There is something about waiting for an important event that changes the way we live before it arrives.
When parents are expecting their first child, they do not wait until the baby is born to begin preparing. They paint the nursery, buy a crib, install a car seat, rearrange schedules, and rethink the family budget. The baby has not arrived yet, but the certainty of what is coming has already begun to reshape their priorities.
That is the picture Paul gives us of the Christian life. Jesus has promised that He will return. We do not know the day or the hour, and we cannot control when it happens. But the certainty of His return should change the way we live right now.
Unfortunately, conversations about the return of Christ often drift toward one of two extremes. Some people approach the subject with fear. Others treat it primarily as something to debate. They build timelines, argue about details, and try to connect every headline to a passage of prophecy.
The return of Jesus matters, and Scripture gives us important truths about what will happen. But Paul was never interested in feeding curiosity without producing faithfulness. Every time he pointed believers toward Christ’s return, he brought them back to a practical question:
How should knowing that Jesus is coming change the way I live today?
Turn, Serve, and Wait
The church in Thessalonica was young. Paul had only been with them for a short time before persecution forced him to leave. They did not have centuries of Christian teaching, shelves full of study Bibles, or unlimited sermons available on their phones. But they had received the gospel with conviction, and it had changed them.
Paul described their faith with three actions:
“You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven.”
—1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 (ESV)
They turned. They served. They waited.
That is a remarkably simple picture of what it means to follow Jesus.
They Turned
Turning is the heart of repentance. Repentance is more than feeling guilty or saying we are sorry. It means changing direction. The Thessalonians did not merely add Jesus to everything else they were already worshiping. They turned away from their idols and gave their allegiance to Him.
Most of us are not tempted to bow before a carved statue, but idols have not disappeared. They have simply become easier to hide.
Success can become an idol. So can comfort, money, politics, sports, relationships, careers, our children, our country, and even our own desires. A good thing becomes an idol when it occupies the place that belongs only to Jesus.
Following Jesus always involves leaving something behind. We cannot turn toward Him without also turning away from whatever has been competing for His place in our lives.
They Served
Paul did not say that they turned from idols and then sat down. They turned, and they served.
Christianity was never designed to produce spectators. Jesus did not save us merely so we could attend a service, occupy a chair, and wait for heaven. He saved us and invited us into His mission.
Serving does not always look dramatic. It may mean caring for children at church, greeting a new family, helping a neighbor, mentoring a younger believer, giving generously, praying faithfully, or sharing what Jesus has done in your life. It may be an act that nobody applauds or even notices.
But ordinary acts become sacred when they are done for Christ.
Notice the order Paul gives us: turn, serve, and wait. Waiting comes after serving. Biblical waiting is not passive. We do not sit around staring at the sky and calling it spiritual. While we wait for Jesus, we continue doing the work He has placed in front of us.
They Waited
The Thessalonians waited with eager expectation—not panic and not fear. They believed Jesus was coming, so every day mattered.
People who are waiting for Jesus do not put off becoming like Jesus.
Whatever we are waiting for eventually shapes what we are living for. If our greatest hope is retirement, the next vacation, a promotion, football season, or our next purchase, our lives will naturally bend around that hope. None of those things is necessarily wrong, but none of them is strong enough to carry the weight of our lives.
Our ultimate hope is Jesus.
If someone followed you for seven days, what would they conclude you are really waiting for?
Readiness Looks Like Love
Paul’s teaching becomes even more practical as the letter continues. A church with questions about the end times might have expected him to move directly into prophecy. Instead, he spent time talking about relationships.
He wrote about gentleness, encouragement, responsibility, integrity, and brotherly love. He urged the Thessalonians to love one another “more and more” and to live in a way that earned the respect of those outside the church.
Apparently, preparing for Christ’s return has much more to do with loving people than winning theological arguments.
It is possible to know every popular end-times theory and still fail to love the person across the dinner table. We can debate the identity of nations in prophecy while ignoring our neighbors. We can spend hours studying what might happen before Jesus returns while never serving, encouraging, forgiving, inviting, or sharing our faith.
Paul never separated prophecy from practical Christianity. The more convinced he was that Jesus was returning, the more urgently he called believers to love people well.
That kind of love often looks ordinary:
Changing a diaper when you are exhausted.
Working with integrity when nobody is watching.
Listening patiently to someone who is hurting.
Serving when it is inconvenient.
Making the phone call you have been putting off.
Forgiving instead of nursing a grudge.
Welcoming someone who feels out of place.
Speaking with kindness online instead of joining another pointless argument.
Being ready for Jesus is not about escaping our everyday responsibilities. It is about being faithful in them.
How Do We Live Ready?
Jesus has already won the decisive victory through His death and resurrection. Sin has been defeated. Death has been defeated. Satan’s final defeat has been guaranteed.
The battle is not over yet. We still experience hardship, temptation, grief, and uncertainty. We still bury people we love. We still wait.
But we wait differently because we know how the story ends.
The certainty of Christ’s victory does not give us permission to quit. It gives us courage to remain faithful. We are not working toward a victory that might happen. We are living in light of a victory Jesus has already secured.
So turn from anything that has taken His place. Serve faithfully with whatever He has placed in your hands. Wait with hope rather than fear. And love the people around you intentionally.
If Jesus returned this week, would He find you loving people well?
Not perfectly—but intentionally.
Would He find you encouraging someone, serving someone, forgiving someone, investing in someone, or pointing someone toward Him?
That is what readiness looks like.
Take the Next Step
Ask God to show you one specific response in each of these areas:
Turn: What has slowly become more important to me than Jesus?
Serve: What need or opportunity has God already placed in front of me?
Love: Who needs encouragement, forgiveness, compassion, or an invitation from me this week?
Then act on what He shows you. Do not wait for a more convenient time. Future hope should shape today’s priorities.