Summary of my sermon, based on 1 Thessalonians 5:12-19. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto on Sunday, 5 July 2026.
The Call to Excel Still More (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2)
To understand the full context of Paul’s instructions, we have to look back at 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2:
“Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The version of this verse that I memorized says that you excel still more. This is an excellent reminder for us. There are congregations that genuinely strive to honor God—and I believe GCF is one of them—but the very nature of excellence is that there is always more excellence to be had. Even when you are already doing the good things God expects, the exhortation is to keep doing it more and more. Paul’s primary goal here is teaching us what it means to walk in a way that is pleasing to God.
Dynamic of Leadership and Peace (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13)
Looking at the opening of our primary section, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 outlines our conduct toward one another in community, while the subsequent verses cover our conduct toward God. If we accomplish what we ought to among each other, we will effectively accomplish our conduct towards God as well. Let’s look at verses 12-13:
“We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.”
It is interesting how this verse closes by telling the Thessalonians to be at peace among themselves. At first glance, it doesn’t seem directly related to the first part of the verse, which focuses on respecting leadership. However, they work together tightly. When leadership is not respected, chaos is exactly what happens—in the church and everywhere else in this world.
There are times when leadership must be opposed and rebellion against oppressive leadership is necessary. A great example of this is what our neighbors to the south just celebrated yesterday: the 4th of July, or Independence Day. This is the day Americans celebrate their independence from the British.
On July 4, 1776—250 years ago—they weren’t celebrating with fireworks the way people do today. The first Independence Day happened right in the middle of the American War of Revolution. That war started a bit earlier, in April 1775, and lasted until September 3, 1783. For eight years, the Americans were at war with the British. When they rebelled against the oppressive leadership of King George III, chaos immediately ensued. This isn’t a value judgment on who was right or wrong; as Canadians, our founders chose a different path of not seceding from Britain. The point is simply that when rebellion against leadership occurs, chaos almost always erupts immediately after.
Peaceful rebellions are rare outliers in history. As Filipinos, we are familiar with a famous example: the People Power Revolution, where Filipinos broke free from the oppressive dictatorship of Marcos through largely peaceful protests. But even in a situation without wide-scale violence, you couldn’t exactly call the situation in the Philippines during the late ’80s and early ’90s completely peaceful. I was just a small child, but I distinctly remember being home from school and seeing military jets flying directly above our house during one of the coup attempts against President Cory Aquino. Even in an outlier situation, peace is easily shattered when leadership order breaks down.
Our Shared Duty of Care (1 Thessalonians 5:14)
In the church context, leadership is specifically associated with elders and pastoral offices. However, Paul writes: “who labor among you and are over you,” without specifying exact titles. This suggests that each of us has a role to play in looking out for one another.
Paul turns his attention to the weakest within the congregation who need direction, instructing the whole group to participate:
- Admonish the idle: Call out those who are not contributing or doing what they are supposed to do.
- Encourage the faint-hearted: Lift up those who are overwhelmed and need encouragement.
- Help the weak: Physically and spiritually support those who are struggling.
- Be patient with them all: Exercise widespread patience across the entire community.
We all share a collective duty of care to step up and lead one another in the Lord when these needs arise.
The Active Command vs. Cheap Knockoffs (1 Thessalonians 5:15)
This brings us directly to verse 15:
“See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.”
This command has two sides: the negative restriction (repay no one evil for evil) and the positive mandate (always seek to do good). Seeing both sides is critical because our sinful flesh can easily become lazy. Avoiding retaliation is a basic level of morality. Jesus commanded this in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-39) when he challenged the old standard of “an eye for an eye” and said, “Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
To understand the active depth of “doing good,” we can compare it to a much more famous text—the Golden Rule found in Matthew 7:12:
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
This concept of reciprocity is present in almost every world religion and philosophy, but there is a fundamental difference when you read their versions:
- Judaism: “That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the whole Torah.”
- Hinduism: “One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself.”
- Buddhism: “Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.”
- Islam: “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother that which he loves for himself.”
While these look similar on the surface, the crucial difference is that the other versions are stated passively. They tell you to sit back and prevent yourself from doing bad things to others.
The Christian Golden Rule stands apart because it is an aggressively active command: Do unto others. You are commanded to actively go out and work for the concrete betterment of others. The passive frameworks are just cheap knockoffs—like buying fake designer bags from Divisoria. True Christian community requires active sacrifice.
Fully Relying on Christ’s Work
Scripture expands on this active standard in other places. Philippians 2:3-4 tells us to do nothing from selfish ambition, but in humility count others as more significant than ourselves, looking directly out for their interests. Romans 15:2-3 instructs us to please our neighbors for their good and build them up, drawing a direct parallel to Jesus: “For Christ did not please himself.” Christ didn’t please himself; he went to a brutal cross to absorb our reproaches.
When you pair this with Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5:48—”You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”—the real point of the command is to show you that you are completely incapable of accomplishing it on your own.
Left to our own sinful natures, we are simply too selfish. I’m too selfish to even avoid repaying evil for evil sometimes; it’s why I have a couple of points on my driver’s license from how I handle traffic. Avoiding retaliation is just the baseline. Actively seeking the absolute best for others and sacrificing ourselves the way Christ did is impossible in our own strength.
We can only accomplish this through the reality of Philippians 2:13:
“For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
This is exactly what we celebrate at the communion table. Jesus Christ died to save us from the historical penalty of sin, and at the end of time, he will remove the presence of sin completely. But right now, while the presence of sin is still around us, his sacrifice provides the power for our ongoing sanctification. Every time we take communion, we remember his death not only out of deep gratitude for our salvation, but to allow him to break through our selfishness so he can work in and through us for his good pleasure.
Excel Still More 