For you know that we affectionally treated each of you like a loving father cares for his own children: We encouraged you by comforting and challenging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12

What did Paul mean when he said, “Encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thes 5:1)? We’ve been looking at the context of this well-known verse and found three things so far:

1. Encouragement is based, first of all, on Jesus and the good news of knowing Him.
2. Encouragement begins by identifying the work of God in one another’s lives.
3. Encouragement begins by being genuine—looking for how God is working in someone’s life and pointing it out.

So now we come to the next way Paul speaks of encouraging each other.

4. Encouragement begins by encouraging one another to walk in a manner worthy of God. What is a life worthy of God? One of the conversations we need to have with one another is to encourage each another to do what Jesus did in every situation: He did what He saw His Father doing and spoke what He heard His Father saying.

God calls us to make progress… to “grow and increase in God’s grace and intimacy with our Lord” (2 Pet 3;18). If that’s not happening, then we’ll only find thrills, passion and amusement in things outside of Jesus. And our weakness when it comes to sin will continue unabated.

The problem with finding our passions outside of Jesus is that it will be counterfeit; it won’t sustain us when the chips are down. God-given joy sustains, amusement does not. I met a woman the other day whose passion is roller coasters. She travels all over the world visiting amusement parks and riding on their roller coasters.

Nothing sinful with that, but it’s a hollow passion. Her life revolves around the next thrill ride. But it’s not unlike the passions that many Christians spin their lives around: I could write a list of examples but you get the idea. They are things that aren’t sin, per se, but they aren’t worthy of the God we love or the abundant life He is calling us to.

These hollow passions only sustain us as long as we’re on the ride. When the ride comes to a stop we have to wait in line all over again till the next ride comes. 

How do we encourage one another to walk in a manner worthy? Paul says like a father he encouraged them. “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Ps 103:13-14)

A father coaches and challenges us. He hugs us and holds us accountable. He encourages us by confidence he imparts in us. He a pillar of strength because he points to Jesus, where real strength comes from. He supplies and also teaches us how to supply for ourselves. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses and encourages/coaches our strengths while helping us grow beyond our weaknesses.

That’s how we encourage others.