Four Ongoing and Continuous Responsibilities for Every Jesus Follower

As Jesus’ followers, we all are in charge of certain responsibilities when it comes to our brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s the ‘we’ part of being in the Body of Christ. The ‘we’ part of the Jesus life means the emphasis is us — not I. The Jesus life is a group life. It’s a life invested in others. So, we have a responsibility. Now, you know there will always be those who try to side-step their responsibilities. They blame other factors, other people, for their actions or their current lot in life. Here are just a few minor examples. In 1980, a Boston court acquitted Michael Tindall of flying illegal drugs into the United States. Tindall’s attorneys argued that he was a victim of “action addict syndrome,” an emotional disorder that makes a person crave dangerous, thrilling situations. Tindall was not a drug dealer, merely a thrill seeker. No responsibility. An Oregon man who tried to kill his ex-wife was acquitted on the grounds that he suffered from “depression-suicide syndrome,” whose victims deliberately commit poorly planned crimes with the unconscious goal of being caught or killed. He didn’t really want to shoot his wife; he wanted the police to shoot him. He didn’t own his actions. Then there’s the famous “Twinkie syndrome.” Attorneys for Dan White, who murdered San Francisco mayor George Moscone, blamed the crime on emotional stress linked to White’s junk food binges. White was acquitted of murder and convicted on a lesser charge of manslaughter. Nowadays, nobody’s at fault for anything. We are a nation of victims.¹ Well, this kind of thing won’t work living the Jesus Life because that life is a life of ownership. Four Ongoing and Continuous Responsibilities for Every Jesus Follower: that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

We have a responsibility to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, and help the weak.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: What has been your experience operating in the areas, of admonishing, encouraging, and helping? How has it changed your life and the life of others?

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of First Thessalonians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 47 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Prayer

Father God help us to man up to our responsibilities. Help us to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. We ask you for your help in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Podcast Notes

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers

1 Thessalonians 5:11–14 (ESV) — 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

There are four things we need to be responsible for on an ongoing basis.
These four areas are located in verse fourteen.

Admonish the Idle.
Encourage the Fainthearted
Help the Weak
Be patient with All

Let’s take these up, one at a time, hopefully, we can get through them — if we can’t we will continue in the next podcast.
And, that will always be the case because we are going through this New Testament verse by verse — book by book — giving a running commentary on the New Covenant that we have because of Jesus — so we are going to cover it and see how God’s Word applies to our everyday life.
Four responsibilities for Jesus’ followers: the first is to admonish.

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers: To Admonish

The word ‘admonish’ is found in two places in this same chapter five we are looking at verse twelve and here in verse fourteen.
The reference in verse twelve is to leaders.
But the one we are looking at here is to all the brothers.
You know when the scripture says brothers, it means sisters as well.

1 Thessalonians 5:12 (ESV) — 12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,

We did a podcast on verses 11 and 12 but, I didn’t cover the word ‘admonish’ at that time because I knew we were going to be covering it in verse 14.
In both verses, twelve and fourteen, the Greek word ‘admonish’ is the same.
To live a responsible Jesus life, there must be a place for admonishment both on the giving side and the receiving side.
That is we are to receive admonishment, and we are to give it out.
Now, all we have to do is figure out what that looks like.
The word ‘admonish’ is super good — one that we may not fully realize all that brings into our lives.
And with that thought here is the Definition of the Day.
You wonder why I do definitions so much — let me just get up on my soapbox for a moment.
We need to be as precise as we can be as people.
We are coming up on a verse here in chapter five that says “prove all things — hold fast that which is good.”
People are not proving things with evidence they are reacting to issues with their emotions.
Manipulative people throw out catchphrases and people react without evidence just because you mention a certain word.
I’m trying to be as precise as I can be — and I can tell you that I don’t achieve it 100% but I’m striving for it.
We have to know what we are talking about.
You know growth has to be part of the equation.
Here is what I mean by that.
I’ve been teaching for over 47 years.
I’ve been doing podcasts for 10 of those years.
I have responsibilities in these areas.
You could probably, and I’m not aware of anything in particular when I say this, you could probably find an error or two.
I have done 470 podcasts to date.
Each podcast is around 3500 words — I’m getting to the Definition of the Day — just hang in there I am up on my soapbox.
That’s 1.6 million plus words just in podcast notes on the website.
There are an additional 375 blog posts.
We are easily at 2 million written words on my website.
The average novel is between 70,000 and 100,000 words
That means in the last 10 years I’ve written anywhere between 20 and 28 novel-size books.
When you are talking about being precise with the gospel — you have to factor in growth.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve written a lot of stuff but I’ve also grown some.
But here’s the thing, everything I’ve ever said — I believed to be the truth the day I said it.
I have never ever — ever — ever intentionally deceived anyone about a Bible verse — never — ever.
And that’s all any Pastor, minister, or Bible teacher can do.
That’s why I say don’t believe it just because I say it — examine it yourself — search it out yourself.
I’m talking about being precise here.
Did I say I was going to do the Definition of the Day?
Yes. let’s do it.
The Greek word admonish is the one we want to look at.
When you are admonishing someone, you are correcting them.
The word means to warn, counsel, or instruct someone in terms of their behavior.²
It carries the sense of getting up in someone’s ear when you see them taking improper courses of action.
If you see someone getting ready to derail, you know from the scripture that they are headed for major trouble, would you be walking in love if you said nothing?
Your desire must be to help build up the Body of Jesus.
Can I say it this way: You’re called to help people avoid train wrecks.
If that’s where your heart is, the word admonish reflects the activity you would be engaging in.
You must be careful here: people have a dogged determination to correct one another anyway.
That’s not what the Bible is talking about here.
Correcting somebody because you think you are God’s policeman is pride built into the sin nature.
Can I say? — It’s a monsoon of spiritual pride.
Admonishing someone must be done in the spirit of love and humility always considering yourself less you also be in the wrong.
Again, it’s your responsibility.
Look here in Second Timothy Two.

2 Timothy 2:24–26 (ESV) — 24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Now, this is not just for preachers — it’s for laypeople as well.
God’s standard is the same for everyone.
That’s the word ‘admonish.’
Now, drop down a couple of verses, that is from verse 12 to verse 14 and you will see Paul’s direction to the whole church body on this spiritual activity of admonishing.
We’ve already read it.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 (ESV) — 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

Admonish the idle.
Okay, so we know that ‘admonish’ means to warn, counsel, or instruct fellow believers, who are getting ready to derail in the area of idleness.
That means being idle, whatever that is, is an improper course of action.
The Spirit of God is saying if you see a brother engaged in this activity, get up in their ear about it with a spirit of love, humility, and gentleness.
That means you should leave the baseball bat at home.
We are not beating people up with words.
We are not saying ‘you lazy good for nothing, get off your hips and do something.’
We’re walking in love.
But to admonish a person about idleness we need to know what that is.
When you look up the definition of idleness, you may be surprised.
In the first century, the word ‘idle’ had a little more meaning than the English.
The word idle was a military word, and originally referred to the soldier who is out of step or out of rank, or to the army moving in disarray.
So, here is an idle person, that is, out of line, out of step, in disarray and they need to get back in line.
This idle person is disorderly, that is he or she is out of order and needs to get back into order.
So, when talking about idleness, we’re not talking about a person who is having a tough time finding a job.
No, the idle person of scripture is a person who is out of order because of his idleness.
He’s causing other people problems because he is idle.
He is out of line — out of order — he’s unruly.
One person said idleness is the parent of mischief.
So, he’s disorderly but the word idle in Greek also carries with it the action of not submitting to discipline.
This person is out of step, going their way, and is insubordinate³
So, we’re talking about the English definition of ‘idle’ plus.
Or we could say idle with an attitude.
Do you mean there are Jesus’ followers like this? Yes and yes.
Wow!
Work in scripture is considered a holy thing, idleness is regarded as a sin against oneself and society.
So take this idle person, who is out of line, who is out of order, who is acting undisciplined, and address them — admonish them — get in their ear.
This is your ongoing and continuous responsibility as a Jesus follower.
We must protect one another from idleness.
Idle men tempt the devil to tempt them.⁴
The end of this is that by receiving this correction God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.
Here is a vital distinction that all of you need to embrace — This is not just the Pastor’s job — it’s not just the spiritual leader’s job.
Verse fourteen which we are studying today is written to everyone.

Now we urge you, brothers.

It is written to the brothers.
So you have to be active with the brothers — you have to be connected with the Body — you know what’s going on because you are not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is.
You are plugged in.
You cannot obey any part of verse fourteen unless you are hooked up and engaged with the Body of Christ — with the things of God.
Fellowship is vital.
Showing up and being engaged with one another is critical.
Do your best not to skip fellowships.
“Well, I don’t feel like going — I’ll just stay home.”
Give of yourself.
Sow yourself — sow your time — be involved.
Now, Paul is urging you to do this.
If you meet him in heaven — this is what he will tell you.
The word ‘urge’ means to implore.
It is an earnest request whereby someone comes to [along] someone’s side.
With that thought, here, is the Illustration of the Day.

A, Spanish philosopher [Unamuno], tells about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain. It was built in 109 A.D. For eighteen hundred years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. Nearly sixty generations of men drank from its flow. Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, “This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor.” They did; they laid modern iron pipes. They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a reverent rest. And the aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to crumble. The bricks and stone sagged and threatened to fall. What ages of service could not destroy idleness disintegrated.⁵

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers: To Encourage the Fainthearted

14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

The word ‘fainthearted’ is the next keyword we want to focus on.
What do you think this means or what kind of person is fainthearted?
So to try and answer these questions let’s look at the term fainthearted.
First, its use here is as an adjective.
An adjective describes its noun in some way.
The fainthearted person is described as one who is less hopeful or enthusiastic.
Do you know such a person?
This person has a limited or diminished motivation for the attainment of some goal⁶
Growing in the things of God? — This person is not motivated along these lines.
Other synonyms that you can use for this word include the word timid.
Timid faith?
How about these words? — shy, shrinking, nervous, apprehensive, afraid, scared, fearful, cowardly, or chicken-hearted losing heart.
This is a fainthearted individual.
Per the Word, this is some of the believers in Thessalonica — it could be your brother or sister in Christ.
The KJV translates the word ‘faithhearted’ as feebleminded which misses the mark.
Commentators say the word ‘fainthearted’ describes a person with a small soul or little soul.
Your responsibility as a Jesus follower is to encourage the faithhearted.
That is, put courage into those who have a small soul.
That’s this commandment.
Now, this is the only time the word ‘faithhearted’ is used in the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, we have several verses that get us close to what the New Testament communicates about the fainthearted little soul.
Look at Isaiah thirty-five.

Isaiah 35:4 (ESV) — 4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

Proverbs eighteen adds this.

Proverbs 18:14 (ESV) — 14 A man’s spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?

So, we have an anxious or crushed spirit.
Do you know this person?
This next passage in Exodus is closely related but it’s not the same word.

Exodus 6:9 (ESV) — 9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

So, we have an anxious, crushed, or broken spirit.
The question is — do you know this person?
Do you know what caused this condition in this person?
In the early church, was it the persecution they experienced?
Today, is it the difficult conditions, or the perilous times we live in?
You know we are hearing about people who are suffering from anxiety disorders — that’s fainthearted.
The solution to this is not self-help books — it’s encouragement.
Encourage the fainthearted.
That’s your job.
Listen to the following story of the negative effects of being fainthearted.
This story comes from Yvonne Wood who was teaching the history of missions.
Yvonne calls this story “the biggest lost opportunity in missionary history.”

There was a thirteen-year-old in Mongolia who inherited a bit of land from his father. This boy was a precocious warrior with instinctive brilliance as a military strategist; he was also ruthless, and he formed fighting bands that went from village to village until he was ruling over two million people in a Mongolian Empire that stretched from China to India, and from Siberia to edges of Western Europe.

His name? Genghis Khan.

Genghis Khan ruled over more territory than any man has ever ruled. Meanwhile, at the same time in Western Europe, a great revival was occurring under the preaching of men like St. Francis of Assisi, and thousands were becoming Christians.

So get it now.
While one part of the planet was being conquered another part was coming to Jesus by the bushel basket load.

But Genghis Khan died and when he did, the bulk of his empire eventually went to his grandson, Kublai Khan, who established his capital city in Beijing. He had two Italians in his court named Polo.

One of the two men was the father of Marco Polo.
The other was the uncle of Marco Polo.

Both of these men began to tell Kublai Khan about Christianity, and the great ruler became very interested. He sent the Polo brothers back with a request for 100 missionaries to tell the Mongolians and the Chinese about Christianity. “When we learn about Christianity, there will be more Christians in my empire than in all Europe,” he said. The Polos returned with the message, but no one was interested in going. Finally two friars agreed to go with the Polos (and Marco Polo accompanied them) but along the way the friars got fainthearted and turned around and went home. When they got back to Kublai Khan, he said, “Where are the missionaries?” No one came. Eventually the church did send a small handful of missionaries, but by that time the opportunity had passed.

Where would the Chinese people be today if these two fainthearted men had accepted their responsibilities and been more courageous?
Encourage the fainthearted.

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers: Help the Weak

14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

Helping the weak is the next ongoing and continuing part of our responsibilities as Jesus’ followers.
Notice the action words that we have come across so far.
‘Admonish’ — come alongside someone and get in their ear.
‘Encourage’ — put courage into people who lack that trait.
And now the word ‘help.’
Help is an action word.
We are to help the weak — we means me and we means you.
The scripture here in First Thessalonians doesn’t specify what kind of ‘weak’ [ness] this is that we are to help with.
Was it physically weak, spiritually weak, or morally weak that we needed to help?
You cannot even tell from the definition of the word ‘weak’ because it’s used in the Bible to describe all these areas.
It’s used when referring to a person lacking in moral strength, courage, or will.
If you come across a Jesus follower who fits this description, help them.
‘Weak’ can pertain to a person suffering from a debilitating illness, sick, ill.
If you cross paths with such a person, help them — lay hands on them — pray for them — that’s part of the Jesus life.
The word ‘weak’ can mean experiencing some incapacity or limitation.
Help is the answer to this.
‘Weak’ can refer to physical weakness.
Help then means coming alongside and getting on the other end of the load and helping do the heavy lifting.
Another sense of the word weak is ineffectiveness, whether external or inward weak, feeble, or ineffectual.
The answer? You got it — it’s help.
The word is used to reference a lack of strength in the inner life.⁷
The answer to this again is the same — help.
How do you help in these cases?
Well, that’s a great question.
Here’s one way.

G. Ray Jordan relates this story in Religion that Is Eternal (Macmillan, 1960). It centers around the life of the late Rabbi Cohen of Texas during the presidency of William H. Taft. The noted Jewish leader did not sleep well one night because he was concentrating on how to help a certain refugee. The next morning he said to his wife: “Pack my bag; I am going to Washington.” On arriving in the capital city he was sorry to learn that the Department of Labor still insisted the case of Lemcauk, the refugee, was one of obvious illegal entry. The rabbi then called his congressman, insisting that he give him an entree to the President of the United States. Although President Taft was kind and friendly, he told the rabbi that the Lemcauk case was in the hands of the Department and that they had rendered a decision. Realizing that he had lost, the rabbi stood up to leave and thanked the President for seeing him. “I am sorry this had to happen to you, Rabbi Cohen,” President Taft said, “but allow me to say that I certainly admire the way you Jews help each other—to travel all the way from Galveston, Texas when a member of your faith is in trouble.” “Member of my faith? This man is not a Jew,” said the rabbi, “he is a Greek Catholic.” The President’s face changed, and in low tones, he said: “You mean to say you traveled all the way up here at your own expense to help out a Greek Catholic?” “He is in trouble; they are going to deport him on the next ship.… He will face a firing squad when he gets back to Russia. He is a human being, Mr. President. A human life is at stake, that is the way I see it.” “Sit down, Rabbi,” said the President. He rang for his secretary and gave this wire: “To the Chief Inspector of Immigration at Galveston: Hold Lemcauk in Galveston and release him in the custody of Rabbi Cohen on his return.” Then he added, “They’ll hear directly from the Department.”

Do you get the idea?
So, we covered three out of the four — the last one we will pick up as we continue our walk through Thessalonians in another podcast.

Now Father God thank you for your Word. Show us how to engage in these areas of admonishing, encouraging, and helping. We give you all the praise for it in Jesus Name, Amen.

Four Ongoing and Continuous Responsibilities for Every Jesus Follower.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

How to Conquer An Ungodly Habit

__________
References:

Louis Lotz, Sioux City, Iowa, Leadership, Winter Quarter, 1992, p. 57 Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002) ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 679 ↩
ibid ↩
John Plougman’s Talks – Charles Spurgeon ↩
Resource, Sept./Oct., 1992, p. 4 ↩
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 318. ↩
ibid ↩

emeryhorvath.com

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Four Ongoing and Continuous Responsibilities for Every Jesus Follower

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Thirty-Eight

by Emery Horvath

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Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of First Thessalonians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Prayer

Podcast Notes

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers: To Admonish

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers: To Encourage the Fainthearted

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers: Help the Weak

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe in PlayerFM

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of First Thessalonians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Prayer

Podcast Notes

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers: To Admonish

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers: To Encourage the Fainthearted

Responsibilities for Jesus Followers: Help the Weak

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