“What IS this world coming to?”
We ask this question this with delight, especially when a cause near and dear to us is advanced.
Most of the time, however, we ask this question because we’re dismayed at what we see or experience in the world.
Paul speaks to this tipsy topsy world in our lectionary text this Sunday, November 6. He is writing during an upset he can correct. The details of what happened in Thessalonica differ from what we experience today, but unrest then is like unrest now. Paul reminds us to stay the course, no matter the circumstances around us.
Let’s hear Paul. As this week unfolds, this text draws us to the unconditional power and presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Paul writes the truth that our Lord is coming. After reading his words, let’s find peace and rest in our work and in our ways not by seeing the upset in the world around us but through Jesus Christ at peace and at work within us.
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Our November 6 text is 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 NLT.
Events prior to the Lord’s Second Coming
2 Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him.
2 Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us.
3 Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction.
4 He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God.
5 Don’t you remember that I told you about all this when I was with you?
Believers Should Stand Firm
13 As for us, we can’t help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first[a] to experience salvation—a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth.
14 He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter.
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope,
17 comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.