A little while ago, I produced a verse by verse series in Philippians. I really enjoyed that exercise and have been wondering if I should take on another book. Well it turns out that 1 Thessalonians is the victim of my machinations, and hopefully, the thoughts produced by this fantastic book will edify and encourage the reader.
As with Philippians I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.
1 Thessalonians 4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Most who follow my posts know my background. A rebellious teenager, saved by the grace of God, only to be swept away with a teaching called Dispensational Theology. I was committed to the Pretribulational Rapture teaching, a teaching that provided an escape for believers prior to a supposed seven year tribulation, where an anti-christ would take power and rule the world.
Many verses were called upon to create this narrative, and for most of my walk of faith I thought this was the way. In the 80’s, with Israel being established as a nation in 1947, it was common to think the Lord was coming back in 1987. (Reference was made to the Lord’s speaking of a generation of 40 years in His Mount Olivet discourse.)
To be honest with my own heart, I didn’t want to know of any other teaching. This one was good for me. I liked it. I mean I liked it a lot!
But one night on a long drive into Oklahoma all alone, I was challenged with a Scripture teaching that shocked me. It is commonly called a preterist theology, and I had never heard of it. I had been a believer for decades and had avoided it successfully. Amazing, since it has been the dominant teaching in the history of the church since the apostles, but I was consumed with my teaching.
To get to our verse for the morning, Paul just spent four verses teaching the Thessalonians about the gathering of the saints and the return of the Lord, hoping to relieve those still living Thessalonians of the good future of their sleeping brothers. This passage is pastoral in the infinite, and yet I had made it into a chronological tool to justify a certain teaching.
In our verse this morning, he provides the reason he taught them these famous verses.
To encourage one another.
Nothing to do with timing of the Lord’s return, or any mention of a tribulation, or an antichrist or beast or the devil on earth. No persecution of believers is emphasized, or some mark of a beast. Not one mention of 666!
Let’s remember that in verses 9-12 Paul emphasized..
- Love – verse 9 …you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,
- More Love – verse 10 ….. But we urge you, brothers, to do this (that is, love one another) more and more, (italics my insert)
- A Quiet Life – verse 11 …to aspire to live quietly,
- A Circumspect Life – verse 11 …mind your own affairs
- A Life of Labor – verse 11 …to work with your hands…
- A Proper Witness – verse 12 …so that you may walk properly before outsiders
- A Life of Independence – verse 12 …be dependent on no one.
Note that Paul said nothing about selling all your goods and sitting on a hill waiting for a rapture. Nothing about trying to determine who the antichrist is. Nothing about escaping the wrath to come.
He simply wanted to calm his church down, teach them of their joining their brothers in the air as the Lord returns, and that this should be a comfort to them, and a opportunity to encourage one another.
My I encourage those reading, especially if you may be consumed with future events, rapture timing, antichrist identification, and Armageddon. Be encouraged in the Lord, for He is your shelter, your High Tower and your Strength.
Being consumed with end time scenarios, from my own experience, feeds a sort of self survivalism, short term thinking, and a stress that does not belong in the believers heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, be thankful for His many mercies, and encourage those who may have lost a loved one in the faith, that the day is coming when we will be rejoined.
I’m waiting to see you Jed!
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Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.
