Do you know why we spell “goodbye” the way we do? It’s because the term “goodbye” is just a contraction of “God be with you.” It’s just that nobody remembers that. Most of us never even knew it. Its actual meaning has receded so far back into history that it has been lost. It is the correct and truly polite way to share a parting greeting, but like the French adieu or the Spanish adios, hardly anybody remembers anymore what it actually means. It’s polite. It’s proper. And just about nobody thinks about it when they say it.

Polite details that most of us just rush through are called “niceties.” Some of them are completely optional and almost pointless. If someone says, “How are you?” as they hurry past you in the grocery store, we understand they’re not necessarily asking for a detailed medical report. Sometimes social customs are just social customs.

But not all niceties are meaningless. A handshake can communicate warm respect. A hug can share real love. A kind word can hold together a person who feels like they’re falling apart. A simple greeting can remind someone that they’re seen. In fact, some of the things we all too easily skip over are actually some of the most important things we do. That is certainly true at the end of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians.

When we come to these final verses, it is tempting to read them quickly. They feel like just the closing formalities at the end of the letter. When we’re reading the Epistles, we are often eager to get to the doctrinal sections, the practical instructions, the major theological themes, and that’s perfectly understandable. Those things are the “meat” of the letter. Then we arrive at the final few verses and think, “Paul is just wrapping things up.”

But he isn’t only wrapping things up.

Like a pastor who gives some last loving instructions before dismissing the congregation, Paul ends by reminding them of four practices that are absolutely essential for the health of the church.

They may look like niceties; they are actually necessities. As Paul closes this letter, he gives us four necessary one-anothers that every healthy church must pursue.

S&R 1 Thessalonians 5:25-28

what they need to listen for

• 4 necessary one-anothers

the first one-another

Pray for one another

²⁵ Brothers, pray for us.

There is something wonderfully humbling here.

This is the Apostle Paul speaking.

This is the missionary who planted churches across the Roman world.

This is the man who received direct revelations of Christ and from Christ.

This is the miracle-worker God used to heal the sick and cast out demons.

Yet here he simply says, “Pray for us.”

He doesn’t present himself as self-sufficient.

He doesn’t act as though he has graduated from needing the prayers of God’s people ministry leaders.

He asks for prayer.

That tells us something important about the Christian life.

Nobody becomes spiritually independent.

The strongest believers still need prayer.

The most mature Christians still need prayer.

Pastors need prayer.

Missionaries need prayer.

Deacons need prayer.

Church members need prayer.

Parents need prayer.

Children need prayer.

Every one of us is dependent upon the grace of God every single day.

Paul understood something that we often forget: God’s work is accomplished through God’s power, and God’s power is sought through prayer.

Notice also how brief this request is.

“Pray for us.”

No details.

No explanation.

No elaborate list.

Just pray.

Because Paul knew that prayer itself is an expression of love.

When I pray for you, I am carrying your burdens before the Lord.

When you pray for me, you are participating in God’s work in my life.

One of the greatest ministries in any church is often the least visible.

It is the ministry of people who faithfully pray for one another.

Some can preach.

Some can teach.

Some can sing.

Some can organize.

But every Christian can pray.

And every healthy church is a praying church.

When a church stops praying for one another, relationships become shallow, ministry becomes mechanical, and people begin relying on themselves.

But when a church genuinely prays for one another, hearts become knit together in Christ.

Prayer reminds us that we belong to one another because we belong to him.

So the first necessary one-another is this:

Pray for one another.

the second one-another

Acknowledge one another

²⁶ Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

This command appears five times in the New Testament.

Paul Issues it here in one of his first letters.

He says it in Romans, his longest and best-known letter.

He says it in 1 Corinthians.

He says it again in 2 Corinthians.

Peter writes:

1 Peter 5:14 Greet one another with the kiss of love.

The fact that he calls it the kiss of love, not a kiss of love, is instructive. Does that suggest anything to you? [[ ]]

It looks to me like this was an ongoing custom in the culture of the early churches: a deliberate, open, visible expression, reminder, and reinforcement of respect, affection, and love. x2

In our culture, 2000 years later, most of us don’t normally greet one another with a kiss. When people do, it usually doesn’t seem holy. Often it feels flippant. Sometimes it seems downright unholy.

The form of our greeting and acknowledgement has changed. The principle has not.

The holy kiss was a visible and public expression of Christian love and acceptance.

It communicated, “You belong here. You are my brother. You are my sister. We are family in Christ.”

In the ancient world, social divisions were everywhere.

Rich and poor.

Slave and free.

Jew and Gentile.

Male and female.

Yet when believers gathered, those barriers were torn down through Christ.

The holy kiss became a visible declaration that the church was family.

Notice Paul says, “Greet all the brothers.”

Nobody is to be overlooked.

Nobody is to be ignored.

Nobody is to be treated as an outsider.

Sometimes acknowledgment sounds insignificant until you’ve gone without it.

Most people know what it feels like to walk into a room and feel invisible.

To be unnoticed.

To be forgotten.

To wonder if anybody cares that you’re there.

One kind greeting can change that.

One sincere conversation can change that.

One expression of love can change that.

Christian fellowship isn’t merely occupying the same building for an hour each week.

It is intentionally expressing love for one another.

It’s noticing people.

Learning names.

Showing affection.

Demonstrating respect.

Taking interest in others.

Making sure people know they are valued.

That’s acknowledging each other.

If a member of this church were to just come into the worship hall, sit down, shut up, and ignore everyone around him, we would assume there’s something wrong. We know we’re not supposed to act like that. That’s unfriendly, unloving, and just plain rude. That’s not acceptable. God commands each of us to acknowledge the people around us.

Now be careful. A first-time visitor might well act guarded and disconnected like that. He’s just here to check things out.  But if I am an established member of the church yet I never acknowledge anyone around me, that’s an issue. It’s open disobedience to the clear teaching of this verse. I need to start learning a new way to conduct myself at church.

And it’s not just this verse. Call makes it abundantly clear to the Corinthian church that they should be sensitive to how strangers and visitors might perceive them, and should discipline themselves to put Jesus on display by the way they conduct themselves in the eyes of those visitors.

Our Father in heaven wants us to acknowledge each other. That’s what the holy kiss is all about

the third one-another

Instruct one another

²⁷ I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

This is not a suggestion.

This is not a preference.

This is not Paul saying, “If you get around to it, share this with the church.”

He says, “I put you under oath before the Lord.”

We do not use language like that very often. To put someone under oath is to place them under a solemn obligation before God himself. It is the language of serious accountability.

In effect, Paul is saying, “Before the Lord, My command has the same effect as a promise you make or an oath you take. You absolutely must make sure this letter is read.”

Why such strong language?

Because God’s people need God’s Word.

The church could not afford for this letter to remain in the hands of a few leaders. It was not intended for a select audience. Every believer needed to hear it.

Notice Paul’s concern: “have this letter read to all the brothers.”

Everybody.

The encouraged needed it.

The discouraged needed it.

The mature needed it.

The immature needed it.

The entire church needed the instruction God had given through his apostle.

But the application goes beyond public Scripture reading.

Healthy churches are committed to sharing God’s truth with one another.

We help each other understand God’s Word.

We remind each other of God’s promises.

We encourage one another with biblical truth.

We lovingly speak God’s Word into each other’s lives.

A healthy church is not built merely on fellowship. It is built on truth-filled fellowship.

We are to instruct one another.

There may be something else significant here as well.

Many scholars believe 1 Thessalonians was Paul’s earliest New Testament letter. If so, this command becomes especially noteworthy. By insisting that this letter be publicly read to the entire church, Paul was establishing a pattern that would ultimately be followed with all of his writings.

It’s likely that when the Thessalonians heard the words “all the brothers,” they thought about brothers and sisters in other churches than Paul had talked to them about.     We’ve seen him mention those other churches within this letter so far more than once.

So the Thessalonians would have made copies of this letter and sent it to several other churches, simply trying to comply with the instructions that Paul had given them in this verse.

Colossians 4:16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. 

The churches received these letters, read them, studied them, treasured them, copied them, shared them around to brothers and sisters in other congregations. Over time, what began with a single assembly hearing a single letter became the widespread circulation of the apostolic writings among the churches. In other words, this simple instruction may have helped establish the very practice through which believers throughout the Roman world came to hear and learn the Word of God.

If this is correct, then what we have in this little the verse at the end of this letter is the key that turned the lock, that opened the human door to the writing of the New Testament.

Do you think that a set of New Covenant scriptures to match or even fulfill and interpret the Old Covenant scriptures was just an accidental outcome from a random thought that Paul happened on? Or had God actually planned for a New Testament from the very beginning?

And then there’s this: what gave Paul the authority to give the Thessalonians a command that was so binding that it had the same force as if they had promised to do it of their own accord? Who did Paul think he was that he could put them under oath? Is that also related to God’s eternal plan to provide a New Testament? What is the nature of Apostolic authority, anyway? What is the nature of scriptural authority? How do we relate to that in 2026? This is such a big deal that we’re going to take a whole sermon to talk about it next week.

In commanding the Christians in Thessalonica to make sure everybody heard his letter, Paul was just doing what apostles did. He was giving foundational instructions to the people of God. But now we take those instructions and use them to instruct one another. We disciple each other until our great Lord and Savior and Teacher returns.

the fourth one-another

Bless one another

Paul ends exactly where we would expect him to: with a blessing.

²⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

We read those words so often that we can miss what Paul is actually doing.

He is not merely providing theological information.

He is speaking a blessing over God’s people.

As the letter closes, Paul’s desire is that the grace of Christ would rest upon these believers. So he says it.

He speaks it.

He expresses it.

And that raises an important question.

How often do Christians intentionally bless one another with their words?

We spend plenty of time talking about each other.

We spend plenty of time talking to each other.

But how often do we speak blessing to each other?

Paul does not simply feel goodwill toward these believers. He expresses it.

He tells them what he desires for them.

He speaks grace over them.

There is something deeply Christian about looking at a brother or sister in Christ and saying,

“I am praying for you.”

“May the Lord encourage you.”

“May God give you wisdom.”

“May Christ strengthen you.”

“May God’s grace be with you.”

Those are more than pleasant sentiments.

Those are blessings.

Throughout Scripture, God’s people regularly spoke blessings over one another. They intentionally voiced their desire that God’s favor, strength, peace, grace, and help would rest upon fellow believers.

We ought to recover that practice.

Our churches should be filled with words that strengthen, encourage, comfort, and bless.

The world is full of criticism.

The church should be full of blessing.

Every time I pass of the people from Dios de Pactos in the hallway, he tells me “God bless you.” Even the kids do that. It seems to be part of the culture of their church. Where do you think that comes from? Do you think it happened by accident? Or were they taught that? The Lord is teaching us that right now.

When believers consistently speak grace-filled words to one another, they become instruments through which God encourages His people.

Paul’s final words remind us that blessing one another is not an outdated formality.

It is an essential ministry.

gospel

Before we leave, there is one more thing that needs to be said.

Everything we have talked about today assumes something.

It assumes that you belong to the family of God.

After all, how can you pray with God’s people, fellowship with God’s people, learn God’s Word with God’s people, and enjoy the blessings of God’s grace if you remain separated from God Himself?

The good news of the gospel is that God has made a way for sinners to be brought into His family through Jesus Christ.

Every one of us has sinned against God. Every one of us deserves judgment. But Jesus Christ came into the world, lived the righteous life we could never live, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again from the dead.

And now He offers forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life to all who will repent of their sins and trust in Him.

The final words of this letter are, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

That grace is not something you earn.

It is not something you deserve.

It is God’s gift through His Son.

So if you have never trusted Christ, don’t leave today merely admiring the life of the church. Come to the Savior of the church.

Turn from your sin.

Place your faith in Jesus Christ.

And discover for yourself the grace that Paul prayed would be with God’s people.

Because the greatest blessing anyone can ever receive is not a greeting from a friend, a prayer from a pastor, or encouragement from a church.

The greatest blessing is to know the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

If you need to talk to someone some more about that, I’ll be standing at that door right there as you leave. You couldn’t possibly make my day any better than by stopping and talking with me about how to come to Jesus.

what God wants them to do

At first glance, these verses look like the kind of things we skip over.

A prayer request.

A greeting.

An instruction.

A blessing.

Just some closing remarks.

But the Holy Spirit preserved these words for a reason.

Because these are not meaningless niceties.

They are necessary practices for every healthy church.

Pray for one another.

Acknowledge one another.

Instruct one another.

Bless one another.

And when those things become part of the culture of a church, something beautiful happens.

People are cared for.

People are connected.

People are grounded in truth.

People are strengthened by grace.

In other words, the church begins to look like a family.

What often appears to be a simple nicety may actually be one of the very means God uses to strengthen his blood-bought church and accomplish his eternal purpose.

Eternal Father, in this very moment, we turn again from our sin and ourselves to you and your glory,

Trusting only in your Son’s sacrifice for our sins to make us right with you.

We want to shelter ourselves in the shadow of his cross,

Bathe ourselves in the blood that he shed there for us,

Rest ourselves on his redemption

Robe ourselves in his righteousness,

Renew ourselves in his resurrection,

Lose ourselves in his Lordship,

And find ourselves in his friendship.

We want him to become for us, for today and forever, wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and salvation.

For he is the One who suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to you, our Father.