Building One Another Up in Love and Christian Community
The New Testament commands believers to "encourage and build one another up" [1, 2], a directive rooted in the conviction that Christian life is fundamentally communal rather than individualistic. Paul's exhortation in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 assumes that spiritual growth occurs not in isolation but through mutual encouragement within the body of Christ. This building-up involves both verbal encouragement and the active strengthening of fellow believers' faith, character, and perseverance.
The Foundation in Love
The imperative to build one another up rests on the prior reality of love within the Christian community. Paul prays that believers would "increase and abound in love" toward one another [4], recognizing that such love already exists but requires cultivation and expansion. This love is not generic goodwill but "that special and spiritual affection which ought to exist among" those who share the same spiritual parentage and church membership [8]. The writer of Hebrews similarly instructs believers to "keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters," an instruction that "applies to everyone in the Christian community" [5]. John Chrysostom emphasizes that "from Love good works proceed," arguing that genuine mutual edification cannot occur apart from this foundational affection: "For nothing is good which is not done through love" [9].
The New Testament consistently describes this love as "brotherly love" (philadelphia), a term that assumes believers stand in genuine familial relationship to one another through their common relationship to God as Father and Christ as firstborn brother [10]. This is not merely metaphorical kinship but a spiritual reality that shapes how Christians interact, support, and challenge one another.
Diverse Gifts for Common Building
The work of mutual edification draws on the varied capacities God distributes throughout the church. Though believers "share a common faith, God has given different special abilities to each individual believer for building up the church" [3]. These gifts are not for personal advancement but explicitly "for building up the community of believers" [3]. The diversity of gifts ensures that no single member possesses everything needed for maturity, creating necessary interdependence. One believer's strength compensates for another's weakness; one's insight illuminates another's confusion.
This distribution of gifts means that edification is not the sole responsibility of designated leaders. Every member has received "a gift of his grace" meant for the common good [3]. The Thessalonian church was already practicing this mutual encouragement [1, 2], demonstrating that building one another up is not an aspirational ideal but an expected pattern of ordinary Christian community.
Practical Expression
Building one another up takes concrete forms. It includes verbal encouragement—speaking words that strengthen faith, hope, and perseverance. Matthew Henry notes that believers "must comfort or exhort themselves and one another," observing that "those are most able and likely to comfort others who can comfort themselves" [7]. The practice involves both receiving and giving, both being strengthened and strengthening others.
It also requires intentional attention to one another's spiritual condition. Chrysostom urges believers to "consider one another to provoke unto love," explaining this as active observation: "if any be virtuous, let us imitate him, let us look on him so as to love and to be loved" [9]. This mutual consideration is not intrusive surveillance but caring attentiveness that notices both virtue worth imitating and need worth addressing.
The Context of Gathering
The New Testament writers assume that this mutual edification occurs within the regular assembly of believers. Chrysostom emphasizes that "the assembling is a great good: since it makes love more warm" [9]. Physical gathering creates opportunities for the kind of face-to-face interaction that deepens affection and enables specific, timely encouragement. The instruction to build one another up presupposes ongoing contact, shared life, and the vulnerability that comes from sustained relationship.
Paul's instruction to the Philippians to be "like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind" [6] reflects this communal vision. Unity of mind and heart creates the relational environment in which mutual edification flourishes, where believers can both give and receive correction, encouragement, and practical support without defensiveness or competition.
Sources
- I Thessalonians “I Thessalonians 5:11 (BSB) — Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing.”
- 1 Thessalonians “1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NASB) — Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”
- Ephesians (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Ephesians 4:7: 4:7-16 Though believers share a common faith, God has given different special abilities to each individual believer for building up the church. 4:7 He has given each one of us a gift of his grace for building up the community of believers (see 1 Cor 12:7; cp. Rom 12:6; 1 Cor 12:11).”
- 1 Thessalonians (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on 1 Thessalonians 3:12: Make you to increase and abound in love - They had already love to each other, so as to unite them in one Christian body; and he prays that they may have an increase and an abundance of it; that they might feel the same love to each other which he felt for them all.”
- Hebrews (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Hebrews 13:1: 13:1-6 This series of practical guidelines is similar to other ethics lists in the New Testament. It describes how to love others in the community of faith, a strong ethical foundation for all of life. 13:1 Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters: Literally Continue in brotherly love. This instruction applies to everyone in the Christian community (see study notes on 2:11; 3:1).”
- Philippians (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Philippians 2:1: The apostle proceeds in this chapter where he left off in the last, with further exhortations to Christian duties. He presses them largely to like-mindedness and lowly-mindedness, in conformity to the example of the Lord Jesus, the great pattern of humility and love. Here we may observe, I. The great gospel precept passed upon us; that is, to love one another. This is the law of Christ's kingdom, the lesson of his school, the livery of his family. This he represents (Phi 2:2) by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. We are ”
- 1 Thessalonians (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on 1 Thessalonians 5:11: In these words the apostle exhorts the Thessalonians to several duties. I. Towards those who were nearly related one to another. Such should comfort themselves, or exhort one another, and edify one another, Th1 5:11. 1. They must comfort or exhort themselves and one another; for the original word may be rendered both these ways. And we may observe, As those are most able and likely to comfort others who can comfort themselves, so the way to have comfort ourselves, or to administer comfort to others, is by compliance with the exhortation of the word. Note,”
- Hebrews (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Hebrews 13:1: The design of Christ in giving himself for us is that he may purchase to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Now the apostle calls the believing Hebrews to the performance of many excellent duties, in which it becomes Christians to excel. I. To brotherly love (Heb 13:1), by which he does not only mean a general affection to all men, as our brethren by nature, all made of the same blood, nor that more limited affection which is due to those who are of the same immediate parents, but that special and spiritual affection which ought to exist among the ”
- CCEL/NPNF (Eastern Orthodox) “John Chrysostom, Homilies on John & Hebrews: consider one another to provoke unto love.” What is, “let us consider one another”? For instance if any be virtuous, let us imitate him, let us look on him so as to love and to be loved. For from Love good works proceed. For the assembling is a great good: since it makes love more warm; and out of love all good things arise. For nothing is good which is not done through love. [4.] This then let us “confirm” 3159 3159 See 2 Cor. ii. 8 towards each other. “For love is the fulfilling of the law.” ( Rom. xiii. 10 .) We have no need of labors or of sweat”
- Hebrews (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Hebrews 13:1: Let brotherly love continue. The Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions add, "in you"; or among you, as a church and society of Christians; for this is not to be understood of love to all mankind, or to those of the same nation, or who are in a strict natural relation brethren, though they are all in a sense brethren, and to be loved; but of love to those who are in the same spiritual relation to God, as their Father, to Christ, as the firstborn among many brethren; and are in the same church state, at least partakers of the same grace: and which love ought to be universa”