Sunday, August 3, 2014

Do you know how to work with different people? 1 Thessalonians 4-5

1 Thessalonians 5:14
We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonians, is encouraging a good group of believers to excel even more in their Christian walk.   He has affirmed them and is also encouraging them.  He wants their love for each other to be so dominate in their lives.  Yet, he knows that their will times when even their much acclaimed love is stressed and stretched.   There will be times when brothers and sisters within the body push out buttons and fail in their own walk.  To that end Paul wants the Thessalonians to know that even though all sin is offensive to God and to other brothers, all sin does not come from the same place.  In the above passage we see that some do wrong things out of an "unruly heart."  Others are simply "fainthearted."  Still others simply do something out of a "weak heart."   Each of these three are subscribed a different approach.  We are to "warn" the unruly.   We are to "encourage" the fainthearted.   And, yet, we are to "help" the weak.  If we were to use the wrong subscription on the wrong root issue we won't see the right results.  We can't try to encourage those who are weak ... they need help not encouragement.   We ought not to try to admonish the fainthearted.  They will simply get more discouraged.   If we try to help those who are actually unruly we will more than likely get sarcasm and ridicule.  Paul knows that if we are keep love moving forward we have to have methods to deal with those who are acting unlovable.  The final admonishment is to be patient with all men.   Love is patient.  (1 Corinthians 13:4).   Paul wanted their love perfected ... added onto ... continued.    To do this we must be willing to understand "why" people act the way they act and then work with them accordingly.      

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