Bible Study on 1 Thessalonians - Part 6 1 Thessalonians 4:9-5:3

Last week, we heard warnings about temptations to sexual immorality and possibly also to dishonest dealings with others, in business and other matters. These were real dangers for the Thessalonian believers, living in their Greek/Roman culture in a busy commercial seaport city. They are still real dangers for us today.

Paul went on then to write in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 about “brotherly love.” The people of the church at Thessalonica were already doing well with this, but Paul encouraged them to seek to do even more, because they had been “taught by God to love one other.”

The word for “brotherly love” is the word “philadelphia,"from which we have the United States city of the same name, called “the city of brotherly love.” In classical Greek, the word almost always referred to love between literal brothers and sisters, who have the same parents. Christians took over the word to refer to love between brothers and sisters in Christ, within the family of God - special care and concerns for fellow believers in Jesus.  Since Christ died for all, and wants all to be saved, that love is also to extend to our “neighbors” - care for all those God has placed around us in our life. Jesus, the Son of God, had taught, in His summary of the 10 Commandments, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

He also taught that as God has shown great love and mercy to us, we are to seek to show such love and mercy to one another, especially in forgiveness. See, for example, Mark 12:28-31 and Jesus’ parable of the servant who was forgiven a huge debt and refused to forgive his fellow servant a tiny debt - Matthew 18:23-23 and especially vs. 32-33.

Paul also applied such love to the way Christian people are a “witness” to “outsiders,” people who are not Christians. God’s people are to “aspire” - to make it their goal, their ambition - to “walk properly before outsiders” in several ways: “to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs and to work with your own hands… and be dependent on nobody” (1 Thess. 4:11-12).

Christians do not have to make a big show of what they do; nor do they need to be “busybodies," being “nosy” and interfering with the affairs of others. They can just go on with their lives and try to take care of their own needs as best they can and not idly depend on others for what they could do themselves. Greek culture often thought that “working with one’s hands” was degrading and should only be for slaves or servants. Paul said the opposite. Any honest work, even with one’s hands, is good. Jesus was a carpenter before his public ministry began; Paul was a tentmaker; many of the disciples were fishermen; parents must care for their children, often with their hands; we all have a variety of vocations, of “callings,” in everyday life, etc.

From what Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians, it is possible that some Christians thought Jesus was coming back very soon, and just quit their jobs and everyday responsibilities, and were sitting in idleness, waiting for Him. This is not what God wished. Christians are to go on with their daily lives, doing their work faithfully, but ready for Jesus by faith in Him above all. Neither does God demand that everyone must have a “paying” job. Some cannot work, for a variety of reasons, including disabilities,  or may be busy as a parent or a caregiver, without pay, or be an older retiree, etc. However, our quiet, ordinary life can be a positive witness for Christ and Christian values, as much as possible. See also 1 Peter 3:15-17, for example.

Paul then moved on in his letter to address a concern he had likely heard from Timothy, when Timothy returned from his visit to Thessalonica. Some must have been wondering and worrying about people who died, who “fell asleep” before Jesus returned, on the last day. What would happen to them? Would they be OK, somehow? Paul wrote to give these questioners comfort and encouragement.

The loss of a loved one is always difficult. There is grief and sorrow. But God’s people do not need “to grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). The NIV Study Bible notes say, “Inscriptions on tombs and references in literature show that first-century pagans viewed death with horror, as the end of everything.” Paul wrote so that Christians would not be “uninformed” and without hope, even in the midst of death. (The Greek word here is the word from which we get the English word “agnostic." An agnostic is someone who just does not know, for example, whether God exists or not. He may hope God exists, but thinks he just doesn’t know.)

Paul wrote because he wanted the Christians in Thessalonica to know for sure that their loved ones who lived and died in faith in Christ would be taken care of. Paul based his certainty upon the fact that “Jesus died and rose again.” Jesus did not just die a tragic death on our behalf, in payment for our sins. He also “ROSE AGAIN.” That was the unanimous testimony of the early Christian church. Paul himself had not believed that truth and was very anti-Christian until the risen, living Lord Jesus appeared to him and turned him into a believer and witness for Jesus. See Acts 9:1-20. The death and resurrection of Jesus are the foundation of the certainty that though we die, we shall also live, through faith in Jesus and what he has done for us. See John 11:23-26, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 2 Corinthians 4:13-17, and on and on.

“Even so,” Paul wrote, “through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.” Paul declared this “by a Word from the Lord” (probably revealed directly to him by God) and then described what would happen on the last day, the day of Christ’s return in glory. People who are still alive at the return of Jesus will not “precede” (go ahead of) those who have already died, have fallen asleep (1 Thess. 4:14-15).

The fact that Paul says that God will bring with Jesus those people is an indication that the souls, the spirits, of believers go to be with Jesus in heaven as soon as they die. Death is not a “soul sleep,” where people are somehow not conscious until Jesus returns, as some try to say. Only the physical body is resting in the grave. The souls of believers do rest from their earthly labors, in peace and joy with the Lord in heaven (Revelation 14:13).

• Jesus said to the thief on the cross who came to trust in Him, “Today you will be with Me in paradise”(Luke 23:42-43).
• As Jesus died, He said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit”(Luke 23:46).
• On the third day, Easter Sunday, Jesus’ grave was empty and the body of Jesus had been raised and changed and glorified (Luke 24:1-7).
• As Stephen was stoned to death, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59).
• In Philippians 1:21, Paul said, “To me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
• In verse 23, he said, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

These Scriptures tell us that our loved ones who have died are taken care of. Their souls are with Christ in perfect peace. Their bodies rest on earth.

What happens on the last day, then? Paul wrote that the Lord Jesus Himself will descend from heaven  in a very loud, visible way. (This will not be a “secret rapture” of all living believers” for a period of time, while life goes on on earth, as some say.) Instead, there will be “a cry of command,” “the voice of an archangel," “the sound of the trumpet of God," and “the bodies of the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16) and be changed and glorified and reunited with the souls that Christ is bringing with Him, for the fullness of eternal life with the Lord. (Paul writes more about all this in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 42-44.)

The last part of all this is that the bodies of believers who are still alive on that last day will also be changed and glorified (1 Thess. 4:17 and 1 Corinthians 15:50-56) and “caught up” together in the clouds to meet the Lord, and all the heavenly believers, in the air, and all believers will always be with the Lord, in the fullness of what the eternal existence will be.

Paul has answered the concern of the Thessalonians about their loved ones who have already died. All believers, living and dead, are taken care of by Jesus, in His love for them. As Paul said, in another letter, “So, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8-9). (See also Romans 8:11 and 38-39 and many other such Scriptures.) Paul ended this part of his letter by adding, “Therefore, encourage one another with these words.” Death and separation from our loved ones still brings sorrows and hurts us, so much. But we have hope for our loved ones, in God’s promises in the living, risen Lord Jesus (1 Thess. 4:13) and for ourselves, in the promises of Jesus for us, living, too: “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

The Words of 1 Thess. 4:13-18 are often read at funerals or memorial services to give comfort and hope to families. That fact that Paul tells the Christian congregation at Thessalonica to encourage one another with these words reminds us still today that this is the very Word of God Himself, coming through Paul. This Word works, whenever it is used, as we heard in 1 Thess. 2:13, whether spoken by a pastor or teacher or spoken and read by you. Share the Good News of God’s Word! The Holy Spirit is always at work through that Word.

As 1 Thess. 5 begins, Paul wrote about a related issue that some Thessalonians must have been bringing up: Just when will Jesus come back? Paul used two picture images to emphasize that it will be sudden and unexpected: like “a thief in the night” or as “labor pains” suddenly “come upon a pregnant woman” (1 Thess. 5:1-3).

We will talk more about this next week and see how Jesus and others used the same images to show that no one knows when the end will come, except the Heavenly Father. Even Jesus, as true man, did not know during his earthly ministry (Matthew 24:36). We can be prepared, though, by continuing to trust in Jesus our Savior, by God’s grace, and using the powerful Word of God. Again, we will be OK, in and through Christ Jesus.