To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

Have you noticed the cataclysmic language that is so prevalent in our world today?  A little while back, one of the newer members of Congress warned that unless something was done about climate change, the world would end in 12 years!  Then there is all the talk about nuclear war, terrorism, and cataclysmic weather events.  Every time we turn around there is another “natural” disaster, be it massive flooding, tornados, hurricanes, or tsunamis.  Again, many are claiming climate change is to blame.  Whatever the cause, it should be noted that it is some physical calamity of one sort or another that is the constant focus of the news media and of those in leadership that so often dominate the sound bites of the day.  Yet, how often, if ever, do we hear warnings about the spiritual calamity that is certain for those who are unprepared.  In fact, spiritually speaking, it’s not danger but “peace and security” which seems to be the prevailing attitude.  It doesn’t matter what one believes, how one lives – things, by the way, that we have some control over, as opposed to the weather, climate, and terroristic threats over which we have no control whatsoever – the prevailing attitude is that all will be fine in the end. It’s a deception.  It has nothing to do with reality.  It’s in direct opposition to the warnings of the God Who made everything and truly knows everything, but that’s the belief so many have. 

The truth is that unlike the very uncertain dangers that dominate today (for who of us can really know how any natural or man-made disaster will actually touch our lives), there is very certain calamity coming to those who do not know Christ.  It will come suddenly, like a thief in the night, as the Scripture above clearly states.  It may come at the final cataclysmic “day of the Lord” which speaks of the coming world-wide judgment that God will bring on the world that has rejected Him at the end of the age, or it could come at the moment of death, when whatever the unbeliever was relying on comes crashing down with the despair of suddenly realizing that all they had been hoping on was rooted in lies – and now, there will be no escape. 

But for the believer, God’s true promise is that “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Come whatever natural or man-made disaster, or come the final judgment of God against sin, the Christian can truly say “peace and safety” for he or she is relying on the Prince of Peace. They have put their trust in the Savior of the World. 

So, what about you?  Are you worried about climate change?  Do you stay up at night afraid of the next mass shooting – things that may or may not impact you at some time in the future? But at the same time, are you ambivalent about the coming certain calamity for each and every person who does not know Christ? If so, the Bible provides the sure promise that there is a “breastplate of faith and love” and “a helmet (of) the hope of salvation” of complete protection available for any person who will put their faith in the Son of God – for whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16), come what may of the natural, man-made, or supernatural disasters that await the world.