Deeper Reflection
AT ALL TIMES IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST – UNTIL Christ “appears and we shall be like Him” (1 Jn 3:2) – there will be all kinds of people, who are at different points in their own faith journey and stations in life, with different levels of commitment to God, uncommitted or not as committed as they should be, and at different levels of spiritual maturity.The Thessalonian church was a growing and glowing church marked by active faith, laborious love and steadfast hope, imitating the Lord in suffering, and making regional impact with the Gospel (1 Thess 1:3-8). Paul was proud of this church with constant thanksgiving to God (1 Thess 1:2; 2:13, 19). But Paul was not so drawn to and caught up with this church’s “gospel-success” that he failed to be sensitive and aware of “the idle”, “the fainthearted” and “the weak” (v.14) in this church. And he exhorts the church to give particular attention to these people – people who can be easily overlooked, ignored and neglected. There are broken wings in the church. Some are crisis broken wings, who are just temporarily grounded by adverse circumstances, but will soon be able to fly again. Others are chronic broken wings with deep issues in their lives that require more time and effort to help.Those who are “idle” – who are unwilling and not unable to work (2 Thess 3:10) – must be admonished.⁵⁶ We can apply by extension this idleness to spiritual idleness. A vineyard with the potential of producing grapes can become “all overgrown with thorns” because of idleness (Prov 24:30-31).

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⁵⁶ See 21 June Deeper Reflection for comments on “admonish”.