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"But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my lord delayeth his coming; and
shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of
that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not
aware of" (Matt. 24: 48-50).
When Peter referred to the coming of the Day of the Lord as a thief (II Pet. 3: 10) he
had the `scoffers' in view (3, 4), and in contrast with such he says:
"What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?"
(II Pet. 3: 11).
As Peter refers to the epistles of Paul (II Pet. 3: 15, 16), it is possible that he makes
a direct allusion to I Thess. 5: 2 when he speaks of the Day of the Lord coming as a
thief, and the `swift destruction' of II Pet. 2: 1 is parallel with the `sudden destruction'
of I Thess. 5: 3. The Day of the Lord is characterized by "destruction" and "wrath"
(Isa. 13: 6, 9), yet the believer need not fear, even though, like the Thessalonian saints,
his calling may not exempt him from the tribulation of the last days:
"For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus
Christ" (I Thess. 5: 9).
Salvation is a covering term, and includes many aspects of the Redeemer's work.
There is the glorious exemption from condemnation which Rom. 8: 1 brings before us,
this aspect of truth, however, is not before us in I Thess. 5:
"Wrath and Salvation"
(I Thess. 5: 9).
"Wrath" is a characteristic of the Day of the Lord (Rev. 6: 16, 17; 11: 18; 14: 10
[indignation]; 16: 19 and 19: 15). When the Thessalonian church came into being
`that day' was imminent, and the Apostle in his summary of their salvation links together
their conversion with the Second Coming of Christ, saying:
"And to wait for His Son from heaven, the One delivering us from the wrath which is
about to be" (I Thess. 1: 10).
The wrath is not the `condemnation' with which Rom. 8: 1 deals, but a `wrath'
from which the Thessalonians confidently expected to be delivered at the Lord's return to
the earth. Wrath is used in I Thess. 2: 16 of the judgment that fell upon the Jew and his
stubborn resistance of the gospel. In like manner `salvation' is used in both epistles to
the Thessalonians with reference to the future; their salvation from sin is not in view,
they being already `saved' in that blessed sense. Consequently in I Thess. 5: 8 Paul
speaks of `the hope of salvation' associating it with the Coming of the Lord and
deliverance when the Day of the Lord comes as a day of wrath upon the world. In
II Thessalonians salvation occurs but once and in a similar context.
Chapter 2:
commences with a reference to the Day of the Lord, and speaks of the dreadful days of
the Man of Sin, and the fearful judgment that is to fall upon those `who believe not the
truth'. This however leads to the great contrastive `salvation' of the believer: