1 Thessalonians 5:14

of persons who evade responsibilities, hence idle or lazy.

So the idea here, the common thread, is of someone who's not fulfilling their responsibility. They're not staying in their lane. Whether by not submitting to an authority, such as the elders of the church, as verses 12 and 13 were talking about, or by not doing their job. such as by not working hard and not providing for their own family. In either case, these are examples of being idle, unruly, or disorderly in refusing to fulfill their role in God's design. In fact, we get a little more of a picture of what this group of people looks like when we turn over to 2 Thessalonians, where Paul has to address them again. So in 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 10, Paul says,

for even when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work. but busy bodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

So the idol in the church weren't being busy at work, but being busy bodies, likely doing things like complaining about the elders, gossiping about other people's lives and meddling in their business. And instead of working hard to be able to give and serve others in the church, They were being lazy and becoming a burden to others in the church, expecting them to give and support them. And of course, in all sorts of similar ways, we will at times find this sort of disorderliness or unruliness or idleness among us. And so what medicine does Paul prescribe for such people? Well, he says here, admonish the idle, warn them, instruct them, correct them, Don't overlook this, don't enable it, and certainly don't participate in it, but confront it. And I can only imagine all the ways that idle people will try to excuse and mask their own idleness. Oh, I don't mean to disrespect the elders, I just wanna set the record straight and make sure you understand what they did to me. Or, oh, I wish I could get a job and help with that, but after all I've been through, I'm sure you'll understand. You see, idle people use personal struggles and trials and perceived offenses as leverage to shirk responsibility and excuse disorder. And they can easily take advantage of our instinct to give affirmation and show mercy. But the problem is when you give charity to a lazy person, you're not helping but enabling their laziness. When you affirm a proud person, you're not helping but boosting their pride. This is why Paul later says of these idle people in second Thessalonians,

if someone will not work, neither shall he eat.

You know, maybe that sounds harsh, but it's actually loving. And it's why he says here, admonish the idle. In fact, in 2 Thessalonians 3, he goes so far as to say,

keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us.

And then he says,

if anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother

, right? So love him. care for him, try to help him, but realize that the medicine he needs isn't affirmation and charity, but admonition, warning, correction. It's a strong medicine for a deadly spiritual disease. So admonish the idol. However, that is not the medicine that every struggling Christian needs. Look number two at the faint hearted. Now, this comes from a compound word in Greek that literally means the little souls. These are those who are discouraged, despondent, or anxious, those who have no strength of heart. And while they too may be struggling to fulfill certain duties in the Christian life, it's for very different reasons. Imagine, for example, a woman, say in our church, whose attendance is sporadic. She misses nursery duty assignments. She's often not here on Sunday mornings. She's not here on Wednesday nights. She's not doing a very good job fulfilling our member covenant. And on the surface, maybe it looks like she's idle. She would seem to fit in that category. Maybe it's because she's being lazy about her spiritual responsibilities. And in Pride, she thinks of her desires and her use of time as more important than being in the church and encouraging others or serving the church. But then imagine that you come to find out that the reason for her sporadic attendance is actually that her non-Christian husband has been pressuring her not to go to church. He's threatening to leave the marriage if she does. He's blaming her for every problem in the house, making her feel like a failure. So she's trying to do everything she can to appease him. She's working so hard to try to keep things together because she's afraid if he leaves, what's gonna happen to the kids? What's gonna happen financially? What might he do or say to me? You see, her problem isn't that she's idle or unruly or disorderly, it's that she's faint hearted and afraid. You know, and just imagine the last time that you felt physically faint. Maybe you stood up too fast, or you were sick, or you were trying to run in sweltering heat like me earlier today. And then imagine feeling that physical faintness, you know, right before an athletic event, like a powerlifting contest or running a hundred meter sprint. Would a coach yelling at you fix the problem? I mean, do you need warnings and threats to sort of fire you up? Of course not. You see, admonition is often gonna be counterproductive for the faint-hearted. What this woman needs, and what the faint-hearted need, is encouragement. She needs the courage to be able to trust God through this trial in her life. She needs to see that God is bigger than her husband, and bigger than anything he could do to her. She needs someone to talk to her about the faithfulness of God, the power of God, the love of God, and the grace of God to her through the gospel. She needs to hear this kind of thing that certain Israelites did. In Isaiah chapter 35, verse three, where we read,

strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart,

it's the same word, the faint hearted,

Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.

You see, if the primary sin of the idol is pride and laziness, I think the primary sin of the faint-hearted is unbelief. And we need to give them the medicine of turning their eyes to the Lord and His trustworthiness. You know, just briefly think about what might be some examples of faintheartedness among us. Maybe it's the member who's being persecuted for his faith at school or at work. He's lost friends. His boss doesn't like him. He feels disregarded and attacked. And so his zeal for talking about Christ and being faithful to him in the workplace is beginning to wane. Or maybe it's the parent or the ministry leader who's labored countless hours but seen no fruit. And there's this deep discouragement setting in. And so they're just continuing on but less and less vigorously. Or maybe it's someone who's been struggling with lust or anger. And that's gotten the better of them of late. And they're losing hope that any real progress against this sin can ever be made. My brothers and sisters, what we're being told here is to encourage the faint-hearted. That's the medicine they need. Well, that brings us to a third group of people, the weak. Now, this is a general term for weakness. So I think the idea here is someone who lacks the strength, the knowledge, or the ability to do something on their own. And while this could include some sort of physical limitation or a material need, I think it's probably more focused on spiritual weakness. Perhaps a sin struggle, a lack of biblical understanding, or some kind of immaturity. And while a faint-hearted person is falling short, probably in something that they can do. and even perhaps which you shouldn't try to do for them. They just need the courage to be able to do what God has called them to do. Well, I think the weak person is someone who really needs help and assistance. This might be something that they can't do on their own. They don't know how. They're not strong enough. And so if you just give them encouragement, that's only gonna lead to frustration. They need something more. And so Paul says here that the medicine for the weak, what should we do, is help them. This word help means to hold fast to, to come alongside of, to be devoted to, to support. The picture that comes to my mind would be of, you know, someone with like a leg injury and someone comes alongside you, lock arms, shoulder to shoulder, helping them walk. That's helping the weak. Now, what might be examples of this? Well, in Galatians 6.1, we read,

brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, You who are spiritual,

you who are strong,

should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

All right, so if someone is caught in sin, if there's this spiritual weakness in their life, they're trapped in a transgression, Go to them and help them, help bear the burden, help seeking to restore them in a spirit of gentleness. Say it's the sin of pornography. Well, maybe they need some biblical instruction about how to fight that sin. Maybe they need regular, persistent accountability. They need you to be there for them, to check in on them, to call them, or to show up at their house and help them in their fight against that sin. Help the weak. Or another example would be in Philippians chapter four, Paul says,

I entreat you, Odia, and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women.

Now on one hand, these women sound like they're fairly mature, but even they are struggling to get along. And I think sometimes weakness is evident when Christian brothers or sisters, it's like they can't get along. And as Paul says here to true companion, he says, help these women. Well, we are to help the weak by being instruments of reconciliation, by helping people that are struggling to understand one another, understand one another, helping them walk through this process of repentance and forgiveness and reconciliation. Or just one other example, think of Romans 14.1. where it says to

receive one who is weak in faith, but not to quarrel over opinions.

I think sometimes spiritual weakness is evident in conscientious scruples that may seem weird to us. And yet part of the way we help them is by bending over backwards to not be a stumbling block in their way. not to offend them and not to exclude them, but rather to receive them and welcome them and walk alongside them in spite of whatever scruples they may have. So help the weak. Now, of course, there's so much more we could say about how to care for all three of these categories of people. And so much more we could say about the need for wisdom. to know how to discern who's in what category and what to do because I think, frankly, many times it can seem like someone's partially in more than one category at once. And I think we need extraordinary wisdom from God to know how to best care for them. But I wanna close by drawing our attention to one thing that's appropriate in every situation. You know, one medicine that we need to use constantly. Paul says admonish the idle, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. And patience is needed and patience is appropriate for every situation because whatever the spiritual problem is, change and growth rarely happen quickly. If I can shift metaphors for a moment from that of the doctor to that of the gardener. I want you to think about a growing plant. You know, sometimes the plant gets unruly and it needs pruning. You know, that's kind of like admonishing the idol. Sometimes the plant begins to wilt and it needs watering. That's like encouraging the faint hearted. Sometimes the plant has a broken limb and it needs to be splinted or supported. That's like helping the weak. But the point is, regardless, in every situation, you need patience because it's a plant. And as any gardener will tell you, plant growth doesn't happen overnight. How ridiculous would it be to do one of those things and just expect the plant to be fixed tomorrow morning? It takes patience. It takes time. And as gardeners in God's church, tending his plants, we need to honor the way that God intends for growth to happen in the Christian life. And normally, it's slow. It takes a lifetime. And so we need to honor that, we need to recognize that, and we need to be patient with them all. And then secondly, we need to be patient because we need to minister in a way that reflects the perfect patience of God himself. As those who are called to minister on Christ's behalf for Christ's people, we need to strive to be like him. And as we heard in our scripture reading on Sunday, he is a God who is

not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness. but is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

May we pursue these things like God does, being patient toward us, not wanting even one person to perish, but all to reach repentance. And he is a God who saves even the chief of sinners, like Paul and like us. So this Paul goes on to say,

so that Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience through people like us as an example to those who will believe in him for eternal life.

He is the God of all patience. And so brothers and sisters, tonight we are being exhorted to admonish the idol, to encourage the faint hearted and help the weak being patient with them all. May God give us grace to do so. Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we thank you for how your word gives such clear instruction for how we are to live our Christian lives, how we're to relate to other people. But God, what a privilege we have to get, to be a part of your redeeming work in others' lives. And God, how we thank you for the way that you have given us brothers and sisters who can be a part of your work in our lives. Oh God, may we submit to that, may we embrace that, may we cherish it. May you help us to be more faithful and to treasure your patience and grace toward us more and more. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.