“Therefore, comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:18) “Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
The best place to find comfort, encouragement and strength is in God’s Word and by His Holy Spirit through other believers. Look for opportunities to instill comfort and courage as you build up others in the faith.
We’re going to look at another “one another” that’s actually expressed twice near the end of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians in 4:18 and 5:11. In both texts he tells the church there and us today to “…Encourage each other…”
Do you need encouragement today? Do you get discouraged by all you see going on in your community or state, in our nation or around the world…jobs, inflation, economy, COVID, war, rumors of war and on and on?
The Thessalonians were struggling with issues as well. One of those was the varied ideas and teachings about what happens after they die…especially now that they’d been promised eternal life as believers in Christ? Paul plainly explains what will happen to those who have died in Christ and those who remain when He returns and it is very positive indeed. So in the midst of all their consternation and angst, he reminds them after his encouraging words by The Holy Spirit to “comfort (encourage) one another” with these incredible words of hope in Christ and His return.
He continues on in chapter 5 (as we know it but it would have been one continuous letter from Paul) by encouraging them himself to not be lazy or unaware but to stay sharp and be ever ready for Christ’s return because it could come at any time. He reminds them and us as Christ’s disciples and as His Church to always be alert and sober in our thinking and to put on the Gospel armor so that we are not caught off guard at any point and then he reaffirms them with the familiar words of …Encourage each other…” and he adds to it, “build one another up with these words.”
To encourage others literally means to infuse or input courage into them. We can all use some of that! There are times that all that’s going on around us can cause us to become discouraged but we have the hope of Christ and eternal life and we are to both live in this hope and comfort, encourage and build others up so they can live in it as well.
Are you choosing the encouragement of Christ, His Word and His promised return? Or are you allowing the brokenness and evil of this world to discourage you?
I pray that you are encouraged in Christ and are spending time in His Word and prayer so that you may be comforted and built up in His Truth, Grace and Love!
Food for Thought…What does it look like for you to be comforted, encouraged or built up? How do you comfort, encourage or build others up? Find the strength to do so in God’s Word through Christ and The Holy Spirit and allow others to share with and encourage you as well.
Action Steps…
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