Deeper Reflection
THE GOD WHOM THE THESSALONIANS HAD TURNED TO from idols is “true and living”, in stark contrast to idols that are false and dead gods. This turning to God must lead to “to serve” God (v.9). The claim of turning to God from idols without resulting in serving God is “manifestly bogus”⁵⁴. Is being “a servant of Christ Jesus” (Rom 1:1) in my dominant consciousness? “To serve” God and “to wait” for Christ’s return go together (vv.9b-10). This “to wait” refers to “waiting for God’s intervention”⁵⁵. The Gospel message is “inherently eschatological”⁵⁶: believers await the future intervention of God in this dark, evil and chaotic world through Christ who “delivers us from the wrath to come”, which is the final stage of our salvation. God’s wrath is “neither an impersonal process of cause and effect… nor a passionate, arbitrary or vindictive outburst of temper, but His holy and uncompromising antagonism to evil, with which He refuses to negotiate”⁵⁷. However, God is “slow to anger” (Nah 1:2-3); so, we have to wait patiently. Active serving and patient waiting balances each other. There are limits to what we can accomplish in serving God redemptively to change the world. We can improve society; we cannot perfect it. For there to be a perfect world, we have to wait for Christ’s return, when He will establish “new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13). So, we serve God eschatologically – being realistic with the present and assured of the future.

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⁵⁴ John R. W. Stott, 41 ⁵⁵ Gary S. Shogren, 74 ⁵⁶ Gary S. Shogren, 74 ⁵⁷ John R. W. Stott, Thessalonians, 41