Today, while I was at church services in San Jose, California, the visiting elder (who attends a neighboring congregation outside of Oakland) made reference to a recent article from the Beyond Today magazine that discussed the desirability of thinking about the various exhortations given in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22.  Congruent with my attitudes towards homework from the lectern [1], I am going to write about all fourteen of them.  Before we begin, though, where each of the fourteen mandates will be stated and then I will add my own brief commentary after each one, I think it would be worthwhile to note that I think that there is a lot more to these mandates than I am going to say, and that there are many valid layers to them, of which I will only discuss a very limited amount to a very limited depth, largely due to time constraints, it being a little before midnight as I write this, and likely midnight or afterwards when I will finish it.

Here are the fourteen mandates, in order as they come:

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And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.

It is interesting that the first of these exhortations is for us to recognize and esteem those who serve as leaders within the congregations.  While a great many people in our contemporary age have a strong bias against many offices of authority as well as the people who hold such offices, it is right for Paul to make this the first point in his exhortation of the members, and only for self-interested reasons.  (As an aside, obviously, when people in positions of authority urge a respect and esteem for those in authority, there is at least some element of self-interest involved.)  For us to know something, we had to be taught it, whether through seeing something, through hearing or reading it and accepting the authority of the speaker or writer, or through experience by which we were taught by others with knowledge.  We cannot take credit for the education we have learned as if it was our superb insight that was responsible for what we know, but we have an obligation to show appreciation for those who are responsible for bringing us from a state of ignorance to that of understanding through their instruction.

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Be at peace among yourselves.

Throughout the course of my life I have tended to find myself frequently in conflict-ridden situations, be it divisions within my family or within my school or even other institutions.  To be sure, there is a great deal of conflict in this world that surrounds us and that is easy to get caught up in, often as a result of false dilemmas and political machinations and struggles over selfish ambition.  Yet as I have gotten older and hopefully a bit wiser, I have realized that I have been to blame for at least some of the conflict-ridden nature of my own life.  If I have frequently been honest in my ferocity towards enemies and rivals and opponents, I have not always been kind, and it is not entirely to my credit that no sane person would wish me to be against them.  I suspect I am not alone in feeling this way.

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Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly.

The word used for unruly here comes from a Greek word that relates to idleness as well as its predictable result in unruliness and insubordination.  To be sure, those who are the sort of people who join violent protests and reject proper authorities ought to be duly warned, not least because God will not let anyone into His kingdom who do not respect His authority.  It is very tempting in our world to seek to tear down what we view as corrupt authorities, not recognizing that the abyss within us all needs every source of restraint bolstered as much as possible.

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Comfort the fainthearted.

I like the way the elder in today’s sermon dealt with this subject, reminding us that we all get discouraged sometimes and need to be encouraged in a world that is increasingly hostile to God’s ways, not least because such ways are an open rebuke to the world’s rejection of moral restraint and codes of civility and decency.  Encouragement and comfort is something that we all need from time to time, and we ought to be prepared not only to receive it from others but to give it to others as best as we can.

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Uphold the weak.

The word for weak here refers to feebleness, and in the Greek is the opposite of strength (which, you know, generally means weakness).  The word has connotations of physical weakness as well as moral weakness and other forms of weakness, and it refers to our obligations to help those who need it, whether their problem is that they are physically weak in some fashion, something I can relate to all too well these days, or because they have some sort of weakness in their character that requires some sort of bolstering, which is to be given cheerfully and without complaint, knowing that we all have some weaknesses that could use some scaffolding and repair work.

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Be patient with all.

When we are people for whom things come easily, it is easy to be impatient with those who do not grasp or succeed as quickly as we do.  If we are people who quickly understand things, it is easy for us to be impatient at those who are not as bright as we are.  If we are physically strong and can easily master working techniques, it is easy to be exasperated at those who struggle despite frequent practice.  Remembering that we have different strengths and talents than others is important when it comes to being longsuffering with others and with their struggles to overcome what God has given them to deal with.  After all, people must be patient with us in some fashion as well.

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See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

Vengeance belongs to God and it is our place to forgive and not to pursue private vendettas or to disrupt the peace of our institutions in the vain search for personal or social justice.  While we can and should rebuke others (see Leviticus 19:17), it is not our place to avenge ourselves for the wrongs that others have committed.  Judgement is in God’s hands, for we are not only beings who seek justice, but also beings who need mercy lest we also be condemned for our own wrongs against others.  This is easy for some of us to forget.  In addition to this, our pursuit of our own self-interest, which the Bible assumes we will do and does not condemn, must also serve the interests of others, so that instead of zero-sum arrangements by which we benefit while making others suffer, we are to seek mutual benefit for ourselves and others.

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Rejoice always.

Even when circumstances are less than pleasant (James 1:2), Paul enjoins us to have an enduring attitude of joy that is not dependent on exterior circumstances but rather comes from a firm connection with God and a firm faith that God will work everything out for the good, in time, for those who love and obey Him.  To be sure, it may not always seem as if things are going to work out, but that is because we have not arrived close enough to the end to see how everything will turn out.

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Pray without ceasing.

Similar to other verses that deal with the same context, this mandate exhorts believers to always keep open their lines of communication open with God, even if we have much to do in life besides pray.

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In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Since God is the one who gives us whatever it is that we have and whatever we enjoy, it is of the utmost importance that we give thanks for what we have been given.  In truth, all that we have is as a result of God’s gracious providence for us, and we have not earned the gifts we have, or the talents we possess, or the blessings we have received individually or societally.  As a result, we must always be grateful and not take credit for the blessings that we have been given that we do not deserve.

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Do not quench the Spirit. 

Similar to the above exhortation to pray constantly, this mandate reminds us that we need to keep open our connection with God through avoiding the sorts of sins and attitudes that put out the fire of our devotion to God, be it through presumptuous sin or a hardening of our heart against God or others that removes from us the insights and comfort provided by the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit.

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Do not despise prophecies. 

This mandate does not specifically involve speaking in tongues or predictions of the future, but reminds us that we should not despise the teaching and instructing that we receive in church.  We can, of course, despise instruction in various ways.  In the sermon chat that took place after services I commented that I tend to have a highly critical and analytical approach to the messages that I hear (and everything else, which was left unsaid) but that I always strive to learn form what I her even if I have elements of criticism to make about it.  Yet it is all too easy for us to hate those who rebuke us and to deal badly with necessary correction and exhortation, especially in an age of such universal folly as our own.  It is likewise all too easy for us to forget our need for instruction from outside and fellowship with others of like mind if sometimes different personality, if we have the illusion that we know everything we need to know already and do not need correction.

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Test all things.

Given the numerous appeals that Paul makes to the Thessalonians for them to respect and honor authority, it is definitely good that he also tells them to test all things, to be critical but not cynical, and to make sure that whatever is said and taught squares with the Bible in order to demonstrate the credibility of Paul or anyone else.  It is very easy for us to fall prey to arguments that are specious but which correspond to our own interests or worldview, but Paul urges the testing of all things so that we may avoid falling prey to self-deception and the deception that is all around us.

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Hold fast what is good.

A necessary consequence of testing everything is having a steadfast and firm commitment to upholding what is good.  We should hold fast to what is good the way that someone who is being threatened by rising waters holds fast to a tree or to something else that is solid and will keep us from being swept away in the treacherous current.  For indeed we live in a world that seeks to overwhelm us with a flood of wickedness and corruption, and we need to hold fast to what is good because it is all too easy for us to be swept away by the wickedness of our present evil age.

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Abstain from every form of evil.

There is considerable argument as to the meaning of this text, as different translations wrestle with the meaning of the Greek word translated sometimes as form and sometimes as appearance.  To be sure, it is exceedingly difficult for us to refrain from every form of evil, although if we have any moral sense whatsoever it is trivially easy for us to affirm this mandate, however well we put it into practice.  Abstaining from every appearance of evil is a different task.  In one sense, it is entirely impossible, in that however we live our lives we will appear to be evil to someone else whose moral worldview is different from our own and who imputes evil motives to our actions, which is impossible to avoid.  Nevertheless, our reputation as a moral exemplar to others depends on our ability to avoid the appearance of evil, for to the extent that we preach virtue and practice vice we will be judged as hypocrites and our moral authority will be entirely nonexistent, a fate we would obviously wish to avoid.

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[1] See, for example:

My Pastor Gave Me Homework

A Compendium Of Passages Regarding The High Holy Days In The New Testament

A Compendium Of Jesus’ Interactions With Outsiders In the Synoptic Gospels: Part One

A Compendium Of Jesus’ Interactions With Outsiders In the Synoptic Gospels: Part Two

A Compendium Of Jesus’ Interactions With Outsiders In the Synoptic Gospels: Part Three