1 Thessalonians 5:15-Don’t Pay Back Evil for Evil and Always Pursue God for One Another and For All

1 Thessalonians 5:15 See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all. (NET)

As we noted in our study of 1 Thessalonians 5:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:14-22 contains a series of commands and prohibitions which address the Thessalonian Christian community conduct in relation to each other, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, prophecies and Satan’s kingdom.

Here in 1 Thessalonians 5:15, the apostle Paul solemnly issues a prohibition followed by a command.

The prohibition required that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community continue to make it their habit of taking personal responsibility of not paying back an evil word or action in exchange for another evil word or action to the detriment of anyone.

The command required that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community must always continue to make it their habit of making every effort to perform actions which are good for the benefit of one another and for the benefit of everyone.

In the prohibition, the verb horaō is expressing the idea of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community taking personal responsibility to not pay back evil in exchange for evil with any person in the human race, whether the child of God or the children of the devil.

The present imperative form of this verb is a customary present imperative which has the force of continuing to perform an action habitually.

Here the idea is that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community must continue to make it their habit of taking personal responsibility to not pay back an evil word or action in exchange for another evil word or action with any person in the human race in the sense.

This interpretation is supported by the fact that Paul affirmed in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 that the Thessalonians were making it their habit of practicing the love of God when interacting with each other and the non-Christian.

Practicing the love of God would prevent them from paying back an evil word or action in exchange for another evil word or action with any member of the human race.

In this prohibition, the verb apodidomi pertains to recompensing someone whether positively or negatively depending upon what the individual deserves.[1]

Here it used in a negative sense of the members of the Thessalonian Christian community paying back evil for evil to any person in the sense of recompensing them for what they did to them and what they deserve.

The negative particle me denies any idea of a member of the Thessalonian Christian community paying back evil for evil to any person.

Also, in this prohibition, the adjective kakos appears twice and in both instances, it means “evil” since the word pertains to an action that is contrary to the perfect character and integrity of God and in disobedience to the will of the Father, which constitutes living independently of God.

The word contains the figure of metonymy which means that evil is put for a word or action which is evil.

Therefore, this word refers to any word spoken or action committed by a member of the Thessalonian Christian community in relation to another member of this community or the non-Christian community.

It also speaks of any word or action which is in disobedience to the command to love one’s fellow-believer as Christ loves them as well as the command to love one’s fellow human being as oneself.

This command in 1 Thessalonians 5:15 is echoed in Romans 12:17-21.

Now, the prohibition in 1 Thessalonians 5:15 is followed by a command, which again required that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community must always continue to make it their habit of making every effort to perform actions which are good for the benefit of one another and for the benefit of everyone.

This command presents an emphatic contrast with the prohibition.

Therefore, the emphatic contrast is between the Thessalonians paying back an evil word or action in exchange for another evil word or action to the detriment of another human being and the Thessalonians always making every effort to perform actions, which are good for the benefit of one another and for the benefit of every human being.

In this command, the adjective agathos pertains to any action which is good in the sense that it is divine in quality and character and because it contains the figure of metonymy where good is put for an action which is good.

This word pertains to an action which is divine in quality and character because it is in accordance with the will of God, which is revealed by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of God.

Thus, it speaks of an action influenced by the Holy Spirit.

This word agathos describes this work or action as being intrinsically valuable, intrinsically good, inherently good in quality but with the idea of good which is also profitable, useful, benefiting others, benevolent because it is based upon and motivated by the teaching of the Spirit in the Word of God.

It describes this work or action as being intrinsically valuable, intrinsically good, inherently good in quality but with the idea of good which is also profitable, useful, benefiting others.

The verb diōkō in this command pertains “to do something with an intense effort to a goal” and means “to do something with intense effort and with a definite purpose or goal in mind.”

Doing something with intense effort in our context would be always pursuing what is good for one’s fellow Christian as well as the non-Christian.

This would require obedience to the Lord’s command in John 13:34 to love one another and to love one’s fellow human being as oneself.

This verb we noted is modified by the temporal adverb pantote which pertains to the duration of time with reference to a series of occasions.

It answers the question as to how often the Thessalonians were to continue making it their habit of making every effort to perform actions, which are good in the sense of their being divine in quality and character.

The present imperative form of this verb diōkō is a customary present imperative whose force is for the Thessalonians to simply continue making it their habit of making every effort to pursue performing actions which are divine in quality and character.

Therefore, the present imperative form of the verb diōkō means, “to continue making it your habit” in making every effort of performing actions which are divine in quality and character.

This interpretation is indicated by the fact that in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 Paul affirms that the Thessalonians were making it their habit of practicing the love of God when interacting with each other and the non-Christian.

Practicing the love of God would enable them to perform actions, which are good in the sense of being divine in quality and character.

Paul asserts in this command that the actions which are good in the sense of being divine in quality and character are to benefit each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.

In other words, there was to be a mutual exchange of making every effort to perform actions which are divine in quality and character for one another.

Not only were these actions to benefit each member of the Thessalonian Christian community but also they were to benefit the non-Christian community.

This would be accomplished by obeying the command to love one’s fellow human being as oneself.

Therefore, in this command, Paul is making a correlation between the Christian and the non-Christian in relation to the performance of divine good by the Christian community.

This command in 1 Thessalonians 5:15 in relation to each other would require that the Thessalonians obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s command in John 13:34 to love one another as He loves them.

This command in 1 Thessalonians 5:15 would require the Thessalonians to obey the Lord’s command to love one’s fellow human being as oneself since it addresses their conduct in relation to the non-Christian community as we noted (cf. Mark 12:28-31).

This command in 1 Thessalonians 5:15 is thus very important in light of the fact that the Thessalonians were suffering persecution at the hands of the non-Christian community in Thessalonica (cf. 1 Thess. 1:6-10; 2:13-14).

Obedience to this command would require that the Thessalonians obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s command to love your enemies (cf. Matthew 5:43-48).

[1] Louw and Nida 38.16