For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly… 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 3
There is a town in Greece today by the name of Salonica, the same one to which Paul wrote the letter to Thessalonika. The Christians who were converted under Paul in that town never dreamed that the world would last for another two thousand years. They thought that Jesus was going to come back while they were still upon earth. So when their loved ones continued to die, one by one, they naturally got to wondering what the future had in store for those dear people and for themselves.
It is to answer that question that Paul writes them this little letter, and assures them that when Jesus comes back to earth He will bring our loved ones with Him. The bodies of those who have “fallen asleep” (as Paul refers to believers who have died), will be raised from the dead when Jesus returns, and then we will all together meet the Lord in the air.
Everybody believes that sooner or later we shall die. Many people, especially in these days of nuclear explosions, believe that the world will come to an end some day. But the difference between Christians and non-Christians lies in how they think of that certainty, and what they do about it. One of the reason whether is so much intoxication these days is that people do not want to face such sober thoughts as death and disaster. They drink in order to escape reality, to make their minds fuzzy, and to give a pink glow to the world. But we “are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness …They that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, since we are of the day, be sober.” Then, whether Jesus comes during the day or at night, we shall not be caught napping.
know who you are 