A Holy Charge (8)

 

“We urge you brethren, admonish the undisciplined, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thess. 5:14).

 

This is a charge, once again, to the entire fellowship of believers in Thessalonica, just as we see in 5:12.

 

“But we request of you, brethren…” (5:12).

 

“We urge you, brethren…” (5:14).

 

For sure, I think, this is also a particular calling of those who serve the People of God, as we see in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

 

Note that both passages speak of patience. 1 Thessalonians says that we are to be “patient with everyone,” and Paul tells Timothy that he is to exercise “great patience.” Earlier in 2 Timothy Paul writes, “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:24 – 25).

 

I have not always been an example of patience, and I sorrow greatly over this. Perhaps one day I’ll get it right before I die, I’d like for that to happen (of course by God’s grace), but at this stage of life I’m a bit unsure about the possibility. I aspire to be like Fenelon, but I seem to be more like Jerome.

 

How might we think about “admonish the undisciplined [disorderly]”? What might this look like?

 

As with our entire passage (1 Thess. 5:12 – 28), so much of our answer has to do with the nature of the Church, and as such we’ll explore this throughout the passage. This includes the question, “What is the nature of our relationship with one another?” When I use the word “nature” I refer to the essence of who we are in Christ and who Christ is within us – within us as individuals and within us as a People. This is not something we often consider, whether as pastors and teachers or as congregations – our focus in typically on other things.

 

We tend to see our congregations as organizations, as religious franchises, as corporations. We tend to focus on sustaining ourselves, our membership numbers, our finances; rather than consider our Gospel mission and our Divine Nature in Christ and our call to be His Presence to one another and to the people of the world who do not know Him yet. We can even be so focused on doctrine in terms of checking the “right” boxes, that we miss the Nature of Christ in us, without which doctrine is dead letter.

 

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63).

 

This is a wide and deep ocean, that which we can ponder regarding our Nature. Can we ever fully plumb it deepest depths? Can we ever see its farthest shores? Is not all hidden in Christ? No matter how much we see and experience of Him, is there not forever more and more and more? Must we not trust Christ, as His People, to lead us, to help us navigate, to bring us onward and upward, to teach us, to be patient with us?

 

As I look back over my own life, I remember those who cared enough to speak to me when I needed someone to say, “Have you thought about what you are doing?” “What you are doing is wrong.” “Have you examined yourself on this matter?”

 

I also look back and wonder why people who, I think, should have spoken a word of admonishment to me did not do so. There were times when my life (and the lives of others) would have been better had someone cared enough to have a conversation with me about my attitude, behavior, thinking, and yes, even insecurities.

 

To be sure, I have not always appreciated or accepted words of challenge and correction at the time they were spoken, but it is amazing how often the seed planted has grown within me and I have come to “see” the truth about myself.

 

What about you?

 

I recall a conversation I had with a parishioner a few months after arriving at a parish. This person was going in a direction that was harmful to her husband and children, as well as herself. She was digging a deeper and deeper hole and it was getting darker and darker in that hole. I decided that, as her pastor, I needed to speak with her.

 

At one point during our conversation she said, “I didn’t think pastors were supposed to have talks with people like this.”

 

Since I consider the care of souls central to my calling in Christ, and since I consider this care to be the essence of pastoral ministry, her comment was interesting to me. Do we really want pastors who love us and care for us, who actually get to know us? Do we seek relationships with one another in Christ, relationships that include “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15)?

 

Knowing when to speak and when not to speak is a challenge, at least for me. Sometimes I’ve gotten it right, sometimes I’ve gotten it wrong. Sometimes I’ve spoken when I should have but have not done it in a helpful way – O how it hurts and shames me to recall those times.

 

What about you? Have there been times when someone cared about you enough to speak to you? Have you loved others enough to speak to them?

 

Do you have relationships in which such speaking is natural and rooted in love?