Praise the Lord, saints! Today’s message is titled “Cooperation with the Divine Operation”
The verses covered are 1 Thes. 5:12-28 and the sections of the message are:
I. RESPECTING THE LEADING ONES
II. TO BE AT PEACE
III. ADMONISHING, ENCOURAGING, UPHOLDING, AND BEING LONGSUFFERING
IV. REJOICING, PRAYING, AND GIVING THANKS
V. NOT QUENCHING THE SPIRIT
VI. NOT DESPISING PROPHECIES
VII. ABSTAINING FROM EVERY FORM OF EVIL
Thank You for such an opportunity to read such great life-study together! I am from Hebrew University Please visit us http://huji.ac.il/huji/index.htm Thank You
Amen! Definitely interested to visit. Would like to join the Israel tour… may be in a few year’s time. Hopefully not too far in the future! -Regards, saint from New Zealand.
Verse 12 says, “Now we ask you, brothers, to KNOW those who labor among you and take the lead among you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to REGARD them most highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.” The word “know” here means first to recognize and then render respect and regard. According to Matthew 7:23, when the Lord Jesus comes back, He will say to certain ones, “I never knew you.” The expression, “I never knew you” means not to appreciate or respect what was done. In the same principle, in verse 12 the word “know” means to appreciate and respect those who labor among us and who take the lead among us.
I appreciated the brothers Emphasis on the words ” know” and ” Regard”. Lord I want to Know you and the saints!
God wants us to live a rejoicing, praying, and thanking life. Such a life is a glory to God and a shame to His enemy.
There were many very dear points in this message. I have to say that the ones that struck me the most were that “If we are on the alert, full of watchfulness in spiritual warfare, we shall surely honor the leading ones. Those who have had experience in military service know that soldiers must respect their commanding officers. If they have no respect for the officers, the leaders, the army will not be able to fight properly. The first thing a soldier must learn in order to fight is to respect the one leading him. I believe that this was Paul’s concept in turning to the matter of respecting the leading ones at this point.”
We need to have the view of the ones serving and shepherding the saints as being those with much experience in this spiritual warfare against the enemy. They are here to encourage us and help us.
With respect to all the saints we must be those who “admonish the disorderly, console the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be longsuffering toward all”. Wherever we are we will be surrounded by problems because we are not yet in the New Jerusalem. May the Lord give us such patience and longsuffering to love and build up all the brothers and sisters.
“After covering the matter of watchfulness and soberness in 5:1-11, Paul turns in 5:12-24 to our cooperation with the divine operation.
If we are on the alert, full of watchfulness in spiritual warfare, we shall surely honor the leading ones… The first thing a soldier must learn in order to fight is to respect the one leading him.
To regard the leading ones and to be at peace with one another is a proper condition of a local church… there will not be peace in an army if the soldiers have no respect for the officers.
According to 1 Thes 5:14 all the saints must function to shepherd others and edify them… The church is a hospital filled with those who are sick. For this reason, we need to be longsuffering toward all the saints. Verse 15 shows that regardless of how others treat us, even if their treatment is evil, we should pursue good for them.
Paul knew that first we rejoice, then pray, and then give thanks. If you try to practice these in the opposite order, you will find that Paul put them in the correct sequence according to experience. The will of God in Christ Jesus for us is that we rejoice, pray, and give thanks.”
Amen
I enjoyed 1Thes5:14 that we need to “console the fainthearted, sustain the weak, be long-suffering toward all.”
That means towards ones that are of little-souled, we need to comfort and console them. Towards the weak ones, we need to uphold and sustain them. Towards the members who are problems to us in some ways, we need to be long-suffering toward them!
The example of others bringing minor problems to us is so good! Some saints may request a lot of our attention with small and insignificant problems, but as we have peace in the family, we love them, console them, sustain them, and are long-suffering toward them!
I was also one who brought small and insignificant problems to the leading ones… but as a result of their long-suffering toward me, I am still around! Thank You, Lord, for these labouring ones! We long to shepherd others in the way they have shepherded us!
A most practical and extreme helpful word for the Hospitel-Church-life
To regard the leading ones (slaves and examples for the others) and to be at peace with one another is a proper condition of a local church. In this peaceful atmosphere its easy to fan in to flame our spirit with the Spirit and always rejoice and be be thankful in all things. This will result in the longsuffering toward those who are little souled and to those who do evil to us by doing good to them. God is well pleased by such a glorious overcoming indestructible church-life.
I was very encouraged by todays practicality of the message, and espescially not to quench the Spirit.
In verse 19 Paul goes on to say, “Do not quench the Spirit.” The Spirit makes our spirit burning (Rom. 12:11) and our gifts flaming (2 Tim. 1:6). So we should not quench Him.
The Christian life is a life inspired and stirred up by the Spirit. Throughout the day we must have the Spirit inspiring us, stirring us, and moving and acting within us. Thus, instead of quenching the Spirit, we need to fan the flame that is within us. The word “quench” implies fire. The Spirit is burning within us. We should not quench this fire, but instead we should fan it into flame.
If we stay in spirit we would honor the other members and also rejoyce, pray and praise in longsuffering.
Praise the Lord!
I really appreciated the word on admonishing, encouraging, upholding and being longsuffering. This is not a word just to the leading ones but this is to all the brothers. We all must function to shepherd and to edify the believers. This matter of longsuffering was so precious. We should not be bothered or irritated by the believers coming to us for help but we should be longsuffering and patient to care for them and edify them! We should do this with the goal and view that in our longsuffering we are building up the church!!
God wants us to live a rejoicing, praying, and thanking life. Such a life is a glory to God and a shame to His enemy.
Praise the Lord! Hallelujah that we can cooperate with the operation of the divine One! What a privilege!
Saints, do we know how to cooperate with God’s move today? We need to live a life that’s full of rejoicing with the Lord’s name in the burning spirit! In all the points presented in msg. 18, none of them can be properly practiced without our spirit burning and rejoicing in the Lord! Try respecting the leading ones, being at peace with one another, admonishing, encouraging, upholding, and being longsuffering towards all, with a quenched dimmed spirit in anguish without the Lord’s name! Oh Lord!
Bro. Lee said that we should not dream about a “utopia” church, because in reality the church life is full of problems! And I can testify that this is true! So then how can we all go on in our church life? It’s by rejoicing in a burning spirit! If we are all burning in our spirit rejoicing, we will spontaneously pray unceasingly, give thanks in everything, not despise (take lightly) prophecies, prove all things, hold fast to what is good, and abstain from every form of evil. In this way we will not only “go on” in our church life, preserving her structure of faith, love and hope, enjoying the organic union with our Father God and Lord Jesus Christ, but also live a holy life for the church life, glorifying God, and shaming Satan. Hallelujah!
“In verse 14 Paul exhorts us to be longsuffering toward all. This implies that in a local church, besides some being disorderly who need admonishing, some being of little soul who need consolation, and some being weak who need upholding, all the members may be a problem in some way and need our longsuffering toward them.”
“God wants us to live a rejoicing, praying, and thanking life. Such a life is a glory to God and a shame to His enemy.”
In message 18, I appreciated more items that we should pursue/be watchful about while waiting for the Lord’s second coming: respecting the leading ones, being at peace, admonishing the disorderly, consoling the fainthearted, upholding the weak, being longsuffering, always rejoicing, unceasingly praying, giving thanks in everything, not quenching the Spirit, not despising prophecies, and abstaining from every form of evil.
In verse 15 Paul goes on to say, “See that no one renders to anyone evil for evil, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.” This means that regardless of how others treat us, even if their treatment is evil, we should pursue good for them. If we do not have longsuffering, however, we shall render evil for evil.
Lord Jesus be the longsuffering One in us, in us we have no such excellent virtue. We need You Lord, we don’t want to be those who render evil for evil. we want to be those who live You out, Amen
It would be easy to respect and love those who take the lead if they were indeed slaves and examples to others, but since that is not always the case, what should I do?
Oh, Lord, how much I need the power of Christ’ resurrection to live and abide in Christ in every moment and circumstance!
We shouldn’t dream that the church life is an utopia, and we shouldn’t advertise it or speak of it as such – on the contrary, the church life is full of problems. If we would not have problems, it is most likely we wouldn’t be here! But praise the Lord, the church life is like a hospital where we come with all our problems and we learn to be longsuffering toward one another. Moving away from the saints who seem to be a problem to us or to bring all their problems to us is NOT the solution – we need to take Christ as our patience and learn to be longsuffering. This is so wonderful…
“Some saints among us are weak. They may be weak in body or in spirit, weak in heart or weak in will. Some are weak in their faith or weak in praying. What shall we do with these ones? According to Paul’s word we need to uphold them”