Be On Alert for Christ's Return (1 Thess. 5:1-3)

Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.
(1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, NASB)

No one knows when Christ will return—except for the Father Himself. Yet we really don’t need to know.

Instead, we need to be prepared at all times for He will return “just like a thief in the night.” A burglar doesn’t announce when he’s going to rob you. Neither will our Lord announce His return.

But Paul uses another analogy: He’s going to come “suddenly like labor pains upon a woman …” While a woman may not know exactly when her labor will start, she usually has a hint or two. Braxton Hicks pains. Nesting instincts. And so we have some indication of Christ’s imminent return.

Jesus said

“See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He!’ and will mislead many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. or nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” (Mark 13:5-8)

Although we cannot know the day and time, it feels very much like we’re experiencing those labor pains, so we need to, as my grandfather used to say, live as though Jesus is returning today and plan as though He won’t return in our lifetimes.

Or as Jesus said,

“But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!” (Mark 13:32-37)

Because He will return. And I say, “Lord Jesus, come quickly.”