Like a Thief in the Night

Reading:  1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
    
    Paul has discussed how the righteous will be raised when Jesus returns and now addresses “the times and the seasons” when that will happen (1 Thess 5:1).  Again, he sees no need to write about when (as in 4:9) because they already know that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night”(1 Thess 5:2).  This alludes back to Jesus’ own words (Matt 24:3) and stresses the unexpected nature of his return.  We don’t schedule thieves.  “While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape”(1 Thess 5:3).  Convinced all is well—and that no judgment is coming on the world—they are completely unprepared.  They will find that their peace and safety is an illusion.

    Christians are not so.  “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief”(1 Thess 5:4).  We are well aware that Jesus will return to judge the world and deliver his people.  We simply don’t know when.  The challenge is to live in a state of constant preparation—the way we might if we knew a thief was coming—so that the day does not “surprise” us.  “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober”(1 Thess 5:6).  We hold faithful vigil, waiting for our master.

    The picture of the “thief in the night” reminds us that we can never predict the return of Jesus; millennia of failed predictions only reinforce the point.  Paul does not want us to guess, but to prepare.  Meanwhile, the danger remains that we will feel that the “peace and security” of the present moment lulls us to sleep.  We might lose the urgency of preparation and perhaps even forget that judgment is coming.   Paul urges us to “keep awake and be sober.”  And so we hold faithful vigil, waiting for our master.

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One Thing to Think About:   What does “peace and security” look like in our time?

One Thing to Pray For:  The endurance to continue soberly waiting
 

Hope Despite Death

Reading:  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
    
    As Christians wait for Jesus to return, how do we grapple with the fact that we continue to die just as we did before Jesus came?  Do the dead just not get to participate in his return?  The Thessalonians appear to have special concern that they are forever separated from their dead brothers and sisters.  “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep”(1 Thess 4:13-14).  Christians grieve, but they do not grieve like those “who have no hope.”  We are confident because of Jesus’ resurrection that our physical death is not the end of us.

    To reassure them, Paul gives some details about how Jesus’ return will play out.  “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first”(1 Thess 4:15-16).  The focus here is on what happens to those who have already “fallen asleep.”  The living will not go to be with Jesus before them or apart from them.  Jesus will return with great fanfare (cry, archangel’s voice, trumpet) and the dead will be raised.  “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord”(1 Thess 4:17).  While death temporarily separates us from our Christian brothers and sisters, we will go to be with Jesus “together.”  Death is not the end of us, nor is it the end of Christian fellowship.

    Jesus’ resurrection is the key to our hope in the face of death (1 Thess 4:14).  If he is raised, he can raise us as well.  He will return and there will be resurrection, followed by eternal fellowship with him.  This hope makes us grieve differently, because all funerals become temporary partings.  It makes us live differently, because all hardship becomes temporary difficulty.  It makes us encourage one another differently, because God’s last word will be a blessing for us.

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One Thing to Think About:  What will I feel when Jesus returns?

One Thing to Pray For:  The willingness to encourage my brethren—especially the grieving 
 

Mind Your Own Business

Reading:  1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
    
    Paul writes the Thessalonians about the one thing he doesn’t need to write about.  “Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia”(1 Thess 4:9-10).  Paul addresses several matters in this letter, but this is one he feels no need to dwell on because they are already doing it!  He wants them to know that this “brotherly love” is not a natural affection they have for each other, but because they “have been taught by God.”  When we earnestly care for people we have no physical connection to, God is behind it.

    Paul encourages them to continue loving and “to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you”(1 Thess 4:11).  There is a problem at Thessalonica:  some of them have stopped working and rely on their Christian brothers to support them financially (see also 2 Thess 3:6-14).  Paul wants them to “live quietly,” refusing to intrude on the lives of others because of their own choice not to work.  Instead, Christians should take care of their own financial business and do their own work to provide for themselves.  This choice has two effects:  it helps us “walk properly before outsiders” who see that our faith promotes hard work and leaves us “dependent on no one”(1 Thess 4:12).  While it is loving to give to others in need, it is not loving to willfully persist in need and force others to give to us.

    The first church in Jerusalem was known for its extreme generosity to those among them in need (see Acts 2:44-45 and 4:32-35).  This text speaks to the other extreme:  people abusing generosity because they refuse to work for themselves.  Paul wants us to “mind your own business,” well aware that when I fail to do so, my needs spill over onto others.  I have my own business—financial, family, emotional.  Others can help me, support me, and pray for me, but my business is ultimately my responsibility.

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One Thing to Think About:  How might loving others and minding my own business be connected?

One Thing to Pray For:  Wisdom to “walk properly before outsiders”
 

God’s Will for Your Sex Life

Reading:  1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
    
    Paul transitions here from recounting his history with the Thessalonians to giving them moral instructions.  He wants them to continue “to please God" and to “do so more and more” as they follow the truth he has already taught them (1 Thess 4:1, 2).  He has a specific teaching in mind here:  “For this is the will of God, your sanctification:  that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor”(1 Thess 4:3-4).  God’s will for our sex lives is that we be holy—pure, separate from sin, and devoted to God.  This will involve abstaining from certain things—the kinds of sexual relationships that are off-limits to us—and will demand that we learn to be in control of our bodies and their impulses.  We cannot simply respond to every sexual urge or thought; this is not God’s will.

    We do not live “in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God”(1 Thess 4:5).  Gentiles (people who have no relationship with the true God) allow their lusts to grow without restraint, but those who know God pull back.  There is also a social dimension when we are sexually out of control:  “that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things”(1 Thess 4:6).  When I engage in improper sexual relationships, I hurt others (whether they consent or not).  Paul seems especially to have in mind the damage adultery between brothers and sisters in Christ can do to wounded spouses, the church, Jesus, and even ourselves.  He ominously warns that Jesus will avenge, that this is not our calling (1 Thess 4:7), and that if we ignore this, we are ignoring the gracious God himself (1 Thess 4:8).  

    People sometimes describe Christianity’s sexual rules as repressed and puritanical.  Paul argues that they are really about us being in control of ourselves.  There is strength in knowing that my sexual behavior is honorable, righteous, and loving of others.  I am no longer subject to every passing whim, a slave of my passions.  This is God’s will for me.

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One Thing to Think About:  Why is it so hard to control sexual impulses and behavior?

One Thing to Pray For:  The power and wisdom to control my body in holiness and honor

We Have Been Comforted

Reading:  1 Thessalonians 3:6-13
    
    Paul sent Timothy to discover whether the Thessalonians have remained faithful to Jesus.  “But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you—for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith”(1 Thess 3:6-7).  Paul breathes a huge sigh of relief.  Timothy informs him that the Thessalonians are still living as disciples—and in fact greatly miss Paul rather than denouncing him.  The tremendous sense of anxiety he has been wrestling with is eased.

    Paul goes on to reveal just how important these brothers are to him.  “For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord”(1 Thess 3:8).  He does not literally mean that his life depends on them, but is expressing how tremendously their endurance affects him.  He describes the “joy that we feel for your sake before our God” and explains that “we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face”(1 Thess 3:9, 10).  Imagine how encouraging these words would be if you were a member of the Thessalonian church—knowing that simply by continuing to try to follow Jesus, you have had such a positive impact on the apostle.  Having described his prayers, Paul includes a prayer that God give them an opportunity to be reunited with the Thessalonians and strengthen them (1 Thess 3:11-13).

    Paul shows us that the Christian religion comes from the heart.  The hardships and suffering we endure are softened when we feel camaraderie with others who suffer alongside us.  We long to know that, despite miles between us and time spent apart, our brothers are still walking with the Lord.  And when we see their faith going strong through the fires, we can say alongside Paul, “we have been comforted.”

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One Thing to Think About:  Do I feel this way about my brothers?

One Thing to Pray For:  To see my brothers face to face and supply what is lacking in their faith (v. 10)