Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

In 1 Thessalonians 1–3, Paul reflects upon his initial ministry and continual concern for the Thessalonian Christ-followers; in 1 Thessalonians 4–5, Paul offers the congregation instructions on a range of issues: most notably and expansively, regarding those who have died in Christ (4:13–18) and the “times and seasons” (5:1–11). Whereas the second reading for this Sunday pertains to the former, the second reading for next Sunday considers the latter. 

Although the apostle does not tackle eschatological topics until later in the letter, each of the first three chapters of 1 Thessalonians concludes with remarks regarding Christ’s coming (Greek parousia; see 1:10; 2:19; 3:12, and note also 5:23). Eschatology (that is, “speech regarding the end”) is frequently and accurately said to feature in 1 Thessalonians. The same is true for 2 Thessalonians, especially 1:5–2:12. Earlier interpreters of the Pauline letters would sometimes speak of 1 and 2 Thessalonians as Paul’s eschatological or tribunal letters. While eschatology is not the “be all and end all” of the Thessalonian correspondence, neither is it a passing or peripheral concern.    

Interpretation: The text in focus

First Thessalonians 4:13–18 begins with Paul expressing his desire for the Thessalonians not to be ignorant (Greek agnoein; see also our English word “agnostic”) concerning those who are “sleeping” (in other words, who have died). More than a euphemism, sleep conveys a theological conviction that the Christian dead are in God’s care and keeping (see also Stephen in Acts 7:58). They are at rest and at peace in Christ.

Paul does not sate our curiosity by informing us who had died or how they did so. As a pastor, his immediate concern is to comfort, console, and encourage the Thessalonian believers amid their grief and loss. While acknowledging and sharing their loss and grief, he does not want them to grieve without hope. Even as the Thessalonians had been marked and sustained by hope in the past (see 1 Thessalonians 1:3), the apostle anticipates that they will continue to be a hopeful people, putting on the hope of salvation like a helmet (note 5:8). While unbelievers (“others”) grieve without hope (so 4:13), it should not be so with them.

Were one to ask why, Paul would maintain, as he does more expansively elsewhere (see especially 1 Corinthians 15), that Christ-followers believe and confess that even as Jesus died and rose again, those who have died in Christ will also be raised by God through him (4:14). Indeed, Paul assures the Thessalonians based on a “word of the Lord” (written or otherwise) that the dead in Christ—far from being forgotten, much less lost for time and eternity—will be given priority over the Christian living when Christ comes (4:15).

Not only will God raise the Christian dead first when Christ comes, but the coming of Christ will also be public and climactic. His greatly anticipated, highly heralded coming from heaven (with a cry of command, the archangel’s call, and the trumpet of God) will set into motion the culmination of all things in Christ. Paul reiterates in 4:16 that those who are dead in Christ will be raised first when he comes. Thereafter, the Christian living will be caught up with them to meet the Lord, and together, they will be with the Lord forever (4:17). The intended impact of the apostle’s instruction in this section of 1 Thessalonians was encouragement for the congregation amid their acute grief and loss (4:18).              

Reflections: The text proclaimed

There are any number of facets of 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 upon which a preacher might focus. Here are a few that merit careful and even special attention.

1. Christian grief and consolation: Paul plainly and patently says that Christians may grieve over the deaths of loved ones. Arguably, failure to do so would result from a failure to take the sting of death seriously enough. To grieve without keeping the hope of the resurrection and salvation clearly in view, however, is sub-Christian and is more aligned with an ancient Roman tomb inscription that read: “I was not; I was; I am not; I care not.” Although the song by musical group Kansas makes for a catchy tune, Christians do not concur when they sing, “Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind.” 
2. Resurrection hope: Paul’s instruction to his Thessalonian converts regarding the hopeful future of Christ-followers is inextricably linked to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ himself. Because Christians believe in and belong to him, they/we, like Christ, will be raised by the power and promise of God when he comes. As Charles Wesley so aptly and poetically put it in the customary fourth stanza of his famed hymn “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”: 

Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Allelulia!
Made like him, like him we rise, Allelulia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Allelulia! 

1. Maranatha! Christians who are embarrassed by Paul placing himself among the Christians living at the time of Jesus’s coming need not be. As it happens, Paul can also envision himself as dying before Christ appears (note 1 Thessalonians 5:10). Regardless, Christians the world over confess week after week that “Jesus shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” We do well to join the ancient Christian cry, “Our Lord, come!” Indeed, it is the responsible, faithful position of any and every Christian generation to live life in light of Christ’s promised return. This need not—and ought not—devolve into unhelpful and inevitably flawed predictions regarding the timing of his coming. To be sure, death stings, but we can continue to cling to and sing about the resurrection hope that is woven into the very core of our Christian confession and is regularly anticipated in both baptism and the Lord’s Supper.