5-20-20 Devotional
Have you ever listened to just one side of a phone call conversation? Isn't it frustrating! We're doing the same thing here 1 Thessalonians. Paul writes, "About times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you already know..." We do?! Please tell me again, we didn't hear you the first time.
N.T. Wright notes that Paul has an aggravating habit of mixing metaphors, and here it is in full force. "The dawn is breaking, the birth-pangs are coming upon the world, the robbers might break in at any time, and the empire itself is under threat -- so you need to put on your armor!"
Here's basically what I think Paul is getting at. Let's say you're living in London, where it's 8am GST, the sun is up. You take a Concorde jet from London to New York. It's a 3 hour trip. You arrive in New York where it's now 6am Eastern. It's dark, but the sun is about to rise. Do you put on your pajamas? Do you go to bed?
No! You stay awake, you keep on your daytime clothes, and you wait expectantly for the dawn. Christians are daytime people living in a nighttime world. We have resurrection power coursing through our souls, even while the world still seems dark and dead. And even though the world doesn't know it's in darkness ("Peace and safety," they cry), they're about to know what it is to be in the light.
For those who want nothing to do with an all-loving, self-giving, self-sacrificing God, they will see this light as offensive, even wrathful. They would rather die than give up something of themselves for the sake of others. But for the daytime people, who are being transformed by that self-giving Love, the rising sun is a sign of hope. So be ready. Lux venit. Light is coming!
Apply
Christians expectantly wait the return of Jesus. It is an active waiting, not one that merely passively sits by. It's waiting that calls for action. As we wait for the return of the King, how can we help prepare the world to receive a new kind of leader?
Pray
Jesus,
It is by sheer hope that we look forward to Your return.
It honestly seems foolish to believe that You're coming back.
Please give me the faith to believe and to hope in You,
and then to take action on that hope,
helping spread light and love
to a too-often dark and hateful world.
Amen.
- Read 5:1–11 with 4:13–18. Same hand, same problem, same closing imperative ("encourage one another," 4:18 / 5:11). Yesterday's passage was consolation for the grieving (the dead are not lost). Today's is vigilance for the living (so stay awake). Two registers, one pastoral move.