11 Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; 12 and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; 13 so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. 1 Thessalonians 3:11–13
It is interesting that loving one another, and all people for that matter, is inextricably tied to our being blameless at “the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His Saints.” Many churches shy away from teaching matters concerning “end times,” reducing the whole issue to the Lord will return someday on their website and letting it go at that. Somehow this doctrine, so important to Paul to address in his first letter to the Thessalonians, is relegated to the sideline as a “third order” issue in many churches.
This posture could be supported if verse 13 did not include “with all His saints.” This comment requires an explanation and position statement. Too many pastors will purposely avoid books of the Bible heavily laden with eschatological teachings just because they know it can be confusing and controversial, or they never did the homework themselves. This means the body of their pulpit work over their lifetime will not include time in Matthew 24 or Revelation or 1 Thessalonians or Daniel 7-12. Taken further, young staff pastors will follow suit and learn to be pragmatic and shun those areas also. Accordingly, entire church staffs can be all over the eschatological landscape. Worse, eschatology will not be taught at all in the future, if there is one!
The main question of the Lord returning begged here is “When?” Then we move on to the question, “With whom?” You can’t answer these questions without some time spent laying out what the Bible teaches. So you must “go there!” Obviously, Paul thought the order and nature of future things were important enough to write what he did in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, and the passage below.
19 For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? 20 For you are our glory and joy. 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20
The spiritual good health of the local body in Thessalonica, marked by sound theology, was important to Paul, not to crow about in some conference meeting, but to know that these people would be accompanying Jesus on his descent back to earth! Let’s not tiptoe around this critical teaching. If the coming of our Lord is imminent, should we not know about it and be ready for it? Should this not be further motivation to love one another and the lost world in which we live? Is His return with his saints not the object of our hope?
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