Living in the Daylight

Being Ready

I wonder if you know this feeling. You’ve been home all day and your wife is due home some time in the late afternoon or early evening - you’re not quite sure when.

The house is quite the mess, and you know that your wife would really appreciate a tidy house. But yet you’ve got caught up in various other projects - some of which, let’s face it, were more about my own hobbies.

Well, later afternoon rolls around - and then you hear the sound… the sound of the roller door. The garage is being opened.

You look around the house. Shoes are scattered around the floor. Washing hasn’t been put away. Various papers are scattered over the dining table.

With the sound of the roller door, you do a quick calculation of how much time you have before your wife walks through the door. I calculate I have between 30 to 60 seconds by the time the car pulls in, she gets out of the car and then comes in.

Do I have time to bring some respectability to the house.

I decide to move into hyperspeed mode. I run to pick up the shoes and throw them in the room they belong. I move the papers into a neat pile. The chip packets go in the bin.

She walks in - the place still looks pretty ordinary, but I try to make it look like I haven’t just run around like a madman for the last 30 seconds.

I think to myself - why did I do that to myself? I had plenty of time to make the house look respectable without any running required.

Now, it’s interesting to reflect on this little thing that happens - and if I’m going to be honest, it probably happens more than it should - but it’s interesting to think: what does it mean to be ready for my wife to come home?

In one way, there’s not really any requirement. Unless we had a previous conversation where it was agreed certain actions would take place, I don’t really need to do anything. The main expectation is that I’m there, otherwise she might get worried about where I am.

The reason I want to have a tidy house is because I want to honour her - unfortunately, I am far from perfect and perhaps I need to work more on this.

Being ready for Christ return

Today, as we continue our series through 1 and 2 Thessalonians, we’re going to follow on from where we left things last week.

If you were listening last week, we talked about the return of Jesus. In the context of the letter, it was written to comfort the believers where a brother or sister in Christ had died and they were concerned that they missed out on seeing Jesus return. Paul’s message in that section was, you don’t need to be concerned, because they will be raised to life to be there for this momentous occasion.

But as we move into the fifth chapter, the passage moves more broadly to think - but what does it mean to be ready for this day when Jesus returns?

And it’s an interesting question - because we too may wonder, what does it mean for us to be ready for when Jesus returns.

At the most basic level, we might rightly say - you just need to believe and accept the free gift that Jesus has given us - the free gift of salvation. After all, as I said last week, you’re either with Christ, or against him. You are either saved, or your not saved.

So this is true, you need to be on Christ’s side when he returns.

This truly is a most wonderful moment when we see someone submit to Jesus.

But I wonder, if we don’t carry this forward, if it’s a bit like me saying that when my wife comes home, I just need to make sure that I’m home too. I mean, technically that’s true - but if I want to honour my wife, I need to do more.

When Jesus returns, you can rest on the fact that you are forgiven - but are you really honouring him?

Well, let’s turn to our passage for this mornin as we consider this question.

The unexpected day of the Lord

Paul keeps the topic of Jesus return going by raising the topic that has captivated many people over the last 2000 years - the questions of dates and times.

Throughout history there have been many predictions about when Jesus is going to come again.

William Miller, a Baptist minister famously predicted the return to be 21st March 1843. Thousands of people sold their possessions and gathered on hilltops and fields wearing white robes. Of course, nothing happened. It became known as “The Great Disapointment”. You might be interested to know that following this, things were reinterpreted with one of the resulting outcomes being the Seventh Day Adventist church.

Closer to our time, you might recall Harold Camping who was a Christian radio broadcaster. He predicted judgement day to occur on 21st May 2011, and then the world would end on 21st October 2011. But surprise suprise! The day came and went, and, well… we’re still here.

And then of course, some of you would have heard only last month - viral videos on the internet started circulating. The 23rd September 2025 was the new date. Some linked it with the Jewish Feast of Trumpets. It all made so much sense. It had to be.

Well, no. It didn’t have to be. Again not surprisingly, that day came and went, and… you guessed it, we’re still here!

So, it needs to be said - the Bible is very clear about the timing of when Jesus will return - and the answer is: no one knows!

Jesus taught this very clearly when he said: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”. (Matt 24:36)

There is absolutely no implication in that that, well… nobody knew back then, but at some distant time, someone will finally crack the code and work it out - rather, it’s saying, you don’t need to know.

Jesus himself went on to use the imagery of a thief in the night (Matt 24:43), and this is what Paul picks up on in this letter. In Paul’s words the “day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night”.

Now, this phrase “day of the Lord”, is actually a phrase that has deep roots in the Old Testament. Time won’t allow a full exploration, but it refers to a time where God’s plan culminates. When Paul uses it in this context, it has the clear implication of the return of Jesus.

You can’t wait till the month before Jesus returns and think you can run around like a mad person trying to make everything right - that is not honouring to God, that’s a superficial attempt to make yourself look good. That is not what God wants, and besides, it’s impossible. You can’t, because you don’t know when he’s going to come. So the answer is, we always stay ready.

But the question that remains is: what does that mean? What does it mean to be ready?

Children of the light

Well, from verse 4, Paul picks up on the idea of the thief at night, and starts exploring the contrast of day and night.

The night is darkness. It’s a time of sleep. You have little awareness of what goes on in the night. It’s the time people get drunk.

The day, by contrast, is light. You’re aware. You’re sober. It’s a time where you’re actions are more productive.

This basic characteristation of night and day is more or less true today, but if you imagine the time of Paul, it would have been even more the case.

When night comes, the only light you have is from the lamps and candles. There’s little else to do other than to get drunk.

What Paul then does, is he takes these characterisations of day and night, and says - you are children of the light - so live like it.

This is not about what time of day you do what you do - this is about the characteristic of how live at all hours of the day.

As children of light, we remain alert. We remain active and not idle. We remain sober in the sense of keeping control of our faculties. This is less about how much alcohol you drink, and much more about your alertness.

Now, here’s the thing about this - if you live as a child of the light, you ‘re not going to be surprised like you are at night.

Using the analogy of the thief, that both Jesus and Paul uses, if you’re acting like a child of light, when the thief comes, while you might not have been expecting it in terms of the timing, but you’re ready to deal with it.

Or if I use the analogy of having the house ready for when my wife comes home, if I were to keep the house in a tidy state the whole time, she could surprise me in the early afternoon, and I’d be ready.

Verse 8

But in terms of waiting for the return of Christ, look at verse 8: “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet”.

God has given the children of light the things they need to be ready. Never underestimate the power of faith. Jesus once said, with faith as small as a mustard seed, you can tell a mountain to jump in the sea and it will.

And the love God gives us is unlike anything this world can offer. And finally the hope of salvation, is the hope that gets you through all situations, no matter how tough things get.

You keep faith, love and hope at the ready at all times, you’ll be someone ready when Jesus comes again.

Living it out

But then we come to the second half of chapter 5, that is from verse 12 and following.

Now, in one sense, we can read this words separate from the what we’ve just talked about.

Verse 11, sort of reads like a conclusion to this discussion, and verse 12 then starts a bunch of random thoughts that Paul wants to say. And as you read through this final section, it reads like a bit of a rapid fire list of things they need to think about.

But while in one sense, this final section might seem disconnected, from the first half of the chapter, I want to argue that actually, these final verses give us some practical outworkings of what it means to live as children of the light.

Yes, we need to have faith, love and hope like we saw in verse 8, but there are some real practical implications for us as well.

Now, you’ll notice Paul covers a lot of ground in these last 17 verses, and if I were to explore each one in detail we’d be here for a long time, so let me just just touch on some of the main themes he covers.

Regard for Leaders

The first thing Paul mentions in this section is perhaps not the thing you might expect.

He tells his hearers to hold their leaders in high regard even when they admonish you.

No one likes to be admonished, and when a leader amonishes you, well… they just don’t understanding me.

Leaders that amonish people - we think of them as the people sitting up in their ivory towers who’ve fallen in love with their own power. And to be fair, their are many leader where they do abuse their power, and this is something they will need to account before God.

What Paul’s saying however, is don’t throw off their advice just becuase you don’t like it. God has raised these leaders up for your own good.

Strive to do good

Verses 14 and 15 then urge his listeners to do what is good for each other.

We want to live at peace with one another, but true peace doesn’t just mean not saying anything in case you might offend the other person. In fact, Paul tells us to warn those who are idle and disruptive. But to the patient and weak, we take a different stance… for these people, we encourage them and be patient with them.

We need to stop putting ourselves first, and think about how we respond to the other, even if they have wronged us.

Improve your attitude

We then come by some very short verses when we get to verse 16. “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances...”

I’m going to put these in the category of - improve you attitude.

You know, it can become very easy to become very negative about everything. And look, I get it… sometimes life feels like one bad event after another. Our friends treat us poorly. Those we thought we could trust let us down. Even the authorities can seem to have it in for us.

It’s alos true that some people are just naturally more pessimistic.

But there is a shift we can work on. One we’re we recongise that God’s not the one that is constantly knocking us down - rather that’s happening because we lived in a messed up world in which we are part of the messed up nature of it - and God is there saying let me help you. He almost begging us - just ask and let me show you how much I can bless you.

We focus on what is good and lovely and true, and we start to find our negativity turns to joy. We start to see the world differently.

I recognise that for some, this will come more natureal than for others, but I think it is something we can all work on.

Spiritually alert

We get another series of short verses from verse 19 to 22.

I’m going to put these in the category of being spiritually alert.

Now there are a couple of dangers when it comes to being spiritually alert.

The first danger is that we fail to see the work of the Holy Spirit when it’s presented directly in front of us.

The Spirit moves in our lives, prompting us to do or say something, and we shrug it off. Probably thinking we just had a crazy thought.

A godly person speaks a word of truth to you, but you ignore it - it was probably nothing.

But there is also the opposite danger: thinking that everyone thought you have is from God, and that everytime someone says, ‘God told me...’ that they are spekaing a prophecy. Verse 21 tells us to test them all.

But work on being spiritually alert in this world that is so dark.

Being sanctified

Finally, Paul brings this section to a close when he prays that God himself will sanctify you. And he brings this conversation back to where we were in the first half of the chapter, linking this to the return of Jesus. He says: “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blamesless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

You see, while all of this discussion I’ve been saying might seem to have nothing to do with the return of Jesus, it actually does.

If you want to be ready for when Jesus returns, then work on living a life that is worthy of the gospel.

Sometimes, I think if those people who get excited about figuring out the timing of Jesus return put as much effort into living a holy life as they do scourind every sentence in the bible for a clue to the date of the return, we would be in a much better place.

If people listened to the admonishment of their leaders, strived to do what was right by other people, improved their attitudes, and became more spiritually alert, it wouldn’t matter when Jesus returned, because we would be ready.

There’s a lot in this verses. I’d love to encourage you in your own time, go through these verses slowly, and just ask God, which ones you need to focus on. Ask God to help you as you let him transform you so that you truly can live like a child of the light.

Conclusion

While on one level, to be ready for the return of Jesus, you just have to accept his free gift, but if we truly love him, then wouldn’t we want to live lives that honour him.

When he comes back, what’s it going to sound like if we say, yeah, I’ve accepted you, but you know, I’m fighting with so-and-so and so-and-so, and I’m kind of just runnning my own race.

Do you really love Jesus?

Look, the point is not perfection. We will all fail. We need to hear this message in the context of knowing that we are saved by grace and grace alone.

But while this is not about being perfect, we need to be striving towards living a God-honouring life.

To be ready for the return of Jesus means living as children of light.

So let’s work hard at it.

Let me pray...