20211125

quick destruction

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 (JDV)

1 Thessalonians 5:1 About the times and the seasons: Brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you
1 Thessalonians 5:2 because you yourselves know quite well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 When they are saying, “Peace and security,” then quick destruction will come on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

quick destruction

Paul had been lifting the Thessalonian believers’ eyes to the hope of Christ’s return—reassuring them that their loved ones who had died were not lost, not forgotten, not left behind. But now he turns to the other side of that same truth. The coming of the Lord will be sudden, overwhelming, and unmistakable. It will break into human history with a force that no one can ignore: commanding shouts, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God. His arrival will not be quiet. It will not be hidden. It will not be gradual. It will be violent in glory, swift in certainty, and public in power.

For the believer, this is comfort.
For the unbeliever, it is terror.

The same event that brings resurrection and reunion for the saints brings retribution for the reprobate. Paul describes it with images meant to shake the complacent: a thief in the night, catching the unprepared; labor pains on a pregnant woman, sudden and unavoidable. The destruction that follows is not slow, not symbolic, not escapable. It is swift, final, and inescapable.

This dual reality—comfort for the faithful, catastrophe for the faithless—should stir the church deeply. Christ’s return is not only a hope to cherish; it is a warning to proclaim. The world around us is full of people who do not know what is coming. They live in false peace, unaware of the suddenness of the day of the Lord. The church cannot be indifferent to their danger. The gospel is not merely a message of comfort; it is a rescue mission.

Paul’s teaching presses believers to hold two truths at once:

1. Christ’s coming will be awesome for the redeemed.
Resurrection. Reunion. Restoration. Glory.

2. Christ’s coming will be awful for the unredeemed.
Judgment. Destruction. No escape.

If we truly believe both, then our hearts must be moved—not only to rejoice in our hope, but to reach out to those who have none. The day of the Lord is certain. The time is unknown. The need is urgent.

Lord, your coming will be awesome for us, but awful for the unbelievers all around us. Show us how to rescue them from the quick destruction that awaits them.