WE are told that the Thessalonian believers "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven." This is very blessed. God looks not only for the ready hand and willing foot, but also for the patient hope in our souls, and these saints were taught by the Holy Ghost to wait for Christ. Many cannot enter into it, because they know not the certainty of their salvation. Unable to rejoice in being already delivered from the wrath to come, how can they welcome the sound of the Savior's second coming? The Thessalonian believers knew, through the gospel Paul preached, that they were delivered from the coming wrath; and, having no doubt of their eternal salvation, they could happily wait for the return of the Son of God from heaven. They had no dread, but anticipated it with joy and gladness. They did not wait for the world's conversion, nor for the reconstruction of the Roman Empire, nor for the restoration of the Jews to their own land, nor for any other earthly events; but, as saved ones, they served the living and true God, and waited for His Son from heaven. This was their hope. They knew of no happiness, no heaven, no glory, apart from the person of Jesus the Son of God. He was all their desire, as well as all their salvation. The Savior's promise to His disciples, "I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also," was very precious to their souls. They therefore hoped for Christ—to see Him, to be with Him, and be like Him. Possibly they might die before Jesus came, but it was not death they looked for, but Christ-to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This is the true and blessed hope—the comforting, purifying, soul-reviving hope of the gospel, and this was their posture of soul. Their spiritual energies flowed outward in faith and love in the service of God, and upward in blessed expectation of His Son from heaven. Faith, love, and hope were thus kept in lively exercise, the true and blessed effects of the gospel they had received.
And the believer is still called to wait for God's Son from heaven. Many centuries have passed since these dear Thessalonian saints thus honored the Lord Jesus, and He has not come yet; but it is still true that "in a little while He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”