Monday 1st August- 1 Thessalonians 4

Today’s chapter is 1 Thessalonians 4, you can read it here

Tom writes:

And so we will be with the Lord for ever. That is a phrase worth repeating over and over and over and over. It was a phrase Paul used to encourage a persecuted church. It is a phrase that encourages any saint in any space who stews on it. Will you stew on it? We will be with Jesus. Forever. The kind one, the wise one, the healer will while away week after week with us as his friends. This hope sets such a liberating context to our lives that I want to tattoo it on my soul. Whatever life looks like now, no matter how beautiful or how savage, it will all fade into nothingness when He comes. And no matter what risk comes off or doesn’t come off, no matter what venture triumphs or fails, our future fate is now found with him. That is the pastoral purpose of this powerful passage.

Much has been debated about the rapture language of these closing phrases (the word rapture is a translation of “caught up” we see in verse 17). Lots of theologians have written really insightfully on this if you want to explore it further. But don’t get distracted by that fairly marginal idea. Focus on the main and plain. Don’t miss the centre of the throbbing encouragement that Paul thrusts upon his early churches. All the saints will go marching in and we will be in their number. We will go into the kingdom of Jesus to join him in his flawless eternal paradise.  Whether we die or remain alive, whether we are ugly or beautiful, knackered or full of beans we will be swung into his victory parade to dance arm in arm with people from every century and nation and people-group and culture.  And he will be over us all and close to us all and fulfilling us all and smiling at us all.  Let’s encourage each other with this thought.  Let’s encourage each other with these words; we will be with the Lord forever.

Question for reflection

How is your eternal future affecting how you live right now?