1 Thessalonians 4:13-Paul Addresses the Thessalonians’ Concern About the Dead in Christ

1 Thessalonians 4:13 Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. (NET)

1 Thessalonians 4:13 marks a transition from the statements in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 to the statements which appear in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

The former is exhorting and encouraging each member of the Thessalonian Christian community to continue making it their habit of practicing the love of God in their lives when interacting with each other while the latter addresses the subject of the rapture or resurrection of the church.

In this passage, Paul reassures the Christian community in Thessalonica that the dead in Christ would be raised immediately before they are given resurrection bodies when the Lord Jesus Christ returns for His bride, the church at the rapture or resurrection of the church (cf. 1 Thess. 4:14-18).

1 Thessalonians 4:13 is a composed of a declarative statement which is followed by a purpose clause which in turn is followed by a comparative clause.

This declarative statement in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 asserts that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy by no means wanted anyone in the Thessalonian Christian community to be uninformed about those who are asleep.

This statement is an emphatic, emotional and personal address from Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.

This is indicated by the fact that the noun adelphos, “brothers and sisters” is functioning as a nominative for vocative or nominative of address, which is a vocative of emphatic emotional personal address.

This first declarative statement apparently was in response to a report given to Paul and Silvanus by Timothy upon his return with the message of the Thessalonians continuing to walk by faith in the gospel.

“Those who are asleep” is a reference to the dead in Christ.

This is indicated by the prepositional phrase which follows it, namely, peri tōn koimōmenōn (περὶ τῶν κοιμωμένων), “about those who are asleep,” (NET), which is metaphor for those who are dead physically.

Also, supporting this interpretation is the statement ho theos tous koimēthentas dia tou Iēsou axei syn autō (ὁ θεὸς τοὺς κοιμηθέντας διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἄξει σὺν αὐτῷ), “God will bring those who have fallen asleep through Jesus” (LEB), which appears in 1 Thessalonians 4:14.

This statement makes clear that these dead are Christians because it asserts that these dead died through Jesus.

Furthermore, 1 Thessalonians 4:15 asserts that by the word of the Lord, those Christians who are alive, who are left before the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep.

This clearly indicates that the dead in Christ are related to the Christians who are still alive at the time of writing since Paul asserts that the Christians who are alive at the coming of the Lord will not receive their resurrection bodies before those who are dead.

In other words, the dead in Christ and those who are alive will receive their resurrection bodies at the same event with the former receiving theirs a split second before the latter.

Richard Mayhue writes “In most cultures, the idea of sleep is a euphemism for death (cf. Matt 27:52; John 11:11; Acts 7:60; 13:36), just as it was in Macedonia. This did not represent some kind of ‘soul sleep’, as taught by Jehovah Witnesses or Seventh Day Adventists, that the spirit or soul after death is in an unconscious state. When a Christian dies, the body is committed to the grave (1 Cor 15:42), but the spirit is in the presence of the Lord, very much awake (2 Cor 5:8). Take Stephen, for instance, who in Acts 7:59 delivered up his spirit to the Lord Jesus and in 7:60 fell asleep, i.e. he died. Or the thief on the cross, who after death, would be very much alive and awake in Paradise (heaven) with Christ (Luke 23:43).”[1]

The purpose clause in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 expresses Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s desire that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community would not experience emotional distress as the rest who do not possess a confident expectation.

It presents the purpose for which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy by no means wanted each member of the Thessalonian Christian community to exist in the state of being uninformed with regards to the subject of those who are physically dead.

This purpose clause is followed by an emphatic comparative clause which presents an emphatic comparison between the Thessalonians never experiencing emotional distress with regards to the dead in Christ and the non-Christian who does experience emotional distress with regards to their dead.

“The rest” refers to the rest of the human race, which is not Christian or in other words, the word is referring to the non-Christian community and “hope” (elpis) refers to the confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body and not that of seeing one’s family and friends who have died as Christians.

This interpretation is indicated by the fact that Paul is presenting a contrast here in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 between the Thessalonian Christian community and the non-Christian community.

The contents of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 indicate that Paul is discussing the rapture and the resurrection of the church.

Therefore, Paul is making a comparison between the non-Christian who does not have a confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body and the Christian who does.

The latter has a confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body since the Lord Jesus Christ promised all those who believe in Him that they would receive a resurrection body (cf. John 6:39, 44, 54).

Therefore, this comparative clause is expressing the idea of the non-Christian not possessing a confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body.

So 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 appears to be addressing a great concern among the Thessalonians with regards to those family and friends who died as Christians.

We know they are emotionally disturbed about the dead in Christ, but why?

Some interpreters who are posttribulationalists believe that the Thessalonians were grieving because they thought that the resurrection would take place at the end of the millennium.

Some interpreters who are pretribulationalists believe that the Thessalonians were emotionally disturbed because they erroneously believed that the rapture would take place after the seventieth week of Daniel.

Thus, they would have to experience the last three and a half years of this week which the Lord called “the great tribulation.”

However, as Pentecost points out, “If the Thessalonians had believed that the church would be going through the seventieth week they would have rejoiced that some of their brethren had missed this period of suffering and were with the Lord without experiencing the outpouring of wrath…. These Christians evidently believed that the church would not go through the seventieth week and in their anticipation of the return of Christ mourned for their brethren, whom they thought had missed the blessing of this event.[2]”[3]

It is my view that the Thessalonians were emotionally upset about the dead in Christ because they erroneously thought that the dead in Christ would not take part in the rapture.

They might have erroneously believed that the Christian will never die.

However, more than likely because they were living as though Christ could come back at any moment, they never considered the fate of those who died as Christians.

This interpretation is indicated by the comparative clause in this verse.

We noted that it presents an emphatic comparison between the Thessalonian Christian community never experiencing emotional distress with regards to the dead in Christ and the non-Christian who does experience emotional distress with regards to their fellow non-Christian.

We noted that this “confident expectation” was that of receiving a resurrection body.

Again, as we noted, the comparison is between the non-Christian who does not have a confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body and the Christian who does.

Thus, this comparative clause is expressing the idea of the non-Christian not possessing a confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body.

Therefore, the Thessalonians were upset that the dead in Christ would not be resurrected since Paul asserts that the non-Christian does not posses a confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body in comparison to the Christian who does.

Both the non-Christian and the Christian grieve over the loss of a friend, or family member.

However, the Christian’s grief in the loss of a friend, or family member who is a Christian is tempered by the knowledge that they will see them again because the Christian possesses the confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body.

This stands in marked contrast to the non-Christian who does not possess such a confident expectation since they have not trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior like the Christian.

Consequently, they have not received the Lord Jesus Christ’s promise to raise from the dead those who have trusted in Him as their Savior.

Thus, Paul is reassuring the Thessalonians that the dead in Christ have a confident expectation of receiving a resurrection body like they do who are still alive.

Therefore, they must not grieve as the non-Christian does when a loved one departs this life.

[1] Mayhue, R. (1999). 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Triumphs and Trials of a Consecrated Church (p. 123). Fearn: Christian Focus Publications.

[2] Pentecost, op. cit., p. 209.

[3] (1965). Grace Journal, 6(3), 20.