Loving His Appearing
“Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).
I wish we talked more in the church about the Lord’s return. We believe He is coming back and know that it’s a very good thing, a thing to be looked forward to; but for some reason, we don’t have it uppermost in our minds as we talk and think about living the Christian life on this earth. I think there are various reasons for this, ones that can be pretty easily searched out historically. But I think we are missing out by not dwelling on and meditating more on the Day that is coming.
The things the Bible emphasizes are the things we also should take care to emphasize, whether or not it initially seems relevant or appealing to us. We’re safe that way…we’re more assured of getting it right that way. The New Testament emphasizes loving God and one another, so we do, too. It emphasizes giving and working, and so we emphasize that, too. The Bible also emphasizes the glory and the imminence of His return.
The big deal a few years ago was the Left Behind books. Those books certainly had a lot of people focused on a certain view of end times events, but did they do much to promote a genuine love for and longing for Christ’s return? I haven’t seen that they did. The Bible doesn’t tell us to focus on the intrigue of exactly what it will be like in the Day of the Lord, but rather on Him…His purposes, His glory, the awe of His coming and of His kingdom.
He is coming to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at by those who have been looking for Him (from 2 Thessalonians 1:5-12). He is coming to rescue His people, and bring judgment and vengeance to their tormentors. I wonder if the suffering saints of China, Pakistan, and the Sudan long for His appearing more than we do?
But, we say, it would be easier to love His appearing if we were suffering like that. Look at us; we have it so easy, so nice and comfortable here. How can we long for Him to come and change everything up, to disrupt our lives like that? After all, we just had a new grandchild; how could we long for Him to come and put an end to this newfound happiness?
But God knows just how to intervene in our lives so as to turn our affections toward Him, and so sometimes He must. Because another thing the Bible emphasizes is the necessity of suffering in the lives of God’s people; and there are plenty of dear saints here in America, the land of the comfortable, who have learned by suffering to long for His coming. It’s not wrong to desire the freedom and rest and joy His coming will bring; it’s perfectly legitimate to long to see wrongs made right. That’s the promise held out in Romans 8 and 2 Thessalonians, and God expects us to be glad that He’s going to do that and to look forward to it.
The Bible commands all men and women and boys and girls to love His appearing, even those who haven’t (yet) experienced the kind of grief and heartache that He uses to turn our affections to eternity. It comes down to this: if we don’t love His appearing, if it’s not our earnest prayer that His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, then the plain fact is that our desires aren’t lined up with his desires in this respect, and we need to change. He wants to, He has purposed to, He has decreed it and so He will come again with all the glory and power and judgment the Bible describes. It’s a big deal to Him, this Day of His coming, and it should be to us as well.
The secret of learning to love His appearing, 1 John tells us, is abiding in Him, with all that
abiding entails and implies and produces in us. Abiding in Him will eventually break our hearts with the longing to see His glory revealed, to see His creation set at glorious liberty, to be of the same mind and heart as He is in this matter. Abiding in Him will make us people who are not in danger of shrinking away from Him in shame at His coming (1 John 2:28). That’s a danger that should make us shudder and appear often before His throne of grace for help…help to change what needs changing so that we can be people who live in light of eternity.
I’m looking forward to the day when God’s people in the church in America are looking forward more to His coming. But don’t wait for sorrow or disappointment with this world to be the thing that drives you to watch expectantly for Him. Let it be, instead, that rich abiding in Him, where you learn the secrets of His heart. Trust His word; let that be the way that you come to love His appearing. There will be many benefits, both in this life and in the life to come.