As we finished up a review of the Lord’s Direct Word to us in the last post, I wanted to continue the theme of the Lord’s return He used in His closing admonition:
“I am the Sovereign Lord, I am King and I am coming back! I say to you—I will return! Make yourselves ready, prepare yourselves, prepare the way for my coming. For I am coming again and the time is near!”
In the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians he constantly spoke to them of the Lord’s return; in fact, each chapter closed with such a prompt.
We are reminded to wait: “and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come” (1Th 1:10 NASB).
We are told of our preciousness to each other: “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?” (1Th 2:19 NASB).
We are encouraged to personally prepare “so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (1Th 3:13 NASB).
We are prompted to comfort one another: “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 comfort one another with these words” (1Th 4:17-18 NASB).
We are reminded to separate ourselves from the world: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Th 5:23 NASB).
Such repetition should prompt us, as did the Thessalonians, to be ready for that day and to tell others to be ready as well!
Paul’s use of the term that day penned to the Thessalonians brought a new understanding to me lately.
He speaks of that day as not overtaking them as a thief; that day when Christ will be glorified; and that day which is at hand.
However, it’s a more subtle sentence that offered a new quickening to my spirit about that day.
“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness.”
– 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5 NASB
The expression “sons of” is Semitic (pertaining to the Semites or their languages, especially pertaining to the Jews). “By a common Hebrew idiom, a man is said to be a son of any influence that determines or dominates his character. So there are ‘sons of Belial’ (worthlessness) in the O. T.; and Christ speaks of ‘sons of thunder,’ ‘sons of the Resurrection.”[1]
Thus, in this passage “sons of” speaks of a special kinship with the light as they live in a pathway where light shines around them. Wisdom penned it this way,
“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”
– Proverbs 4:17
In the natural, our lives are illustrated, many times, by the day. Our birth is represented by the dawn and our death by the sunset. But there will be no sunset for the righteous in the spiritual; there won’t even be an afternoon. The “full day” of Proverbs 4:17 refers to the sun at its height—noontime—which also is its brightest.
Thus, the light in our walk with the Lord should never dim, it should never eclipse noontime, it should never see sunset, but should grow brighter and brighter until that day when the Lord destroys the wicked one with the brightness of His coming!
(See 2 Thessalonians 2:8.)
“He who testifieth these things [Jesus Christ] saith, Yea: I come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.”
– Revelation 22:20 ASV
