Choosing Hope in Christ’s Return

Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:1–18

And so we will be with the Lord forever. 

Therefore encourage one another with these words.

 1 Thessalonians 4:17–18

In the final stretch of our weekly journey, Paul lifts our gaze from the dusty roads of daily life to the horizon of eternity. He urges believers to “live in order to please God” (v.1), reminding us that our present choices prepare us for an everlasting kingdom. Holiness is no longer religious duty but relational readiness — we are learning how to live with the One we will soon meet. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.” Choosing life today means anchoring our souls in the promise of Christ’s return and letting that future hope shape our present obedience.

History gives us a picture of such hope. On this day in the year 269 AD, a priest named Valentine was martyred in Rome for preaching Christ to Emperor Claudius and secretly marrying persecuted Christians. Tradition says he cut small hearts from parchment to remind them of God’s love, and another account tells how he healed the blindness of his jailer’s daughter and signed a final note, “Your Valentine.” Ironically, the great symbol of romantic love was himself single and celibate. Yet his courage reveals a deeper love — he lived not for earthly fulfillment but for eternal belonging. He believed Christ was truly coming again, and that hope steadied him even in suffering.

Paul offers the same comfort: “We do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope” (v.13), for “the Lord himself will come down from heaven” (v.16). Every tear, sacrifice, and quiet obedience is seen by the returning King. This hope becomes an anchor when life feels uncertain and a motivation for holiness when the path feels narrow. To live faithfully until He comes is to live attentively — not only watching our steps but watching the sky. As the week closes and we move toward worship, we remember: the best part of the journey is still ahead. Before his death in Ecuador in 1956, missionary Jim Elliot wrote in his journal that the exchange of the temporary for the eternal is not sacrifice but wisdom: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Prayer

Lord Jesus,

Please keep our hearts hopeful and ready. Teach us to live faithfully and love courageously until You come. Let the promise of forever shape how we live today.

Amen.