1Thessalonians 5:12 -13 “12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.”

This is Labor Day weekend. In 1894, railroad workers went on strike, refusing to do anything with the Pullman company. The Pullman company had not been taking in much in revenues, so it cut the wages of its workers. When they went on strike, the military and national guard were called in. The uproar was so great that when the strike was finally settled, Congress rushed through a Labor Day celebration as a way to bring some peace between the government and labor. Every year we celebrate Labor Day by not working!

This passage speaks about our attitude towards those who work for us. Now there are two different directions that we can look when we see those who work for us. The first is employees. They work for us and get paid. The second are the customers. The customers have people do work for them and they pay for that work.

How do you treat people who work for you? How do you treat your employees or the employees of a company who are helping you?

This also flows into the church. Most of us treat people in the church the same way we treat people outside the church. How do you treat the people who work for you? We may call them volunteers or ministry people. But they are people who are working both for the Lord and for us. How are we to treat them?

First, we are to see those who work.

The NIV says, “Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you.” The New King James says, “1Th 5:12 “12 And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,”

The better translation has this idea of seeing, of recognizing those who labor, those who work among us. Do you see them?

I do know that some of you feel unseen. No one has mentioned your work from the pulpit, people may have been critical of some of your decisions. You may be under stress in your ministry. Paul tells us not to be weary in well doing. Keep on keeping on. You are doing it for the Lord. He has a book and he is writing down all your work that; it is not going unnoticed.

But the second part of that is that those of us who are being helped by others are commanded to notice them. We are to recognize those who work among us.

Do you see them? Do you see what the elders are doing? Do you see the trustees and the efforts they are putting in? Do you understand how much the treasurer and assistant treasurer do in the background for your benefit? Do you know who is working so hard in the exchange shop? Do you see the nursery workers, the Sunday school teachers and the youth workers who are giving of their time for your children? Do you see them? Do you see who is running our sound system or who it is that provides music and voice to our worship time? Do you know who is working to connect our church to our missions and do you know our missionaries who are labouring on our behalf around the world?

Paul says, “I want you to see those who are working for you, I want you to recognize them.” And so we should.

In Thessalonica, Paul has a special group of people that he wants the church to see. He wants them to see those who are “over them in the Lord.”

The Greek word that is used here was a common word in the Roman world. It spoke of a benefactor. An artist, for example, might have a wealthy person who hired them to produce their art. Or someone might help a family member in some way. The rich would help the poorer.

Let’s face it. Some have money. Some have worldly goods. Some have to give and some do not.

So let’s imagine starting a church in the 1st century. You are a traveling evangelist. You go to a town, start a church, and then leave. What happens to the church? Where does it meet? Who leads the service? Who guides the people? There are no seminaries, not ‘professional clergy.’ What happens?

Imagine with me what happens. Someone opens their home to the new church. The person who opens their home would probably be better off than many in that they 1) owned a home and 2) it was big enough to hold the people who came. The person who opened the home would often also be the leader of the church that met in their home. For example, Philemon 1-2 “1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and fellow-worker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow-soldier and to the church that meets in your home:” Philemon, as we learn, owned slaves, owned and opened his home, and was no doubt one of the leaders of the church.

It would be so easy to take this person for granted. “They can afford it.” “They always give.” It would be possible to become indifferent or ungrateful for all that these people who were over them in the Lord were doing. The expense associated with preparing the home. The time spent in preparation for the service. The pastoral care they gave to those in the church.

Paul says, “Recognize them. See them. Notice those who are over you in the Lord.”

A second characteristic was that they also were the ones who admonished them. This probably means that they were the people who taught the Bible. They encouraged and warned the believers in the church. They prayed with people and offered counsel. As there seems to be no specific church government at this point, these were the spiritual leaders in Thessalonica.

A third characteristic was that these people worked hard for them.

Let’s face it. We can’t help but notice people who don’t pull their own weight. We notice the slouchers, the people who don’t keep commitments, the people who offer to help and don’t show up to do the work. These are noted. One of the biggest complaints about labor unions, tenure and those types of things is that it becomes almost impossible to fire people who are not producing up to their potential.

But some of the hardest workers go under the radar. They show up on time or early. They give of themselves to do what is expected of them and then they leave on time or a little late. They are just always working, always moving, always doing the little or the big things.

We sometimes think, “I don’t have to do it, such-and-such will take care of it.” And we take them for granted.

Second, we are to respect those who work. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.”

The result of people helping you and I is that we love them in return. We don’t love them for their personality or their relationship to us. We love them because of their work. There are people that we may not know personally or like as individuals that we love for their work. I have never met James Dobson, but I hold him in high esteem for the hard work he has done for the Christian family. I have never met Bob Emerich, but I hold him in high esteem for the hard work he has done to preserve marriage in Maine. There are people that I would not click with that I respect and love because I know that they are working hard for the kingdom of God.

The church at Thessalonica had people who opened their homes, ministered the word, and worked hard. Paul wanted people to notice them and hold them in the highest regard because of their work.

Third, we are to live in peace with those who work for us.

I may be stretching this, but I had a question when I read this phrase. Is this connected with the previous statements or is it independent.

Is living in peace with each other just a statement in the list we have here or is Paul thinking about the people’s relationship to their benefactors?

I chose to think that though it would apply independently, the tie in of peace with those who are over you in the Lord can also fit. How do we show esteem to leaders? How do we love leaders?

We live at peace with them. Let me make this a little personal. I have some good friends in this church. These friends support me, they pray for me, they are a real blessing to me. But these friends don’t always agree with me. Their disagreements are always done by focusing on what God wants, on what is good for the church. They do not question motives, make personal attacks or seek to undermine the ministry. Though they disagree, they are not disagreeable. We are at peace.

This from the internet: A September 4th New York Times article started this way. “The Board of Deacons of the Willis Street Baptist Church, at Paterson, N.J., held a secret meeting in the church on Monday evening, at which Pastor Guirey preferred charges against Deacons Bustard and Worden for calling him a liar and hypocrite at the church meeting last Wednesday night.”

I just ask this question, not knowing any of the details. Were these people at peace? There is something unchristian in having an issue lead to shouting, calling people names, and making headlines in the New York Times. Christ has called us to deal with things better than that. He has called us to peace.

And this is what Paul is asking the Thessalonians to do. He is not asking them to agree on everything, but he is asking them to be at peace with one another. Sometimes the road to peace can be difficult. God uses us as sandpaper in each others lives as he seeks to conform us to the image of Christ. The one another broadens this to say this is the way we should treat everyone in the church. Be at peace.

So on this Labor Day weekend, we celebrate those who are serving the Lord. If there are any of you whose work is going unnoticed, please forgive us for our oversight. Let’s esteem, lift up, pay special tribute to those who are working hard among us. Let’s do so by living at peace.

I want to ask you this question. What name comes to your mind when I ask you to identify the most under recognized worker in our congregation? I encourage you to encourage them in some way this week for the glory of God.