¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

Great concern that good parents have for their children is to provide for them after they are gone. A well laid-out will with a wealthy inheritance makes a poor substitute for a father. Although in His absence, the Father will give the Holy Spirit to His followers, there is still the sense of relationship with Jesus that they will miss. While the New Testament abounds with the teaching that Jesus is with believers now in a spiritual way, He leaves the disciples with the hope of His physical return.

Some have spiritualized Christianity to the point of being completely other-worldly. It is, in their thinking, unrelated to the tangible, real world, other than providing inspiration for living. In that view, it matters little whether Jesus was really God, or that God became a physical being. But, our Lord doesn’t leave us that option. He said He would be back and He meant that physically.

The Christian life is one lived by faith. We are followers in the line of disciples that extends back 2,000 years, a line of which continues on in hope that the Christ will return. Every generation, it seems, hopes theirs will be the one to see His return, including the generation following the apostles. Indeed, some among the Thessalonian believers struggled with the wait, being anxious that those who had died already would miss out on Christ’s return (2 Thess 2:1-2). Later they even feared that they themselves may have missed the event of Christ’s return (1 Thess 4:13).

Paul allays theirs and our anxiety over the long wait for Christ’s return and encourages us to continue on in faith along with hope: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess 4:13–18).

Yes, Christ will return. That hope sustains us in our faith as we struggle through the difficulties and trials of life.

Lord Jesus, the hope of Your return comforts and encourages me to continue on faithfully following in Your ways.