Bible Study recap (1Th 5.1-11)

We're back to the "ordinary" as I offer the thoughts from our Bible Study last week.

There is a stark contrast between light and dark, peace and destruction. It is a fear-inducing passage that confuses us by a lack of forgiveness. It's disquieting to think we can't ever rest, that something will come to shatter the peace. From the enforced peace of Nazi Germany, to the construction of bomb shelters during the Cold War / Cuban Missile Crisis are we being robbed of the joy found in happy moments?

Yet there is a shift in the letter when we are assured that God's purpose is for fruitful living, for God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation... We are equipped and outfitted with what we need: put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

We balance being prepared with worrying about something that may not happen: we see it in the uneasy panic over Bird Flu. and we take to heart the last verse of the selection: Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing. It's easier said than done, encourage and building up one another, but that is the heart of the gospel of Christ. It is the gift of community, something those individuals seeking "spirituality, but not religion" miss having.