The Model Church: 1 Thes. 5:12-28
Paul’s closing includes a personal appeal to his family in Christ: respect your leaders, they’re your models. Church leaders should always give encouragement but sometimes they’re called upon to warn, instruct, or counsel (admonish) and that can be emotionally hard work. Let’s give them a break by honoring their labors of love.
His writing became practical as he gave ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’ to this model church. They’ve become a plumb line for any church or ministry to evaluate spiritual health. Let’s look at the alignment.
Shoulds: Paul mentioned various personality types within the church family in verses 14-18. On one hand, some can be out-of-line, opinionated in pride, but others are new believers just learning to walk in faith. Some can be weak or without the strength and unable to achieve much, even sickly; how should a healthy church treat them? Paul suggests warning, encouragement, coming alongside, and especially showing them patience. We don’t operate in the world’s ways, evil for evil, but we show kindness and goodness to all. We should stay in a state of joy regardless of our outward circumstances and have a strong, constant prayer life always being mindful of our gratitude to the Lord (vs. 16-18).
Should nots: It’s vital that our church family allow the Holy Spirit to move in our midst; that means we should not quench, stifle, or try to extinguish Him even when we don’t understand what He’s up to. We should not ridicule, mock, or laugh at those who prophesy but evaluate their message for goodness to the whole faith community (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 14:1-5, 29-33). Lastly, Paul warns us to be aware of those we hang out with and distance ourselves from anything that leads to sin.
He closed his letter with a prayer for the God of Shalom, or wholeness, to keep this body of Christ distinct from the world’s ways and even mentioned the three parts of man: spirit, soul, and body. Our spirit is our regenerated or saved part of us that’s forgiven, holy, and blameless in His sight, whereas our soul, mind, will, and emotions, still needs help, as does our body (Heb. 4:12), and we all know both still sin. Remember, Jesus is coming back, he mentioned it in each chapter, and He’ll show His faithfulness (vs. 23-24) … He really will!
Finally, Paul asked for prayer for the team and gave words of grace from the Lord, Jesus Christ to this model church. Every community of believers needs encouragement and commendation to keep up the good work and yet grow in areas of weakness. May we all take theses admonishments to heart, self-checking, as we spread the gospel of the kingdom always remembering His promise that all believers, for all time, will be gathered together, body with spirit, meeting Him in the heavenly places and dwelling with Him for eternity. Those are words to live by.
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