To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 2:17-19 “But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you – I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.”

One of the great heartaches of life is separation from those we love.  This can be in the form of the inevitable sadness as the children we have raised leave home for college or career and begin life anew some place far from us.  We call it the “empty nest syndrome.”  Anyone that has been through this knows that it takes some real adjustment and can be difficult to deal with.  Then there are those life changes, such as a change of jobs, that can require us to move to a new location and start all over again with new circle of friends and new associations.  This has been difficult for our family each time we’ve moved as we’ve developed some close friendships in each place and to leave those friends was the most difficult part of the move.  But then there’s the separation at death.  Pangs of the grief of separation can last for those who remain for the rest of their lives. 

Paul speaks of such separation in the verses above as he writes to the Thessalonian church. In that case, he had been “torn away” and kept separate from these loving brothers and sisters in Christ as the result of persecution and even Satan himself.  But then Paul looks ahead, something that any believer can do with great joy, as it pertains to this matter of separation.  There is a love relationship between believers that is hard to put into words. It’s a relationship that goes even deeper than that of a physical family, as there is a oneness spiritually that only God can make possible.  Christians have a deep love for one another that is rooted in their mutual love for Jesus.  And as they draw nearer and nearer to Him, they likewise draw nearer and nearer to one another. It’s a beautiful thing, but more than that, it’s an eternal thing.  No matter the cause of separation of believers from one another, one thing that is certain is that they will have a great reunion again one day in the future. 

Paul calls this his glory and joy – the anticipation of meeting these Thessalonian believers again at the coming of the Lord.  Paul speaks of it again later in this same letter with these words “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).  Surely these words should be a great encouragement to any believer.  For you see, those who know Christ, those whose relationships with each other are rooted in an eternal relationship with Him, never need say “goodbye” – but only “until we meet again.”  And that wonderful truth relates not only to our closest friends who are believers, but also to any believer we’ve ever met, even one time. But then, it also applies to those believers we’ve never met, separated either my distance or time. Indeed, one day each one of us who knows the Lord will sit down and fellowship not only with Christ, but also with all those who have ever been born into the family of God. That means we will fellowship with Paul and the other apostles of Christ, each one of the Old Testament and New Testament saints, and every believer that has ever lived since that time.  As the Michael W. Smith song “Friends” says so well:

“Friends are friends forever
If the Lord’s the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
‘Cause the welcome will not end
Though it’s hard to let you go
In the Father’s hands we know
That a lifetime’s not too long
To live as friends”

And that’s indeed the truth for those who know Christ.