Are all people subject to their environs in the development of their character? Yes and no. Environment makes some people what they are; others, like Asa, get busy, and make their environment.
PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS ON THE LORD’S RETURN
These Thessalonians had “turned unto God from idols, to serve a living God, and to wait for his Son from heaven.” To wait for the coming of the Lord does not mean that we are to remain in idleness till he comes. To wait on the Lord in any matter is to remain steadfast in the hope that he will fulfill that which he promised. It is a forward-looking attitude of mind and heart, with confidence that God will fulfill his word, whether soon or late.
In reading the Bible, we frequently allow the chapter divisions to influence our conclusions. We forget for the time that writers of the Bible made no division into chapters and verses. In our study we should absolutely disregard the chapter divisions, for the discussion of a point begun in one chapter frequently runs into the next. In the first Thessalonian letter Paul’s discussion of the events connected with the Lord’s return begins with the thirteenth verse of the fourth chapter and ends with the eleventh verse of the fifth chapter. If we ignore this fact, we deal unfairly with Paul.
When Paul planted the church at Thessalonica, he did not have time to fully instruct the new converts, for he was soon driven away by fierce persecution. Before he wrote his first letter to them, some of their number had died. They did not know what would become of these at the Lord’s coming. Concerning them, they had no hope; for they had no information upon which to base any hope. Paul’s purpose in writing the section under consideration was to teach them that they would “sorrow not, even as the rest, who have no hope.” Through or by Jesus, God would bring these dead saints to heaven; for the dead saints would be raised from the dead, and, together with the living saints, would be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. “Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words.”
Then Paul says that it is not necessary to say anything to them about the times and seasons. “The times and the seasons” of what? Of that concerning which he had just told them about—namely, the coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead saints, and the ascension of all saints to meet him in the air. But that day would come as a thief in the night; then what? “When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape.” So, then, in that day in which the Lord comes to gather to himself his saints, sudden destruction will come upon the rest of mankind. “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” What day? The day of which he was speaking, the day in which the saints shall be taken up and the wicked shall suddenly be destroyed. Some would have us believe that the saints will be secure in the day when sudden destruction is visited upon the wicked, because they shall have already been taken up to meet the Lord in the air some years before that day of destruction of the ungodly. But Paul tells us that that day of destruction will not come upon them as a thief, for they are all sons of light—they are ready and watching. To fit the theory, Paul should have said that that day would not overtake them, because they would not be there, having already been caught up to meet the Lord in the air.