Jesus promised to come back, but that was 2,000 years ago, and he has not come back yet like he said he would. That causes some to turn every world event into the next sign of the imminent apocalypse, or to laugh at Christians for foolishly believing that Jesus is still going to come through on that promise.
But Peter, who wrote his letter a few decades after the promise, reminded the believers of something we still often wonder today: Jesus being “slow” in coming back is actually God being patient and full of grace for a sinful world! Thank God Jesus didn’t come back before you were born, or your parents might have gone to heaven and you would never have existed. Now by faith, you can live eternally with God and his family because God was patient enough not to have Jesus come back yet. Think of all the patience God has for our broken world today. His patience for our world and for you personally is astounding.
God doesn’t want anyone to procrastinate spiritually, and he doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed along with everything in the world that is broken and sinful. So Jesus will come suddenly and without many warnings, like a thief in the night. But he comes not to kill, steal, and destroy, but to give us life and life to the full (John 10:10). He will rob the grave and set his world right again!
So we pray that his kingdom will come soon. And we thank God for his patience and grace to include us in that kingdom forever. Because he wants everyone to be saved, we share the good news of God’s patient love.
Reflection:
- Does the idea of Jesus coming back make you more excited or scared? Why or why not?
- How can you share God’s patient love with someone this week?