We beg (cf. 4.1) translates a word which can mean either “to ask a question” or “to ask someone to do something.” The context makes it clear that the second meaning is intended here. To pay proper respect translates a single word which normally means “to know.” Here it has the meaning of “to recognize” (Phillips), “respect,” or “appreciate the worth of” (see 4.4), and it refers to those who guide and instruct you in the Christian life. Paul means that the Thessalonians are to pay the respect which is due to them as leaders or guides. Phillips “get to know those who work so hard among you” oddly implies that the “spiritual leaders” were not already well known to those whom they led. Work suggests hard labor. The corresponding noun is used in 2.9, where Paul is speaking about manual work; in 3.5, where he is speaking of his work as an apostle; and in 1.3, where both everyday work and specifically Christian activities may be implied. Here the context shows that Paul is referring to work involved in the leadership of the Christian community.
As Revised Standard Version‘s rather literal translation shows, the verbs work, guide, and instruct are linked only by “and”: “respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.” Good News Translation shows correctly that work is a general term, and that guide and instruct refer to specific aspects of the leaders’ work.
The translator has to choose between two possible meanings of the word which Good News Translation translates as guide: (1) “to be at the head of,” and (2) “to be concerned about,” or “care for” (in each case, the Christian community). 1 Timothy 5.17 is a clear example of the first meaning (Good News Translation has “leaders” there, as Translator’s New Testament has in the present verse), and Titus 3.8, 14 is an evident case of the second. Those who prefer the second meaning here argue that the surrounding verbs work and instruct refer to voluntary work which could be done by any member of the community. However, this is by no means certain, particularly as far as instruct is concerned. Like the older translation “admonish,” instruct often implies warning or blame; it is not the most common word for “teach.” In 1 Corinthians 4.14 and Colossians 1.28, the same word refers to one of Paul’s own functions as an apostle and evangelist; in Colossians 3.16 it is a question of Christians instructing each other.
Are we then to think of “ordinary” Christians working hard at caring for one another and warning one another when necessary? or of leaders in the community who issue instructions and warnings from a position of special responsibility? The form of the sentence as a whole (those … who …) seems to point to a particular group within the Christian community. However, Paul does not in this passage use any of the words, such as “bishop,” “elder,” or “deacon,” which later became titles to describe particular offices in the church. The translator should beware of reading back into this passage the more formal hierarchical structures of a later period. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch uses a compound word which means “those who preside over the community” and adds a note comparing them to the officials of the synagogue mentioned, for example, in Matthew 5.22 (cf. Moffatt “presiding over you”). The meaning of the whole sentence (omitting “in the Lord” for the moment) is therefore that the Thessalonians are to show the respect due to those who have the hard task of leading the community and issuing any warning or reproof which may be necessary. There is no suggestion that those who work, those who guide (or lead), and those who instruct (reprove, warn) are different people. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “Honor all who exert themselves for you, those who preside over the community, and all who show you the right way” is slightly misleading, since it suggests different groups.
It would obviously be wrong to translate beg as a request for some object or special consideration. This is a matter of “urgently asking” or “urging.”
To pay proper respect may, of course, be translated merely as “to give honor to,” but one may come a little closer to the meaning of the original in translating “to recognize as important,” or “to acknowledge the value of those who….”
Since who work among you can be so readily misunderstood as an expression of manual labor, it may be better to use some such expression as “do so much for you.”
The final clause, who guide and instruct you in the Christian life, may be introduced by a phrase “these are the ones who….” To guide may be rendered as “be your leaders,” and instruct you as “tell you what you should do.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .