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1 Thessalonians 5:12-15, "Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”
A few weeks ago we began to look at how the body of Christ is made up of different parts all with different functions working together in unity to accomplish Gods work. We read 1 Corinthians 12:14 which says, “Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” We talked about how we are all like pieces of a puzzle that interlock with each other to form this beautiful picture of God’s love.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, we see that Paul was committed to conflict resolution. Here are three key points I see in these verses.
1. Practice patience. When we spend time teaching and encouraging someone to grow in their faith, or trying to help someone with their problems - one of the first things we realize is that people don’t change as fast as we want them to. Nevertheless, we’re to practice patience with “everyone.”
2. We should Refuse to retaliate. Paul is reiterating the teaching of Jesus about non-retaliation. No matter what is done to us, the follower of Jesus has no excuse to get revenge. There are people in this church who are going to hurt you, and some probably already have. But what do you do when that happens? Matthew 18:15 says, go and meet with that person and seek reconciliation.
Whatever we do, do not retaliate.
3. We need to Cultivate Kindness. We’re to practice patience and refuse to retaliate, but we’re to do more than just not seek revenge, verse 15 says, “But always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”
The word “always” is emphatic. Our tendency is to look for loopholes, or a justification for why we shouldn’t be kind to someone. Romans 14:19, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” We’re to cultivate kindness with each other and we’re to be kind to people outside the church.
If the church is going to function in the way God has designed it, we all need to understand that our piece of the puzzle is most effective when it is interlocked with others in harmony.
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