¹² Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. ¹³ Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other.

¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.

¹⁵ See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.

¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

¹⁹ Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Do not scoff at prophecies, ²¹ but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. ²² Stay away from every kind of evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-22

Dear God, I do better when listed items are in bullet points as opposed to paragraph form. Here’s a reprint of what Paul encouraged at the end of this letter:

• Honor church leaders.
• Show church leaders respect and wholehearted love.
• Live peacefully with those in your Christian community.
• Warn those who are lazy.
• Encourage the timid.
• Care for the weak.
• Be patient with everyone.
• Do not pay back evil for evil.
• Always try to be good to those in community and to everone else.
• Be joyful.
• Pray unceasingly.
• Be thankful in everything.
• Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Provide rich soil for him to grow in you.
• Respect prophecies while still testing them.
• Hold on to what is good.
• Stay away from evil.

It’s almost like a mini Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) here. He touches being a comforter. Caring for others. Eye for an eye. Prayer. Thankful. Lead me not into temptation. It’s like I just need to let my mind soak in these thoughts today.

Warning the lazy is an interesting one. I wonder how Paul was defining “lazy” here and what he wanted people to do about it. Does lazy mean not doing labor or serving others (selfish) or is it as basic as someone not disciplining themselves to spend time in prayer and pursuing you? I have a feeling it’s the latter. There are several people in my life I’ve encouraged to take the time to discipline themselves to spend time with you. I feel like I’ve totally failed in that in their lives. I don’t think any of them are doing it.

Father, I offer myself to you today. I don’t want to be lazy. I also don’t want to just push through the work I have to do under my own power and lose sight of the fact that, in everything, I am serving you and loving others. Help me to carry all of these admonishments from Paul into my day. Teach me and grow me more and more into your image.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen