Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are idle, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
All Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 5:14 Go To 1 Thessalonians 5
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Here he addresses those who have rule. Admonish, he says, the disorderly, not of imperiousness, he says, nor of self-will rebuke them, but with admonition. Encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be longsuffering toward all. For he who is rebuked with harshness, despairing of himself, becomes more bold in contempt. On this account it is necessary by admonition to render the medicine sweet. But who are the disorderly? All those who do what is contrary to the will of God. For this order of the Church is more harmonious than the order of an army; so that the reviler is disorderly, the drunkard is disorderly, and the covetous, and all who sin; for they walk not orderly in their rank, but out of the line, wherefore also they are overthrown. But there is also another kind of evils, not such as this indeed, but itself also a vice, little mindedness. For this is destructive equally with sloth. He who cannot bear an insult is feeble-minded. He who cannot endure trial is feeble-minded. This is he who is sown upon the rock. There is also another sort, that of weakness. Support the weak, he says; now weakness occurs in regard to faith. But observe how he does not permit them to be despised. And elsewhere also in his Epistles he says, Them that are weak in the faith receive ye. Romans 14:1 For in our bodies too we do not suffer the weak member to perish. Be longsuffering toward all, he says. Even toward the disorderly? Yes, certainly. For there is no medicine equal to this, especially for the teacher, none so suitable to those who are under rule. It can quite shame and put out of countenance him that is fiercer and more shameless than all men.
