How to be an encourager – 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10; 5:11, 14, 27, Part 3

Editor’s Note: I once again welcome Molly Stouffer as guest blogger. Molly is from Hagerstown, MD, studying Pastoral Ministries at Lancaster Bible College.

It can be easy to encourage someone who’s got it all going well. But what do we do when someone comes to us after they lose a job? Their relationship ends? A family is estranged from each other? A traumatic accident occurs? Are we willing to encourage those who cannot be easily encouraged? Or what about those who are not living in a way that God intends? The person in relationship in lust? The one who lives a double lifestyle? A glutton? A cheater? A liar? How can we encourage them? How can we encourage those who are so broken and hurt?

Paul shows us how. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 14, Paul teaches us how to encourage the broken. Paul knows this kind of encouragement can be hard, so he gets personal again. He addresses the church as brothers and sisters. He’s saying to them that this is how we love them, this is how we encourage them.

Warning and encouraging go hand in hand and they inform our approach to evangelism. We need to tell people about the gospel, about the grace and mercy of our Savior Jesus Christ. I’m in a class this semester called Evangelism and Discipleship. This class has been quite a challenge. Our main work and assignments for the class are, you guessed it, discipleship and evangelizing. And, boy, is that out of my comfort zone.

However, being forced to evangelize has been an eye-opening experience to see how open people are to talking about God. I found myself at the Apple Store in the mall a couple weeks back. And somehow, during my interaction with the Apple Genius employee, God helped share about Him with the employee. God places us in unique circumstances and relationships, to use us to share about Him. What a blessing that is to see and be a part of.

So when we come in contact to the disheartened, encourage them, tell them the Good News. When you come into contact with someone who’s idle and unsure, honestly talk about the reality of their situation, but don’t forget the good news. Yes we’re sinners, yes we’re imperfect, yes we could never make it to heaven by our own accord. But. God.

God sent His son to live a perfect life. God had His son put to death to pay the price of every sin we commit. God raised Jesus from the dead three days later, forever conquering sin and death. We are sinners, but God made a way.

One last note from my class, and something I want to encourage and challenge you with. This may be a hard truth and reality to face, but one we need to understand. My professor shares this quote so often, I have it memorized: “How much do you have to hate someone to not share the gospel with them?”

That word “hate” might sound harsh, but think about it. When God’s love changes us from the inside out, when it really changes our hearts, we are going to want to share, we are going to want to tell people about a new life in Him. And it’s not being pushy or rude; you are telling God’s story. You are sharing a story of a lost sheep returning home, or a son running home to his father (Luke 15). So, listen to other people’s stories, and then share your story, share your testimony, and they might just listen too.

In verse 14 Paul describes two additional ways to encourage people: help the weak and be patient with everyone. From the beginning of the early church in Acts 2, the church worked hard to help those in need and find ways to be patient with each person.

So, let’s break this down, helping the weak. In order to help the weak, the weak must be identified. I think weak can break down into two categories; in spirit and in flesh.

Encouraging the weak in spirit. Before anyone finds Jesus, we all have a desire to be fixed. Deep down we all are imperfect and broken creatures, longing for a savior. Perhaps the weak in spirit don’t know the hope of the Savior, or they have not seen the depths of His love. There are so many people in this world, lost in their sin, looking and longing for a savior. The thing they’re looking for is the savior we know and love. So when we help those who are weak in spirit, we help them by introducing them to their creator and savior. We show them the love of God and what He did just to spend forever with them.

Sometimes, however, the weak in spirit are those in the church. Sometimes we have doubts and fears. Sometimes we forget the truths of scripture. Sometimes we wrestle with God. And we are still to help the weak, and this comes in loving encouragement.

Encouraging the weak in the flesh. For a variety of reasons, many people struggle with poverty, hunger, homelessness, and addictions. So many people have been hurt and abused, left behind by a unloving parent or maybe an unfaithful spouse. So many people are poor and broken, and Christians, we are called to care for them.

I think it’s really easy to forget how blessed we are. If you can go home right now, turn on a faucet, and drink a glass of clean water, you’re in a minority. Almost four billion people in the world either have no clean water in their homes, or cannot even access clean water.

Maybe you rationalize this with the fact that we’re in America. But you’d be wrong to assume America doesn’t contribute to this number. 1 in 245 households in the US do not have access to clean water. 1 in every 500 Americans are living on the streets. Over a million Americans cannot even flush a toilet, due to lack of water and or money. That is this country, that is our country.

And as Christians, we cannot turn an eye to these numbers. Paul is telling the church then, and the church now, take care of those in needs. If someone has a need you can meet, do it! If you have clean water, a home, and a toilet that can flush, you have more resources than almost 25% of the country.

We are so blessed by God. He gives us clean water, warm homes, stable jobs, and loving families. We are so blessed. And because God has provided this to us, it is our responsibility to be a good steward of what we’re given. So I want to challenge you; how can you be a good steward of what God’s given you? Whether that’s money, time, resources, skills, or abilities, God has not given you these things for you to keep them to yourself, so use them!

Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash