1 Thessalonians 3:13

“to the end He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints:

“To the end”: “So that”. This verse infers that the biblical quality known as love (defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4), will enable our hearts to be strengthened, and is the key to personal purity and holiness. In other words, real biblical love for God and our fellowman is the means by which. person can stand in. right relationship with God at the last day. “Establish your hearts”: “Your hearts may be strong and faultlessly pure” (Gspd). “Means to ‘set fast, place firmly, fix, make firm, render constant'. Holiness is not to be. Sunday style, but is to be the well-established pattern of our whole lives “ (Fields p. 94) (1 Peter 1:15). “The heart stands for the whole of the inner life. It is easy enough for men to become. prey to fears and alarms, to take up every new doctrine, to accept the unreasoning hope that leads inevitably to irresolution, disillusionment and disaster. Paul longs to see his converts delivered from all such instability. He prays that they may have such. sure basis in love that they will be delivered from all this sort of thing” (Morris p. 113). “Unblamable in holiness”: Paul is not praying for perfection, rather the Christian can stand before God in this pure condition, because he or she has met God's terms for forgiveness. Unfortunately, many people do not see any value in purity. “People in the world are proud of, and distinguished by, how wicked they can be. Whoever can curse the most violently, drink the most liquor, have the most wives or women” (Fields p. 94). Again, note how love and moral purity are placed side by side. The man or woman who really allows themselves to be impressed by God's grace, mercy and unselfish character will realize how wonderful and attractive such qualities are, and will begin to practice them in reference to others. Purity happens when. start treating others in the way that God has treated me.

“At the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints”: Premillennialists argue that this verse implies. coming of Jesus in which Christians are accompanying Him back to the earth, that is,. coming that is seven years after the supposed secret rapture of all Christians from the earth. Yet the word translated "saints" can equally refer to angels (Zechariah 2:5), the term simply means “holy ones”. And the Bible clearly teaches that angels will accompany the Lord when He comes (Judges 1:14; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; Matthew 13:27; Matthew 13:41; Matthew 25:31). The Bible only speaks of. second coming (Hebrews 9:28), and not. third. This same writer, in the very next chapter places the coming of Jesus for Christians and the destruction of the wicked, as happening at the same time (1 Thessalonians 4:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:1). So did Jesus (John 5:28). Also see 2 Thessalonians 1:7 and 2 Peter 3:10. Thus. false distinction is being made, when people argue that in the Bible we have. coming of Christ "for" the saints and another "with" the saints.

In addition, such. construction does not make any sense in 1 Thessalonians 3:13. Because if these Thessalonian Christians and all other Christians were already with God (for seven years-tucked away in heaven) before the coming of 1 Thessalonians 3:13, then they would be already approved of God. Let me put that another way, walk through this verse with me: If "all" Christians have been removed from the earth seven years prior to the coming of 1 Thessalonians 3:13 (note the language, "with ALL His saints"), then absolutely no Christians are left on earth when the coming of 1 Thessalonians 3:13 happens. So who is there to be unblameable when He comes? According to this theory--all the unblameable ones were found in such. condition seven years before the events of 1 Thessalonians 3:13 take place! By contrast, this verse is teaching that there will be Christians, here on earth, who are unblameable when Jesus comes again. There are two groups in this verse, "all the saints" (holy ones) and those who are "unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming."