What More Do We Need?

1 Thessalonians 5

¹Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ²for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁴But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. ⁹For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Final Instructions

¹²Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. ¹³Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. ¹⁴And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

¹⁶Be joyful always; ¹⁷pray continually; ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

¹⁹Do not put out the Spirit's fire; ²⁰do not treat prophecies with contempt. ²¹Test everything. Hold on to the good. ²²Avoid every kind of evil.

²³May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

²⁵Brothers, pray for us. ²⁶Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. ²⁷I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

²⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

2 Thessalonians 2

¹Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, ²not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. ³Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness^a]">[a] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. ⁴He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

⁵Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? ⁶And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. ⁷For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. ⁸And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. ⁹The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, ¹⁰and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie ¹²and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

¹³But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you^b]">[b] to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. ¹⁴He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings^c]">[c] we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, ¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

We live in a sinful world. It has been so since the cataclysmic act of disobedience and rebellion against God perpetrated by our parents in the Garden. By that one choice, freedom and life immortal was traded for slavery and death.

The consequence of sin has impacted every living thing since, causing the creation itself to groan in pain and eager expectation unto regeneration. Humanity was most affected, in that it's unique, right relationship with the Creator was lost, the image of God in man was tainted by corruption, and the glory of the invisible God veiled in mists of fallen mortality. Even the God-Man, Jesus Christ, while not having a sin nature or having sinned Himself, was touched, in that His sacrifice of love at the cross was necessitated by the Fall and His Person endured undeserved suffering under it's penalty and it's power.

The strength of sin is immense. The power of iniquity has caused man to inflict upon man the smallest and largest of injustices, from a simple lack or respect or appreciation to the systematic murder of entire peoples.

The pain and suffering that has emanated from the original sin, and every succeeding sin, is vast beyond comprehension and can very easily, in light of such enveloping and overwhelming darkness, discourage even the righteous unto despair.

How, God's children often ask, can we stand against such an enemy and defeat such an imposing foe? Is it futile to try? Should we compromise with sin, acquiesce to such thinking and fall, like the majority of mankind, into the morass of apathy, indifference , and imitation?

If we had only our own power, and our hope was only in ourselves, the answer to these questions would sadly, but honestly, be on the side of surrender. God's Holy Word tells us that apart from the power of God, our faith, our preaching, and our efforts are futile, empty, and useless. If, in this life and in ourselves only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable and deserving of pity and derision.

But thanks be to God! He has given to those who come to Him by grace through faith alone, the victory over sin, death, hell, and the grave, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ! Since Christ is raised from the dead, the power of sin is broken and the bonds of slavery snapped by an Almighty Hand.

The above correspondence, from the Apostle Paul to the church at Thessalonica, reminds all who have ears to hear, that while the effects of sin are great, and they will increase until the very end exponentially, until evil is personified and lawlessness is unfettered and loved, they are not eternal. Sin and evil are finite entities and concepts, not infinite. The powers of darkness are not omnipotent and the presence and mind of Satan not omnipresent or omniscient.

No, only God is eternal and immutable; only God is infinite and thus, all His attributes in turn. His love is boundless and his holiness, grace, forgiveness, justice, power, and every other quality of His being measureless! All other personalities, entities, ideas, and concepts are bound within time, space, and mortality. But not God.

The greatest evil and the multitudinous sins and their effect are overwhelming to us, but nothing in light of God's infinite power to heal and restore and to destroy death itself and provide eternal, infinite life beyond the reach of sin's grasp. God removes the one, who comes in childlike faith and dependence, from the hands of the tyrant and places him in the loving hands of the all sovereign, all powerful, all loving King of the eternal freedom world he has made for us to enjoy forever.

Perhaps the greatest truth of all is shared below, again by the apostle. His words redound along the corridors of time unto us, as an echo of the Eternal Voice and a reminder of His love for us. Look closely. Do you see it? The invisible is more beautiful than anything our eyes can discern. For this, we must see with our heart and our soul. 'From the beginning God chose you! He didn't need you, Christian...He is after all, sufficient and infinite, in Himself! No, He CHOSE you...not because He needed you, but because He wanted you! Eternal encouragement! Eternal hope! I ask only this: "What more,truly, do we need?

...from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Let all God's people praise His Holy name!