According to 1 Thessalonians 5:11, we’re responsible to encourage one another. It demonstrates that we’re members of one another in the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:5). The New Testament contains numerous uses of the phrase “one another” (allelon in the original language). This word depicts a mutual, reciprocal effort on the part of believers, one toward the other. The word for encourage, parakaleo, denotes calling to one’s side, further strengthening the idea of being there for one another. We come alongside of fellow believers to have a positive effect on their lives, and they in ours.
About Encouragement
Read through the context of 1 Thessalonians 5:11 and you’ll discover some key points like why we need encouragement, who needs it, and how to encourage. (Click on the links below for more on those points.)
We need encouragement to be lights in a dark world. We can encourage one another to remain alert and self-controlled so we reflect our Lord in all we do.
Everyone needs encouragement. As one of the many one-another commands of Body life, encouraging each other occurs reciprocally. No one should have to face the hardships of life alone.
Each one needs encouragement tailored to them. How we encourage one another varies based a person’s particular situation and needs. While encouraging one another should be reciprocal, the way we encourage may differ.
The Best Way to Encourage One Another
Though how we each need encouragement may vary, we all need to be pointed to God as the ultimate Source of encouragement.
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. (2 Thess. 2:16-17)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort (paraklesis which is the noun form of the verb parakaleo translated in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 as to encourage) … (2 Cor. 1:3)
As we continue on to verse 4 of 2 Corinthians 1, we read that it is this God “who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God”. Again, the word for comfort in that verse is parakaleo, the same word used when we’re told to encourage one another in 1 Thessalonians 5:11.
The best way to encourage others, then, is to pass on the encouragement we received from “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” for He is our ultimate Source of encouragement.