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I Thessalonians.
A | 1: 3. The patience of hope.
B | 1: 10. Waiting for God's Son. "Wrath."
C | 2: 19. Servant's joy at Lord's coming. "Our."
D | 3: 13. Lord's coming with holy ones (angels).
D | 4: 15, 16. Lord's coming with shout (archangel).
C | 5: 2, 3. World's sorrow at Lord's coming. "They."
B | 5: 8, 9. The hope of salvation. "Wrath."
A | 5: 23. Preserve blameless.
It will be seen by comparing 1: 10 with 5: 8, 9, that deliverance from wrath by the
coming of God's Son from heaven constituted the believer's helmet, "the hope of
salvation". The reader will remember that the aspect is changed in Eph. 6: where the
helmet is simply "the helmet of salvation". The wrath that hung over the Acts period was
closely associated with the day of the Lord and with Israel, for we read in I Thess. 2: 16,
that "wrath is come upon them to the uttermost".
The patience of hope in 1: 3 is connected with the Thessalonians' manifest "election";
the "preserving blameless" in 5: 23 is connected with their "calling". The reference in
verse 23 to the hope of being preserved in spirit, soul and body blameless at the coming
of the Lord has special reference to the hope of living and remaining on the earth at that
time. Sanctification is stressed in 4: 3-7, but the sanctification here seems to include
the preservation of the individual, the word "wholly" being oloteles--"completely
whole". It has reference to the preservation of "spirit and soul and body", a preservation
expressed in 4: 17 as being "alive and remaining" until the coming of the Lord. This
hope of living and remaining until the coming of the Lord is a characteristic of the
Acts period; it is warranted by the testimony of Acts 3: 19, 20, as well as of
Matt. 16: 27, 28 and other passages.
It has often been taught that chapter 5: indicates that "times and seasons" did not
belong to the Thessalonians as members of the church, and that the coming of the Lord
for them was unrelated to the day of the Lord or to any time fulfillment of prophecy. We
must remember this when we turn to the second epistle, but even in chapter 5: of this
epistle we find a very different reason given by the apostle:--
"But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you . . . . ."
Why? Because the hope of the church was unrelated to times and seasons? No, rather
for the obvious reason given by the apostle:--
"For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night."
This does not teach that the coming of the Lord is to be considered as a "secret
rapture". The passage simply states that unlike the world, proclaiming "peace and
safety" with sudden destruction imminent, the church was so instructed as to know that
the day of the Lord was to come like a thief in the night, and that, knowing this, it would
not be "overtaken". The church is contrasted with the "overtaken" world as children of
light are contrasted with darkness. They are urged to vigilance and to put on the armour