Know and Esteem Them Over You

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