I Thessalonians 5:14 – “Redeemers”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁴But, brothers, we are urging you, be warning the unruly, be comforting the faint-hearted, be supporting the weak, be being patient toward everyone.

What a pleasant little jewel this verse is! Back in v8, Paul urged us to put on faith, hope, and love. In a sense now he’s explaining what he meant.

I fear, as Christians, we very quickly forget what a dark, ugly world it is without Christ. In Titus 3:3, Paul reminds us that “we too were once foolish, disobedient, … We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.” Yikes! “Hating and being hated.” What an awful epitaph.

Even as I type these words my soul is wanting to say it isn’t so – most people aren’t really like that! I can honestly say I don’t personally find people that way. I generally just naturally “like” people and find it pretty easy to get along with just about anyone. But then again, and particularly as a Christian myself, I realize that I generally am not provoking people either. I am very deliberately trying to avoid saying or doing anything that would trouble or discomfort or inflame someone else. And I think it is basically true that, as long as you are kind to other people, it generally draws out their better self. And that is all well and good for the world I have to live in. But, from time to time, the curtain gets drawn and we see people’s ugly side. It is there. And all you have to do is provoke it and the fangs and claws come out with a seething vengeance.

You really see it on the internet. Holy cow. All you have to do is say anything of any substance at all and people’s comments turn rapidly venomous – talk about a living illustration of the Lord’s very words: “hating and being hated.” But we have to realize that is the world those people live in.

On the other hand, I think about Christian radio. For years and years and years, if I turned on the radio, I have listened to the local Christian stations. What a different world. The music, the discussions, the conversations – everything you hear – is encouraging and positive, kind-hearted, patient, and always urging us toward exactly what Paul wished for us – faith, hope, and love. In  a sense that is our “Christian” world.

 … Which brings me back to our passage: ^“But, brothers, we are urging you, be warning the unruly, be comforting the faint-hearted, be supporting the weak, be being patient toward everyone.” What Paul is here acknowledging is that, as you and I live our lives, we will constantly intersect with people who are something less than strong or perfect. Less than perfect? Evolution would say, “Kill them. Their weakness is contaminating the gene pool!” But what does God say? Love them.

Rather than living this “hating and being hated,” the Lord’s desire for us believers is that, as we encounter people in their faults and weakness, we would be redeemers, not murderers.

He says to “warn the unruly.” A very quick word study will reveal that “unruly” is a military word that means “out of rank.” It can describe a soldier who simply isn’t at his post. In II Thess 3:6-12, Paul identifies people who are “unruly” and they are specifically people who don’t think they need to work for a living, who are more than happy to sponge off others. Those verses are the text where Paul says, “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat.” “Unruly” can certainly be applied to a lot of problems, but I suspect in this case, this is the problem Paul has in mind – people who don’t want to work.

At least for those of us who are older, modern America’s whole idea of a welfare state is offensive. We grew up in a world where Paul’s maxim was the mindset – if you want to eat, get a job. Particularly for us, Paul’s words here in I Thess 5 are applicable, that, when we see a “lazy sloucher,” our hearts should not despise them but rather, at the right time and in the right way, we should love them enough to challenge their lifestyle. I’m not entirely sure how we do that in this welfare entitled society – where it isn’t “wrong” at all. People think it is perfectly acceptable and in fact they have a right to it. Again, I don’t know how we would “warn” such a person and even hope to get a hearing – but somehow, whatever we do, it needs to be done in a genuine spirit of love and not the “hating and being hated” mentality. I would think younger people might be inclined to see no reason to “warn” at all, while those of us who are older would rather just lop off their heads. Either way, it wouldn’t be love.

He goes on to say, “Comfort the faint-hearted.” The word “comfort” means just that – to “soothe, to encourage, to cheer.” “Faint-hearted” is an interesting word that literally means “small-souled.” It could be translated with other words, like “desponding,” or “fearful.” The idea of the “small soul” it seems to me is someone who lacks the resources to face whatever they’re up against. The “lack” may only be in their mind, but still, as they face whatever it is, they feel overwhelmed and hopeless. In a real world, what you and I might see is someone we perceive to be cowardly. Perhaps it is someone who seems to be running from their responsibilities, someone collapsing right when we need them to step up to the plate. The natural response is not to somehow “comfort” such people but rather to clobber them! “Shape up or ship out, cupcake!” “If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen!”

Once again, Paul calls us out of the natural world of “hating and being hated” and urges us to love. He is calling us to care enough to try and discern why they seem to be shirking their responsibilities or collapsing in front of their problems. We should be asking ourselves, “In what way are they lacking the resources they need to face the issues?” Perhaps they really don’t “have what it takes?” If we understood, maybe there is something we ourselves could do to help them – maybe we could provide that missing resource? Or maybe they do have the resources, they just don’t realize it. Maybe they just need encouragement? Maybe they just need someone to actually literally say to them, “You can do it.” Prov 8:14 says, “A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” while 12:25 says, “An anxious spirit weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” This is a case where “life and death are in the power of the tongue” (18:21).

Once in high school cross-country I suddenly developed some kind of problem in my right ankle and couldn’t “go” like I wanted to. It was very frustrating and discouraging. He must have seen my problem and, completely to my surprise, Coach Louie Baker pulled me aside and showed me on a clipboard how my times weren’t that different than what I had been running before. It meant so much to me, just the fact that he would encourage me at that point rather than just yelling at me like all of the other coaches and teachers would have done. I will never forget the kindness in his eyes or the feeling of strength it gave me. Now looking back I can honestly see where I was a “small soul” and his words made my soul “bigger.”

Then Paul says to “support the weak.” Much like the previous command to “comfort the faint-hearted,” this is a command to observe when someone is “weak” and provide the “support” they need to bear up under it. The word “support” means just that, and is a picture of coming alongside someone who is about to collapse and holding them up, or someone who is about to be pushed over and using your body to buttress them and help them stand against whatever it is. The word “weak” means just that and can apply to a lot of things. It can be a person who is sick physically or, like in Romans 14, it can be referring to a person whose faith is “weak.” In that case, of course, “weak” faith refers to someone who has what we consider to be unnecessary scruples, rules they think are important but that someone more mature (like us) knows not to be so.

If the person in view is actually sick or infirm, it is easier to see what it means to “support” them, to “lend a hand” or offer them aid in some way. That seems easy enough. I don’t know that I’ve ever understood what it means to support the “weak” in faith when that is referring to basically people with what I see as unnecessarily legalistic scruples. I can see where I need to overcome my irritation or dislike for such people and somehow choose rather to love them – whatever that means. But, again, I don’t really know what it means. I personally feel that legalism is almost the death of faith itself. It kills any testimony we could have had in the community and I believe it eclipses the face of God in people’s hearts. So how do I “support” people who think like that when in my heart I’m thinking they are in serious need of correction? Frankly, I don’t know. I guess what I do know is that somehow I need to love them and I am quite confident that, given the situation, the Lord will help me – whatever it means.

Finally he says, “Be patient with everyone.” Can I inject here an exclamation of praise? By the Gospel, Jesus steps into a world of “hating and being hated,” calls out people to follow Him, and then says, “Be patient with everyone.” Pause a minute and savor that thought. Jesus wants to save you. He wants you to follow Him. And if you do, what will you become? “Patient with everyone.” Knowing Jesus makes us better. If husbands and wives really follow Jesus, how will it change them? They’ll stop “hating and being hated” and actually learn to be patient with each other. Moms and Dads will become patient with their children. Bosses and workers will become patient with each other. People driving down the street will stop blowing their horns and shaking their fists and actually be patient with each other.

Can you imagine? It sounds like a world of love! What is it? It is, in effect, the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. How can we praise Him enough for calling us individually out of this world of “hating and being hated” and drawing us into a life of love?

I need to add here the realization, though, that this phrase, in a sense, highlights the problem itself. We have need of patience! What I mean is that, in this verse, we can read it like a nice Christian cliché, read that we should support the weak, and then imagine ourselves “reaching out” to help some poor pathetic sick person. But that isn’t really where we need this verse. We need these commands at those times when we need patience. In other words, it is likely that the other person’s “weakness” or “faint-heartedness” in some way bothers us. In some way, whatever their problem is, we don’t like it. What we’d really like to do is either lop off their head or just ignore them and hope they go away. That is our setting. That is where we need this verse. That is where we need God’s help – to take those situations where we’d really rather just hate and be hated and instead be the one to conquer first of all ourselves and then with God’s love to do good to the very person whom we thought was bothering us. It’s in situations where we have need of patience.

As I said to begin with, what a wonderful little jewel. If we’d just take to heart this one simple little verse, what a different world it would be. The fact is, for us Christians, even with all our failings, our world is a lot more that than what others have to live in. That is all to the praise of Jesus and His glorious redeeming Gospel. We just need to resolve to live out that Gospel in a world of people who are weak and imperfect. Jesus is a Redeemer. We should be too.