1 Thessalonians 5:12–28
Paul concludes, as he usually does, with a series of final exhortations. Paul talks about how to treat leaders and enemies within the church, encourages unceasing prayer, and prays for the complete sanctification of all within the congregation. This section is packed with traditional Christian teachings (e.g., “See that no one returns evil for evil”) that Paul has adapted for this particular occasion. A lazy reader might be tempted to skim over this material, but the letter’s conclusion summarizes many of the letter’s key points, and it contains some of its most memorable and influential lines.
Regard for Authorities in the Lord (5:12–13)
12We ask you, brothers, to respect those who are laboring among you and who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you, 13and to show esteem for them with special love on account of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
NT: Gal 6:6; 1 Tim 5:17–22
Catechism: the body of Christ, 1267–70
Up until this point in the letter no mention has been made of ecclesial authorities other than the apostles themselves, but here we learn that certain unnamed members have a special responsibility to care for the congregation. Though three tasks are mentioned (laboring, exercising authority, admonishing), in the Greek it is clear that Paul is talking about one group of people rather than three. At this point in Paul’s ministry it is unlikely that Greek-speaking Christians used the titles episkopoi (“bishops”), presbyteroi (“elders”), or diakonoi (“deacons”), which is probably why we do not find them in this passage. Later New Testament texts do use these terms but do not distinguish between bishops and elders (Acts 20:17, 28; Phil 1:1; Titus 1:6–7).1 By the beginning of the second century, the three ordained offices are clearly distinguished in the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, but bishops and elders are not given the designation “priest” (hiereus) until later than that (see sidebar, “St. Ignatius of Antioch on Respect for Leaders,” p. 126). Nevertheless, this passage is evidence that from the earliest days of Christianity there were leaders in local churches. In later centuries, readers of 1 Thessalonians understandably took Paul to be talking about respect for ordained clergy. John Chrysostom, for instance, assumes that this passage is about respect for local priests, and Thomas Aquinas takes it to refer to deference to Church authorities.2
These leaders’ responsibilities include “admonishing” the rest of the church, a word that could refer to moral exhortation (see 5:14), as well as other instruction. These unnamed leaders are also laboring and doing work for the sake of the church, words that Paul uses to describe his own manual labor (e.g., 2:9) as well as the work of those who preach the gospel (e.g., 1 Cor 15:10). In addition to teaching and moral exhortation, the leaders’ work might include mundane administration in support of the community’s life, such as the distribution of resources to those in need. Another possible task of leaders who could read probably included reading this letter aloud to the gathered church (1 Thess 5:27).
The leaders are also said to be set over you (proistēmi) in the Lord. The word proistēmi commonly refers to people who have an official responsibility to manage or help others, such as court officials, pagan priests, or legal guardians. In 1 Timothy it refers to the “presiding” role of presbyters (5:17) and the “managing” of households (3:4–5, 12).3 Since the early twentieth century some have argued that proistēmi could mean “care for” or “show interest in” rather than “rule over,” hence the NIV’s translation, “care for you in the Lord.” Due to ongoing disputes about the nature of authority in the Church, scholars have subjected this phrase to extra scrutiny, and there is a marked tendency in some recent commentaries to prefer interpretations that downplay these leaders’ authority as much as possible in hope of demonstrating that the Church was egalitarian at this early stage.4 But the evidence of proistēmi being used to refer to simple “caring” is not strong.5 When it does refer to caring or providing, it is the caring expected of someone in an official capacity.6 There is no doubt that these leaders “cared for” the congregation, as the NIV suggests, but they also wielded a measure of authority as teachers. Paul did not share the modern wish for a church without authority.7
How did Paul expect the congregation to treat its leaders? Unlike some other early Christians, he does not ask the congregation to obey its leaders (see Heb 13:17). Instead, he asks them to “know” (oida) their leaders, a word that the NABRE translates as respect. What does this mean? The Thessalonian church was small and had existed only for a short time, so it could hardly mean that they should “get to know” their leaders. Paul sometimes uses the language of knowing to indicate respect (e.g., 1 Cor 16:18), but these passages use a different Greek word. Fortunately, Ignatius of Antioch provides us with a close parallel to what Paul says here, using “know” to refer to honoring God and the bishop (see sidebar, “St. Ignatius of Antioch on Respect for Leaders,” above). “Knowing” in this case would mean something like “acknowledging” them with appropriate honor or respect (see 2 Thess 1:8). Theodoret of Cyrus, an ancient Greek interpreter of Paul, summarizes this passage accordingly: “It is right for all of you to consider your teachers worthy of honor.”8
Paul also asks the congregation to esteem these leaders. Unfortunately, the NABRE translation of this verse (show esteem for them with special love on account of their work) leaves much to be desired: what exactly is “special love?” The NRSV is more satisfactory: “Esteem them very highly in love because of their work.” Paul wants the congregation to hold these leaders in high regard because their efforts make the life of the Thessalonian church possible. St. John Chrysostom compares this love to the affection that one should have for the person who introduced you to your spouse; the gratitude is in proportion to the importance of the work.9 Paul also asks the congregation to be at peace among yourselves. This does not necessarily imply that he thought there was a problem, but Paul would have known very well that disputes could easily arise in the future. Some of the most reliable ancient manuscripts read, “Be at peace among them.” If this is what Paul wrote, then the point would be to forestall conflict with the leaders of the congregation.
Short Exhortations (5:14–22)
14We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with all. 15See that no one returns evil for evil; rather, always seek what is good [both] for each other and for all. 16Rejoice always. 17Pray without ceasing. 18In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise prophetic utterances. 21Test everything; retain what is good. 22Refrain from every kind of evil.
Lectionary: 1 Thess 5:16–24; Third Sunday of Advent (Year C)
As the letter draws to a close, Paul gives a series of final, rapid-fire instructions. Some interpreters since John Chrysostom have thought that in verse 14 Paul is giving special instructions to the leaders. He just described leaders as those “who admonish you” (5:12), and here he says, We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle. Though Paul surely expected the leaders to be prominent among those admonishing, these instructions are probably addressed to the whole church. There is no signal in the text that would indicate a restricted audience, and the exhortations that follow in 5:15–22 certainly apply to everyone. St. Caesarius of Arles rightly concludes that in this passage the “Apostle also preaches not only to the clergy but to the laity.”10 The word translated as “idle” (ataktos) usually means “disorderly,” and is often used to describe unorganized troops. The NABRE, following an old custom among English translations, overinterprets this word, assuming that it refers to a specific kind of disorder: refusal to work. Lazy disorder is clearly a problem in 2 Thessalonians (3:6–10), and in the present letter Paul does remind the congregation of the importance of work (4:11), but it is not obvious that this is what Paul is talking about here. A more cautious approach is to leave open the possibility that Paul is concerned about other sorts of disorder as well. Paul wants the congregation to reach out to the disorderly, the fainthearted, and the weak. Paul’s concern for these groups makes a great deal of sense given what we already know about the congregation from chapter 4. We know that there were Christians in Thessalonica who were struggling to refrain from fornication (4:3–8), and that some of them were grieving the loss of some of their number (4:13–18). It is certain, therefore, that there was plenty of disorder and faintheartedness to admonish and encourage.
The members of the Thessalonian congregation are to correct and encourage one another, but it is inevitable that they will sometimes wrong one another, unintentionally or otherwise. When this happens, they must refuse to repay evil for evil. The Old Testament command of “eye for eye” (e.g., Exod 21:23–24) was designed to limit retaliation by forbidding disproportionate acts of revenge, and in the other Old Testament and noncanonical Jewish texts it is sometimes said that it would be better not to seek vengeance at all (Prov 20:22). Paul teaches that it was not enough simply to refuse to get revenge. One must go a step further and always seek what is good for others in the Church and for all people outside the Church as well. This command goes beyond passivity or nonretaliation to actively pursue the benefit of others. John Chrysostom calls this way of life “the greater philosophy, not only to refrain from repaying evil with evil, but to repay evil with good.”11 Exhortations to love of enemies became common in early Christianity and are best known from the Sermon on the Mount.12
The conclusion of the letter recalls its beginning. The letter begins with Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy’s claim to “give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly” (1:2). They rejoice that the Thessalonians have endured persecution with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Now, at the letter’s end, Paul asks the grieving congregation to rejoice, pray, and give thanks at all times. Is it possible to pray and give thanks at all times? Paul uses three parallel phrases describing the perpetual nature of these activities: always (pantote), without ceasing (adialeiptōs), In all circumstances (en panti). The first and third suggest not unceasing activity but praise that is offered in all kinds of circumstances. The word adialeiptōs does suggest nonstop behavior, though there could be an element of exaggeration here (see the use of the same word to describe prayer in 1 Macc 12:11). Even so, prayer that is more or less unceasing is a tall order (see Reflection and Application on 5:14–22).
For Paul, a life of thanksgiving and prayer did not mean walking around with the light feeling that accompanies good times, or plastering a smile over inner turmoil. Instead, he trusted that the Holy Spirit would enable Christians to give thanks to God regardless of the circumstances. Paul’s letter to the Philippians provides a good example of him putting his own teaching into practice. Writing from prison and expecting to be killed, he gives thanks to God (1:3–14) and asks the Philippians to do the same (4:4–6), not because he expects things to go well, but because he believes Christ will be exalted by his death or his life (1:20–21).
Reading 1 Thess 5:16–18 in a modern Bible, one could get the impression that Paul has turned from the question of how church members should treat one another to talk about individual piety. The original text was not divided into verses, however. The call to “rejoice” follows immediately after the preceding command to seek the good for all. Though standard English does not distinguish between the second-person singular and plural, the words “rejoice,” “pray,” and “give thanks” are plural imperatives in Greek. They are commands addressed to the entire congregation. This passage concludes with a solemn explanation: for this is the will of God for you [plural] in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit, Paul warns. The word translated as “quench” is often used of fire, and of course the Spirit was associated with fire (e.g., Acts 2:3). Quenching the Spirit would mean “putting out” the fire of God’s presence. How could humans do such a thing? Paul does not think that people are able to harm God, but he does think that they can “quench” the Spirit’s work in the community’s life by opposing the Spirit’s gifts. One example of quenching the Spirit—perhaps the one that Paul was most concerned about—is the despising of prophetic utterances. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God inspired prophets to convict the people of sin, warn them of coming judgment, and comfort them with words of coming restoration. Jesus was widely recognized as a prophet (e.g., Mark 8:28), and the book of Acts teaches that after Jesus’s ascension the Holy Spirit gave prophetic gifts to the Church (e.g., Acts 2:14–18). In a later letter, Paul teaches that the gift of prophecy is for the “building up, encouragement, and solace” of the Church (1 Cor 14:3), though Paul takes it to be self-evident that not all Christians have this gift (1 Cor 12:29). Paul encourages the Thessalonians to use their prophetic gifts but also to subject supposed prophetic messages to critical scrutiny. They are not to despise prophecies, but to Test everything; retain what is good, and Refrain from every kind of evil. If a brother or sister claimed to speak prophetically, the congregation was not to assume the validity of such speech but instead to test the message in light of what they knew to be good and evil (see 1 Cor 14:29; 1 John 4:1). The prophet’s message needed to accord with the truth that had already been revealed (see commentary on 2 Thess 2:2). In later centuries this passage became the blueprint for how the Magisterium should deal with movements that emerge in the Church: the bishops must take care not to quench the Spirit by discouraging such movements, but they must be tested so that the good can be retained.13
The warning against quenching the Spirit (v. 19) should not be taken to refer only to the acceptance of prophecies (v. 20). Patristic commentators generally interpreted verse 19 as encouragement to fan the flame of the Spirit more generally, and with good reason: verses 19 and 20 are not linked grammatically, and the significance of the Spirit for Paul extends far beyond charismatic gifts. For Paul, the Spirit enables Christians to become more like Christ (1:6). Any behavior that works in the opposite direction would be an effort toward quenching the Spirit. For instance, in 4:3–8 Paul warned that through sexual immorality the Church could become “impure” and reject the Holy Spirit. Athanasius and John Chrysostom interpret this passage to be saying that people could quench the Spirit through unholy deeds.14 Gregory of Nazianzus links keeping the flame of the Spirit alive with being reconciled to God.15 According to Thomas Aquinas, one could quench the Spirit simply by stopping someone from performing a generous deed.16
Reflection and Application (5:14–22)
Over the centuries, many readers have wrestled with Paul’s instruction to “pray without ceasing” (5:17; see also Eph 6:18; Col 4:2; Luke 18:1). The nineteenth-century Russian text The Way of a Pilgrim begins when a mendicant attends the liturgy and hears 1 Thess 5:17:
I heard the following words: “Pray without ceasing.” This verse especially fixed itself in my mind, and I began to wonder how one could pray unceasingly, since each man must occupy himself with other matters as well, in order to make a living. . . . I thought about this for some time but was unable to understand it.17
He continues to wrestle with this for the remainder of the book, eventually learning continual “interior prayer” by reciting the “Jesus prayer” (“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”) without ceasing. St. Augustine admits that it is impossible to pray unceasingly if we restrict ourselves to formalized prayers that involve “bending the knee, prostrating the body, or lifting up our hands.” But there is, Augustine claims, “another inward kind of prayer without ceasing, which is the desire of the heart.” If you long for God, you do not cease to pray, for “the continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.”18 In other words, all of life can be done for God’s sake, recognizing that all good things are God’s gifts, and become in this way prayer and thanksgiving. Moreover, according to Augustine, God speaks back by shaping our desires, uniting our will to his.19
In his commentary on 1 Thessalonians, Thomas Aquinas gives his own answer to this question by drawing on the opinions of many who preceded him. He says that it is possible to pray without ceasing in three ways. First, we do so by praying at the appointed times during the day. Second, following Augustine, Thomas says that we pray when we desire God and God’s will. Third, drawing on the biblical idea that gifts for the poor are gifts for God (e.g., Phil 4:18), Thomas teaches that almsgiving sets off a cascade of prayer that continues unceasingly, because “the one who receives your gift prays for you even while you are asleep.”20
Prayer for Complete Sanctification (5:23–25)
23May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it. 25Brothers, pray for us [too].
OT: Lev 19:1–2; Isa 6:1–7
NT: Matt 5:48
Catechism: grace, 1996–2005
As in a number of his other letters, Paul begins to conclude with a prayer for peace, often referring to God as the God of peace. It is striking that Paul would associate God with peace so soon after mocking those who erroneously think that there is peace (5:3). The implication is that not everything called “peace” deserves the name. The peace offered by the Roman Empire, obtained by violence, is fleeting and will be revealed as a sham on the day of the Lord (5:1–3). In contrast, the peace that Paul prays for is from God and is certain because it rests on God’s own faithfulness (5:24). This peace involves the renewal of creation and the total sanctification of those who belong to Christ.
Like the prayer in 3:11–13, this prayer summarizes many of the key ideas in the letter: the importance of the holiness of the Thessalonians, the coming of Jesus, and God’s faithfulness to them as they wait for this day. The prayer consists of two parallel parts that repeatedly stress the importance of complete holiness. First, Paul prays that God would sanctify the Thessalonian congregation perfectly, or completely. They are already holy because they are recipients of the Holy Spirit (4:3–8), yet they need to progress to attain complete holiness (3:11–13; 4:3). Second, Paul prays that they would be preserved by God in sanctity, being kept blameless when Jesus returns. As in 3:11–13, Paul is presupposing a final judgment, assuming that when the Lord returns he will evaluate everyone’s deeds. But this judgment is not something to be feared but instead is to be anticipated in hope, because God will faithfully make the church ready for this day.21
The prayer states that “the God of peace himself” will do the sanctifying, and verse 24 assures the Thessalonians that the one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it. How could Paul be so confident that God would do this work for them after claiming earlier in the letter that they must learn to behave in way that is pleasing to God (e.g., 4:1–8)? It is often difficult for modern readers to grasp, but Paul saw no contradiction between saying that people must strive to be holy and saying that holiness is God’s gift. Paul states this in a pithy way in Phil 2:12–13: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is the one working in you” (my translation). God’s faithfulness provides hope because believers know that their fate does not rest in their own excellence. At the same time, God’s gift is the sanctification of believers, and for that sanctification to be real it must be lived. For this reason St. Basil the Great was right to cite 1 Thess 5:24 and then add, “provided we keep His commandments by the grace of Christ in the Holy Spirit.”22
Paul’s prayer is for complete sanctification, touching every part of a Christian’s life. Their holiness must be complete, extending to spirit, soul, and body. Some, such as St. Irenaeus and Origen, have interpreted the mention of spirit, soul, and body to mean that humans are made up of three different parts, but this is an overinterpretation.23 There is no hint in Paul’s other letters that he saw humans as being divided into three parts. Paul’s point here is very similar to the †Shema: one must love God “with all your heart, and soul, and strength” (Deut 6:5 [my translation]). This means loving God with your entire being, not that people are made up of three parts. The mention of the body is, however, a good reminder that salvation is not an escape from the body and material creation but rather the sanctification and redemption of it.
The Thessalonians are already holy inasmuch as they have received the Holy Spirit and are called to live in sanctity and purity (4:3–8). Nevertheless, Paul sees the coming presence of the Lord as the decisive moment when complete sanctity will be required. His thinking here is not unlike Isaiah’s vision of God in the temple. The fiery seraphim hail God as “holy, holy, holy,” and Isaiah panics, realizing that he is a sinner unfit to be in God’s presence: “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (6:5). In response, one of the seraphim takes an ember from the altar and touches Isaiah’s mouth, saying, “Now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged” (6:7). Similarly, Paul prays for the Thessalonians’ complete sanctification in preparation for the presence of Jesus, knowing that it is not possible to dwell with God, the all-holy One, while remaining in sin and impurity.
In his commentary on this passage, Thomas Aquinas suggests that Paul prays that they will be kept “blameless” instead of “without sin” because only Christ can be sinless. Blamelessness, Thomas says, “may describe those who may commit venial sins, but nevertheless do not commit grave sins by which their neighbors would be led to sin.”24 Thomas then cites Luke 1:6, which speaks of Zechariah and Elizabeth living “blamelessly” according to God’s commands. Thomas is certainly correct that the word “blameless” (amemptōs) was not used to mean utter perfection. Shortly after being called blameless, Zechariah was chastised by the angel Gabriel for his lack of faith in God’s promise (Luke 1:18–20). Paul himself says that prior to being called by Jesus he was “blameless” in the righteousness of the Torah (Phil 3:6), and Paul is the first to admit that he was not without sin in those days. The word translated as “blameless” (amemptōs) appears frequently on pagan inscriptions, where it suggests not utter perfection but a life lived well in service of the city.25 Thomas’s suggestion is, therefore, a good reminder that human “blamelessness” cannot mean complete sinlessness in this life.
Just after praying for the Thessalonians, Paul asks that they pray for him, as he does of the recipients in most of his letters (Rom 15:30–33; 2 Cor 1:11; Phil 1:19; Philem 1:22). He does not indicate what he wants them to pray for, though a careful reader of the letter would be likely to pray for Paul’s sanctification (1 Thess 5:23) and that God would make it possible for him to visit Thessalonica again (2:18; 3:10–11). Since Paul is the authority figure in the relationship, asking for their prayer also contains an implicit lesson, as Theodoret of Cyrus recognizes: “He asks them to pray, not only so he will have the help of their prayer, but also so he may teach them how to behave.”26 By asking for their prayer, he shows that he too needs to progress on the path of sanctification (Phil 3:12–14) and that their intercession is significant.
26Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers. 28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Paul frequently ends his letters by instructing the church members to greet one another with a holy kiss (Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12). The holy kiss was also practiced beyond Paul’s churches (1 Pet 5:14), and by the mid-second century it had become a fixed point in the liturgy.27 In the Greco-Roman world, kisses were exchanged between lovers and family members, but also in a wide range of other settings that would seem odd to most modern Westerners, at least in the English-speaking world. Kisses could be a way of creating or strengthening relationships, like a more robust alternative to our habit of shaking hands. For instance, the Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius mention emperors kissing troops to ingratiate themselves to mutinous soldiers.28 Judas Iscariot’s kiss, which the Church Fathers often contrast with the holy kiss, profanes the intimacy of a friendly kiss, which is what makes it so memorably cruel. John Chrysostom interprets the holy kiss as Paul’s way of uniting the members of the Church: “Having united them with his †paraenesis, he naturally commands them also to be joined through the holy kiss. For this kiss unites and gives birth to one body.”29 Together with the prevalence of familial language in 1 Thessalonians, the holy kiss was a way of uniting the new converts as a family along with Christians in other cities. Paul usually asks churches to greet “one another” with a holy kiss, but here he asks them to greet all the brothers in this way. If there were any doubt about whether some of the erring members of the congregation should receive the holy kiss, stating the command this way would ensure that no one is left out. It is also possible that Paul wants them to greet one another and Christians from elsewhere in Macedonia with a holy kiss. The Thessalonian congregation was not an isolated community; it was part of a wider body that included Christian neighbors in Philippi (1:7–8).
Since the letter is from Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, most of it is written in the first-person plural, but in a few places Paul uses the singular (2:18; 3:5), which is a clue that he has been the principal author all along. Here it is likely that Paul took the pen from the †amanuensis to write the conclusion in his own hand, as he does in other letters (e.g., 1 Cor 16:21; Gal 6:11; 2 Thess 3:17). He issues a warning: I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers. When American courtrooms ask a witness to place a hand on a Bible and swear to tell the truth, they are implicitly calling God to witness and to compel the witness to tell the truth. Similarly, to adjure (enorkizō) someone by God or another power was to attempt to place that person under an oath before God. In Mark’s Gospel, demons attempt to place Jesus under oath (horkizō) by God not to torture them (5:7), and in Acts certain exorcists unsuccessfully attempt to use the formula “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches” to cast out evil spirits (19:13). In the centuries that followed, Christian funerary inscriptions sometimes adjure visitors by God, Jesus, or other beings not to disturb the grave. Paul’s language here is surprisingly solemn.
Why was this solemn adjuration necessary? It shows that Paul considered the letter absolutely vital for them to hear. It was not enough for some of them to read it and share the gist of the message. They all needed to hear these words read aloud. The letter probably would have been delivered in the first place to the leaders, and Paul wants to ensure that it is shared with all, including those who would have been unable to read it for themselves. Also, although there is no indication that Paul knew that he was writing Scripture when he composed this letter, this verse shows that the letter was always intended for an ecclesial setting. Its natural habitat is not the scholar’s study or the individual Christian’s private reading but rather the congregation, before “all the brothers.” Reading and studying in these other settings is essential, but the setting that is most closely analogous to its original one is ecclesial.
All of Paul’s Letters end with a benediction. Instead of a simple “farewell,” Paul offers one more prayer, stressing yet again the fundamental importance of God’s generosity: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you (see commentary on 1 Thess 1:1). “Grace” or “gift” (charis) becomes a major topic in Paul’s later letters when he feels that some Christian teachers are attacking God’s generosity (see especially Galatians). But even before those events Paul puts a special emphasis on God’s grace, going so far as to invent an idiosyncratic way of opening and closing letters with invocations of God’s grace.
1. See the discussion of Titus 1:6–7 in George T. Montague, First and Second Timothy, Titus, CCSS (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 219–20. Montague notes that St. Jerome (Letters 146.1) also acknowledged that the offices of bishop and elder are one and the same in the New Testament.
2. John Chrysostom, Homiliae in epistulam i ad Thessalonicenses (PG 62:455); Thomas Aquinas, Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.1.124.
3. It also appears in Rom 12:8, where its meaning is not clear.
4. E.g., Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 32B (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 311–13.
5. Already in 1928 Adolf von Harnack (“Κόπος [κοπιᾶν, οἱ κοπιῶντες] im frühchristlichen Sprachgebrauch,” ZNW 27 [1928]: 1–10, here 10) noted that the “laborers” here were a group of people with the office of caring for and admonishing the congregation.
6. For instance, BDAG cites Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 14.196, and Letter of Aristeas 1.182 as evidence of “care for,” but in both cases the caring is done ex officio, by rulers and court officers respectively. Compare to LSJ and The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek. See the discussion in Béda Rigaux, Saint Paul: Les Épitres aux Thessaloniciens, EBib (Paris: Lecoffre, 1956), 577–78.
7. See Benjamin L. White, “The Traditional and Ecclesiastical Paul of 1 Corinthians,” CBQ 79 (2017): 651–69.
8. Interpretatio in xiv epistulas sancti Pauli (PG 82:653 [my translation]).
9. Homiliae (PG 62:455).
10. Saint Caesarius of Arles: Sermons, vol. 1 (1–80), trans. Mary Magdeleine Mueller, FC 31 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1956), 349.
11. Homiliae (PG 62:457 [my translation]).
12. See Matt 5:38–48; Luke 6:27–36; Rom 12:17; 1 Pet 3:9; Polycarp, To the Philippians 2.2.
13. Fifth Lateran Council 4; Lumen Gentium 12; Catechism 801.
14. Athanasius, Festal Letters 3.4, citing Wis 1:5; John Chrysostom, Homiliae (PG 62:461).
15. Orations 29.21.
16. Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.2.133.
17. The Way of a Pilgrim; and, The Pilgrim Continues His Way, trans. Olga Savin (Boston: Shambhala, 2001), 1.
18. Exposition on the Book of Psalms 38.13 (NPNF1 8:107).
19. Epistolae 130.8.17. See Paul J. Griffiths, “Pray without Ceasing,” Christian Reflection: A Series in Faith and Ethics (Waco: The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2009): 11–17.
20. Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.2.130 (my translation). Thomas attributes these words to the Vitae Patrum.
21. See Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi 43.
22. Saint Basil: Ascetical Works, trans. M. Monica Wagner, FC 9 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1962), 68.
23. E.g., Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.6.1; Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans 1.10.2. In his commentary on 1–2 Thessalonians, Thomas Aquinas labels this view “condemned in church teaching” (Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.2.137). See also Catechism 367.
24. Super ad Thessalonicenses I reportatio 5.2.137 (my translation).
25. BDAG.
26. Interpretatio in xiv epistulas sancti Pauli (PG 82:656 [my translation]).
27. Justin Martyr, First Apology 65–67. The same practice is well attested in other Church Fathers.
28. Tacitus, Histories 1.36.12; Suetonius, Vitellius 7.3.7; cited by Michael Philip Penn, Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2005), 28.
29. In epistulam i ad Corinthios (PG 61:376 [my translation]).