I Thessalonians 5:14 – “Redeemers”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁴But, brothers, we are urging you, be warning the unruly, be comforting the faint-hearted, be supporting the weak, be being patient toward everyone.

What a pleasant little jewel this verse is! Back in v8, Paul urged us to put on faith, hope, and love. In a sense now he’s explaining what he meant.

I fear, as Christians, we very quickly forget what a dark, ugly world it is without Christ. In Titus 3:3, Paul reminds us that “we too were once foolish, disobedient, … We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.” Yikes! “Hating and being hated.” What an awful epitaph.

Even as I type these words my soul is wanting to say it isn’t so – most people aren’t really like that! I can honestly say I don’t personally find people that way. I generally just naturally “like” people and find it pretty easy to get along with just about anyone. But then again, and particularly as a Christian myself, I realize that I generally am not provoking people either. I am very deliberately trying to avoid saying or doing anything that would trouble or discomfort or inflame someone else. And I think it is basically true that, as long as you are kind to other people, it generally draws out their better self. And that is all well and good for the world I have to live in. But, from time to time, the curtain gets drawn and we see people’s ugly side. It is there. And all you have to do is provoke it and the fangs and claws come out with a seething vengeance.

You really see it on the internet. Holy cow. All you have to do is say anything of any substance at all and people’s comments turn rapidly venomous – talk about a living illustration of the Lord’s very words: “hating and being hated.” But we have to realize that is the world those people live in.

On the other hand, I think about Christian radio. For years and years and years, if I turned on the radio, I have listened to the local Christian stations. What a different world. The music, the discussions, the conversations – everything you hear – is encouraging and positive, kind-hearted, patient, and always urging us toward exactly what Paul wished for us – faith, hope, and love. In  a sense that is our “Christian” world.

 … Which brings me back to our passage: ^“But, brothers, we are urging you, be warning the unruly, be comforting the faint-hearted, be supporting the weak, be being patient toward everyone.” What Paul is here acknowledging is that, as you and I live our lives, we will constantly intersect with people who are something less than strong or perfect. Less than perfect? Evolution would say, “Kill them. Their weakness is contaminating the gene pool!” But what does God say? Love them.

Rather than living this “hating and being hated,” the Lord’s desire for us believers is that, as we encounter people in their faults and weakness, we would be redeemers, not murderers.

He says to “warn the unruly.” A very quick word study will reveal that “unruly” is a military word that means “out of rank.” It can describe a soldier who simply isn’t at his post. In II Thess 3:6-12, Paul identifies people who are “unruly” and they are specifically people who don’t think they need to work for a living, who are more than happy to sponge off others. Those verses are the text where Paul says, “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat.” “Unruly” can certainly be applied to a lot of problems, but I suspect in this case, this is the problem Paul has in mind – people who don’t want to work.

At least for those of us who are older, modern America’s whole idea of a welfare state is offensive. We grew up in a world where Paul’s maxim was the mindset – if you want to eat, get a job. Particularly for us, Paul’s words here in I Thess 5 are applicable, that, when we see a “lazy sloucher,” our hearts should not despise them but rather, at the right time and in the right way, we should love them enough to challenge their lifestyle. I’m not entirely sure how we do that in this welfare entitled society – where it isn’t “wrong” at all. People think it is perfectly acceptable and in fact they have a right to it. Again, I don’t know how we would “warn” such a person and even hope to get a hearing – but somehow, whatever we do, it needs to be done in a genuine spirit of love and not the “hating and being hated” mentality. I would think younger people might be inclined to see no reason to “warn” at all, while those of us who are older would rather just lop off their heads. Either way, it wouldn’t be love.

He goes on to say, “Comfort the faint-hearted.” The word “comfort” means just that – to “soothe, to encourage, to cheer.” “Faint-hearted” is an interesting word that literally means “small-souled.” It could be translated with other words, like “desponding,” or “fearful.” The idea of the “small soul” it seems to me is someone who lacks the resources to face whatever they’re up against. The “lack” may only be in their mind, but still, as they face whatever it is, they feel overwhelmed and hopeless. In a real world, what you and I might see is someone we perceive to be cowardly. Perhaps it is someone who seems to be running from their responsibilities, someone collapsing right when we need them to step up to the plate. The natural response is not to somehow “comfort” such people but rather to clobber them! “Shape up or ship out, cupcake!” “If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen!”

Once again, Paul calls us out of the natural world of “hating and being hated” and urges us to love. He is calling us to care enough to try and discern why they seem to be shirking their responsibilities or collapsing in front of their problems. We should be asking ourselves, “In what way are they lacking the resources they need to face the issues?” Perhaps they really don’t “have what it takes?” If we understood, maybe there is something we ourselves could do to help them – maybe we could provide that missing resource? Or maybe they do have the resources, they just don’t realize it. Maybe they just need encouragement? Maybe they just need someone to actually literally say to them, “You can do it.” Prov 8:14 says, “A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” while 12:25 says, “An anxious spirit weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” This is a case where “life and death are in the power of the tongue” (18:21).

Once in high school cross-country I suddenly developed some kind of problem in my right ankle and couldn’t “go” like I wanted to. It was very frustrating and discouraging. He must have seen my problem and, completely to my surprise, Coach Louie Baker pulled me aside and showed me on a clipboard how my times weren’t that different than what I had been running before. It meant so much to me, just the fact that he would encourage me at that point rather than just yelling at me like all of the other coaches and teachers would have done. I will never forget the kindness in his eyes or the feeling of strength it gave me. Now looking back I can honestly see where I was a “small soul” and his words made my soul “bigger.”

Then Paul says to “support the weak.” Much like the previous command to “comfort the faint-hearted,” this is a command to observe when someone is “weak” and provide the “support” they need to bear up under it. The word “support” means just that, and is a picture of coming alongside someone who is about to collapse and holding them up, or someone who is about to be pushed over and using your body to buttress them and help them stand against whatever it is. The word “weak” means just that and can apply to a lot of things. It can be a person who is sick physically or, like in Romans 14, it can be referring to a person whose faith is “weak.” In that case, of course, “weak” faith refers to someone who has what we consider to be unnecessary scruples, rules they think are important but that someone more mature (like us) knows not to be so.

If the person in view is actually sick or infirm, it is easier to see what it means to “support” them, to “lend a hand” or offer them aid in some way. That seems easy enough. I don’t know that I’ve ever understood what it means to support the “weak” in faith when that is referring to basically people with what I see as unnecessarily legalistic scruples. I can see where I need to overcome my irritation or dislike for such people and somehow choose rather to love them – whatever that means. But, again, I don’t really know what it means. I personally feel that legalism is almost the death of faith itself. It kills any testimony we could have had in the community and I believe it eclipses the face of God in people’s hearts. So how do I “support” people who think like that when in my heart I’m thinking they are in serious need of correction? Frankly, I don’t know. I guess what I do know is that somehow I need to love them and I am quite confident that, given the situation, the Lord will help me – whatever it means.

Finally he says, “Be patient with everyone.” Can I inject here an exclamation of praise? By the Gospel, Jesus steps into a world of “hating and being hated,” calls out people to follow Him, and then says, “Be patient with everyone.” Pause a minute and savor that thought. Jesus wants to save you. He wants you to follow Him. And if you do, what will you become? “Patient with everyone.” Knowing Jesus makes us better. If husbands and wives really follow Jesus, how will it change them? They’ll stop “hating and being hated” and actually learn to be patient with each other. Moms and Dads will become patient with their children. Bosses and workers will become patient with each other. People driving down the street will stop blowing their horns and shaking their fists and actually be patient with each other.

Can you imagine? It sounds like a world of love! What is it? It is, in effect, the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. How can we praise Him enough for calling us individually out of this world of “hating and being hated” and drawing us into a life of love?

I need to add here the realization, though, that this phrase, in a sense, highlights the problem itself. We have need of patience! What I mean is that, in this verse, we can read it like a nice Christian cliché, read that we should support the weak, and then imagine ourselves “reaching out” to help some poor pathetic sick person. But that isn’t really where we need this verse. We need these commands at those times when we need patience. In other words, it is likely that the other person’s “weakness” or “faint-heartedness” in some way bothers us. In some way, whatever their problem is, we don’t like it. What we’d really like to do is either lop off their head or just ignore them and hope they go away. That is our setting. That is where we need this verse. That is where we need God’s help – to take those situations where we’d really rather just hate and be hated and instead be the one to conquer first of all ourselves and then with God’s love to do good to the very person whom we thought was bothering us. It’s in situations where we have need of patience.

As I said to begin with, what a wonderful little jewel. If we’d just take to heart this one simple little verse, what a different world it would be. The fact is, for us Christians, even with all our failings, our world is a lot more that than what others have to live in. That is all to the praise of Jesus and His glorious redeeming Gospel. We just need to resolve to live out that Gospel in a world of people who are weak and imperfect. Jesus is a Redeemer. We should be too.

I Thessalonians 5:8-11 – “People of Hope”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁸but we, being of day, let us be being level-headed putting on a breastplate of faith and love and a helmet, hope of salvation ⁹because God did not destine us into wrath but into acquiring salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰the One who died on our behalf in order that we might live together with Him, whether we should be awake or whether we should be sleeping. ¹¹Wherefore, be encouraging each other and be building up into the same, just as you also are doing.

Verses 8 tells us the Lord wants us to be level-headed people who live faith, hope, and love, then verses 9&10, in effect, draw back the curtain of God’s heart. And what do we see? He did not destine us into wrath. Note again how, in verses 6&7, He sees us as “children of light” and as being very different than an unbelieving world which is (toward Him) sound asleep and slobbering drunk. We are objects of grace. We know we’re rotten, but He has chosen to make us His children and “children of light,” at that. “Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God …” We of course are naturally in fact “children of wrath.” In the passage before us, the “wrath” in view specifically is the Day of the Lord. He has already warned that just when the sleeping, drunken unbelievers of this world are mumbling about “peace and safety,” that Day will come upon them very suddenly “and they shall not escape.” “But you …” He says in v4.

There are children of darkness destined for wrath, but God calls you and me “children of light.” And to what are we destined? Verse 9 answers: “Into acquiring salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Salvation. Deliverance. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain …’” (Rev 21:3,4). And this isn’t based on what we’ve done but it is “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The entire panorama of grace is an infinitely kind God offering up His own Son to purchase us undeserving, ruined sinners to redeem us out of all this darkness and “translate us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” Someone pointed out that, given all of this, it is unthinkable that the same God would allow us to share in the wrath to which an unbelieving world in destined.

Dispensationalists take this as an assurance that Church-age Christians will be raptured before the seven years of the Great Tribulation. I am persuaded they are right, but whether or not anyone agrees with that particular application, we believers can rest assured our God has good plans for us. He may in fact be planning a Day of the Lord that is to others “sudden destruction,” but for us even that Day will be a day of salvation and deliverance.

Having said all of that, He circles back to the whole discussion at the end of chapter 4 about believers “sleeping” or being “alive and remaining until the Day of the Lord.” There His “sleep” was referring to death, of course, so here when He says “Whether awake or sleeping,” He means whether dead or alive. And whether awake or asleep, our destiny is to “live together with Him.” Note that, in English, those four words can simply mean that you or I will “live together with Him.” However, in the Greek, it is more likely the “together” is referring to “us.” It’s emphasizing that it will be us, that we together will live with Him. I have to say for myself, as hopeful and exciting as it may be to think I will live with Him, it is enormously encouraging and hopeful to know I won’t be alone in it, that we will all be there, together, with Him.

We are people of hope. In a very dark, frustrating, and sometimes frightening world, we are free to live lives of faith, hope, and love because we already know our destiny. And what should we do with that? Verse 11 says we should “be encouraging each other and be building up into the same, just as you also are doing.”

Because we are people of hope, we should be encouraging others and “building up.” I’m sorry to note that most people today are very negative. They can’t seem to say anything positive about anyone. They say things to each other that only discourage. And too many people are experts in tearing down. Us believers, because we are ourselves objects of grace and children of hope, ought to be resolved to be different. We should be the encouragers and the ones who build up, not tear down all the time. It starts with each other. Though we are children of grace, we certainly most days don’t feel it. We all need often to be reminded that we are people of hope. May you and I resolve that even today, we will very deliberately try to say encouraging things to other people, to be people who build up, not tear down. And why not? We are people of hope!

I Thessalonians 5:4-8 – “Living It”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴But you, brothers, are not in darkness that the day should take you as a thief, ⁵for you all are sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night neither of darkness. ⁶Accordingly, therefore, we should not be sleeping as the rest but we should be being awake and be being level-headed, ⁷for the ones sleeping are sleeping of night and the ones getting drunk are being drunk of night, ⁸but we, being of day, let us be being level-headed putting on a breastplate of faith and love and a helmet, hope of salvation, …

Verses 4 & 5 should be very encouraging to us all. The Lord, in this chapter, is drawing a very sharp distinction between believers and the rest of the world. Notice above, in my translation, I underlined the opening word “you.” As I have explained before, I do this because the substantive pronouns are not normally expressed in Greek. They are just naturally included in the verb. When a Greek speaking person actually says the “you,” they are doing so for emphasis. “But you …” “But you … in contrast to them.” And see what is the contrast we are being told about – “… you, brothers, are not in darkness that the day should take you as a thief, ⁵for you all are sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night neither of darkness.” You are not in darkness. You are sons of light. You are sons of day. We are not of night. We are not of darkness.

Isn’t it interesting to know this is how the Lord sees you? You are not “as others.” You are a child of light. That is what He says. Notice that He doesn’t just see you as a sort of “improved” sinner. That is honestly about all I feel. I know He has saved me. I know He has changed me. But I don’t necessarily feel like I’m all that different. I’m still rotten inside and much too easily drawn to think, and want, and act just as badly as I ever did. I don’t feel that different. But in the Lord’s eyes, there are people who are “of darkness” and there are people who are “children of light.” As a believer, I’m one of those children of light. That is how the Lord sees me. Not just an improved version of them, but something completely different! … and something completely good! As they say, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it for a while!”

Then, of course, “to whom much is given, much is also required.” Knowing that the Lord has made us “different” imparts to us the moral responsibility to actually be different. He tells us we are “children of light,” then the Greek literally says, “accordingly therefore …” And what is the therefore? “We should not be sleeping, as the rest.” The Lord goes on here to basically describe “the rest” as sleeping and drunk. Note that is how He sees them. That is not how He sees us. In His eyes, unbelievers are living their entire lives as if they are sound asleep and slobbering drunk. Note that, in either case, whether asleep or drunk, a person is out of touch with reality. They are quite literally “of darkness.” No wonder unbelieving people say and do such completely idiotic things. We live in this day where you want to open people’s heads and see, “Is there anything inside??” That is horrifically frustrating on the political front, but let us be reminded what is really going on. You’re talking about people who are walking “sound asleep and slobbering drunk.” We see through their idiocy. We see through their facades. But why? Because we are children of light. We aren’t asleep (or shouldn’t be). We aren’t drunk (or shouldn’t be). For us, living in this world, it is just as if we’re in the same room with someone sleeping, or someone drunk. We see clearly what is going on. They, on the other hand, are out of touch with reality. What they say and do is senseless, just like a sleeping drunk.

The problem is, even though the Lord says we are different, we can still act just like them. What I should be asking is, “What can I do to make sure I’m different?” What can I do to make sure I’m “sober,” that I’m “alert,” that I’m “level-headed?” In answer, we could propose all sorts of do’s and don’ts, but what does the Lord say in the passage itself? He says in v.8: ^“But we, being of day, let us be being level-headed putting on a breastplate of faith and love and a helmet, hope of salvation.” Interesting. Putting on faith, hope, and love. How do we stay “alert” in this world? By very deliberately being people of faith, hope, and love.

Does anyone else reading this sense that is not the answer we would expect today? If you sense that as well, pause and consider it all with me. I’ve actually hovered over this passage longer than I usually do. I got my grammar study and exegesis finished, then thought I’d better just linger over the passage for a while. I was afraid I would let it all be nice-sounding Christian jargon and miss the truth of it all. One of the things that perplexed me was reading Jesus’ words that seem to be expressing the same sentiments, as when He says in Mark 13:35-37, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return -- whether in the evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning. Otherwise, he may arrive without notice and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’” I asked myself, “Do I really know what He means by ‘watch’?” My mind filled with all sorts of ideas but I knew in my heart they were all just my “ideas.” I wanted to be sure I knew what the Lord meant, so I prayed and looked up other passages, and just kept coming back to the passage.

Then I noticed in verse 8 the fact that the Lord actually answers the question Himself. I missed that before, even though I worked through the whole passage. Again, what does He want us to do when He says, “Watch!” and “Be sober, be awake, be level-headed?” He wants us to put on a breastplate of faith and love and a helmet of hope.

Faith, hope and love.

Can I just pause and lament how we make everything so difficult? The Lord tells us to “watch” and “be sober, be awake” and our minds conjure up all sorts of do and don’t lists and who knows what all else – while all He wanted us to do was to very deliberately live a life of faith, hope, and love! Once again, as Jesus told us, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Loving God and serving Him and being faithful isn’t about all that other junk we conjure up. It’s about the very real issues of faith, hope, and love.

Faith speaks of the very truth-system we build our lives on. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is building our lives on the truth of who God is and nursing on His promises. That has certainly been a huge part of my life here in the last couple of years – learning to really embrace God’s faithfulness and His goodness and to put away my worrying and constant emotional frenzy.

Hope is the flame that keeps our hearts alive. In this passage it is specifically the “hope of salvation.” We could probably ponder what all that really means to us, but I would offer that, in the big scheme of things, the very fact of our salvation in Christ and the absolute certainty of Heaven with Him means for us that no matter what I face here, no matter how hopeless this world looks, I always still have that hope at least. And because I have that hope, I’m reminded I serve a wonderful Savior who has promised to only do me good here … which means I have hope even here in those things that seem hopeless. David said, “I would have fainted except I believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Based on that truth, his advice to us was “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Hope gives us strength to keep going on.

And of course there is love. I am constantly amazed how many times the Lord says this and how for the better part of my Christian life I missed it. Love. Love God, love people. The first and great commandment. It is perhaps one of the greatest freedoms I have ever known to realize that what the Lord really wants of me, what really, really matters in life at any given second is simply to answer the question, “Am I loving?” If the answer before God is yes, I’m good. If the answer is no, then no matter what I’m doing, no matter how “spiritual” I may think I look, no matter how much others may approve – “though I speak with the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I am nothing.” Of course I need God’s wisdom to even know what love is. It is quite possible to think I’m loving (as in the case of an indulgent parent) and yet be wrong – but then, in a sense that is what the entire Bible is about from cover to cover – how to love wisely.

I’m sure I don’t embrace enough what God has done for me through Jesus, how He really has set me apart and made me one of the “children of light,” but I’m glad that, the more I understand that, instead of making me a religious sour-puss who hates everybody and everything, instead it makes me more and more a person of faith, hope, and love.

He began good work. And it certainly is a good work. May He help us all to willingly cooperate in that work today. May we live each moment as people of faith, hope, and love whether we find ourselves butchers or bakers or candlestick makers – or standing in the line at the grocery store.

I Thessalonians 5:3 – “Peace and Safety”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³When they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden to them is coming destruction, just as the labor to her having [child] in womb, and they absolutely will not escape.

^“When they are saying, ‘Peace and safety,…’” Isn’t it interesting to look around and realize this is exactly where our world is going? World War I was supposed to be “the war to end all wars,” and Woodrow Wilson championed the League of Nations – which became ultimately the United Nations, whose primary task (supposedly) is to maintain world peace. Their military forces are called “peacekeepers.” We’ve had Hippies and peace-niks and pacifists. We have “Green Peace,” and the Peace Corps. Politicians constantly clamor for “peace in the Middle East.” Barak Obama was elected on a platform of promising to unite the country and end the war in Iraq. His deception was so convincing, he hadn’t been in office long or done anything at all notable and they gave him a Nobel Peace Prize. In his case, of course, it was all hot air, and all he did was divide the country, persecute Christians, and generally leave the world a far scarier place. But our world was clamoring for “Peace and Safety,” and he said he could give it ... and they believed him.

Along with all of this, it is notable that boys are no longer taught to fight. As late as my parents’ generation, practically every boy learned to box. Before that, throughout the ages, a boy just naturally grew up learning to use a sword or a bow or to shoot a gun – all with the understanding that he might need those skills someday to defend himself, his family, or his country. Probably the last generation of fighting men were the guys who served in WWII. Even as young men those guys could take up a gun and walk right into the face of death and ultimately win a world war to defend their families back home.

But not so anymore. Today we’re raising a generation of snowflakes. When world events look threatening, they need a “safe place” to go and hide. I often wonder what the men would have thought about this riding the landing craft right into the carnage of Normandy Beach. A “safe place?” I enjoyed blowing up groundhogs as a kid, shooting them with a gun big enough to drop an elephant, but I’m very aware such activities are frowned upon today. I say to that, “Humbug.” It’s good for a boy to learn to shoot a gun, to shoot a BIG gun, to pull the trigger and turn his “enemy” into a pink cloud, to spread blood and guts all over the place. But, of course, … those are not acceptable thoughts today.

What’s it all about? “Peace and safety.” The entire mental climate of our modern world is becoming obsessed with “Peace and safety.” Isn’t that interesting? Someone predicted it 2000 years ago! The world around is forming exactly into the world the Lord said it would be when He returns. We don’t know “the day or the hour” but we have been told what the world would be like and as Jesus said, “When you see these things, you know that it is near, right at the door” (Mt 24:33).

Are peace and safety bad things? Certainly not. It is precisely any government’s primary responsibility to provide for the peace and safety of its citizens (Romans 13:3). And, as Christians, it is of paramount importance to us that our God provides us with peace and safety. “‘Peace, peace to him that is near and to him that is far, and I will heal him,’ says the Lord” (Isa 57:19). “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you … Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace …” (Gal 5:22). [A godly man] “will have no fear of bad news, his heart is steadfast, confident in the Lord. His heart is secure, he will have no fear …” (Ps 112:7,8).

So what is wrong with a world talking “peace and safety?” The problem is they think they can find it without the Lord. They think they can create their own peace and safety. Like the builders of the Tower of Babel, they are saying, “Let us make a name for ourselves!” Just as the Lord warned in the Old Testament, He can offer blessings and there will always be someone who “… invokes a blessing on himself and thinks, ‘I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way’” (Deut 29:19). That passage goes on to say “… the Lord’s anger will burn against that man” (v20). The fact is this is God’s world and He says, “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” No peace. It is the very pits of arrogance and presumption to think we can live in God’s world, spurn His grace, and still somehow manage to create for ourselves a world of peace and safety. In fact, the very father of all of that deception is none other than Satan himself who is “a liar and the father of lies.” Just like crooked politicians, he knows people want to hear “peace and safety.” But he himself was “a murderer from the beginning” and the real world he creates is a world of lies and murder.

Although we may enjoy brief periods of good leadership, the general trend of world leadership will from now on be constantly moving toward more and more platforms of “peace and safety,” followed by more division, more persecution, and oppression of anyone who doesn’t play along. In spite of the failures, people will constantly believe the new lies and continue to embrace these leaders who promise them “peace and safety.” The Bible speaks of people believing a “strong delusion of a lie.” And of the AntiChrist himself, it says “and by peace he shall destroy many” (Dan 8:25).

Finally, the Lord will intervene to end all the lies and murder, and, as it says in our passage, “While they are saying ‘peace and safety,’ sudden to them is coming destruction.”  I’ve left the sentence structure awkward to show the emphasis the Greek puts on the word “sudden.” It will be sudden. Like a woman in labor – she may have known it was coming, she just didn’t know when, and when it does come, it comes, and there is no turning back. And then the Lord goes on to warn, “and they absolutely will not escape.” Again, in the Greek, the language is there to emphasize more than just “they will not escape.” It tells us they absolutely will not escape.” Back in 4:15, we were assured that “we who are alive and remain until the Coming of the Lord certainly will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” Same grammatical device. “Certainly will not.” “Absolutely will not.”

Our world will more and more talk peace and safety while the lies and murders only increase. But the God who is the true source of peace and safety will go on offering His grace and mercy – and for those of us who accept it, we can in Him live in real peace and safety.

I Thessalonians 5:1-2 – “Curiosity”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹But, brothers, you do not have a need to write to you concerning the times and the seasons, ²for you yourselves know accurately that [the] day of the Lord is coming as a thief in [the] night.

I’m going to go back to I Thess for a while, then eventually get back to Daniel 3. One thing I must say is that Greek is sure easy to work with! It is so similar to English. After working in the Aramaic of Daniel 2 for a while, I almost can’t believe how easy and smooth the Greek is back in the New Testament. The Aramaic and Hebrew of the Old Testament are almost like working in Chinese. There is seemingly nothing in them even faintly reminiscent of English. That in itself makes it fun to work with them, but, on the other hand, I don’t know if I’ve ever noticed before just how easy Greek is.

To the passage at hand.

Paul at the end of chapter 4 has been discussing prophecy and the Rapture in particular. There, of course, was no chapter break in his letter, so the words before us need to be read as a continuation of chapter 4. It would seem that what Paul is doing here in vv 1,2 is anticipating an (apparently) very predictable human response: curiosity. He’s been talking about the Lord “descending from Heaven with a shout,” and now (apparently) is anticipating the question “When?”

Humans are (again, apparently) incorrigibly curious. When Jesus was teaching the disciples about the end times, their response was: “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” Then, even after He was resurrected and just before He returned to Heaven, they asked Him, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” To the first question He answered, “About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” To the second He answered, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority.” When Jesus told Peter he would die an old man, Peter immediately looks at John and asks, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

Curious. People are curious. They want to know. They want to know a lot of things. They generally don’t like to not know. I suppose, if we pondered it for a while, that it has something to do with us being made in the image of God. God Himself, of course, is Omniscient, all-knowing – perhaps our curiosity arises from our desire to be like Him in that way? Hmmmm. I’ll have to think about that one for a while.

At any rate, we do find ourselves curious beings and the subject of prophecy seems to always leave us wanting to know “When?” It is apparently almost irresistible. I say that because Jesus made it very clear, “No man knows the day or the hour,” and yet people all down through the ages have incessantly strove to pin-point that day and hour anyway, and then often have been able to generate large followings of other people, equally willing to completely disregard Jesus’ very clear words, even to the point of selling their property, giving all their money to their charlatan leader, and doing all sorts of other very foolish things.

Paul was able to write I Thessalonians 5:1,2, which I’ll write out in opposition to people’s insatiable curiosity: “But, brothers, you do not have a need to write to you concerning the times and the seasons, ²for you yourselves know accurately that [the] day of the Lord is coming as a thief in [the] night.” Paul says, “You know, very well,” that the Day of the Lord will come at an unexpected time. They already know that. Jesus made it clear. Paul has apparently made it clear. Yet he needs to say it again. “Like a thief in the night …”

The bottom-line of this is, in spite of our insatiable curiosity, this is one question for which we cannot and will not get an answer.

Will not. Period.

No matter how many times we ask. No matter how much we study. No matter how many “secret codes” we think we find in the Bible – this in one question for which we cannot and will not get an answer.

It seems to me that somewhere in my Bible studies I have run across this same issue. We know about the past. We live in the present. But the Lord has hidden from us the future. We all have to live in the present, honestly not knowing what will happen in the next five seconds – much less the next 50 or 100 or 1000 years. We all know it is true and yet there is something in us, this apparently insatiable curiosity, that leaves us yearning to somehow pierce that dark veil of the future.

I don’t think it is a matter that we somehow need to stop being curious. Again, that may be an expression of the image of God in us. But somehow it needs to be a sanctified curiosity. It needs to be a curiosity that humbly accepts what the Lord will not let us know. We must believe that He knows best, and even in what He withholds He is giving us what truly is best for us. And apparently it is best for us to live our lives knowing He will come but not knowing when.

He will come … like a thief!

Daniel 2:48,49 – “Faith in the Real Workplace”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴⁸Then the king made Daniel great and gave to him many great gifts and he made him ruler upon the all of the province of Babel and chief ruler upon the all of the wise men of Babel, ⁴⁹and Daniel asked from the king and he appointed upon the service of the province of Babel to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel [was] in the gate of the king.

At first glance, this seems like just an “Aw, that’s nice” passage, and then we quickly move on. Apparently that is how almost everyone sees these two verses, as I found very little commentary written on them, and even some commentators said nothing at all.

But to me these two little verses are jewels to sit and ponder, literally overflowing with very, very helpful truth for people who want to live for God in a real world, and especially in the real workplace.

Here are Daniel and his friends. Their entire lives have been blasted upside down. Just three or four years before they were normal teenage boys in Jerusalem thinking about what careers they might embark on and which of their little Jewish girlfriends they might marry. Suddenly Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army appeared on the scene and nothing has been the same since. The boys were ripped away from their families, and the future they had imagined was shattered to dust as they were carried far away to Babylon and placed in the service of that king.

Ever since then, they have modeled for us how to live for Christ in a godless, pagan world. And as I have said before, what I find enormously encouraging and instructive about the book of Daniel is to realize that what we’re reading about is believers in the workplace – believers at their jobs. Babylon is no “Christian” workplace for the boys to thrive in, but then neither are most of our jobs. For 99% of God’s people, we spend all day every day in a world that could care less what God thinks of their practices. As we try to be people of integrity, we’re not in danger of being thrown into a fiery furnace, but we all know our workplaces can dole out some pretty miserable consequences when somehow our faith runs against the grain of their intentions. We also know that our work assignments often seem impossible, just like the boys and the interpretation of this dream of the king’s, and there too our faith is challenged. Finally, as we plod away day after day we are (or should be) very aware that these people we work with desperately need to know this God they apparently don’t care about.

Once again, here we are. Another day in the real world lives of our Daniel and his friends. Once again, they were just minding their own business, doing a good job at whatever they were given to do, when suddenly the decree has gone out they are to be executed because the other wise men can’t do what the king is asking.    Executed.    Dead.    At that point, they didn’t know “the rest of the story.” For all they knew, their heads would soon be in baskets. And how did they respond? In faith. In real, living faith. They continued to be men of integrity; they continued to be polite and make requests properly … and threw themselves into the arms of the Lord. Like Jesus, “When threatened, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.”

Our friends did exactly what we all should do all day every day at our jobs – be people of integrity and entrust ourselves to Him who judges justly.

It is worthwhile to note, in the very next chapter, they will do exactly that and get themselves thrown into a furnace. Today, it gets them promoted higher than any of them could have ever imagined! Think about it – all Daniel has done is live his faith. All he has done is be humble, pray, invite his friends to pray, and sincerely try to do what his boss has asked, and, in this case, the Lord has honored that faith and, instead of being executed, suddenly Daniel and his friends are promoted to the very highest positions in the king’s service. And what does that mean? It means no doubt very high salaries, palatial mansions to live in, the most expensive chariots to drive – practically everything a young man could ask for.

I take from this the realization that, whenever I am faced with one of these crises at work (and really we face at least small versions of it all day every day), I need to be like Daniel and just be a person of integrity, try to do my best, and trust God with the outcome. I may be successful and be greatly honored. Or I might get thrown in a furnace. But no matter, I can live in the quiet confidence that my God is the Most High and He rules in the lives of men and nations. My job is to serve Him. His job is to run the universe. And I know He’ll do it well – whatever that may mean for me.

That alone is enormously helpful truth for living in a real world. But there is way more in these two little verses. We can ponder why the Lord is doing this. Why promote these young fellows so high? On the one hand, it is no doubt a blessing of the Lord for their faithfulness. Like Solomon they did not ask for riches or long lives but simply wisdom to live today, and the Lord says, “Then I’ll give you both.” But there is a much bigger picture going on here than just some young men and their lives. God has just raised four Jewish boys to the very highest levels of power in the government of Babylon, the ruling power of the known world, and the very place where their fellow Jews have been carried captive. God is no doubt show-casing to the world His greatness and also placing the boys in positions where they can do good to their own captive people. Our good God can accomplish all of that in one miraculous event.

Then stop and ponder too what the boys have been promoted to – the government of Babylon.  Babylon. Not Judea. This is seriously about like an American POW being promoted to serve in the government of Nazi Germany! This is not the country these boys want to be governing. It is not the people they want to serve. And yet how do they handle it? With integrity and faith, like always. We can take from this that we don’t always get the job we want. We may end up in some places we really don’t want to be. Yet, if that is where the Lord has put us today, how should we deal with it? With integrity and faith – just like Daniel and his friends.

To see what I mean, look closely at the two verses and think about it. Where does Daniel get placed? He’s made the head man over all the wise men of Babylon. “Wise men.” And what are they really? Astrologers. Soothsayers. Necromancers. Conjurors. Wizards. Shamans. Fortune-tellers. Tarot card readers. Think about it! The very profession itself is abhorrent to an Israelite. Back in Israel, such people were to be executed! And where is Daniel? Placed in charge of them! It’s about like one of us being “promoted” to head up all of the king’s royal abortion clinics or all of the king’s royal brothels! The job itself would be not only undesirable to us but actually abhorrent! Can you imagine Daniel sending a letter back home to his parents saying, “Guess what? I’ve been made the head of the necromancers!!!” You would think his Jewish parents’ first response would be horror. This is precisely one of those places where I suspect any one of us as normal evangelical Christians would probably think we need to refuse to work in such a position. But Daniel didn’t.

But Daniel didn’t.

He accepted the position.

As they say, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.”

It’s bad enough that he has to serve in the court of the very king who will destroy Jerusalem. It’s bad enough he had to attend Babylon U. and learn all the vile methods of the “wise men.” Now Daniel and his friends get promoted to the very highest positions in that pagan, godless world.

Yet they took the jobs and no doubt did them well.

I remember years ago pondering in my mind whether it was even possible for a thinking Christian to be president of the United States. My head was so full of legalistic scruples I just couldn’t imagine how one could occupy that position without almost constant compromises. But then I watched Ronald Reagan and I saw that, even though he went to all the dinners and drank their wine and danced with his wife and served over a country that was aborting babies under his very nose, yet it was an enormous blessing to have such a good Christian man serve as our president. I could see that somehow he could disregard all my scruples and yet do tremendous good to this country and to the world itself. It was quite a mystery to me at the time, but I knew something was “right” about it and longed to understand.

And here I see Daniel doing the very same thing.

Of course, what I have learned over the years is that it all comes down to “Love God, love people.” Christianity isn’t about all the scruples. It’s about loving God and people. And the fact is we can do that from almost any position – even as the head of the necromancers or high up in the court of a pagan king. I will even go so far as to suggest, if we had to, we could do it as head of the king’s royal brothels – if that is where we found ourselves.

Can I inject here that, in America, we think we are basically free to work wherever we want to, that we don’t “have to” work at any job. That is true but only to a point. The fact is it is very expensive to live and I can’t just quit a job if I don’t have another already lined up to go to. Even in America, if you quit your job, you have no idea how long it will take to find another and whether it will be any better than what you left any way. My point is that, in the real world, and to a very large extent, we’re no different than Daniel. We don’t really have a whole lot of choice what we do or do not do at work. We’re given assignments and expected to carry them out. And like Daniel, a good Christian will take most of it with a smile and seek to do their best – no matter where they find themselves. And I know – but, but, but …!!! I’m just saying, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.” I think we can learn a great deal from Daniel, if we only lay aside our traditions and actually listen to what the Lord is telling us through him – and again, especially in our workplaces.

I could say so much more about this, but, in the event anyone stumbles across these feeble scratchings, I hope I’ve challenged you to think very deeply about what it means to be a practicing Christian in a godless, pagan workplace. I will close my thoughts by just suggesting that what the Lord wants of us is very, very different than the impressions we get today. We need to get our truth from the Bible, not from our traditions, and I hope I have at least challenged someone to think that through. Once again, that is precisely why I study the Bible – I find in it a very different “faith” than what we all seem to think it should be. I want to live Jesus’ faith – and that can only come from the Word of God itself.

I want to live a real faith in the real world, in my own very real workplace – just like Daniel.