1Thess 5:12-13 beseeching admonishmental esteeming

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 5

1Thess 5:12-13
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves.

Some word definitions (apologies if repetitious):
Beseech: To entreat; to supplicate; to implore; to ask or pray with urgency
Admonish: (1) To warn or notify of a fault; to reprove with mildness. (2) To counsel against wrong practices; to caution or advise. (3) To instruct or direct.
Esteem: To set a value on, whether high or low; to estimate; to value.

So verse 12, Paul is urgently asking, pleading with the Thessalonians to recognize those wh0 are doing the work among them, doing the work for the Lord, hence “are over you in the Lord”. So those in the local assembly that are in the leadership position or office; in Paul’s letters these are the “bishops”, “elders”, “overseers”, and “deacons”. (I would say “bishop” and “elder” are pretty much the same, and we would call them the pastor or preacher today. I think the “overseers” are a group of bishops, elders and deacons. And “deacons” are a step lower than the bishop/elder who is ready to fill in for him (not like you see deacons in the Baptist churches when I was growing up – these were the secret cabal of religious deep staters the imposed their will on the local assembly). I do not think churches these days function in the same capacity as they did back in Paul’s time, as they have grown into bureaucratic machines on business growth models and ecclesiastical regimes, but I digress.

So we should, as the Thessalonians, recognize, not the managerial bureaucratic stuff we have today, but, the real believers who are doing the work, the “labour”, among us(them) as Paul would have it being done.
How should it be done? Well, we have the Pauline epistles that are scripture and scripture has a certain attribute and is good for several things:

2Tim 3:16-17
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

So it is inspired by God, God breathed, God dictated and written down by man. However, it says that it is good for “doctrine”(teaching, whatever is taught, learning); “reproof”(to cast blame); “correction” (to bring back from error); “instruction in righteousness” (the act of teaching what is right)… those that “labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you”; seems to fit. And the blueprint is “scripture”, the word of God written down, your Bible that you have at your disposal.
Unfortunately, even before Paul was executed in the first century, the church system was developing and going downhill. We are still trying to pick up the pieces. But we have the Bible, complete, and intact, and preserved – so it is not a lost cause, it just requires work, diligence, effort, etc.

Getting back on track, but those that are doing it correctly, know them, recognize them, listen to them, and…
Verse 13 “esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake”. If they are doing the right thing in the right way, that is valuable, that has weight. It may not be profitable in an earthly, material sense, but that is the wrong scale to measure with.
Gal 1:10
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

2Cor 4:17-18
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Gal 6:14-17
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Concerning “their work’s sake”, their “work” is labouring, and admonishing, teaching and preaching what Paul had instructed them about, and what to do with this new life they have in Christ, to continue in the faith, to not be troubled about other saints dying before the catching up or the day of the Lord coming, to love one another, to possess their vessels in sanctification and honour.

“And be at peace among yourselves.” You have to be at peace between you and God first. Get grounded in that fact. And then you can start having peace with your brethren. When you start realizing that these petty things are just that, petty; then, you can move on and do something for the Lord.
Rom 12:18
If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
(he gave you a way out here: “if it be possible…”)
We as members of his body should do what we can to provide the best example and make it as authentic as we can – not for gain – but because Jesus Christ suffered for us, and died for our sins, and rose again so we can have newness of life…
Rom 6:10-11
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom 7:6
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Grace and Peace James.
We have been beseeched
(I was a bit like a scattergun today)