Year One, June 29

We Will Always Be With the Lord1

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13But 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. (We may sorrow, but not as much and not for as long as those who have no hope. We know that the souls of believers who have died are safe and that their bodies will rise from the grave when Jesus comes back. Therefore, what reason do we have to weep and complain the way the godless and unbelieving do?) 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (Note the words, “fallen asleep.” Fallen asleep in Jesus! Death does not break the relationship between Jesus and his saints. We are one with him eternally; and therefore just as surely as Jesus rose from the grave, all the members of his mystical body2 must also rise.)

15For 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. (We who are alive are not in a better position than those who have died in the Lord. At the same time, those who have gone before us are not in line ahead of us. The dead in Christ and the alive in Christ are equal. There is no reason to be anxious to be alive when our Lord returns. What is important is that we are confident that the Lord will return. Whether we are alive or dead when he comes is not a big deal. There is no special award given just because we happen to be alive when he comes again.)

16For 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. (Those who have died in Christ will be the first to receive new glorified bodies.) 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (The resurrection of the dead comes first, then the rapture when both living and dead rise up in the air together to live with Jesus for forever. Jesus is our best and only hope. Does he belong to us and we to him?) 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

  

1 Thessalonians 5:1-10

1Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. (Those who reject the warning of this prophecy will be caught off guard when Jesus comes back.) 3While  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. (Certainly, suddenly, unstoppably. No matter which way they turn they will find no safe way to escape; they will not be rescued.) 4But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.

Even though you do not know when it will happen, your faith stands on guard, and you are prepared.

5For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

Are we all children of the light? If we are God’s special people, we should be responsible people. We need to stay awake and be alert. The children of darkness may have an excuse for being caught sleeping, but we do not. A “sleeping Christian” is a contradiction in terms.

7For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.

In those days, drunkenness had not grown as bold as it is now. People who were in the habit of becoming intoxicated waited for the cover of darkness to have their drunken parties. It would be completely out of place for someone who has heavenly light to fall into the wicked activities of nature’s midnight.

8But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

The great love of Jesus is understood best when his redeemed ones show it in their lives, at all times and in all places. 

Spirit of holiness, work in us to be in fellowship with Jesus and to be like him. Amen.

^{_______________}

¹ 1 Thessalonians 4:17

² The Mystical Body of Christ refers to all Christians in all times in all places as being part of Jesus Christ and one another. Paul refers to this in Romans 12:4-5. Verse 5: “So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” See also, 1 Corinthians 10:17 & Ephesians 4:11-13.