In heaven all the “thoughts of our hearts” will be out in the open, but now they are hidden. Someone is considered to be an enemy but perhaps he is a friend. Someone else looks like a friend but is possibly a hidden enemy. What darkness we live in! This one roars at us and he loves; this one whispers “sweet nothings” in our ear and he hates. Judging by their words, I should flee from a friend and cling to an enemy.

—Augustine, Sermon 49.4

And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject whatever is harmful. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

—1 Thessalonians 5:14-24 (TNIV)

Here Paul gives us some practical advice about how Christians should live in the “end times,” the time between Christ’s first and second comings, whenever the latter may occur. Apparently there were some Thessalonians who thought Jesus’ return was imminent and so they just stopped working. Paul would have none of that, however. He reminds us that we are to do our part in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. We are not to kick back and expect the Spirit to do our work for us, either in our vocation or in our spiritual lives. The Holy Spirit will indeed do his part but we are expected to do ours as well in cooperation with the Spirit.

Notice too the hope that is contained in this passage. We have this hope because this life and this world are not the end game. Paul has previously talked about the New Creation and our future destiny living with the Lord Jesus. That is the basis of our hope as Christians and that is the source of our joy, irrespective of circumstance we find ourselves dealing with in this broken and fallen world. Take heart! Take hope! Paul is reminding us again to live in the here and now, but also to realize the here and now isn’t your destiny. Living with the Lord Jesus in his New Creation is.

Last, notice the emphasis Paul gives to living life together. No rugged individualism here. Yes, we are to do our part and take responsibility for our lives. But we are to live life together. We are to encourage each other, warn each other, be patient with each other, and to look out for each other’s good. We are to be moral people and allow ourselves to be held accountable by our fellow Christians. This is Christian love in action. This is what Christian love looks like. We do all this with hopeful expectation, waiting and watching for our Lord’s return so that we will not be caught with our proverbial knickers down.

And why do we do this? Simply in response to our faithful Lord who has redeemed us by his blood and promises to return to finish the mighty work he started when he took on our flesh and became human. We can count on his promises because Paul reminds us, along with the rest of the biblical witness, that God is always faithful, even when we are not.

Do you have this kind of hope and expectation? If not, what is holding you back?

O God, who by the life and death and rising again of your dear Son has consecrated for us a new and living way into the holiest of all: cleanse our minds, we ask you, by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that drawing near to you with a pure heart and conscience undefiled, we may receive these gifts without sin and worthily magnify your holy name. Amen.

—Liturgy of St. James

In heaven everyone will see the thoughts which now only God sees. There no one will wish to conceal what they think because no one will think evil. Just now our thoughts are only known by ourselves; they are hidden in darkness from our neighbor. In heaven your neighbor will know what you are thinking. Why be afraid? Now you fear to reveal your thoughts because sometimes your thoughts are wicked. In heaven you will have only good thoughts. Just as now you are willing to let others see your face, in heaven you will be willing to let them see your conscience.

—Augustine, Sermon 243.5

Now what is the deepest in God? His Power? No, for power could not make him what we mean when we say God. Evil could, of course, never create one atom; but let us understand very plainly, that a being whose essence was only power would be such a negation of the divine that no righteous worship could be offered him: his service must be fear, and fear only. Such a being, even were he righteous in judgment, yet could not be God. The God himself whom we love could not be righteous were he not something deeper and better still than we generally mean by the word—but, alas, how little can language say without seeming to say something wrong! In one word, God is Love. Love is the deepest depth, the essence of his nature, at the root of all his being.

—George MacDonald, Creation in Christ

I give you only one bit of advice: do not think that you  will ever attain the prayer of quiet by dint of your own efforts. They would be unavailing, and after having had devotion, you would become cold. Simply and humbly, for humility obtained everything, say: Thy Will Be Done.

—Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection

If you wish to know whether you have made progress, my daughters, here is the measure for each of you: that you consider yourself the most imperfect of all and that you show this belief by actions conducing to the advancement and good of others. Consolations in prayer and ecstasies, visions, or any such favors which the Lord may give are not the signs to look for; we must wait until the next world to understand their value. The knowledge of yourself is current money, an unfailing revenue, an estate in perpetuity; it is no annuity subject to cancellation. Extraordinary favors, however, may come and go. Our true treasure consists in humility, mortification [the process of putting to death our sinful nature], and…perfect obedience.

—Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

—Thessalonians 5:1-11 (TNIV)

Yesterday we saw Paul encouraging Christians by reminding them of their hope that is in Christ. Today, he reminds us that even though we eagerly look forward to our Lord’s return, none of us know when that will be. I have always found it curious that those who accuse Paul of being mistaken about when Jesus will return, fail to come to grips with this passage in which he states clearly that none of us know the date or time.

What we must pick up from today’s passage is that we are to live as people who live in the light. Christ’s return will be swift and sudden and there will be no chance to turn back from it. Consequently, we must live with eager expectation and hope. As he did in his letters to the Romans and Ephesians, Paul again urges us to put on protective clothing, which implies that we are at war with the forces of evil and darkness. Yet as Paul reminds us, albeit implicitly, we are not in this fight alone nor do we live life alone. We have the Lord on our side to help us persevere. Because of this, and because of his cross, we are not to fear Jesus’ return because we know we have been saved by his blood and are sustained by his living presence in us. Instead, we are to look forward to it because then our redemption will be completed.

This is part of our Christian hope, a hope that is based on God’s great love and mercy for us. Do not neglect your hope. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it. Do this first and foremost by making time each day to read God’s word to you contained in Scripture. You will find great power to live as God calls you to live and in doing so, you will find great hope and joy.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the confrontation between the Ohio National Guard and students at KSU. When it was all over, four students lay dead and others seriously wounded. I was a junior in high school when this happened and I remember wondering if our country was not coming apart at the seams. It was simply unbelievable. Take a moment today to remember this tragedy and ask God to heal his broken and hurting world.

[Purgatory] was firmly rejected, on good biblical and theological grounds, by the sixteenth-century Reformers. The arguments regularly advanced in support of some kind of purgatory, however modernized, do not come from the Bible. I cannot stress sufficiently that if we raise the question of punishment for sin, this is something that has already been dealt with on the cross of Jesus. Paul says, in his most central and careful statement, not that God punished Jesus, but that God “condemned sin in the flesh” of Jesus (Romans 8:3). The idea that Christians need to suffer punishment for their sins in a post-mortem purgatory, or anywhere else, reveals a straightforward failure to grasp the very heart of what was achieved on the cross.

—N.T. Wright, For All the Saints

Lord Jesus, we follow you, but we can only come at your bidding. No one can make the ascent without you, for you are our way, our truth, our life, our strength, our confidence, our reward. Be the way that receives us, the truth that strengthens us, the life that invigorates us. Amen.

—Ambrose

If poverty pinches, if grief saddens, if pain overcomes us, if exile darkens our life, if any other misfortune fills us with foreboding, let there be good friends at hand who know how to “weep with them that weep” as well as “rejoice with them that rejoice.” With such good friends such bitter trials are lessened, the heavy burdens are lightened, the obstacles are met and overcome.

—Augustine, Letter 130.2.4

I have said it before and I will say it again. Let God love you through his people.