Being Fully Aware
1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 ESV
“Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
So, what is this saying here? It is saying that, as
followers of Jesus Christ, we should be fully aware of the times and seasons in
which we now live. I hope we all get this! We shouldn’t be in the dark. We
shouldn’t be ones who are being deceived and manipulated by clever enchanters
in their deceitful scheming. We should all be awake spiritually, and we should
be able to see the evil that is all about us and recognize the times in which
we now live.
I didn’t say that. The Scriptures say that.
So, what does this mean here about people saying, “There is
peace and security”? It means they don’t take God’s word to heart. They don’t
take his warnings seriously. They think that life is just going to keep on
going like it always has, although I do believe some eyes are beginning now to
be opened to the truth, which were previously blinded. Amen!
It means that there are teachers, preachers, politicians and
news media, etc., who are preaching messages contrary to what the Bible
teaches. They are filling people’s minds with lies they made up, and they are
filling their minds, too, with false promises and false hopes based on their
lies. And, they are leading many people astray with their lies and/or with
their feel-good messages.
So many people have been lied to by modern-day churches, and
they have been told that faith in Jesus Christ guarantees them heaven, but that
they don’t have to repent of their sins or obey the Lord or submit to Christ as
Lord (owner-master) of our lives. For, they feel that God’s grace gives them
liberty to keep on in their sins without guilt. But they are in for a rude
awakening when Jesus does come like a thief in the night and they are not
prepared, for they believed the lie instead of the truth (Gal. 6:7-8).
Now, things are beginning to change, and the messages aren’t
all that “feel-good” anymore. Now the messages are largely about being afraid
of everything – the air that we breathe, germs, people, and socialization, etc.
And, now the messages are getting more dire with massive
predictions of infections and deaths worldwide, which then just pave the way
for draconian measures to be instituted. But, does it even make sense? No, it
doesn’t! It makes sense in light of prophecy of Scripture, but not in all
practicality. But we are not to respond in fear, but in faith in God and in trust
in his word.
Children of Light
1 Thessalonians 5:4-11 ESV
“But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
So, we are not of the darkness but of the day. What does
that mean? It means that we should not be walking in the flesh, but we should
be walking in the Spirit, by the grace of God, in the power of God’s Spirit.
For, Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his
righteousness (Rom. 6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; Eph. 4:17-24; 1 Jn. 1:5-9).
We shouldn’t be spiritually asleep just living our lives for
ourselves, doing whatever we want to do, entertaining ourselves continuously.
But our lives should be given over to our Lord as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to him, which is our acceptable worship of him. And, we should no
longer be conformed to the ways of this sinful world. But we should be transformed
of the Spirit of God in heart and mind away from sin to fellowship with God.
We should be those who are spiritually discerning of evil,
too, and we should be fighting off those evil influences by daily putting on
the armor of God. We should walk by faith, we should speak the truth in love,
we should always be ready to share the gospel, and we should be living in
righteousness. And, daily we should be putting the deeds of the flesh to death
and we should be living for our Lord, doing what he says, and going wherever he
sends us.
And, if we are walking by the Spirit and we are no longer
living to gratify the sinful desires of our flesh, we will have eternal life
with God. And, we will also be able to discern evil and the times we live in,
because we are listening to our Lord and we are obeying him, and so we will
know his voice.
TEST EVERYTHING!
1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 ESV
“We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”
When this says to respect and to esteem those who labor
among us in the Lord, this is not speaking of every person who claims to be a
follower of Jesus and/or who claims to be a prophet, an apostle, a preacher, a
teacher, and/or an evangelist, and the like.
This is speaking of people who are walking by the Spirit and
not by the flesh, who are living lives above reproach, and who are teaching us
the truths of God’s Word, not the cheap grace gospel which coddles people in
their sin, and which does not encourage repentance or obedience to Christ.
For, we are to be those who not only teach the truth, but
who live the truth, and who test what we hear, and who call out the lies, and
who encourage faithfulness to the Lord, and who assist our brothers and sisters
to walk in obedience to the Lord and to grow to maturity in Jesus Christ, our
Lord.
For, we should be people of discernment who are listening to
the Spirit’s voice, and who are bathing our minds and hearts in the word of
God, and who are walking in obedience to our Lord. We shouldn’t be all caught
up in the world, believing whatever we think we see, and trusting in whatever
we hear or read. But we should be testing everything in prayer, and in the word
of God, studying it in context.
Now we shouldn’t despise prophecies. And, my take on this is
that this is not speaking about future telling. This is speaking of those who,
by the Spirit, are teaching the word of God in very practical ways which are
applicable to our lives and to our world today. The Lord helps them to share
the word of God in relation to where we are as a people today, in the time in
which we now live. We should not despise these, but we should test everything.
But we need to test everything in prayer, in the study of
God’s word (in context), and under the leading and direction of the Holy
Spirit.
Abstain from Evil
And, we are to abstain from every form of evil. And, this
means EVERY form. For, if we are going to be people of the day, and not of the
night, then we need to be aware of the evil that is so prevalent in our societies.
And, so we need to seek the Lord to make us aware of the evil and the
deceptions and the manipulations so that we don’t fall prey to deceiving
spirits, and so we can help others not to fall prey to deceiving spirits, too.
So, this is why we don’t believe everyone, or everyone in
some position of power and authority or influence. For there is so much
deception out there, and it comes in many different forms, too. And, I am
finding more and more that there is so much disinformation out there, and that often
it comes from the same source, whether it is to the right or to the left of a
subject. For, evildoers like to trick us by playing both sides, opposing each
other.
So, it isn’t all that easy to detect what is truth and what
is lies if the subject matter is something not related to biblical truth,
exactly. So, this is where we need to listen to the Holy Spirit and be people
of discernment who are fully aware of the times and seasons in which we live,
so that we are not caught in the deception, and so we don’t fall into the
tricksters’ trap doors.
Remember, Jesus told his disciples to beware the yeast of
the Pharisees. We need to do likewise!
I will sing of the
mercies of the Lord forever
James H. Fillmore
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever,
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.
With my mouth will I make known
Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness,
With my mouth will I make known
Thy faithfulness to all generations.
*Caution: This link may contain ads
No comments:
Post a Comment