"So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, NLT)

In every building under construction, there is a moment when the scaffolding carries more weight than the walls. The structure is not yet strong enough to hold itself. Remove the scaffolding too early and the whole thing collapses. Leave it in place, and the building has time to cure, to settle, to bear its own load. The scaffolding was never the building. It was the temporary structure that allowed the permanent one to stand.

Paul uses a construction word in today’s verse. Most English readers hear “build each other up” as emotional support. The Greek word is oikodomeo. It means to construct an edifice. To lay stone on stone. Paul is not asking the Thessalonians to be nice to each other. He is asking them to be load-bearing structures in each other’s lives.

Yesterday we studied Romans 12:18 and the boundary between doing your part in a relationship and releasing what you cannot control. Today Paul pushes in the opposite direction. He tells us what we are supposed to do with the part that is ours.

This month we are studying what Scripture says directly to the person in charge. This verse speaks to what a leader’s words are designed to do.

Paul writes this letter to a young church in Thessalonica that is under pressure. They are facing persecution from the surrounding culture and confusion about the return of Christ. Some members of the community have died, and the rest are wondering whether those who died will miss out on God’s promises. Chapter 4 addresses that grief directly. Chapter 5 opens with the Day of the Lord, reminding the Thessalonians that they are “children of the light and of the day” (1 Thessalonians 5:5, NLT) and calling them to remain alert and sober-minded. The verses immediately before today’s passage read: “For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever” (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, NLT).

That is the foundation verse 11 stands on. Encourage each other. Build each other up. Not because life is pleasant. Not because the pressure has lifted. The instruction comes precisely because the pressure has not lifted. Paul writes to people who are grieving, confused, and persecuted, and tells them to put weight-bearing walls into each other’s lives.

The leadership demand here is architectural. The Greek word parakaleo, translated “encourage,” does not mean what most leaders think it means. It does not mean “say something nice.” It means to call alongside. To come near and speak with purpose. In other New Testament contexts, the same word is translated “exhort,” “comfort,” and “urge.” The same root gives us Parakletos, the title John later uses for the Holy Spirit: the One called alongside. Paul is not making that connection here, but the weight of the word family tells you something about how seriously the New Testament takes this kind of speech. This is not sentiment. This is presence with purpose.

The second word, oikodomeo, is even more direct. It is a construction term. Build. Erect. Construct an edifice. Paul is telling the Thessalonians, and every leader who reads this verse, that their words are building materials. Every conversation with a team member either adds a brick or removes one. Every meeting, every one-on-one, every hallway exchange is a construction project. The question is not whether you are building. The question is whether what you are building can bear weight.

This is where the verse confronts most leaders. Encouragement in most organizations has become sentimental. It looks like a “great job” email after a successful quarter. It looks like a thumbs-up emoji in Slack. It looks like generic praise delivered in a team meeting that could have been directed at anyone. That is not oikodomeo. That is wallpaper. It covers the surface without strengthening the structure. A leader who tells their team “you’re doing great” without specifying what is great, why it matters, and what it reveals about the person’s capability has not encouraged anyone. They have made noise.

Structural encouragement is specific. It names what it sees. It connects the person’s action to their identity, not to the outcome. “The way you handled that client call showed patience I have not seen from you before. That is growth, and I want you to know I see it.” That sentence is a brick. It has weight. It goes into the wall and makes the person stronger. “Nice job on the call” is confetti. It falls on the ground and disappears.

The confrontation cuts deeper than technique. Most leaders are not stingy with encouragement because they are cruel. They are stingy because they are busy. The urgent overtakes the important every single day. The report is due. The meeting starts in five minutes. The hire fell through. When was the last time you stopped everything to tell someone on your team what you see in them? Not what they did. What you see in who they are becoming.

Paul adds a phrase that is easy to skip: “just as you are already doing.” He is not introducing a new command. He is reinforcing an existing practice. The Thessalonians were already encouraging each other. Paul names it, affirms it, and tells them to keep going. This matters for leaders. When you see someone on your team doing good work, naming it publicly does more than reward behavior. It establishes a norm. It tells the rest of the team: this is what we do here. This is the standard.

Silence from a leader is never neutral. When a team member does exceptional work and hears nothing, they do not think “the boss is busy.” They think “the boss didn’t notice.” Or worse: “the boss noticed and it didn’t matter.” The absence of structural encouragement creates a vacuum, and uncertainty fills it. People who never hear what they are doing right begin to assume they are doing something wrong. That assumption erodes confidence, and eroded confidence produces tentative work, and tentative work produces the mediocrity the leader was too busy to prevent.

There is a second failure mode that is equally destructive. The leader who encourages frequently but generically teaches the team to ignore encouragement altogether. When everything is “awesome” and everyone is “crushing it,” the words lose all structural integrity. They cannot bear weight because they are not connected to anything specific. Generic praise is the organizational equivalent of a load-bearing wall made of cardboard. It looks like it is holding the room together. It is not.

The practice for this week is specific and uncomfortable. Choose one person on your team. Not the star. Not the person who already knows they are valued. Choose the person who is quietly doing faithful work that no one has named. Write them a message, or better, tell them face to face, and name three specific things: what you saw them do, what it revealed about who they are, and why it matters to the team. Do not use the word “great.” Do not use the word “awesome.” Be specific enough that the sentence could only describe this one person and this one action.

That is oikodomeo. You are laying a brick. The structure gets stronger.

Tomorrow we turn to Galatians 6:2: “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ” (NLT). Where today’s verse teaches us to build walls in other people’s lives through our speech, tomorrow’s verse asks a harder question: are you willing to pick up weight that is not yours? The leader who encourages structurally builds capacity in the people around them. The leader who carries burdens with them proves that the capacity is real. You cannot share someone’s burden if you have not first built the relationship that allows them to let you close enough to carry it.

Leadership Challenge: Think of the last five things you said to your team members that you would call “encouragement.” Were any of them specific enough that the person could repeat them back to you and explain what you meant? If not, who on your team needs a brick laid in their wall this week, and what exactly will you say?

I write about leadership at the intersection of timeless principles and modern workplaces. Follow for weekly insights on building teams that actually work. For more articles like this consider subscribing to my Substack at: https://christianleadership.now