1 Thessalonians 5:14-Paul, Silvanus and Timothy Issue Four Commands
First Thessalonians Chapter Five • Sermon • Submitted • 1:15:11
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1 Thessalonians 5:12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who labor among you and preside over you in the Lord and admonish you. 5:13 and to esteem them most highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 5:14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish the undisciplined, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient toward all. (NET)
In 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy are authoritatively exhorting and encouraging each member of the Thessalonian Christian community to obey four commands.
Each of these commands are impassioned plea from these three men, which is indicated by the fact that the noun adelphos, “brothers and sisters” is functioning as a vocative of emphatic emotional address.
It is thus expressing the fact that each of these commands as well as the contents of 1 Thessalonians 5:15-22 is an impassioned plea from Paul, Silvanus and Timothy for the Thessalonians to conduct themselves properly in relation to each other, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, prophecies and Satan’s kingdom.
The first three commands in verse 14 are addressing the responsibilities that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community had with regard to each other.
However, the last command is not only addressing one of the responsibilities of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community in relation to each other but also in relation to the non-Christian.
The verb parakaleō in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 contains two ideas.
The first is “to encourage” since it pertains to causing someone to be encouraged either by verbal or non-verbal means and means to fill someone with courage or strength of purpose and suggests raising of someone’s confidence especially by an external agency such as a teacher.
The second idea is “to exhort” in the sense of authoritatively training the body of Christ through instruction in the sense of communicating the gospel message to them so as to compel obedience in every area of their lives.
Therefore, this verb parakaleō is expressing the idea that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy are encouraging the Thessalonians to provide the undisciplined with instruction, comfort the discouraged, help the weak and be patient toward everyone in the sense of filling them with confidence to do this.
Also, this verb is expressing the idea that they were exhorting the Thessalonians in the sense that they were authoritatively training them through instruction to provide the undisciplined with instruction, comfort the discouraged, help the weak and be patient toward everyone in the sense compelling obedience to these commands.
The first command in verse 14 required that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community begin to make it their habit of providing the undisciplined among them with instruction and continue doing so.
Now, the verb noutheteō here in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 means “to provide instruction with regards to correct behavior.”
Therefore, in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, the verb noutheteō speaks of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community “providing instruction” for the undisciplined among them “with regards to proper Christian conduct.”
It speaks of the Thessalonians instructing the undisciplined among them in the sense that they counseled and warned them regarding the avoidance of living an undisciplined life or the cessation of this type of life.
They instructed them with regards to proper belief or godly behavior and warned them about the consequences of living an undisciplined life, namely loss of rewards at the Bema Seat.
Now, the present imperative conjugation of this verb is an ingressive-progressive imperative which has the force of begin and continue to do something implying that that this action was not being practiced.
Therefore, this indicates that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community was to begin to make it their habit of providing the undisciplined among them with instruction and continue doing so implying no one in this community was being undisciplined prior to receiving this epistle.
This interpretation is clearly indicated by Paul’s statements in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-11 in which Paul clearly affirms that the members of the Thessalonian Christian community were not guilty of living an undisciplined life.
Therefore, Paul’s statements in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-11 would indicate that the present imperative conjugation of the verb noutheteō in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 speaks of the Thessalonians beginning to providing the undisciplined in their community with instruction in the sense of warning of the consequences of being undisciplined and to continue doing this as long as they live an undisciplined life.
The implication is that Paul is anticipating people in the Thessalonian Christian community becoming undisciplined in their lives either because he knew sinful human nature well enough that the Thessalonians could easily fall back into this pattern of behavior which characterized them before becoming Christians.
Or, Paul might be prophesying here that some members of the Thessalonian Christian community were going to fall into this type of ungodly behavior or both ideas could be involved here with the present imperative form of this verb.
Now, 1 Thessalonians 3:6-15 reveals that soon after writing First Thessalonians some in the Thessalonian Christian community were living undisciplined lives by not working for a living.
Therefore, the first command in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 appears to be prophetic in that through the ministry of the Holy Spirit Paul, Silvanus and Timothy were warning the Thessalonians that some of them would revert to their pre-conversion, unregenerate lifestyle of not working for a living.
This is much like Paul warning the Ephesian pastors in Acts 20:28-30 that some of them would enter into apostasy by forsaking the gospel.
The reason why Paul exhorts the Thessalonian Christian community to work in both 1 and 2 Thessalonians is that the Greek culture despised work or manual labor in general because of their use of slaves, unlike the Jewish community which embraced the concept of working.
The second command issued by Paul, Silvanus and Timothy in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 required that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community begin to make it their habit of encouraging the discouraged and continue doing so.
“The discouraged” refers to those members of the Thessalonian Christian community who are discouraged in the sense that they have limited or diminished motivation to execute the Father’s will to become like His Son Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy are authoritatively exhorting and encouraging the Thessalonians to encourage the discouraged among them by speaking to them in a friendly manner by persuading them to continue seeking to do God’s will and inspiring courage in them to do so.
The present imperative of this verb paramytheomai is an ingressive-progressive imperative which indicates that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community was to begin to make it their habit of encouraging the discouraged and continue doing so implying no one in this community was discouraged prior to receiving this epistle.
It is understandable why Paul, Silvanus and Timothy felt the need to issue the Thessalonians this command to encourage the discouraged since they were undergoing persecution when this letter was written (cf. 1 Thess. 1:6-10; 2:13-14) and were a young congregation.
The third command in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 required that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community begin to make it their habit of helping the weak and continue doing so.
“The weak” (asthenēs) pertains to someone who is either physically or spiritually weak and is used to describe those believers who are weak spiritually because they lack knowledge of the Word of God or are timid in that they hesitate to walk by faith and use their liberty in Christ or they lack courage in the face of adversity and persecution.
Therefore, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy are solemnly authoritatively exhorting and encouraging each member of the Thessalonian Christian to be devoted to the weak members of their community in the sense of assisting them in supplying what they may need spiritually or materially.
Unlike the first two imperatives in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, the present imperative form of the verb antechomai is a customary present imperative which has the force of continuing to perform an action habitually.
Therefore, the idea of the present imperative form of this verb would be that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community was to continue making it their habit of helping the weak members of their community.
It is also understandable why Paul, Silvanus and Timothy felt the need to issue the Thessalonians this command to help the weak since again they were undergoing persecution when this letter was written (cf. 1 Thess. 1:6-10; 2:13-14) and were a young congregation.
The fourth and final command issued by Paul, Silvanus and Timothy in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 required that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community continue making it their habit of being patient toward each other and those in the non-Christian community in Thessalonica.
Like, the third present imperatives, the present imperative form of the verb makrothymeō is a customary present imperative which has the force of continuing to perform an action habitually.
Therefore, the idea of the present imperative form of this verb is that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community was to continue making it their habit of being patient toward everyone in their community as well as the non-Christian community.
This interpretation is indicated by the fact that Paul affirms several times in this epistle that the individual members of the Thessalonian Christian were making it their habit of practicing the love of God when interacting with each other (cf. 1 Thess. 1:3; 3:1-6; 3:11-13; 4:9-10).
This clearly implies that they were patient toward each other since patience is a manifestation of the love of God in one’s life (cf. 1 Cor. 13:4; Eph. 4:2; Col. 1:11; 3:12) and one of the manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:22-23).