Passages concerning The Day of the LORD:
- Isaiah 2:10-22
- Isaiah 13:6-13
- Isaiah 24
- Isaiah 34:1-8
- Jeremiah 30:4-9
- Ezekiel 30:1-4
- Ezekiel 39:7-9
- Joel 1:15
- Joel 2:1-11
- Joel 2:30-32
- Joel 3:9-17
- Amos 5:18-20
- Zephaniah 1:14-18
- Zephaniah 2:1-3
- Zephaniah 3:8
- Zechariah 14:1-21
- Malachi 3:2-4
- Malachi 4:1-5
- Revelation 6:12-17
Apostle Paul says that they will be proclaiming eirini and asfaleia, peace and stability or safety.
Who are they?
The inhabitants of the earth, whether localized in governments, kingdoms, figureheads, organizations or bodies of power -- this is who they are. As a whole, the world's mindset will be one of "superior" humanism, self-reliance and an abandoned belief in not only the God of Israel, but any ideology, philosophy or theology of a Divine Being. This will be complimented with a feeling of achievement, civilization and relative economic security. Once this is reached, at some point, sudden destruction, or punishment, will come. And those mentioned, the unrepentant, unregenerate world, the inhabitants of the earth, as they are called in Apokalypsis, will not be able to flee out of it as the Church, who is called by Christ's name, will.
Paul makes this point in the next section: The Thessalonians are not in darkness, as the world is, so this Day will not apprehend or seize them as a thief, as it will the world. On the contrary, the Church is, the Thessalonians are sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to darkness. This is an apostolic teaching throughout the teachings of all the apostles. Light is always used in reference to God, Christ, the Spirit of Truth, truth, love, faith, hope, salvation, holiness, life. Darkness is always used to refer to Satan, the fallen world, the powers and spiritual principalities of the current world order, sin, wickedness, lawlessness, destruction, corruption, death.
In light of this, Paul says, "Let us therefore..." including himself and the apostles and all the Church. They should not sleep.
What does sleep mean?
Here, sleep means spiritual obliviousness, not watching and not caring. Instead, we are to watch and be sober; viligance and discreetness. We are to watch for the Day and also make sure we are not weakened by wine, figuratively meaning shifting our focus from watching to leisure and any intoxication that will lower our resolve and spiritual senses. Be sober Spirit-men!
He says that those who do the former, do so at night, which, as he said before, we are not a part of. Also, it is the same with those who drink to get drunk; they do so at night. But since we belong to the day, again, we should be sober, just as a man is during the day. During the day, he works, he eats, and he works some more. Moreover, we are to put on our spiritual armor; a breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, our hope of salvation.
Here Paul makes another shift:
Why is our helmet a hope of salvation?
God the Father has not appointed the Church to receive the wrath which is to come on the disobedient. But we are to obtain, acquired through the purchase of Christ at the cross, salvation. Here, salvation implies redemption from the physical wrath of God that is going to come upon the world. Christ died for us, and in our place, so that whether awake or asleep, alive or dead, we might live together with Him. In response to all this, just as it is so concerning our Lord's parousia to redeem us, we must comfort and edify one another. The Thessalonians were already doing this.
On the life of the Church:
Paul now turns to conclude his letter to the beloved Thessalonians. His desire, as well as the apostles and Timothy and Silas, is that the brethren would recognize and honor the proistamenous, those who preside over them thru instruction and who literally feel fatigue because of their labor for the Thessalonian's faith.
These men, because of their work among their fellow Thessalonians, they are to regard superior in love. In recognizing those who are over them, they are able to live in peace with one another and their leaders.
Apostle Paul beseeches them in four areas: the insubordinate are to be cautioned and reproved for their disorder or unruliness, the feebleminded or literally, little spirited, are to be lifted up from their faintness and be encouraged, the weak, or strengthless are to be supported and to all, they are to be long spirited, patient.
Evil is to be abhorred. If evil is done to the Thessalonians, they are not to pay the offender back with a similar evil. This applies to fellow brothers who, either in a moment of weakness or willfully, would sin against them, as well as outsiders. They are to instead to do good for the evil done to them. This is the same commandment of the Lord, Who says, "Bless those who curse you..."
They are to be full of cheer, every where and always. They are to pray incessantly, without omission. In the same manner, give thanks concerning everything; this is the will of the Father for us in His Son Christ Jesus.
The fire of the Spirit, as it was when it was poured out originally on the apostles at the Feast of Pentikosti, must not be extinguished. Much like the holy fire in the holy temple, the aish tamid, the continual fire, it must burn constantly, day and night, hour by hour, second by second, without interruption or ceasing. Only through sin, through the willfulness of it or through willful neglect of living by the Spirit, will that fire diminish, wane, flutter and finally go out. We have the power to extinguish the Spirit; He is our life and breath, He, the energizer of our new man within, can be ignored and rejected, even on the smallest point. He is ever-teaching, ever-counseling, ever-guiding and leading, that is, if we have accepted Him, continually recognize Him in our hearts and submit to His mastering of us.
In the same way, prophecy was not to be rejected nor despised, or made of no account. This relates to the prophecies of the Jewish scriptures concerning Who Messiah is to be, what He is to do, His ministry and life, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and His current session at the right hand of His Father. But this also relates to the role of the prophet in the Church. The prophet was second to the role of the apostle; he is said to be, like the apostle, the foundation of the church. When he spoke, by the Spirit, his mind and spirit submitting and working with the truth delivered by the Holy Spirit, even now uttering the word delivered, he was elevated in his position and speech. He thus relayed instruction, exhortation and spiritual truth based on the physical illustrations of God's creation, so that the life of the believers would be built up, that any who had strayed would be brought in, and that warning concerning persecution, famine, false teaching and current worldly attacks targeting the Church would be delivered for forewarning and preparation. And so, the Thessalonians were not to make light of these things, just as they were not to dishonor those who labored over them in the Lord.
But also the Thessalonians, who have the discernment of the Spirit, should not be as dumb sheep, but being sheep with the Spirit of Truth, be able to discern those things which may, at first glance, appear to "fall into the gray", and needing testing, be determined as good or evil; as valuable and beneficial or bad natured and objectionable. Any form of evil, like porneia, was to be rejected utterly. By the Spirit, they would be able to distinguish these things.
Paul concludes with this blessing: May the God of peace Himself agiasize you; make you holy to the end of completion. And may the triad of your being, your spirit, soul and body, be kept in a state of blamelessness at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Thessalonians are to pursue holiness, or better, by abstaining from all forms of evil, allow God to thus cultivate His holiness and His righteousness in them. By turning our eyes and hearts from evil to good and holy things, this will allow our Holy Father to constantly work on us and perfect us for the Day of our Lord's parousia. Since He is faithful, and calls you to this, it will happen. He will do it.
Paul finishes, requesting prayer for themselves. No requests are specified, for they trust the leading of the Spirit in the Thessalonians. All the brothers are to be greeted, with a holy kiss, not the kiss of Judas, who was a betrayer, nor the kiss of the Proverbial harlot, which was immoral and which led to even more sin. This salutation was to be administered as though Paul were greeting each and everyone of them personally, thereby not leaving anyone out.
Paul then puts them on oath, making them swear: Everyone in the congregation at Thessaloniki were to hear this letter. It was not for the leaders solely, nor for a select few who were gifted. It was for all the brothers, because everything contained in the letter applied to everyone in the body of Christ. Holiness, agiasmos, was for everyone. Brotherly love, philadelphia, was for everyone. The commandments of Christ, these were for everyone. Every truth concerning the parousia of Christ Jesus was for everyone. The resurrection, for everyone. Instruction, for everyone. Abstaining from evil; everyone. And blamelessness of the whole being; everyone. All things in the letter; everyone. And all the brothers are to be considered holy and be holy, and all of them are to hear and know this letter.
And by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ being with us, it will be so. Amen.
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