1 Thessalonians 5:14

1 Thessalonians 5:14. Brethren. The counsels of this verse are addressed not to the ministers alone, nor to the people alone, but to all.

Unruly. The connection would lead a reader to suppose that this referred to those who rebelled against the authority of the elders or presiding ecclesiastical officials; but the similar expressions in the Second Epistle, 1 Thessalonians 3:6-7; 1 Thessalonians 3:11, would seem to indicate that those are meant who had abandoned their ordinary occupations from misapprehensions regarding the coming of the Lord. It may, however, have a wider reference to all who did not live consistently with the Christian rule.

The feeble-minded. Those timid persons who were dismayed by the persecutions which had overtaken the young Church, or who were downcast by the loss of friends through death. An example of such comforting of the feeble-minded is given in Hebrews 12:1-13.

Support the weak. Undoubtedly this means the weak in soul, ‘whether through defect of faith, bondage of conscience, or instability of principle,' a class of persons with whom Paul himself had much to do, and who are largely found in even the oldest Christian communities. How are we to treat the scrupulous, conscientiously bigoted, slow, obstructive, little-minded members? Are we to leave them out of account and override their prejudices? We are to support, or, as the word means, hold to them. We are to befriend and consider them. They are not to be left behind or made no account of; they are not to be abandoned, but the van must wait upon the weaklings and encourage them into strength. To them, as to all, we are to be patient, or long-suffering, putting up with much provoking narrowness and obstinacy and misapprehension of Christian principle.