1 Thessalonians 4:13 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Thessalonians 4:13

Comments

The apostle had himself instructed the Thessalonians believers while he was with them, and yet now he is concerned lest they should be ignorant. It is quite likely they have not got these things clearly in their minds, for the apostle was not with them for long. Learning takes time, and things are not perfectly remembered.To speak of people who had died as being asleep was common in those times, and it was common among the Greeks. Of course, it is a term which is much more realistic for believers in Christ, because for us the term sleep implies an awakening, and of course, the great awakening will be the resurrection of the body. Not that we are literally asleep, it is only the body that is referred to as being asleep. The soul of the believer has gone to the paradise of Christ, and is very much conscious and awake. But in a pagan culture, there was no hope of resurrection or of life after death. Death was the most dismal affair, and so those people mourned death terribly. It was hopeless; it was the end of all things. They had the vaguest of hopes which meant nothing and which was no comfort at all. It is altogether different in the Christian faith, in the Bible, because our hope is certain, and our hope is certain because it is structured and well informed. The revelation of God tells us exactly what will happen to us at death when the soul goes to be with Christ in paradise, awaiting the end of all things. Christ who was God incarnate who came in to this world to be a Saviour, to be our Redeemer. He was raised from the dead. Scripture says he raised himself by his own inherent power. It also says that God the Father raised him, and the Spirit was involved as well. Is that a contradiction? No, he raised himself by his own inherent power and the Father and the Spirit endorsed it. His suffering and death on Calvary had been entirely successful, and all the sin of the redeemed had been atoned for. Our resurrection is based on his. He appeared over a period of time, again and again, to his disciples and up to five hundred at once. And they were so certain of it that most of them died for it. Died martyr’s deaths rather than deny him. Our hope is tangible, structured, detailed. There is nothing like that outside Christianity.

Application

It is like today. When celebrities or well-known people die, you hear of the funerals reported in the news, and there is all the talk about him or her being up there looking down. It is no certain hope. That is just something that you say at a funeral, when it is a funeral in which the Lord is not believed in and trusted. Your natural instinct driven by sentiment tells you that somehow the person is still there and still alive, but you have not really got a hope. You have not got any hard information; it does not take any shape or form. It is not only an uncertain hope, it is an uninformed hope, it is an unauthoritative hope.

Questions

What did the Greeks believe about the afterlife? The idolatrous religion of the Greeks did believe in a kind of life after death, but it was a dismal thing. The soul just went in to the murky depths of nothing, and there was no relating or knowing anyone else. We must sleep an endless night, said a Greek poet. So they wailed and mourned, and funerals were tortuous and stretched out affairs, going over days and sometimes weeks.

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Introduction

1 Thessalonians 4:13 Commentary and Bible Study