1 Thessalonians 4: Stewardship, not Escapism

Paul had been preaching the Messiah, a life surrendered to him and His return when His enemies would be conquered.
Some people listened to this message and thought: "why to work if this world will come to an end? if this world will be conquered by Jesus?". So, some people stopped working and began to live by the charity of others, giving a very bad testimony to outsiders. We read:

11-12 Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job. You’ve heard all this from us before, but a reminder never hurts. We want you living in a way that will command the respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends.


Jesus loves his creation; He loves us and He wants us to love, to serve, to be useful.
Some people died while waiting for Jesus return. It was troublesome because they thought that Jesus would return very soon. What would happen to the dead?
In this chapter, we read about the rapture, perhaps the only place in the Bible that talks about it:

15-18 And then this: We can tell you with complete confidence—we have the Master’s word on it—that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they’ll be ahead of us. The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He’ll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they’ll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words.

It is very interesting that some people think that as we are meeting Jesus in the air, we will go and live in heaven. No. The Bible says in many passages that we are living here in Earth, but a recreated Earth, governed by the Messiah. The New Jerusalem comes to Earth and not goes to heave. So, why are we meeting Jesus in the air? At that time, when the king came to his town, the city would meet him in the gates of the town and bring him in; as we meeting Jesus in the air and return to earth.

So, again this text is about stewardship (I serve the Master), not escapism (to escape from this world). Although our life is on earth, the vision of the coming Messiah is very important to keep our faith alive.