The end of the world – think about it, it a fascinating concept isn’t it. The cities gone, Lake Michigan gone, the North American Continent gone — this planet no longer hurtling around the Sun.

There are people who consider themselves wise who speak of an end of the world millions of years hence, when the sun burns out and grows cold and the earth circles in icy space before falling into the sun.

Others who consider themselves wise speak of catastro¬phe, perhaps of a comet striking the earth, or an asteroid, or the detona¬tion of much of the world’s nuclear arsenal at once, somehow bringing the end of mankind.

But all of this is very distant, very speculative, very conjectural — and therefore very comfortable. And it is all very much in contrast with our text which presents the end as it will be: Complete, total, sudden, unannounced, and soon.

Judgment does not await the death of a star – it only awaits the next heart attack, the next fatal traffic acci¬dent.

In every way, no man knows the day or the hour in which the Son of man comes.

These are not the kind of thoughts that make people comfortable. It is hard to conceive of something so final, so absolute, from which there is no change or turning back.

"Peace and Safety" is the cry instead — denial that the end is at hand, denial that we are vulnerable, that we are accountable to the living God. But the only real peace and safety is in our Lord Jesus Christ.

But we can really share THIS peace and safety, so it makes perfect sense that Paul concludes our text, Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

You are doing the right thing if you are edifying one another, building one another up in faith in Christ Jesus.  As the world looks in despair at the times in which we live, we point to the hope that we have in Christ – an everlasting hope assured by His redeeming work.