What are we waiting for? 1 Thessalonians 1

 

If we are waiting, what are we waiting for?

There are many things in life that we must wait for. When I was twelve years old, I knew I had to wait for my freedom from my father’s control over my life. When I was twenty-one years old, I knew I had to wait for my bank account to grow before buying my freedom out my family by purchasing a house of my own and moving out. We cannot just wait for nothing. There must be target and goal to fix upon on that waiting. When we stop waiting for one thing and achieve getting it, we will naturally move to another thing to wait for. Waiting never ends.

So, what are we truly waiting for in Life?

If we say we are God’s elect, then we are waiting for Christ. If we are not God’s elect, we are waiting for God’s Holy Spirit to turn us God-ward and wait for Christ.

How should we be waiting for?

“Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;” 1 Thessalonians 1:3.

True faith needs to be always come with remembering our love for God and this faith need to be worked constantly toward God. True faith is a labour of love that always makes us love God, hoping on Christ our Lord for all things in this life and the next. And how do we practise this constantly hoping and waiting on Christ? Just like Christ our Lord wait upon His Father our Eternal Father in Heaven. Christ our Lord, the second person in the Holy Trinity is always in the sight of God the Father who is the God Head in the Holy Trinity. God the Son is never out of sight from God the Father and God the Father is never out of sight from God the Son in the Holy Trinity. The Glory of God is the love the Father has for His Son and the Son who loves the Father for eternity. This glory is what we are waiting to see in Christ when we see him in true faith. We wait in true faith loving God.

In what manner are we waiting for Christ? In what conditions are we waiting for Christ?

“Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.” 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5.

We are waiting for Christ as God’s elect. We are urged never to forget who we are and what is our identity in God. We are his elect. We did not caste a vote to elect ourselves in. We did not work through our own way with our own blood and sweat. We did not save up wealth to buy our election either. The Word of God came with the power of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, The Holy Ghost. The agency in our election is the Holy Ghost. He empowers us to sustain our love for God for the glory of God. The word of God as the instrument and the agency of the Holy Ghost glorifies all things for His name sake. When Christ is glorified by our true faith in Him, God the Father is glorified, and we wait for that glory to be given to us a crown of Glory from Christ our Judge which does not fade. (1 Peter 5:4)

Is the waiting easy? Can we be happy and glad in the wait?

“And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:” 1 Thessalonians 1:6

The word of God empowered by the Holy Ghost does not come sweetly. It does not come to a sinner like a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The word of God with the power of the Holy Spirit will convict the sinner of his sins and make him unworthy, with a broken and contrite heart to stand before God and the glorious true faith is imputed in the heart of the believing sinner God-ward to receive grace to pardon sin and be elected to become a child of God. The affliction and all afflictions to come turns into joy and that is given by the Holy Ghost. Peace and joy not of this world. Peace that is form Christ by the agency of the Holy Ghost that proceeds from Him which is given to us. (John 14:27)

What makes Christ worth waiting for? Why trust the word of God to wait on Christ?

“For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.” 1 Thessalonians  1:8

The Holy Ghost works in all places that the word of God is preached and will place our faith God-ward. Man’s speech does not convict one’s heart towards God, only the Holy Ghost, the Third person in the Holy Trinity can turn man’s heart and place turn faith in man’s heart.

Why worship and wait on the living and true God?

“For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;” 1 Thessalonians 1:9

The Holy Ghost as the agency of regeneration, upon turning the elect’s heart towards god will keep the elect in Holy faith to abstain from ungodliness and will aid the elect in continuing to serve and worship the living and true God.

“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” 1 Thessalonians 1:10

God raised our Lord Jesus Christ from dead. The glorious resurrection is our hope. In our Lord Christ Jesus’s accomplished atoning work on the cross, He died on our behalf for the holy propitiation required of God to deliver us from the wrath of God which is to come. The glorious coming of our Lord gives His elect the greatest hope and assurance in this life and the life eternal with Him. That is why we wait, and we wait as elects who are justified in Christ, filled, and sealed by His Spirit. The Holy Ghost regenerates us to keep holy and worship God in an ever-progressive sanctification wrought by the holy Ghost for the final Glorification of all saints. We wait for his Son from heaven.

 

 


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