“1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him: We ask you, brothers, 2 not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God.”

“6 And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way, 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of His mouth and will bring him to nothing with the brightness of His coming.”

“13 But we must always thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.14 He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, either by our message or by our letter.”

 

Paul weaves back and forth between the the difficult and the reassuring, reminding of previous lessons and comforting with known hopes. In this context, he is talking about the end times and a period known as “The Day of the Lord,” the same time Jesus referred to when He said that only the Father knows the day and hour (Mat 25:13.) And for people just coming to faith, or maybe even for some who had been in the faith for a little while, the Day of the Lord may seem like a scar thing, something frightening. It sounds ominous, seems to carry a lot of weight, but it is something we also know is supposed to bring us a lot of hope and joy. 

As far as timing goes, none of us can read through Scripture and find a code or some secret key to know the exact day. Lots of people have tried to decipher and dig and understand and come up with an aster to this question. This can become consuming, a great worry and a difficult struggle for some people. But the point of the Day of the Lord is not to become a worry or struggle for the believer, and this is what Paul is getting at here. Those who reject Christ are living within the same time frame as those who receive Him and are baptized into His Name. We are all on the same calendar, this Day comes for us all. But the ‘man of lawlessness’ will be destroyed by the breath of Christ, and decimated simply in HIs coming. 

There is nothing that truly stands in opposition to our Lord in His glory. Anything that would is simply a created thing, and no creation is greater than its creator. The conceived-of does not outweigh the one who conceived it and brought it into being. Those created things that have been warped by sin and pride do not have power over the One who sustains our lives and the universe around us. He is strong, mighty and sure. He stands alone in majesty and nothing truly opposes Him or begins to stand as His equal. 

So, Paul encourages the church in Thessalonica, and us today, to stand firm in the truth, in our salvation and in the teaching of the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

There are plenty of things in life that can consume us, worry us, and grieve our hearts. But the fact of the matter is that for those of us who stand in Christ, the victory is already secure. “17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) There is a hope given to us that supplants all worries, fears and distress. The Day of the Lord is not a point of fear for us, but a joyful target to live toward, our hearts focused on glorifying Him. His coming is the consummation of our salvation and the completion of time itself. So, do not be consumed by it or by the predictions men make. Instead, if you are in Christ, stand firm, serve in the strength He gives you, and warn others who stand apart from Him to come and seek shelter, grace and mercy, baptized into His blood, walking as Jesus walked. In other words, follow your commission to #GoLove as you have been loved, sharing grace and not living under fear.