1 Thessalonians 5:3

An Understandable Version (2005 edition)

[For] when people are saying, “Peace,” and “Safety,” then [is when] destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not be able to escape it.

Cross References

Matthew 23:33

You snakes! You children of snakes! How do you expect to escape being judged [and condemned] in hell?

John 16:21

A woman has pain when giving birth because her time has come. But when the child is born, she does not remember the intense suffering because she is so happy over the child being born into the world.

Acts 13:41

[Hab. 1:5 says], ‘Look, you people who despise [God], and be amazed [at what He can do] and be destroyed [for rejecting Him]; for I [i.e., God] will accomplish such a work during your days that you will not believe [it could happen, even] if someone told you about it.’”

2 Thessalonians 1:9

They will pay the penalty of never ending destruction, being banished from the presence of the Lord and from His mighty splendor.

Hebrews 12:23

and to the church of the firstborn ones [i.e., those who have received an inheritance from their Father], whose names are recorded in heaven. [See Luke 10:20]. [You have come] to God, who is the Judge of all people, and to the spirits of righteous people who have become [morally] perfect [i.e., that great company of God’s people who have gone on to their heavenly reward],

Hebrews 2:3

how will we escape [punishment] if we neglect such a great salvation? [For it was] first announced [to people] by the Lord and then confirmed to us [i.e., the writer and other Christians] by those who heard Him [i.e., the original apostles].

2 Peter 2:4

For if God did not spare sinning angels, but cast them in chains into deep, dark dungeons to await judgment;