you aren’t actually enduring pain and not receiving relief. 

It won’t cut it to rely on your own strength. To fall back on a disposition of long-suffering. This is waiting patiently on the Lord as you continue to serve beyond your own strength and ability in the grace which he provides. 

To keep a positive outlook. To keep willing to get back in the ring. To keep praying. Keep serving. Keep sharing. 

Holding God’s expectations and not our personal ones. 

Impatience is the frustration that results when our desires aren’t met when we want them to be. 

Notice this is given to whom? Not to the pastors, but to the people. Last week it was to the shepherds, here it is to the sheep. 

14 And we urge you, brothers, παρακαλοῦμεν δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, 

We urge you church. Brothers is the collective masculine, plural. All the brothers and the sisters. The saints. The sheep. The folks. 

He doesn’t say, call the pastor and tell him about the issues you see in someone’s else life in the church so he can go deal with it. You might need help thinking through something or encouragement to go yourself, but God gives us the wonderful privilege and responsibility of ministering to one another in these ways. In fact, the pastors equip the saints who do the work of ministry. 

Mobilizing an entire body. An entire church. An entire group of priests. We are ministers. Servants. Servants of Christ and of one another. 

This atmosphere in the body—the way that people are confronted and cared for is lived out by the saints with one another. Not based upon the worthiness of the other person, but the worthiness of Christ. 

All of these are present active imperatives—there is an element of practice associated with them—you keep doing it and doing it. Question: in the past year, how have you been involved in giving and receiving this kind of ministry within the church? Do you avoid difficult and troubled people or do you minister to them? 

Have you not received this ministry yourself? You have been taught by God. How patient has Jesus been with you? How many people has he sent to teach you the truth? How many times has he gently admonished you as you are reading your Bible or listening to a sermon? How many times has he been your source of strength and encouragement when you were weak and couldn’t go on? 

Incarnating the love of Jesus… this is how he ministers to us and we are left here to act in his behalf. He warned Peter. He calmed the disciple’s fears. He fed the hungry. He restored Peter (patience). 

We give what we have received. You know why we get impatient in part? We forget where we’ve come from. And we overestimate where we are today. We experience God’s grace and then give ourselves credit. Like that wicked servant in Matthew ???? who was forgiven much and went and demanded payment from the one who owed him. It’s about forgiveness, but the text says that the debtor asked for patience and he demanded payment immediately. Oh how quickly forget. 

We are actually called a kingdom of priests. The role of a priest was… we minster to one another. 

To give and receive this ministry is going to require opening up your life to others. It’s also going to mean inserting yourself in the lives of others. Some of you do this quickly and probably pretty easily. Others of you are experts at dodging the accountability of body life. 

How patient are you? How many times are you willing to minister before you reach your patience limit? What about God’s patience toward you. What if it takes years? What if it takes decades? How can you be patient? God is the one who hardens and softens. God is the one who draws. And humble. 

You are weakening the church if you ignore this. Think of the impact of 10 years of disobedience or 10 years of obedience to these instructions. Watch Jesus powerfully work among his people. 

I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the patient enduring ministry of others in my life. If it was come and whip into shape. Those who snap into line make it and those who don’t get out.  

Preach with great instruction and a little patience. Great instruction and patience. No instruction and GREAT patience.  

None of us is beyond this. You may not be characterized in your walk with Christ or in life as weak. But you need this ministry too. In the past month I’ve personally received admonishment, encouragement and help. 

5 Practices for Bringing Jesus to Troubled People 

1. Warn the line crossers 

1. Encourage the discouraged 

1. Help the weak 

1. Be patient with everyone 

Now the one that is least likely to be faked in your own strength. You need God’s divine power and the restraint of truth in your life for this one. You need to be convinced of the Father’s love for you. 

1. Bless everyone (even the cruel) 

15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, ὁρᾶτε μή τις κακὸν ἀντὶ κακοῦ τινι ἀποδῷ,  

In this life we get wronged. People cheat. They slander. They lie. They offend. They do unkind things. They say hurtful things. They commit sin against us. 

And oftentimes our flesh wants to retaliate. 

Probably the most instinctual reaction. And to not retaliate, to not respond in a like fashion feels unjust. Unfair. 

God has hard-wired a sense of justice in us. He is a just God. It is one of the most natural and instinctive sins. 

Laws are to be just, and those laws would include retribution. In the Levitical law codes, we read of lex talliones—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. What’s that mean? When someone commits a crime, they ought to experience a consequence in keeping with the crime itself. And often times in retribution. You steal someone’s car and wreck it, then you buy them a new car. It would be wonderful if our criminal justice system took some notes from Leviticus. It’s how you would establish a just society. 

While it is legitimate to impose reciprocal repayment or penalty when someone’s civil or economic rights are violated, chaos results when this is rigidly applied to interpersonal relationships. When we are offended, do we keep a grudge until we are able to “pay back” the one who hurt us?4 

But that was the laws for governing a just society. When did it fail? 

When people began to use it for establishing how they would conduct matters in their own personal life, and they would insist on getting their just dues. 

When you are wronged, what do you do with that wrong suffered? 

Negative side—do not retaliate. 

Proverbs 20:22 (ESV) Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. 

Matthew 5:38–39 (ESV) “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 

1 Peter 3:9 (ESV) Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 

3 John 11 (ESV) Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 

Grates on us. Why? 

We are so focused on our own little kingdom. Do you see what God has called us to here? How much greater and grander this is??? 

But that’s not where it stops. Not merely the absence of retaliation. Not simply saying, “I’ll stay over here and not lob grenades.” Actually, go across the aisle and do good. 

but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. ἀλλὰ πάντοτε τὸ ἀγαθὸν διώκετε [καὶ] εἰς ἀλλήλους καὶ εἰς πάντας. 

Grammatically here it would seem that it is when someone wrongs you even in the church, that you are to repay them with good. 

I think of our Lord asking the Father to forgive those who were crucifying him. Father, they want my harm, and yet I want their good. And I want it at the deepest level of who I am. 

This is a good place for confession. I don’t do much retaliated… it’s a generally frowned upon behavior for pastors. But when someone wrongs me? My heart wants to see them get their just deserves, even if it not through me. 

Paul says do good to one another and to everyone. You’ve been wronged? Can you do good to that person? Can you treat them in the same way Jesus treats you? 

There’s a priority here that is established in the Bible plainly: 

Galatians 6:10 (ESV) So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. 

The church first cares for the church and then beyond.  

These are our instructions. Jesus gave these to us as his bride. His precious bride. And it’s our privilege to honor him in how we relate to one another, especially when we are at our worst. 

You know what happens when a church devotes herself to this? You have a culture of people who are filled with grace. May this be one of the marks of our church by God’s grace. A group of people who are devoted to one another, and troubled people aren’t merely tolerated, but loved and accepted. 

Luke 22:26—But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. 

Let’s make our church a place that sinners are welcomed and accepted through the love of Christ as we minister to one another.