The coming of the Lord does not present itself, when we think of it rightly, as a thing we learn; but I see in Scripture that it is constantly identified with all the feelings and character of a Christian.

Now in the beginning of 1 Thessalonians, believers were said to have been converted to wait for God’s Son from heaven. He was a living, personal reality to them. There is a great deal more in the passage, but that is the first thing; they were converted for that. Expecting Him is the state that is becoming to a Christian. I do not say there is no other motive; for the blessed love He has shown in His death would lead us to follow Him too; but still the Christian is a person between Christ’s first coming to save him and His second coming to fetch him out of this scene. And what characterizes him, if he believes the Word of God, is that he is waiting for Christ.

With regard to the way the coming of the Lord is presented, not merely as a doctrine but as interwoven with all the thoughts and feelings of the Christian, there are only two epistles where it is not presented as an object. In one, Galatians, they were too low spiritually, and the apostle had to begin at the very foundations with them; and in the other, Ephesians, they were looked at as already sitting in heavenly places. In 1 Thessalonians 1:10 it was part of their conversion. Christ had suffered for them and was going to come and receive them to Himself. We see in each chapter of this epistle how the coming of Christ is connected with the conversion, ministry, holiness, and sorrows of the Christian (1 Th.1:10; 2:19–20; 3:13; 4:13–14).