Sermon Tone Analysis

In whether we are awake or asleep (1 Thess.

5:10), Paul returns to his first application of asleep as picturing death (see 4:14).

In 5:6, we noticed, he used the term to represent a careless indifference, the opposite of being alert.

And after his strong emphasis on the necessity of watchfulness in verses 6 and 7, he certainly would not, almost immediately, suggest that it was not important to stay alert because, in any case, God will grant us life with Him.

All interpreters agree that in verse 10, Paul means that whether we are awake (that is, living) or asleep (that is, deceased), God will take us to be with Him forever.

Thus, nearing the close of the section on the return of Christ, Paul reassures both those concerned about deceased loved ones and those apprehensive about their own destiny, that Christ has conquered sin and death.

Therefore, we may hold fast to our hope of salvation (5:8) because Christ has fast hold on all who are His own.

Of course, this is no excuse for coasting along carelessly in our Christian lives.

Rather, the conclusion Paul draws is this: Therefore encourage one another (5:11).

This is the same Greek verb as that used in 4:18, but now the emphasis is upon mutual exhortation, on encouraging more than comforting.

This is clear from the context, and is supported by the use of the second verb of exhortation—build each other up (5:11).

The latter is a favorite theme of Paul (1 Cor.

8:1; 10:24; 14:3–5, 12, 17, 26; Eph.

4:12, 16, 29; 2 Cor.

10:8; 12:19; 13:10).

Both verbs are in a form which denotes continuous action.

Thus, J. B. Phillips translates 5:11, “So go on cheering and strengthening each other …” (The New Testament in Modern English).

We should notice the mutuality connected with both commands: encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thess.

5:11a).

Every believer has something to contribute to the other members of the body of Christ.

Later Paul will elaborate on this (1 Cor.

12).

But already, in this which may be his earliest letter, he is emphasizing the importance of “body life.”

We may think of Paul as the intrepid pioneer missionary, but he was no “lone ranger.”

Just as in fact you are doing (1 Thess.

5:11) illustrates once more Paul’s tactfulness and his use of positive reinforcement, marks of a good pastor.

So Paul closes this section by calling for mutual ministry within the body.

What form(s) should that ministry take?

He provides some direction in the next paragraph.

SO COMFORT ONE ANOTHER (V.

11)

Paul now exhorts the Thessalonian believers to comfort one another as and when they need comforting, and also to edify one another.

At the same time he tactfully acknowledges that this is what they are already doing.

Sometimes we need reminding of these things.

We may be used to help others by reminding them of these encouraging words, and not only by comforting them, but also by building them up.

We all need to help one other grow and progress in the Christian faith.

This should be the aim of every church member (Rom.

14:19; 15:2; 1 Cor.

14:3–5, 12, 17, 26; Eph.

4:12, 29; Col. 2:7).

Grief is natural in response to loss of someone or something.

Just as evidence of burial rituals in an archaeological site is a sign of truly human existence, so, too, grieving is a universal human phenomenon.

One thing that distinguishes Christianity is that Christians are called on to grieve differently from non-Christians.

They are not to grieve as people who have no hope or faith in the afterlife or the resurrection.

Grieving may be natural, especially when one has loved someone or something profoundly and then it or they are gone suddenly, but it sometimes becomes egocentric in Christian contexts.

One is grieving only for oneself and one’s own loss if one truly believes the deceased has “gone to a better place” or is “in a better condition.”

This is in some ways unlike pagan grieving, where one is presumably grieving both for the deceased and for oneself.

But one could argue that even pagans, if they truly believed in the immortality of the soul, were also grieving mainly for themselves.

Yet in the contrast between two very different forms of afterlife (immortality of the soul and resurrection of the body) lies some profound differences in the way death, and so grieving, ought to be viewed.

Let us consider some reflections by Frederick Buechner.

Those who believe in the immortality of the soul believe that life after death is as natural a function of man as digestion after the meal.

The Bible instead speaks of resurrection.

It is entirely unnatural.

Man does not go on living beyond the grave because that’s how he’s made.

Rather, he goes to his grave as dead as a doornail and is given his life back by God (i.e.

resurrected) just as he was given it by God in the first place, because that is the way God is made.…

The idea of immortality of the soul is based on the experience of man’s indomitable spirit.

The idea of resurrection of the body is based on the experience of God’s unspeakable love.

What is especially helpful about these remarks is that they stress that Christians ought to look at life and ought to grieve, not only as those who have hope but also as those who have a memory that God has already raised Jesus from the dead and are prepared to trust that a loving God can do it again.

Grieving, while trusting God, does not allow us to sink into prolonged self-pity or fear that after all one who has died is truly gone forever.

In Christ there is no such thing as a lost loved one—they may be gone to be with the Lord, but they are not lost.

The Christian knows right where to find them.

If there really is an all-powerful God of love whose character is revealed in Jesus, this ought to make a world of difference in the way a Christian approaches death or reacts to another Christian’s death.

Henri Nouwen put it this way: “Learning how to die has something to do with living each day in full awareness that we are children of God, whose love is stronger than death.”

Learning how to grieve and how to comfort others who grieve, having something hopeful and meaningful to say, requires a similar awareness.

He died for us (5:10) points to the basis of our salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ—Christ’s atoning death for us and our union with Him by faith.

The little phrase for us must not be missed.

It expresses the truth of substitutionary atonement, which, of course, is basic in Pauline theology (Rom.

3:21–26; 5:6, 8; 8:3; 2 Cor.

5:14–15; etc.).

The way he mentions it here, almost in passing, indicates that he had made that a basic element in his teaching of the new believers in Thessalonica (1 Thess.

1:10; 2:15; 4:14); therefore, he does not need to elaborate now.

In whether we are awake or asleep (1 Thess.

5:10), Paul returns to his first application of asleep as picturing death (see 4:14).

In 5:6, we noticed, he used the term to represent a careless indifference, the opposite of being alert.

And after his strong emphasis on the necessity of watchfulness in verses 6 and 7, he certainly would not, almost immediately, suggest that it was not important to stay alert because, in any case, God will grant us life with Him.

All interpreters agree that in verse 10, Paul means that whether we are awake (that is, living) or asleep (that is, deceased), God will take us to be with Him forever.

Thus, nearing the close of the section on the return of Christ, Paul reassures both those concerned about deceased loved ones and those apprehensive about their own destiny, that Christ has conquered sin and death.

Therefore, we may hold fast to our hope of salvation (5:8) because Christ has fast hold on all who are His own.

Of course, this is no excuse for coasting along carelessly in our Christian lives.

Rather, the conclusion Paul draws is this: Therefore encourage one another (5:11).

This is the same Greek verb as that used in 4:18, but now the emphasis is upon mutual exhortation, on encouraging more than comforting.

This is clear from the context, and is supported by the use of the second verb of exhortation—build each other up (5:11).

The latter is a favorite theme of Paul (1 Cor.

8:1; 10:24; 14:3–5, 12, 17, 26; Eph.

4:12, 16, 29; 2 Cor.

10:8; 12:19; 13:10).

Both verbs are in a form which denotes continuous action.

Thus, J. B. Phillips translates 5:11, “So go on cheering and strengthening each other …” (The New Testament in Modern English).

We should notice the mutuality connected with both commands: encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thess.

5:11a).

Every believer has something to contribute to the other members of the body of Christ.

Later Paul will elaborate on this (1 Cor.

12).

But already, in this which may be his earliest letter, he is emphasizing the importance of “body life.”

We may think of Paul as the intrepid pioneer missionary, but he was no “lone ranger.”

Just as in fact you are doing (1 Thess.

5:11) illustrates once more Paul’s tactfulness and his use of positive reinforcement, marks of a good pastor.

So Paul closes this section by calling for mutual ministry within the body.

What form(s) should that ministry take?

He provides some direction in the next paragraph.

8b.

It befits the man who is of the day to be watchful and sober: putting on a breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet (the) hope of salvation.

The question may be asked, “How is it that Paul suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly comes up with these articles of defensive armor: breastplate and helmet?”

The answer given by A. T. Robertson (Word Pictures, Vol.