Antecho Porcupine: By Tim Kernan

1 Thes 5:12-15
Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

Ninety-nine percent of all my mistakes in the ministry come from a lack of understanding of this passage. Paul makes an amazing distinction here between the idle, the timid and the weak. These three conditions are so often dealt with in the same way in sports and business that we become desensitized to the undeniable differences.

Lets take a look at each one individually. The word idle is translated from the word ataktos which also means “disorderly” or “out of ranks”. We are not to tolerate disorderly behaviour in the house of God, the church. A lot about this passage clashes with our western culture. If you encourage or help the disorderly you are using the wrong tool for the job and it can have negative results for the whole church.

Paul then instructs us to encourage the oligopsychos which can be translated as fainthearted or timid. In some ways the oligopsychos can look a lot like the ataktos however the timid don’t believe in themselves and are fearful. There comes a time for each of us ‘when the punches seem to be coming faster than we can roll with them! At one point or another we feel like we are just getting a beating. Sadly this feeling and state of mind, otherwise known as discouragement, is contagious. God sees discouragement differently than we do.

Numbers 32:6 Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, “Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here? 7 Why do you discourage the Israelites from going over into the land the LORD has given them? 8 This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to look over the land. 9 After they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and viewed the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the LORD had given them. 10 The LORD’s anger was aroused that day and he swore this oath: 11 ‘Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob- 12 not one except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they followed the LORD wholeheartedly.’ 13 The LORD’s anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the desert forty years, until the whole generation of those who had done evil in his sight was gone.
14 “And here you are, a brood of sinners, standing in the place of your fathers and making the LORD even more angry with Israel. 15 If you turn away from following him, he will again leave all this people in the desert, and you will be the cause of their destruction.”

When God sees discouragement He sees it for what it is: a lack of faith in Him. In our corrupt generation discouragement is seen as an excuse to do almost anything. God’s commands throughout the bible is: Do not be discouraged!

Finally, Paul teaches us to antecho the weak. Antecho can be translated as “help” but the Greek is “to cleave to and hold up”. Its a powerful image of holding someone tightly and quite literally lifting them to their feet.

Its this final command, “help the weak” that I want to focus on in this article. How does one become weak? Weakness can come from the nature of our frail bodies (Mark 14:38, Romans 6:9), by the consequences of sin even if we have repented of it (Romans 8:3), by compromised doctrine (Romans 14:2), weakened by failure (Romans 15:1), weakened by dishonour and mocking (1 Cor 4:10)., by a wounded conscience (1 Cor 8:12), weakened by temptation (2 Cor 11:29), weakened by hardships, persecutions, and difficulties (2 Cor 12:10), weakened by empty religiosity (Galatians 4:9), weakened by evil desires (2 Timothy 3:6), weakened by ignorance and loneliness (Heb 5:2), and weak by comparison to others(1 Peter 3-7).

Satan works very hard to make weak people feel hypocritical for preaching the standards of discipleship and the Kingdom. This can become an unbearable weight. When people feel like hypocrites Satan works to make them feel VULNERABLE. They feel like a turtle on their back… with circling vultures flying over them. When people are vulnerable they can resort to defensive behaviour in order to protect themselves. One thing we have seen is that vulnerable, defensive and people who feel like they are hypocrites will often to change their doctrine to meet where they are at.

Over the years it has amazed me to see how many good brothers and sisters have given in to the darkness and literally begun to teach doctrines that contradict the bible because of fear. Their fear gives them energy that can even make them seem strong! At this point a person who is weak can degrade themselves into being a powerful false teacher and a persecuter of the church…

If we don’t want to see these types of people multiply around us we are going to need to be very skilled at helping the weak. It takes humility on both sides. I would say the most frequent mistake on my side is encouraging the weak. However “encouragement” of the weak turns quickly into pestering the weak when they don’t respond to it. This can lead to resentment on both sides. Its usually at this point that the weak disciple starts to change their doctrine to get reprieve from the pestering. “Do I really need to share my faith every day?” “Do I really need to be in touch with the disciples daily?” “I’m too busy to be a disciple right now”. “There are some people who can’t be disciples… but they are still saved…” They don’t just think it; because of their insecurity they begin to teach it.

My father-in-law had a great saying: “hug the porcupine”. Weak and vulnerable people, even when they’ve become quite prickly, need love. We still need to “command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer” (1 Tim 1:3) but they are less likely to react defensively to it when we are “Antechoing” to them, cleaving to them and holding them up.

This can be especially hard when the weak disciple is someone whom you think should be a partner, helping you. When they don’t help, it can cause you to feel abandoned at a critical moment and can lead to lots of hurt that can blind you to the truth and the real way to proceed. Sometimes even leaders need someone to take them out evangelizing, have quiet times together in cool spots in the city, and bring them in on group discipleship times so they are not overwhelmed with discipling too many people.

Let’s take some time to consider if some of the porcupines in our lives need a hug. Soon they will get back up on their feet and be the partners they need to be… and you will become more like Christ.

Love,

Tim