While We Are Waiting...

“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.” (2Th 3:5 AV)

The church at Thessalonica struggled with wrong doctrine.  They believed they were living in the last days and that the return of Christ was imminent.  They further believed they had missed the rapture of the church and that they were tribulation saints awaiting the flight into the wilderness to be provided for by Christ himself.  The caused Paul to rebuke them for not working.  One conjecture would be the resurrection spoken of in Matthew’s gospel following the death of Jesus on Calvary was misconstrued as the rapture promised in the first letter to this church.  Pure conjecture, I admit.  But I wouldn’t be surprised.  At any rater, being told they are not the latter-day church, Paul shares his heart with them.  His prayer is the LORD would direct their hearts in two ways. First, into the love of God.  Second, to patiently wait for Christ’s return.  Patently waiting would necessarily suggest to continue to live their lives responsibly and not sit around, doing nothing, waiting for the return of Christ which they assumed was immediate.

All of us have experienced a time or two when our parents or parent left us off somewhere to later return for us.  For me, these times were frequent during our camping excursions.  There were weekends we would go off and it would be just our father and a few other scouts.  These weekends were spent at our counsel’s camp, setting up for the summer season or doing other similar chores.  During those weekends, my father would have meetings with other adults.  This left the boys in the woods or campsites, laboring and serving our fellow scouts in the chores at hand.  Our chores could include setting up the waterfront by installing the docks.  We could be asked to clean off tent platforms.  Some were in the mess hall, cleaning tables and chairs.  Others might be helping to seal roofs, paint siding, or any number of things.  We did this while our leaders were in meetings all day.  At the end of the day, our leaders would gather us up and we would head off to the mess hall for some well-earned grub.  Our leader was my father.  When he came to get us, it meant something different to me.  He loved me more so than any of my friends.  While working through my day, I always had in mind my father would return for me because he loved me and desired something better for me.  Rest and grub!

This world can carry our hearts away in an instant.  Watching or reading the news can get us upset and worried.  We can begin to speculate what the world will do with the church.  If the LORD tarries much longer, there won’t be a church left.  The devil and the world are invading quickly, attempting to destroy the body of Christ.  This will never happen.  The bridegroom will remove His bride before He will allow the enemies of the Cross to gain a victory!  In the meantime, there are two places upon which our hearts need to be focused.  That is, the love of God.  His love for us and our love for Him.  Second, we need to focus on the return of Christ.  He may or may not return in our lifetime.  But return He will.  When He does, He will take vengeance upon all those who abused and persecuted His bride.  This vengeance will be swift and cruel.  There will be no escape.  Of this, we can be sure.  In the meantime, we need to be busy because we expect the inevitable.  Like working at the camp, I knew my father was coming for me, so we worked until he arrived.  The certainty of his love and his return is what kept us busy until that time.