Be Alert When People Are Saying, “Peace and Safety”
“Peace and safety” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). “Everything’s fine.” “Nothing to worry about.” Those are reassuring words we’ve heard and spoken many times. They are wonderful words of comfort in stressful and uncertain moments of life. And yes, they are very true for all of us who’s hope is in the Lord, our God.
But if those same words are put out there as if nothing bad could happen, or nothing could ever change, then they lose their meaning. Especially when it comes to the day of the Lord, . . . the second coming of Christ to judge all people, just saying “peace and safety” is not going to cut it. It sounds lackadaisical and not at all concerned about the biggest day the world will ever know from now until it ends.
Peace and safety come and go. That’s more than obvious on the Russia-Ukraine border, and the latest Israel-Palestine conflict. From one day to the next, everything changed. We have some concerns in our own country, but even so it’s hard to imagine that our way of life would change too drastically. There will always be a way to fix things, won’t there? Well, it’s hard to say, and we really never know for sure.
I’m not an alarmist. We don’t live in fear! The apostle’s message is one of encouragement. Any disruption of peace on earth just leads us to lean all the more on our appointment by God to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9). That is peace. That is safety. Whatever else might be happening around us.
So we stay awake spiritually. We encourage. Encouragement is something we can take part in. We don’t know the times and dates of Jesus’ second coming. But we can assure our brothers and sisters in Christ that Jesus will return so we may live together with him.