Waiting for the return of Christ means lingering in a hostile world, in many ways experiencing a wilderness wandering, a sojourn of suffering. We participate in the plaintive cry of saints in the book of Revelation: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10). 

In his letters to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul identifies two groups: brothers who have a hope and others who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13); those who are sons of light and those who are sons of darkness (1 Thess. 5:5).

Brothers owe their standing to the grace of God, who “did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9). By that grace they “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:9–10).

Waiting for the return of Christ means lingering in a hostile world, in many ways experiencing a wilderness wandering, a sojourn of suffering. We participate in the plaintive cry of saints in the book of Revelation: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10).

Earth-dwellers are the “others” of which Paul speaks in Thessalonians, those who are of the world, without hope, part of the kingdom of Satan that will be destroyed. Because of their unbelief and rejection of Christ, they continue to face the wrath to come.

Paul recognizes the travails of God’s saints in this world and gives words of comfort and encouragement to those who endure persecution now.

“We ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.” (2 Thess. 1:4–10)

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