CLOSER

My bank offers desk-size calendars for customers, and I use mine to help track a medicine I need to take daily.  A few weeks ago, when the 2019 calendar got replaced by the new 2020 one, I had a quick memory of some dear older folks (like 90s) whose door at a retirement home had a sign: “Perhaps today.” The reference, of course, is to Jesus’ Second Coming. Could it be this year—before all those days get crossed off?

I was reminded of that hope recently as I read Paul’s letters to the Christians at Thessalonica. I read these in different translations, including the late Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, The Message. This time I paused to read Peterson’s introduction, which clarified the historical and cultural background. The Thessalonians really hoped for a soon-Second Coming. Life was hard! But that hope had two possible negative outcomes.  One was paralyzing fear of not being ready for judgment.  The other was a “so-what” attitude that led to what Peterson called “shiftless indolence”—the attitude of “so-what, I may as well indulge myself in sin.” (I know people who think like that, and their hearts are so hard!)

Both of these New Testament letters are packed with encouragement and exhortation, plus some blunt calling-out of lazy and Christ-dishonoring behavior. Two passages stood out for me this time. First Thessalonians 5:14-15 charges believers to show compassionate but tough love to the weak links of the church. That included those who wouldn’t work and who tried the others’ patience. Note the Christ-response to people who wrong and wound us:
  
And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

We may not see them change, but we need to leave the results with the Lord. Then, right across the page, in 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, came the spiritual reason for holding on to hope, and for exhorting the backsliders.  Paul said that he and other spiritual leaders (Silas and Timothy are also named) were praying that these folks live worthy of their God-calling through sanctified purpose and righteous, faith-fueled acts. And then the pivoting reason:

We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 12).

There’s a contemporary chorus with the refrain, “Glorify your name in all the earth.”  This isn’t about the beauty of nature, but about the redemption of the fallen nature.  In our daily relationships and choices, as mundane as they may seem, His honor should reign. His coming could be....perhaps today.