Sermon Tone Analysis

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Understand the Context

Chapter 4 opens with a plea to walk in holiness and thus to please God, and closes with the taking up of the saints.

Paul was probably thinking of Enoch when he wrote this.

Notice the similarity: (1) Enoch walked with God (Gen.

5:24a); (2) Enoch pleased God (Heb.

11:5b); and (3) Enoch was taken up (Gen.

5:24b; Heb.

11:5a).

The apostle commends the believers for their practical holiness, but urges them to advance to new levels of accomplishment.

During his ministry with the Thessalonians Paul had taught them about the end-time events and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the interim between that ministry and Timothy’s visit (cf.

3:2, 5) some of the believers had died and the church was enduring persecution.

The first of these circumstances caused some to think their loved ones had missed the Lord’s return for His bride, the Church (cf.

Jn 14:1–3; Eph 5:27).

The second circumstance caused others to think that they had already entered the time of tribulation known as “the day of the Lord” (cf.

Jl 2:30–32; Zch 14:1; Mal 4:1, 5; see the comments there).

While Paul gave the Thessalonians advice about day-to-day living, he knew the true hope of Christianity has nothing to do with this life.

He assured them that Jesus was coming back one day (4:13-18).

Without this truth, Christians then and today, have no hope beyond this world.

[LifeWay Adults (2021).

Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide, Spring 2022]

Explore the Text

Some translations use the word “ignorant” which is more closely to the original intent of “without knowledge” but modern reader’s usually associate a negative connotation with that word even though it is merely a statement of fact.

Back in 1Thess 3:10, the letter mentions the writers wanting to “supply what is lacking” and this could be one of those areas.

The afterlife may have been in Paul’s plans for the fourth week, but their time together was cut short so this subject of people’s eternal state must not have been discussed very much.

We can also tell that this is considered important enough for them to write about this immediately instead of waiting for God’s timing for them to meet again face to face.

Those believers who are asleep in Jesus (v.

13) are not lost and gone forever, but they are “with the Lord” (cf.

2Co 5:8).

It is clear that Paul thought of the state of believers who had died as both “asleep” (this pertains to their bodies) and as conscious (in His presence).

This view denies any thought of “soul sleep” and helps to explain how these deceased ones can both return with Him (v.

14) and also rise first (v.

16).

Sleep is a temporary restful state between time of cognitive activity.

Our word cemetery comes from a Greek word meaning “sleeping place” (koimētērion).

[Believer’s Bible Commentary]

This concept is used throughout Scripture to represent death.

In the Old Testament we read how kings “slept with their fathers and were buried.”

(1Kings 2:10) For those who are understand the eternality of the human soul, the next life is the “real” one that we can only briefing interact with now and today we are in the “temporary” state.

Our citizenship is in heaven and while we are here, we await the call to go back home.

(Phil 3:20) Death is a transition from the veiled life on earth to the unveiled one.

Both heaven and hell are equally “real” to but everything that heaven is, hell cannot be, yet neither will ever end for their inhabitants.

I like how C.S. Lewis describes the difference between our state now in this world and how we “will be.”

“We know not what we shall be”; but we may be sure we shall be more, not less, than we were on earth.

Our natural experiences (sensory, emotional, imaginative) are only like the drawing, like pencilled lines on flat paper.

If they vanish in the risen life, they will vanish only as pencil lines vanish from the real landscape, not as a candle flame that is put out but as a candle flame which becomes invisible because someone has pulled up the blind, thrown open the shutters, and let in the blaze of the risen sun.”

The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

Not uninformed as new believer, then not grieving and not without hope like unbelievers.

Notice that the writers do not expect those who have lost loved ones not to grieve at all over the loss, but the qualifier is “as others.”

Specifically, those who do not have the hope of Christ and God for eternal life with them.

Grieving is not wrong (see Acts 8:2), but it is wrong for Christians to exhibit hopelessness in their grief.

[ESV Global Study Bible] As believers we can grieve over our loss, but we can also be joyful for their gain.

To grieve or sorrow is in the passive tense which means it is a continuous act and any that have grieved over loss know that it really does not end but its bite dulls, and our nerves aren’t as tender over time.

This may be what is implied by the subjunctive mood of the verb which suggest the actions “may or could happen but which is not necessarily true at the present.”

[Arthur, Kay.

Discover the Bible for Yourself] His contrast is not between one degree of sorrow and another, but between Christian hope and pagan despair.

[Tyndale New Testament Commentaries]

The opposite of verse 13 would then be something like “We want you to be informed, so that you may grieve like us who have the hope of Christ.”

Part of the reason that we have a different expectation after death than the world is because of our belief in Christ and what He did for all mankind.

Some translations start verse 14 with an “if” which for modern readers injects a possibility of doubt but the word does not have that option, it is a conjunction between the reason why we do not grieve like others and the certainty we have in God.

The newer translations that I read try to use every Greek word in their English text, but in this case maybe the NIV has the best statement by simply starting the verse with “We believe.”

We “know” that we will see those who died in Christ again because death was temporary for Jesus.

Because He died and rose again, we know that all those who are “in Christ” will also rise again, just not in an earthly body, but the “real” one that will be kept for eternity.

(1Cor 15:22)

Bring is future indicative, something that has not happened yet but is certain to be done.

Another part of the “since we believe” is that fact that Christ is coming again.

God the Father will allow God the Son to “bring with him” those believers who have died prior to that time.

You cannot bring something “with you” if you are not coming too.

There is a certainty in what the writers not wanting their brothers to be without knowledge.

There is more certainty in the belief that Christ will come again.

Now they “declare” with the certainty and authority of the “word of the Lord.”

A word, logos, from the Lord, Kyrios.

This is where the apostle Paul derives all his authority from.

It is a message directly from God. (Gal.

1:12; 2:2; Eph.

3:3; 2 Cor.

12:1, 9) Some people today use this phrase very flippantly and God will hold them accountable for that one day, but we can trust what is written down in our Bibles because it has proven true, accurate, and infallible over the centuries.

Paul’s claim has validity because God recorded it for all eternity.

Twice in our passage today this phrase “we who are alive, who are left” is used.

We who are alive or “the living” is the contrast to those who are asleep or dead.

Paul includes himself in this group like he did in other letters (1Cor 15:51) to help his reader’s take comfort that he too "remains” and eagerly expects Christ’s return just like them.

There is a popular book series about being “left behind” and the writers may be encouraging their reader’s that they have not missed Christ’s return as they are also “remaining” on the earth until that day.

Here is that word “parousia” which the rest of this chapter and half of the next helps “inform” and define for us.

Remember we have said in the past that this is more than just the moment of Christ’s “coming” but it His “arrival” and subsequent stay.

Zodihates expands that concept a little further and says “the Second Coming is not just one event taking place at a particular time.

Rather it is made up of a series of events.

We can understand which event is referred to only by a careful examination of the context in which the terms parousía or érchomai ([2064], to come) occur.”

[The complete word study dictionary: New Testament ]

The event described in Mt 24:29–31, the second coming (proper), is not the same event as the one described here.

Here it is the Lord Himself who comes to take His own to Himself, but in Mt 24:31 this is the task of elect angels.

Also, based on other texts that describe the second coming (proper) (cf.

Jl 2:12–16; Zch 14:1–5; Rv 19:11–21), there are significant differences between the two events: here He comes in the air but then He comes to the Mount of Olives; here the prospect is comfort and fellowship with the Lord, then the prospect is judgment

As we read through the rest of our passage to today, we can see there is a sequence of events taking place when He comes again.

Much like a visiting dignitary from a foreign land will have an “itinerary” of events before returning home, Christ will come and accomplish many things and the world and creation will react to His presence and work.

All of these things are included in the word “parousia.”

“Will not precede” is an interesting phrase as the word precede is more often translated with the concept of reaching out or obtaining.

In 1Thess 2:16 it is used for the wrath being obtained or having come upon those preventing the gospel from being proclaimed.

In Rom 9:31, the Jewish people pursue a righteousness through the law that they cannot “reach.”

In his letter to the Philippians the apostle wants to hold onto the gospel that was “attained.”