◄ What Does 1 Thessalonians 5:5 Mean? ►

Paul longs to be with the Lord, knowing that the suffering and pain of this present age will one day give way to the unimaginable glory of being with Christ forever. And having detailed the return of the Lord in the air for His Church "with a loud shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet-call of God," when we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye, Paul then outlines how we should behave as we wait for Christ's glorious and imminent appearing.

We should not slumber and sleep or be lulled into some soporific stupor or some narcotic dream into which many in this paganistic world system have been sucked. We who have the light of the glorious gospel of Christ in our hearts and the hope of the precious promise of heaven in our sights, should never be careless or apathetic as we wait for our blessed hope - that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.

Neither should we be like those lukewarm believers, carnal Christians, and legalistic religionists that have distorted the Word of God to fit into a seeker-friendly, social gospel - nor don the anti-Israel diatribe that has erroneously replaced God's nation of Israel with the Church.

But rather, we should be vigilant and watch for His soon appearing, guarding our hearts while being clear-headed in our thinking. 

In the book of Romans, Paul takes up this theme, encouraging us to live godly lives, loving our neighbour as ourselves. "And do this," Paul exhorts, "knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."

We are blessed beyond compare to be part of Christ's Body and to be His Bride. And we who believe His Word and belong to Christ must be alert, awake, and fine-tune all our spiritual senses, knowing that any day "the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, let us comfort one another with these words."

Loving Father, thank You for the Word of Truth and the promise of Christ's any day return to take us to be with Himself. I pray that I will not fall into apathy or wrong thinking, but that, day by day, Jesus is the focus of my heart, as I wait in expectancy for His soon return. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.