1 Thessalonians 5:12-15

¹² Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. ¹³ Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. ^[1]

Paul continues his admonition to the Thessalonians to encourage one another even as he encourages them. They are to honor and respect their leaders “in the Lord,” “live in peace with each other,” “warn the idle,” “encourage the timid,” and more. While he provides all these small but important directives concerning their relationships with one another he spends the majority of his words asking them to respect their leaders “in the Lord.” The qualifier “in the Lord” is important because it indicates a particular kind of leader with, I think, a particular kind of accountability. This type of diligent and faithful leader should rightly be respected.

We live in a time when people just do not have the respect for leaders and in some instances the disrespect may seem justified. There are some leaders who have come to their positions through impure and unholy motives, who lord their position over the people and who seek monetary gain. These types of leaders do not need our respect, but the ones in the Lord who work hard among us and admonish us we are to respect and hold in the “highest regard in love because of their work.” By respect Paul means more than just having “deep feelings of admiration for a person because of their qualities” or offering them polite greetings when we encounter them. Paul wants his readers to “avoid harming or interfering” with their leaders, and “to agree to recognize and abide” by their decisions; and, this is where showing respect is complicated. For many today, the leader is a faithful servant who is all too rarely recognized for the good they do or followed as they obviously follow the Lord.

I can remember a time when even non-believers would respect ministers enough to guard their speech and hide their illicit behavior. I have had members who did not want me to drop by their homes unannounced because they wanted them to be prepared in such a way as to receive me ‘properly.’ Now people think of ministers as just people doing a job, the church as just another building, and that we are responsible to no one, except ourselves, for whatever we do. Today, resolve to start showing leaders “in the Lord” the respect they deserve.

Lord, too often we have been guilty of trivializing what leaders do among us. Treating them like just another person, we have not acknowledged their gifts or anointing. We have not followed their counsel or heeded their advice. We have not incorporated the lessons we have learned from them into our daily living. Forgive us today for our lack of respect. As we seek to encourage one another more and more enable us to respect our leaders in You even more, especially those who are over us and admonish us. Amen.