Know and Esteem Them Over You
Minister: | Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: | 1/1/2013 AM (New Year's Day) |
Text: | I Thessalonians 5:12,13 |
Installation of Elders and Deacons |
- Who esteemed?
- The second duty with the modifier (?in the Lord?) points to those who have been invested with the office in the church.
- Those ?which labor among you.?
- They exert themselves in the interesting of Christ and His church.
- They perform much spiritual labor (a work requiring strenuous effort).
- They ?are over you in the Lord.?
- They are set over, superintend or preside over as protector and guard or to give aid.
- This position is by virtue of appointment by the Lord and through qualifications derived from the Lord.
- These also ?admonish you.?The word means literally to ?put in mind? to obey God?s ordinances.
- These office-bearers are worthy of honor.
- The members are to?know? them.
- This is a knowledge gained by information (rather than by observation or experience).
- This means that we do not go by what we physically see, but by what we know from God?s Word.
- ?Esteem them very highly in love.?
- To esteem is to account them to be our leader, according them honor as placed over us by God Himself.
- But here Paul adds ?very highly,? i.e., over and above, exceeding abundantly.
- This esteem is to be given in the spirit of agape. We are not just to respect them, but hold them in affection.
- The members are to?know? them.
- It is in the best interest of the whole and its peace that esteem be given.
- Why is this admonition of esteem necessary?
- The esteem given by the members to their office-bearers is a way all serve in the church (not an end in itself).
- The unruly weaken the church and gives the devil reason to rejoice.
- Encouraged laborers is for the well-being of the body.