In Phil 4:5, the expression, ‘The Lord is at hand’, quotes ‘at hand’ from ‘The Day of the Lord is at hand’ (Joel 1:15; 2:1; 3:14; Obad 1:15; Zeph 1:7, 14; Isa 13:6; and Ezek 30:3), but in respect of these prophets, the Lord (Yahweh) did not come in person in the Day that came upon the people (or nations) at that time; it was a Day of Judgment upon people. So there isn’t a problem of a delayed coming of Christ in Phil 4:5; rather, ‘The Lord’ is a metonym for ‘the Day of the Lord’ because he is the one that is going to execute the judgment: there is no metaphorical ‘coming’ of the Lord in this ‘Day of Judgment’ just an execution of judgment.
The Olivet Prophecy makes it clear that what would be ‘at hand’ is the Jewish War of AD 66-73 (Matt 24:32-33; Mark 13:28-29; Luke 21:30). Hence, in allusions to the that prophecy, we read that that which was bearing thorns and thistles was ‘at hand’ to be burned (Heb 6:8), and that which ‘waxed old’ was at hand to ‘vanish away’ (Heb 8:13). (Against this context it is also worth reading Rev 1:3 and 22:10.)
While there may be texts which express an anticipation of the imminent coming of Jesus in the NT writings, Phil 4:5 is not one of them.
Why is Jesus ‘Lord’? Why do Christians have a lord as well as a god? What would Christians lose if they constantly read, “Grace be to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ” instead of “and from the Lord Jesus Christ”? (e.g. 1 Cor 1:3). Whenever we see the term ‘lord’ used of Christ in the NT is it the same kind of meaning? Is it sometimes just ‘master’? When is it more?
Acts 2:36 states that Jesus was made lord; it says that it was a ‘crucified’ Jesus that was made lord rather than a newly baptised Jesus or an infant Jesus. It follows statements about Jesus’ resurrection and exaltation and it relies on Ps 110:1 as a proof text, “The Lord said to my lord”.
Jesus sits by[1] the right hand of the Father and, hence, there are many couplings of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in NT fellowship language: how could it be any other way? However, the point we are noting here is that this kind of lordship in Ps 110:1 is that of the Davidic kingship which has been given to Christ, even though God has yet to make his enemies his footstool. This is different to the lordship of a master and disciple.
Much, and maybe most, of the lordship language in the NT that attaches to Christ is about his exalted position as a king awaiting his regency and not about his being a master with disciples or, again, servants. When we use ‘lord’ of Christ it is easy to be mono-tracked and think only of ‘master’ but the better balance is to think more of ‘king’ because by this we affirm the Judahite character of an Abrahamic Christian faith, which can only be pleasing to someone who was of that royal tribe.
[1] [Ed: JWA]: The “many couplings of” God and His Son, and thus a measure of what Jesus’ ‘lordship’ uniquely comprehends, is reflected in the prepositional change from “sit thou ‘at’/‘on’” based on Greek ‘ek’ to ‘in’ based on ‘en’. This Divinely foreseen entailment of Ps 110:1 extends to a marking by ‘in’ of the profound reciprocal ‘in-ness’ of fellowship of Father and Son now, reflected in Jesus’ prayer in John 17, and his use of ‘in’ and ‘one’. See this ek to en shift in the NT in my schematic on Ps 110:1 in the English versions (CeJBI Annual 2008, 166-170), as I note, tend to obscure this significant transition.
1st Peter: Some New Testament Allusions