Smoodock's Blog

Christians, today, may not consider authority figures in the Church in the same way that believers in the first century AD did. Nearly all of Paul’s churches were brought out of the synagogues of that day. Paul first went into the synagogues to preach the Gospel, and those who believed went out with him and met together apart from the local synagogue. This, however, didn’t mean they had separated from Judaism. Judaism had many sects (cp. Acts 5:17; 15:5; 24:5; 28:2). The Jewish authorities still considered Jewish believers a part of the Jewish community, and the Jewish authorities still believed they retained a degree of authority over them, despite their belief that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ (cp. Acts 24:5), thus, showing how problems often arose in the first century Church.

It was high ranking Jews from Jerusalem who disturbed the church at Antioch (Acts 15:1-2; Galatians 2:11-14) and also caused the Galatian believers to question Paul’s authority (Galatians 1:11-12; 3:1-2). This prompted the establishment of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, showing that even the apostles couldn’t establish a different religion in Jerusalem that existed apart from Judaism. Therefore, although there was, indeed, a growing gentile population in the believing community, most believers were Jews. In fact, it was against Roman law to begin a new religion. Rome would have been displeased with Paul and the other apostles, if they were beginning a new religion, but Roman authorities didn’t view Christians as breaking this law, until about the beginning of the second century AD. Rather, they considered Paul and all other Christians to be part of the Jewish community (cp. Acts 25:9, 19), so the Church was able to grow throughout the Roman Empire, while worshiping under the Jewish umbrella.

What does all this have to do with the believers in Thessalonica? Well, in 1Thessalonians 5:12-13 Paul tells the believers to acknowledge those believing leaders who had been given charge over them, i.e. those who were given charge to watch for their souls and admonish them in the faith. Believers, especially Jewish believers, who had been used to certain unbelieving leaders in the Jewish community, might still respect their vast knowledge of the Scriptures and be swayed by their worldview against Christ. Therefore, Paul charged believers at Thessalonica to show respect for their leaders, who were believers in Christ, because there is a world of difference in the testimony of folks who preached Jesus, the gifted leader who was unjustly crucified, and the testimony of believing authorities who preached Jesus, the Messiah, and him crucified (cp. 1Corinthians 2:2). The Gospel of Christ is not the same as saying, “Jesus was crucified unjustly, and we must respect his teaching,” which many Jews will admit to today. And, no doubt this same understanding was considered true by many in Judaism in the first century AD. Nevertheless, peace among believers can be achieved, only, if they respect the leadership the Lord had set before them (1Thessalonians 5:13).

Next, Paul told the Thessalonian believers to caution the disorderly, comfort the fainthearted, support the weak and be patient with all of them (1Thessalonians 5:14).[1] Understanding what Paul meant by cautioning the disorderly needs to be placed in the context of the previous verse. The Greek word for disorderly is atakatos (G813) and is found only here. However, a similar word, spelled the same way but having a different accent is (G814) and is found only in 2Thessalonians 3:6, 11. There Paul tells believers to, first, withdraw from such people, because they hadn’t received such an example from Paul (verse-6) and, secondly, the disorderly should be quiet and eat their own bread (verse-12) and not go about as busybodies and not working at all.

Many commentators describe these people as folks who stopped laboring in the marketplace in order to impose themselves upon others for support as ministers of the word of God. However, although the disorderly were, indeed, seeking to be a kind of competing voice or at least a ‘second’ voice in the leadership of the church, I don’t believe they gave up their day jobs to do so. The Greek word for ‘work’ is ergazomai (G2038) has to do with what one did whether working iniquity (Matthew 7:23) or working for God (John 5:17; 6:28). It had to do with doing good works (Galatians 6:10) and doing whatever one did heartily (Colossians 3:23). What I believe was going on in Thessalonica was some brethren spent their time criticizing how the church leadership served the Lord—how things might be done better etc., but they lacked the initiative to actually serve in any other capacity besides being a critic. This is not what Paul and company did while they were at Thessalonica, and he says so, using a similar Greek word, atakteo (G812), claiming he had not behaved disorderly, while laboring among them in Thessalonica (2Thessalonians 3:7). In other words Paul’s labor (deeds) spoke for itself. He didn’t critique any other man’s labor in the Lord, meaning he didn’t criticize the unbelieving Jewish authorities there. Instead, it is for the Lord to judge the work of his own servant (Romans 14:4).

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[1] I’ll speak of what Paul meant by comforting the fainthearted etc. in my next study.