For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn't it even you, before our Lord Jesus{TR adds "Christ"} at his coming?
in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ: Some combination of these three words occurs no fewer than twenty-four times in Paul’s two letters to the Thessalonians. It can be no accident that in his earliest writings the apostle has already recognized how unique Jesus is. It is impossible to capture his full significance in a single word. His humanity (Jesus) and divinity (Lord) are placed in the historical perspective of fulfilled prophecy (Christ). In speaking of what the Thessalonians would mean to him in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, "It is evident that the Apostle expected to recognize them in their changed bodies, Philippians 3:20-21" (Hogg and Vine 87).