We’ve come to the final chapter of 1 Thessalonians, and the subject matter of the first section looks similar to last part of chapter 4, which we looked at last week. While they both concern the expected second coming of Jesus, they are clearly different sections.
Paul has finished the discussion in chapter 4 by charging his readers to ‘encourage one another with these words.’ He then starts chapter 5 with ‘Now concerning the times and the seasons…’ and it appears that he’s answering specific questions that the Thessalonians have put to him.
The question is, “When will the day of the Lord be?” That is, when is Jesus coming back? Paul’s basic answer is that we don’t know – it could be any time. And he uses a mix of metaphors including thieves, light/dark, and childbirth to illustrate the point.
I’m not going to work through all those metaphors, but I think we can see three key things:
- Jesus Christ died for us (v.10)
- Our destiny is for salvation through Jesus (v.9)
- We need to be ready for Jesus to return at any moment.
Jesus died for us
As in chapter 4, Paul reminds us of the foundation of everything he writes. Jesus’ death (and, by implication, his resurrection and ascension) changed the world, making relationship with God, and life with Jesus in eternity, possible for everyone. Without this, none of the rest of what Paul writes makes sense.
Our destiny is for salvation through Jesus
For those who are in Christ, Paul is quite clear that our destiny is not God’s wrath, which is God’s response to sin. Rather, our destiny is salvation in Jesus and life with him. So, even if descriptions of the ‘day of wrath’ or ‘day of judgement’ seem alarming, they are not for Jesus’ followers because we have a destiny for salvation.
We need to be ready
Paul’s words here echo what Jesus said in the gospels about being ready for his return at any time – there are lots of things that we don’t know about Jesus’ return (such as exactly what it will look like, as Paul has discussed in chapter 4), but we do know that Jesus is coming, and so we need to be ready.
I find it interesting that, in this early one of Paul’s letters, we can see the beginnings of ideas about God, Jesus, and Jesus’ followers that will be developed in his later letters. Jesus dying for the world is a key theme throughout Paul’s letters, as is the security that believers have in Christ. And much of Paul’s letters are about the right way to live in the kingdom of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, keeping us ready for the Lord’s return.
Paul also draws on Isaiah to picture faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet, ideas which we see most developed in the full armour of God in Ephesians.
Once again, Paul wraps up in 1 Thessalonians 5.11 by telling his readers to encourage one another.
For Paul, faith in Jesus is a relational thing, shown in community. As we began to explore last Sunday, at CCC we are looking at the ‘one another’ statements in the New Testament for the next few weeks, and we’ll be starting with this very one this coming Sunday!
Photo by Rémi Walle on Unsplash