Love One Another

Scripture Reading

Well, you meet me in your Bible is at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We'll be at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 this morning. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and we're just going to read the whole chapter. I think it's important as we kind of look at these sentences from the sermon this morning, verses 14 and 15, that we remember the context that they were in. So 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, you can find that on page 1050 if you're using the Pew Bibles. And once again, a nifty trick, open up the New Testament, find the T's, and it's somewhere in there. They're all grouped together. So, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, we'll read the whole chapter. This is God's Word. Let's pay attention to it.

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day.

We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, But let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.

See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every evil.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who he who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Prayer for Illumination

Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank You so much for Your Word, and we pray that as we sit at Your feet this morning, that You might teach us. Father, we pray that Your Spirit would be with us to mold and transform, change our hearts, that we would actually live this love in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen. Normally I have a cute story or something like that, some analogy to start off the sermon, but I just need to cut to it quick. We don't have much time and there's lots to talk about.

Sermon

We need to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus himself sums up the Ten Commandments saying that what is the first greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

We looked at more than the first half of this book about how God demonstrates His love for us, and even in that first part of the chapter, in chapter 5, how we are to comfort each other in the love of Christ and His second coming. Now it turns on us. If God has loved us, we ought to love one another. And so as we look at verses 14 and 15, I'm going to encourage you that this is how we love one another. Follow Christ by loving one another.

First Point

First, we need to realize that this is actually for the whole church. Realize that this is actually for the whole church. Look with me at verse 14. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, and be patient with all.

We don't catch it in the English, but Greek is an interesting language similar to Spanish where they actually have a second person plural. So every verb changes depending on who is it being talked to or talked about. And here it's saying you all. And there's actually, if you're ever interested, look at the y'all version online. You can just type it into Google, y'all version. And every time in the Bible it's a second person plural, where it's you all, it just changes it to southern y'all. So if I was to use that translation here, it would say, now we exhort y'all, brethren. Y'all warn those who are unruly. Y'all comfort the faint-hearted. Y'all uphold the weak. Y'all be patient with all. Y'all, y'all, y'all, y'all, again, and again, and again, and again.

This is a commandment that the missionary team here, that God himself has inspired, that it's the entire church who's to do these things. This is for all of us. In some churches, there's this bad attitude that, well, that's the elder's job. Well, this is just what the pastor does. They talked about rulers before, but now it goes back to brothers. We had elders last week, now it's going back to the whole church. So realize that this is for the whole church. So what does the whole church do?

First Point

First, admonish the disorderly. Admonish the disorderly, or warn those who are unruly. Verse 14, now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly. This is not a fun exercise. Admonishing, warning, telling someone, that's not good for you. This is really unpopular in our culture. What did you say when you were kids? Maybe I don't know about your generation, but some of you who are older, but my generation used to say, I can do whatever I want, it's a free country. And that's kind of like the ethos of the day, right?

Just let everybody do whatever they want, as long as they're not hurting someone else. But what happens if they're hurting themselves? What happens if their behavior is against God's Word? What happens if this is someone who calls themselves a Christian, and is going away from the way that Christ told us to walk? Not as drunkards in the night, but so reminded as children of the light. or to admonish each other, warn one another.

The word here is a Greek word that's interesting. The disorderly part, or the unruly part, is a military term. I actually remembered in my brain the vocabulary because it's attack toast, which sounds like attack, right? But how I memorized it is somebody who, man you all have a really disorderly attack. Someone who's just getting out of line, someone who's always out there. This would also be used in the gymnasium if you had someone that was on the team and you were at wrestling practice and they were always just goofing around. Somebody who just wasn't with the program. They're getting out of line. Bring them back. Bring them back. Bring them back. This is what needs to happen.

And you might say, well, that doesn't sound very nice. I mean, calling people out for sin, telling people they're doing something wrong, that doesn't sound very nice. That doesn't sound like something Jesus would have done. And maybe you weren't so convinced last week where you thought, well, yeah, OK, Jesus called the Pharisees, you whitewashed tombs and brood of vipers. But he didn't talk to, he didn't admonish his disciples like that. Well, I just want to point out a few different times that Jesus admonishes.

His disciples and people who are close to Him. When James and John are doing their typical power struggle, you know, have you ever read through the Gospels closely? It's like they're always trying to figure out who's going to be the first, who's going to be the best. And when James and John, actually it's their mother who comes and tries to tell Jesus, will you put one of them here on your right and one of them here on your left? Put them in the good spots, you know, like not far away. And Jesus looks at James and John and says, Can you drink the cup which I am about to drink?

Hold on here. You're not the Messiah. Hold on here. You need to humble yourself. This is not your work to do. This is not your place to sit. This is not my authority to give you. Jesus had to correct their understanding, what they thought, that they could just come to Jesus and get their positions of power at His right or left hand. Jesus said, Hold on. You're thinking wrong. And you don't know what's coming tomorrow.

Or when Jesus, just last week, a couple of kids and I were downstairs during Sabbath school talking about when Jesus is there and the boat is being swamped by the storm and there's waves crashing on the boat and Jesus is in the stern sleeping away and they come to Jesus and they wake Him up and they plead with Him for their lives. Don't you care about this? Don't you care about our lives? And Jesus stands up and He rebukes the wind and the waves and there's a great calm.

And sometimes we stop there. But Jesus asks them a pointed question. You of little faith. Do you believe, O you of little faith? Do you hear the sting in that? You've just seen me feed the 5,000. You've just seen me pour out my life for these people. You've just seen me care for them. Do you still not believe?

Jesus is rebuking their unbelief. These are His own disciples. You remember when Jesus, this is a really helpful passage, when Jesus is with Mary and Martha. And Martha is doing what most of you ladies are really good at, right? They're busy about the work of the church. They're doing the work of the church.

And her sister Mary is just sitting there. Just soaking it up. Just teach me, teach me, teach me, teach me, teach me. Mary is just sitting there and Martha comes. Aren't you going to tell her to go do some work? And does Jesus say, okay, hold on, let's calm the peace down. No, he corrects Martha's understanding. No, she's doing what's better. Don't worry about the food. Come, learn from me. Jesus admonished Martha.

And even His disciples, one last time, we'll end this portion with this last illustration of Jesus rebuking, when all the disciples are going back and forth about who's going to be greatest in Jesus' kingdom, and who's going to be the best. And it's interesting how the story goes. Jesus, it's almost like He just quietly brings a little kid up and He just uses this child as an object lesson. And He humbles, He admonishes, He warns His unruly disciples. Unless you become like one of these little children, you can't inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus admonished. Why? Because it was important. Jesus warned because He wanted them to understand.

We don't rebuke, we don't warn, we don't urge, we don't admonish because somehow we want to just show someone that we're right. But we admonish out of love. Hold on, there's something we need to understand. There's some better way for your life than what you're doing right now. Come back, come back, come back. We need to admonish the disorderly. But you also need a comfort. You need a comfort to discourage. Look with me again at verse 14. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly. Comfort the faint-hearted. This is Oli's suitcase, small sold. Encourage those who are disheartened, faint-souled, struggling, burdened, oppressed, bruised and battered.

Can you imagine what it might have been like in the first century church in Thessalonica? And you can imagine being one of these people sitting there in the church, and they've lost their families because they've come to Christ. Some of them have lost their jobs because they came to Christ. You can imagine that in this church, as they're suffering persecution, this is what Paul was rejoicing in in the first part of the chapter, as they sit in their assembly and they're talking to one another. They're saying, you know, I'm so glad that we've come to Jesus Christ.

I'm so glad I believe it. But man, life is just hard. I lost my job last week and my wife just left me and took the kids because I won't go to the temple worship anymore. I had a family. I had a good job. And now I've lost my job because I won't say that Caesar is Lord. And all my neighbors hate me, and they're persecuting me because of this. They're even trying to drive me out of town." Comfort. Comfort them. Encourage them. They're weak. This is the difficulty there.

This is what Hebrews 12.12 says, "...weaken those with slack hands, and those with feeble knees." Have you ever been there on your Christian walk before? where your hands just feel heavy, where you've been running and carrying the burden for so long that your knees are weak, and you just need someone to come beside you and just encourage you. Just keep running. Just keep going. Rejoice in the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, we can so often be like Job's friends, coming alongside and just accusing and admonishing, but never just being there to encourage. It's Jesus himself who says, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. It is Jesus who shows that love, who encourages the weak and faint of heart. So when we admonish, we better be ready.

There's this tension. And I'm going to just let you know there is a real tension between these two points. Admonish those who are unruly and encourage those who are faint-hearted. These two are in tension. How do you know? How do you know who needs encouragement and how do you know who needs admonished? Well, let me suggest to you that those two are not always mutually exclusive. Sometimes an admonishment can be an encouragement.

I know that I needed some older men this past week, some pastors who have been pastoring for 30, 40, 50 years to teach me a lesson and admonish me. Tell me some things that they thought I was doing wrong in my ministry. These aren't even pastors in our denomination, but godly men I trust admonishing me. But they were telling me, you need to cut these things out, you need to reform your ministry this way. Because if you don't stay close to Christ, you're not going to end this race well. These are not mutually exclusive.

But if you're going to admonish someone, you need to let the rule of love be first. Are you admonishing them just because you want to give them a tongue lashing? Or are you warning someone because you love them? Check your heart. Are the things you're saying just meant to tear someone down? Or are we following Ephesians 4? Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is good for necessary edification, that you might impart grace to those who hear. Are you imparting grace to this person, or are you just a sledgehammer coming at them?

Pray. Pray for wisdom. If you're struggling in your heart because you're worried, oh no, if I admonish this person, and they're already faint-hearted, are they going to fall away? Pray that God will give you wisdom how to best say these things. And when the best time is to say these. Let me tell you, sometimes admonishment comes after you've done some encouraging for a couple of days. Admonish is true, but also be ready to encourage. If you're going to admonish someone, be ready to encourage them.

If you're going to step into the messy reality of Matthew 18, which we must be a church that practices confronting one another, we also must be the type of Christians who will walk with one another, bearing each other's burdens. And there's a danger. I will say there is a danger. If we're so afraid of admonishing one another, warning one another, that we only become an encouraging church, we end up with some weak Christians who need serious sanctification.

As we've read in the end of this passage, as well as in chapter 4, God's will for your life is sanctification. It happens through encouragement. It happens through admonishing. It happens through both of them. Let's keep going. There's more to do. I'm sorry. We really got to keep going. Uphold the weak. Fourth, uphold the weak. Verse 14. Now we exhort you, brethren. Warn those who are unruly. Comfort the faint-hearted. Uphold the weak.

This is a different type of class than those who are small-souled, weak-hearted, faint in their faith. These are the literal poor. People who have lost social standing because they've become Christians. People who are former slaves and have earned their freedom and have no social ranking in life. Those who are sick in the church. I don't think we need to say much about Christ's ministry to them. It was Jesus who would touch a leper, who would care for the weak. It was Jesus who would heal the blind. It was Jesus who was willing to associate with the lowly. It was Jesus who was willing to help the weak. Uphold the weak, care for the sick.

Fifth Point

Fifth, be patient with all. We show our love for God and our love for each other in our patience. I love the, I know I say it every time we come to patience, but I love the old word for patience, long-suffering. This is the opposite of irritability. I don't know if you've ever had kids or grandkids around the house, or maybe you've just had siblings, or maybe you've just been around someone you don't like, and it's easy to be irritated by them. I bet if I just asked you to think in your mind for 10 seconds of someone who irritates you when you get around them, it wouldn't be hard to drum up an image of someone. The Lord says, be patient. And interestingly, the scope of it here isn't just like, be patient towards people you like, be patient towards your own family. What does it say, verse 14? Be patient with all. Be patient with all. When you admonish some people, guess what?

They might not be quick to repentance. Be patient with them. When you're trying to encourage someone, and they're in a bout of depression, and they are just down in the dumps, and you keep trying to encourage them, and keep trying to encourage them, and keep trying to encourage them, and it seems like you just can't get them out of their sour mood, or their dour place, keep encouraging them. Be patient with them. When there's somebody who's sick, or who is socially downcast, and you try to help them, and try to help them, and try to help them, brothers and sisters, don't grow weary of doing good. Be patient with them. Be patient with them. Be patient. Don't be quickly irritated with people. This is one of the fruits of the Spirit. And there's no exception carved out here. Be patient with your elders. Kids, be patient with your parents.

Guess what? Your parents are going to mess up. They're going to make wrong choices. My children know this full well. Be patient with your mom and dad as they try to parent you. Parents, be patient with your kids, yeah? Admonish them, even your grown kids. I know they make all... I hear from all of you that your grown kids always make choices you love.

Be patient with them. Admonish them, give them wisdom. Encourage them when they're doing well. Encourage them when they're weak. Be patient with them. I'm so glad our Heavenly Father, this is one of His attributes. He's patient. The Lord is slow to anger with me and with you. His wrath is not in an instant. How slow was He to draw you to Himself. How slow was He to punish you for your sins. God is patient with you. Be patient with those around you.

Pursue the good. Pursue the good of all. Look with me at verse 15. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. Don't play tit for tat. This is what it's saying, right? Don't render evil for evil. Don't play tit for tat.

They hit me, I'm going to hit them back. No! They stole from me, I'm going to steal back from them. They hurt me, I'm going to hurt them. Oh man, this is not just little kid stuff, but this is even in marriages. Well, she didn't do this, so I'm not going to do that. And we might not say it in that type of voice, but we think it in our heart, don't we? If he would just unload the dishwasher, then I would maybe do this better. She would just do this, I would be able to do that. Don't play tit for tat. Don't do that.

There is a law in the Old Testament, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is closely reflected with this passage. There is a fancy Latin word for this, the Lex Talionis, the law of retaliation. A lot of people think of the law of retaliation, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, as like, oh man, if they punch me in the face, I'm going to punch them back in the face. If they knock out my tooth, I'm really going to knock out their tooth. If they steal from me, I'm really going to steal every ounce back from them.

But that's misreading how radical this law was in the Old Testament. The day and age in which this was, especially if you read parts of the Babylonian laws during that time, and different laws around the Israelites, it was not just a law of equal retaliation, it was, you knock out my tooth, I'm going to kill you.

The law was like Lamech. I've killed a man for dishonoring me. And the scriptures say, uh-uh. There's a match to your vengeance. You cannot punish past an equal amount. But even then, even then, Jesus comes and He tells us the radical nature of that law in Matthew chapter 5, doesn't He? It's not, they punched me in the face, I'm going to punch them back in the face. Jesus says, if they slap you in the face, turn the cheek and give them the other one.

If the Roman centurion comes and, by law, rightfully tells you, come and walk with me one mile, what do you do? Alright, I'll go with you too. I'll love you even more than that. I'll do even better to you than that. This is hard though. Augustine, when he was writing about this section, he said, this takes habitual discipline of the heart. regularly telling your heart, no, I am not going to do what I naturally want to do, which is extract vengeance and do the most amount of damage, get the most amount of repayment, but it's habitually telling ourselves, no, Christ dealt kindly to me. I love others also.

Romans chapter 5 verse 8 demonstrates this so clearly. What is the wages for sin, Romans chapter 3? The wages for sin is death. And we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so we all deserve death. And yet Romans chapter 5, it tells us that God demonstrates His own mercy towards us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We spat in God's face, and He turned around and saved us. We transgressed against God's holy law. He gave us Jesus' righteousness. Don't play tit-for-tat. No, what's verse 15 say? But always pursue the good, what is good, both for yourselves and for all, not just in the church, but to everyone. It doesn't just stop inside these four walls, but it goes even outside these four walls. I'll close with A quote by Elizabeth Elliot.

If you know anything about Elizabeth and Jim Elliot, they were those missionaries down in the Amazon to the Alca people, who her husband and his other missionary friends were killed. This tribe, the Alcas, were literally killing each other right and left. And some of the young people in the Alka tribe spread rumors about evil things that were lies, and they killed. They killed Elizabeth's husband, Jim. And instead of holding bitterness in her heart, do you know what Elizabeth did? Elizabeth turned around, stayed in the Amazon, and she continued to minister to the Alka people. And they came to Christ.

What she wrote about this, about her feelings, about forgiving them and going back and being a missionary, even though it didn't feel like the right thing to do, she says, it is the will that must deal with the feelings. Let me read that again. It is the will that must deal with the feelings. The will must triumph over them. But only the will that has surrendered to Christ can do this.

I can tie a heavy yoke around your neck all I want. telling you just by having enough willpower you can love your neighbor as yourself. You can do enough good stuff. You can admonish people who are going the wrong way. You can encourage those who are weak.

Here's this whole load of six different commandments that Christ has given us, and I'm just going to load it on you, and I'm going to burden you with it. But brothers and sisters, this isn't a burden. This isn't about our feelings. This is about our hearts being changed by God. The will must triumph over the feelings. But only the will that has surrendered to Christ can do this.

Has the King Jesus Christ subdued your soul? Has He made you one of His children? Has He poured out His love for you? He gives us a perfect law to follow. A perfect law of love. paid for in His own blood. He will sanctify you. You are able to do these things in Christ. You won't do them perfectly. But God is giving you plenty, ample opportunity to show the love of Christ to those around you, both in the church and outside the church. It's going to be hard. Jesus Christ, walk the hard road up to the cross for you. Walk the hard road of showing the love of Christ to those around you.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Oh Father, we thank you so much for Jesus Christ, who saves sinners like us. God, transform our wills. change our minds, and press these words upon our hearts, let us show the love of Jesus Christ. Father, I pray if there were wrong things I said today, that they would have run away from these people's minds. But Father, please, sanctify us through and through. Make us more like Christ. Let us love more like Christ. Let us bring You glory and enjoy You always. In Jesus's name, amen.