A Community That Leads, Warns, Encourages, and Pursues Good

Paul asks the church to recognize those who labor, lead “in the Lord,” and admonish, and to esteem them in love because of their work. Leadership sits inside a network of mutual responsibilities: live at peace, warn the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with everyone, refuse retaliation, and always pursue good.

Where the Old Testament is revealed in the New: Proverbs 20:22 says, “Say not thou, I will recompense evil,” and tells the hearer to wait on the LORD. Paul echoes the same wisdom in 5:15: “See that none render evil for evil unto any man.” The New Testament command is therefore not an isolated ethic; it carries forward Israel’s rejection of personal vengeance and turns it into a rule for the Christian community.