The Lord is at hand: Paul’s imperatives are interrupted by this statement of fact. Gordon Fee suggests that Ps 145:18 may have been “between” 5a and 5b. “At hand” or “near” (eggys) can be used both spatially and temporally. One could argue, then, that the imperative is a reminder of the Lord’s ever-nearness, a mystical concept, or of the nearness of the “Day of the Lord,” an eschatological statement. Paul refers to the “day of the Lord” or the “day of Christ” earlier in the letter (1:6; 2:16), and
Page 145