But since we are of the day, let us be
sober (self-controlled), having put on the breastplate of faith and
love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8
Christmas was yesterday and most of the
western world celebrated it, as well as other Christians world-wide.
That was the day that we rejoiced in the first coming of the Lord,
coming to be our Savior. When I opened to the passage, I thought I
was in Ephesians 6 until I saw that only 2 pieces of the armor were
listed here. And then looking at the context, I was amazed to find
Paul was speaking of the second coming. Here he used references to
the armor of God, but not the full armor. And he spoke of the three
things that remain in the last verse of 1 Corinthians 13. They are
faith, love, and hope. So what is going on here?
Jesus came, lived, died, and rose and
ascended to heaven to await the day when God would send him back. And
He Himself said He would return like a thief in the night, referring
to it in the gospels of Matthew, and stating it outright a few times
in Revelation. Even Peter references it in his second letter. This is
the context in which Paul was writing. People will think that life is
peaceful and normal, and then they would be violated like someone
whose house was broken into while they are sleeping. It is hard
enough to have someone break into your home when you are gone, but
knowing they are there when you are home and unaware of what is going
on is totally unnerving. The danger is real. But Paul says that the
people of the day and of the light will not be surprised by His
coming! And the only armor we will need at this time is faith and
love for God covering our hearts, and the hope of salvation clearly
covering our minds. We need not fear, we need not question our
position with God and Christ. We know if He is coming it is for our
good and not our destruction if we are children of the day. Those who fear His coming are those who
will stand condemned before Him. They know they are not right with
Him and will lose everything in the process because they understand that they prefer to be children of the darkness. This is an internal war
that the Christian will fight, not the war against Satan, as is
described in Ephesians. The time for the sword and shoes and belt are
gone. We just need to guard our hearts and minds as Philippians 4:7
says. There Paul is telling us not to worry and let God's peace wash
over us during these trying times! We need to stay calm, rest in the
peace of God's righteousness, and live in the next verse to the
Thessalonians, knowing we who are saved are not destined for His
wrath. We are to encourage one another in this.
Now there are those who will say that
if we are Christians that we will never suffer. Nothing could be
further from the truth! I am reading now a book called God's
Underground and reading of sufferings unimaginable to those of us in
the most civilized of countries. The tortures, the humiliations, the
absolute depravity of one man against another for the most inane of
reasons, like being a Christian, proves the point that Jesus
made...if we name Him, we will suffer. Every disciple died a martyrs
death, yet we have TV preachers telling us that God wants us happy
and healthy and wealthy. These men are fools, if nothing else. They
haven't suffered a day in their lives for the things of God, so they
tell you you won't. Please turn the channel when you hear this stuff,
or at least pray that God will show them the error of their
philosophies. We will not suffer GOD'S wrath, but it doesn't say we
will not suffer the wrath of man anywhere in the scriptures. Quite to
the contrary, Jesus warned people well ahead of time that they would
lose this world to gain the next, and most quit following Him.
I shudder to think of what Reverend
Wurmbrand suffered in those Romanian prisons they sent him through
and wonder how I would fare under such horrible pain, isolation, and
humiliation. I think of those who died or wished they would. And I
think of eternal sufferings that many of them faced. One thing he
said made me think. No one in prison died and atheist! They either
cried out in confession of sin and begged God for forgiveness, or
hated Him. None denied His existence in the end. Ultimately, when
faced with death, we choose which side we are on. We see our sin and
confess it, or we justify it. And this is where the breastplate and
helmet come in, keeping us safe from the attacks of Satan to see God
as unjust, removing our peace and confidence in what Christ came to
do for us.
Faith brings us to forgiveness in
Christ, love results from our relationship with Him, and hope
protects us from forgetting the faith and the love. That hope of
someday avoiding the wrath of God is what keeps us sane when the
world around us is falling apart. Knowing in this passage that
whether we live or die, when Christ comes we will live “together
with Him.” There simply cannot be more comforting words than those.
For Christians who have suffered at the hands of Taliban, ISIS, or
whomever else would seek to destroy them, death means life, and we
are to comfort them with this great truth.
And Christ will return and set things
straight, not as a helpless babe, but as a powerful warrior, mighty
to save and ready to take us home for keeps. Ponder that this
Christmas season. We all will be home for Christmas someday! Really
home.
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