Be Ready (1 & 2 Thessalonians) by Warren W. Wiersbe

Author:Warren W. Wiersbe [Wiersbe, Warren W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ready, light, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Commentary
ISBN: 9781434702456
Publisher: Cook, David C.
Published: 2010-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

White Throne Judgment

Only believers

Only unbelievers

Immediately after the rapture

After the thousand-year kingdom

Determines rewards for service

Determines amount of judgment

We will not only meet our Lord Jesus Christ at the rapture, but will also be reunited with our believing friends and loved ones who have died. “Together with them” is a great statement of encouragement. Death is the great separator, but Jesus Christ is the great Reconciler.

The Bible does not reveal all the details of this reunion. When Jesus raised the widow’s son from the dead, He tenderly “delivered him to his mother” (Luke 7:15). This suggests that our Lord will have the happy ministry of reuniting broken families and friendships.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, the three disciples knew and recognized Moses and Elijah (Matt. 17:1–5). Certainly, the saints will know one another in glory, including believers we have never met. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

In the next chapter, we will see how Paul related this doctrine of the return of Christ to the unsaved. But it would be good for us now to examine our own hearts to see if we are ready to meet the Lord. One mark of a true Christian is his eager looking for the coming of Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 1:10). As we grow in the Lord, we not only look for His appearing, but we love His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8). Because we have this hope in Him, we keep our lives pure so that we may not be ashamed at His coming (1 John 2:28—3:3).

Godly Presbyterian preacher Robert Murray McCheyne used to ask people, “Do you think Jesus Christ will return today?” Most of them would reply, “No, not today.” Then McCheyne would say, “Then, my friend, you had better be ready; for He is coming at such an hour as ye think not” (Luke 12:40).

Death is a fact of life. The only way we can escape death is to be alive when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Death is not an accident; it is an appointment: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). If you should die today, where would your soul go?

I once saw a quaint inscription on a gravestone in an old British cemetery not far from Windsor Castle. It read,

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