To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 5:12 “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.”

One of the things that seems to be a consistent thread throughout the great Apostle Paul’s writings was how he had to defend himself against the criticisms of troublemakers within the various churches in which he ministered.  In Corinth, he defended himself against critics who said, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account” (2 Corinthians 10:10).  There were false teachers that had come to stir up trouble by boasting of how much better they were than Paul.  They took advantage of Paul’s great humility and mocked him as inferior to themselves.  In his first letter to the Thessalonians he tells them that “our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Apparently, there were some who had accused him of just that; thus, his need to refute those accusations. 

In his letter to the church at Galatia, Paul defends the message of the gospel he had so diligently preached to them against those who had “bewitched” the church with false teaching about how a person is saved. He was “astonished” that they had turned to “another gospel,” a false teaching of faith plus works, so quickly, and it grieved his heart. Perhaps these experiences were among the things that softened Paul’s heart towards other Christian leaders as reflected in his words of admonition to the Thessalonian church above.  If the church could be so readily swayed to denigrate Paul and his ministry,  a person who had been miraculously called by Jesus, taught by Jesus, and directed to teach by Jesus both in personal missionary efforts and the writing of most of the New Testament epistles, it was no wonder that other Christian leaders would be treated even worse.  Paul encourages those to whom he wrote to respect and love their spiritual leaders, rather than to criticize them and grieve their hearts. 

Spiritual leaders are a focus of satanic attack – and sometimes Satan is very successful, as the many high-profile failures of Christian leaders can attest.  Certainly, those in leadership must meet a very high bar, and if they or negligent in their relationship with the Lord and their responsibilities as spiritual leaders, they must be held accountable. However, in Paul’s admonition above, he calls the church to never be one of the causes of that failure. 

How easy it is to find fault with others – thus Jesus’ warnings to be careful not to look for the speck in someone else’s eye while failing to see the log in our own eye.  But one of the ways that Satan can be very effective at tearing down a church is to tempt us to be especially mindful of any specks we might see in the eyes of our pastors.  In contrast to that, Paul – and more accurately, the Holy Spirit through Paul – urges us to not fall for this temptation.  He urges us to be a source of joy for our pastors by being obedient to the Word of God that they diligently teach us, and to reflect the love of God towards them, for this is one of the main ways God has chosen to show His love to them.

So, what about you and what about me?  Are we a source of joy and encouragement to our pastor?   Do we respect him and show love to him as we have opportunity, or are we prone to criticize, to gossip behind his back, and to give little heed to the Word of God that he preaches to us?   Do we listen attentively to his teaching, asking God to show us our own heart and to change the things that need changing? Do we pray for our pastor, asking God to guide and bless him and asking God how we can be a blessing to him?  And are we even a part of a church, for how can we love such leaders is we aren’t? 

It is so easy to be critical of pastors because they didn’t visit so and so, or they didn’t greet us warmly enough, or they don’t preach as well as some guy we watched on TV or heard on the radio.  But if our emphasis is on respect and love towards such men as God has directed us, surely such nitpicking wouldn’t have much of a place in our lives.

May God help us to respect and love godly leaders as Christ would have us to. May God help us to be obedient to His command to “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17).