Work of the Leaders and Purpose of the Letter

If, by God's grace, the converts were on the way to being blameless in holiness, what, then, was Paul's main concern when he wrote to them? We learn the answer to that question in 1 Thessalonians 5. The converts had been instructed in how they ought to conduct their lives and were, indeed, living as instructed. But Paul wrote to make certain that they would continue to live in that manner and do even better. After all, they had turned from idolatry to faithfulness toward the one God (1 Thess. 1.8-9), but there was always the possibility that their faithfulness would be fractured and that they would return to their pagan ways. That is why Paul sent Timothy to the Thessalonians, why he himself hoped to visit them, and why the converts needed someone to be at their head, to lead or preside over (proistēmi) them (1 Thess. 3.2-10; 5.12).

The leaders were not serving as formal ecclesiastical officials. The greeting ‘Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss’ (1 Thess. 5.26) is a symbol of morality, not a part of liturgy. It ‘was more in the nature of a request that greetings be extended than it was a liturgical directive’. The leaders are to greet ‘all the brothers’, who were told to highly esteem their leaders in love because of their work (1 Thess. 5.13). ‘Undoubtedly, Paul called the kiss “holy” because it was to be exchanged by the “holy ones”.’