Many people in Thessalonica responded to the message of God’s good news and became believers. They turned to the living and true God. Their faith had three vital characteristics, as seen in their (1) work of faith, (2) labor of love, and (3) endurance or perseverance of hope (1 Th. 1:3). Today, we still need these features that show the reality of what we believe. The enemy wants believers to be satisfied with their profession, with a show of works, without genuine faith, or with pretended “signs and wonders.” Such profession is without the zeal of “first love” and will lead to a complete failure of the Christian testimony.

Our present period of grace implies “the mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16). It started with Christ and His building His Assembly and will end with the rapture. Meanwhile, the counterfeiter is hard at work, trying to oppose God’s “mystery” through mysticism or other “-isms” of man’s thinking, and Satan’s opposition. Those attacks began in the days of the apostles, continue up until now, and will increase after the rapture. That period is called “the mystery of lawlessness” (2 Th. 2:7) as the enemy’s efforts will intensify. The “man of sin” (v. 3), the “lawless one” (v. 8), claiming to be the long-awaited Messiah, will work great miracles to impress people, even the whole world (Rev. 13:11–18).

God’s apostles gave many details about this coming delusion. They instructed the believers to have sound discernment, to withstand “the lawless one” and his pervasive errors. What about us? Evil will develop further after the rapture (1 Th. 4:14–18), but today the shadows of coming events are being cast. Be ready!