[AI translation] There has been a lot of debate about what religion is. There are about 150 different definitions of religion. One is that religion is the satisfaction of man's sense of privacy. Others say that religion is a certain protective device for how one arranges oneself socially. It is also very common to say that the real root of religion is fear. Well, neither of these expresses the true essence of religion. Because all religion has only one root. And that is a great longing for life, a desire for the fullest life possible. The quest for perfection is almost a universal law of life. From the smallest cell to the highest man, there is the striving for perfection. Religion is based on the desire for a more perfect life. We instinctively feel that we can only become whole human beings if our life instinct is connected with the supreme life, God. Religion is therefore the highest instinct for life in man, the desire for the highest order of life, the desire for a quality of life. Religion is a great cry - for life, for life to the full! In biblical language: for paradise lost!And since this desire, this instinct for life, is instilled in us by God Himself, it can be satisfied and appeased by no one but Him. That is why he came to us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. In him life, the highest life, life of divine quality, appeared among us, in our human life. Those who have received Him into themselves by faith have already begun in themselves that other life, that life of divine quality, that higher life, that life of purity, goodness and holiness. There is a glimpse of it in the speech and deeds of the redeemed. But the full unfolding and triumph of that life is yet to come. Yes: the great, final day of reckoning is still to come. The day when He Who said of Himself, I am Truth, will finally put an end to lies, to sin; He Who said, I am Light, will finally put an end to darkness; He Who said, I am Life, will finally put an end to death; when He will be, in the words of the Bible, God in all things. This day is the day of the Lord, the day of Christ's return, the day of full divine life. This is the day of which the apostle writes. It was the day the Thessalonian believers looked forward to. All their hopes embraced this coming day, all their efforts were in preparation for this day. They were almost filled with the anticipated glory, joy, power, life of this day. Their hearts were open to expect and receive the highest life.
The most tragic failing of our Christian faith today is precisely that it lacks the yearning, burning expectation of that day, of the Lord's return. Our faith in Christ has lost its power, its qualitative life, its higher life-forming effect precisely because it has lost its hope of victory in that day of the Lord. Then, the longing and preparation for the fullness of life was the promise of Christ's return; today, it is a neglected doctrine. We can see it! Then the powers of the coming kingdom of God were at work in the believers. Today, we are just rowing through the struggles of our lives. Then we looked forward to the great meeting with joyful hope, now we are accustomed to a state of spiritual lethargy because we expect nothing. We have given ourselves over to a spirit of expectationlessness. Our hearts are not open to the possibility of the riches of divine life! We are not prepared for that day, the day of the Lord, to dawn upon us.
How different we should be if we lived in the hope of Jesus' return! Imagine if someone were to authentically announce now that tomorrow morning what Jesus promised would be fulfilled: "you will see the Son of Man... coming in the clouds of heaven" (Mt 26:64) with great power and glory! What should we do now? What would you do next? How the importance of certain things and matters that we now see as great would shrink, and how much more prominent would things that we are not used to dealing with! What deadly serious meaning would be given to such statements: forgive one another! Love your neighbour as yourself! Keep yourselves from fornication! Resist the devil! Bear one another's burdens. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Do you sense what it must have meant to the Thessalonian believers for the whole course of their lives to live in the hope and expectation of Christ's return?
And the apostle doesn't even speak of it as just a hope. Nor is it a question for him whether he will really come again or not? Thus he says: "Ye yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord cometh as the thief in the night." (verse 2) He, and the Thessalonians, have assurance of this! They have seen the bridge that spans the river of time. There are two pillars of that bridge: one is Calvary, where redemption, divine life, is established, and the other is the return of the Lord, where redemption, divine life, is extended to the whole world. And the church of Christ is walking on this bridge, walking between the two pillars towards the returning Lord. Even in the midst of trials, tribulation, suffering, a light shines on their faces: the certainty that the Lord is coming! The joy of having a returning Lord! Yes, they knew it very well! But is it possible to know it like that? Of course, not everyone knows it. But the apostle is addressing himself to Christians, to those who know. For those who have lived Calvary, who have begun a new life through the redeeming blood of Christ, know that Jesus is coming with the fullness of redeemed life, coming to finish the work He has begun, to bring it to full triumph. He who has experienced the reality of Christ's redemption is already standing on the bridge that spans history, and he already knows that this bridge does not span into nothingness, that it has another pillar. He has become a wanderer who goes towards the other pillar.
But even if we know this, one thing remains obscure: the time of the coming of that day, the dawning of that day. "And of the time and season, brethren, it is not necessary that I should write unto you." (v. 1) Quoting Jesus' words, the apostle says of it only, "He cometh as a thief in the night." There is a great warning in this strange simile. The thief does not announce his arrival in advance: he comes unexpectedly, by surprise. They do not wish him to come, nor do they expect him. The day of Jesus will dawn when we least expect it, when we least feel the need for it. It will be a great surprise for all humanity. And the thief walks by night, under the cover of darkness. It is perhaps not the night time we are talking about here, but the night of trial, the time of the most serious problems, the time of peril. And in the midst of the perils, Christ comes as a deliverer! The night is also a time of sleep. The greatest peril of the Church of Christ is not external violence, but falling asleep, spiritual relaxation, forgetting the day of the Lord! It is the sleeping state in which he gives up his hope in the glory of the returning Christ, and is wholly situated in the world. That is, the state in which the church ceases to be an eschatological church and becomes a completely earthly institution. This is the greatest peril of the church, and it is from this dream that the Lord is calling us now, with His Word proclaiming His return.
All mankind is drifting like one wide stream towards the day of the Lord. But as soon as this stream strikes this other pillar, it breaks into two branches: in one branch the sons of light, in the other the sons of darkness go on. Thus says the apostle. That is the question. And we can already know. Paul says to the Thessalonians, "You are all sons of light!" You will not be, you already are. For already in them is the same light that will shine on the whole world in that day. They have the same life within them which will swallow up death in that day. So they have nothing to fear from that day. The burglar, who loves to work in darkness, is terrified when he is suddenly surrounded by a sudden spotlight, his sinful practices exposed by the light that shines upon him. In daylight, he would not dare to do many of the things he does in darkness. So it is with many things in man's life. These are the sons of darkness. The sons of light are not warned by the light of day, but by the inner light that they have received into their hearts with Christ. He who walks in the light anyway, need not fear exposure, need not hide anything from his life, his thoughts, his feelings: he is not afraid if the light he knows inwardly comes outwardly! The sons of light do not fear the coming of the day of the Lord, but rejoice.
Where do we belong, then, to the sons of light or to the sons of darkness?! Paul says: "But let us who are of the daytime be watchful, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the hope of salvation as a helmet." (1 Thess 5:8) Here we see how this is not an idle expectation, turning away from the world. Our hope is not only for some other world. Jesus, in speaking of His return, tells a parable of how He will sit on His throne and say to those standing before Him, "For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was a prisoner and you came to me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and did we feed thee? or thirsty, and did we give thee drink? And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? When did we see that you were sick, or that you were a prisoner, and we would have come to you? And the king shall answer and say unto them: Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Mt 25,35-40)
So, our returning Lord will ask us, have we lived in this world, in this life, in the hope that He will come back and give us an account? Have we done the good deeds in our lives that prove that we had this hope? Have we truly shown here on this earth that we are living under the rule and spirit of this King who is coming again?
Do you feel how the whole life is being formed, how the whole life is being ennobled by the power of the hope of Christ's return?! Turning towards the day of the Lord, we become whole people on earth. If our life instinct is religion - a great cry for life, for the full life - behold the exhortation: I am coming, I bring the full divine life, come to meet me!
Lord Jesus, look down on me, let me not go astray;
Through the darkness to heaven, you are the signpost.
Lord Jesus, look down on me, When the tide is out,
Thy holy serenity and eternal sunshine
(Canticle 470, verses 3 and 5)
Amen
Date: 28 February 1954.
Lesson
1Thessz 5,1-8