Christ in 1 Thessalonians

~ Jesus Christ Is The Soon Returning King ~

The Bible is about Jesus Christ  ~  “Jesus said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?’  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself” (Luke 24:25-27).

Jesus Christ in the Letters to the Thessalonians  ~  In both the epistles to the Thessalonian church we see Jesus Christ as our coming King—returning soon. 

Jesus Christ in Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians  ~  In this first letter we see our Savior as our risen Lord and our source of comfort. 

Compare the Following Passages  ~  “Now why do you cry aloud?  Is there no king in your midst?  Has your counselor perished?  For pangs have seized you like a woman in labor.  Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in birth pangs.  For now you shall go forth from the city, you shall dwell in the field, and to Babylon you shall go.  There you shall be delivered; there the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.  …  But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 4:9-10, 5:2). 

“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.  For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.  For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.  And they shall not escape.  But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.  You are all sons of light and sons of the day.  We are not of the night nor of darkness.  Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6).  

Note that while similar imagery is used in both passages there is a significant difference.  In the Micah passage it is God’s people who suffer, but in the 1 Thessalonians passage it is the unbelievers who will suffer! 

Comment  ~  We have only touched the surface of Christ in the epistle of 1 Thessalonians.  The Apostle Paul told us the Scriptures present many shadows of things to come but the reality is found in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:17). 

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