I’m not an expert on first-century paper, but it feels like Paul was running out of it here! His final instructions come tumbling out one after another. Which jumped out at you when you read through them all?

Four times in these verses Paul addresses them as ‘brothers and sisters’ (vs 12,14,25,27). This is a family of faith, with all the joys and challenges that brings. The church in Thessalonica was certainly not perfect (v 14), but Paul makes harmonious life the responsibility of everyone (not simply the elders).

What do you make of verses 16–18? What does it mean to rejoice, pray and give thanks no matter what? When awful things happen, how can we give thanks? When we’re finding it hard to get up in the morning, how can we rejoice?

It helps to recognise how circumstances and our attitude can ‘quench’ the life and gifts of the Spirit (v 19) as we hold on to evil and let go of good. Hard though it is, sometimes we have to be deliberate about doing the opposite (vs 21,22).

‘O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother, may I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day.’¹

A fellow church leader recently complained to me that his congregation seemed to expect him to drive everything they did as a church. They were (usually) happy to turn up Sunday by Sunday, but didn’t see it as their responsibility to do much else.

Paul paints a very different picture of what church is like. Yes, the church leadership is described as ‘those who work hard among you’ (v 12) – but most of his instructions here are addressed to ‘all the brothers and sisters’ in the church, to whom he expressly requires his letter to be read (v 27). It is these normal Christians who are urged to maintain pastoral responsibility for one another, warning those who are ‘idle and disruptive’, encouraging the disheartened, helping the weak and striving always ‘to do what is good’ for those in and outside the church (vs 14,15). Do you, or does your church, need to rediscover this commission? We are, above all, a community of people in Christ, building up our common life in mutual peace (vs 13,14). We need leadership and we are to recognise those who are leaders among us and lovingly respect them (vs 12,13), but this does not exempt us from our responsibilities as a body. It seems likely that this was core teaching the apostles gave to new faith communities, as it is paralleled elsewhere.²

Maybe this ideal feels unattainable for you at the moment. Be encouraged: our collective growth in Christian maturity is not solely our responsibility – above all, it is God’s! Paul prays that God himself will ‘sanctify you through and through’ (v 23 – the Greek ‘you’ is plural). Having called us, God enables us to grow, right up to the end (vs 23,24). And ‘he will do it’ (v 24)!

‘... encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing’ (v 11). 

¹ Prayer of Richard of Chichester, 1197–1253  ² Rom 12:3–21; Green, Thessalonians, Apollos, 2002, p246