The Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15)

Nothing is so powerful to bring to order the one who lives disorderly and to confirm in uprightness the one who walks rightly, as the conviction that the Lord will come again in glory to render to each according to his deeds. This was perhaps the Apostle’s motive for inserting the teaching on this article of the Christian faith into the midst of the moral lessons that needed to be given to the Thessalonians, since he had other reasons for writing about it as well. In this, certainly, lies also the reason why he did not leave this teaching as a bare intellectual representation, but immediately set it in motion within the moral-Christian life, pointing to it as a motive for vigilance and sobriety—those levers of self-governance in those who strive to please God by advance in virtue.

a) Teaching on the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thess. 4:13–18)

It is supposed that the Thessalonians, on hearing from the Apostle the preaching about the Second Coming of the Lord, had imagined that it would inevitably take place within the bounds of their lifetime, and that only those who would be alive at that moment would be partakers of its blessings. From this thought arose the question: what then will happen to those who have already died? And from not knowing how to answer it—anxiety about their lot, together with anxiety about their own, since any one of them might die beforehand. The Apostle writes in accordance with this: the Lord will come, but His kingdom will not be on earth. He will descend from heaven; and to meet Him there shall be caught up both the living and the dead, who for that purpose will rise beforehand—and there they shall always be with the Lord. By this, the aspect of the Second Coming that had remained obscure to the Thessalonians was clarified and all anxiety about the dead was dispelled. But the Coming itself was not depicted in its full picture, which was not the Apostle’s aim; here only two moments of it are indicated—the beginning and the end. The middle—the carrying out of the judgment—the Apostle did not touch. What was said was sufficient to bring peace to those who were troubled.

1 Thess. 4:13. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

“I would not have you be ignorant”—the usual turn of phrase for holy Paul when he wishes to draw his readers’ particular attention to some matter, whether he is reasoning about it anew or only reminding them of it.

“I would not have you be ignorant”; consequently, I wish you to know—I wish to give you a precise understanding of the condition of the dead, for your consolation. During his stay with them he had not had time to impart everything on this subject. Now he supplies what was missing and was causing disturbance among the Thessalonians. By clarifying the matter the Apostle wishes to bring them comfort.

“Concerning those who are asleep”—in relation to the dead, who are named here (from the Greek) “those who are asleep,” as it is fitting to name them when writing to those who believe in the resurrection, of which the discourse now begins. By the dead, in the flow of the discourse, the Apostle here understands the believers, the Christians; although of course he taught everywhere that all people—not Christians only, but Jews and pagans as well—are not only immortal in soul but shall also rise in the body, to receive due recompense for all that they did in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10). But here the discourse is not about all, but only about believers, for the others were not the concern in this case.

“That you sorrow not.” The desire to dispose the Thessalonians to bear the death of their close ones with good cheer was what moved the Apostle to write. His aim is to remove immoderate grief over the dead, into which the Thessalonians were plunged by not knowing how those who have died will become partakers of eternal blessedness in Christ. He speaks as if to say: I will explain this—and you will have nothing to grieve about. “For,” as Chrysostom says, “many things cast us into grief only because we do not know them; but when we come to know them well, we lay grief aside.” There is no trace of ignorance or unbelief about the resurrection among the Thessalonians; and the Apostle “speaks to them thus not because they did not believe in the resurrection, but because, notwithstanding this, they were lamenting the dead” (Chrysostom).

“Even as others which have no hope.” These others—and some among the Jews as well, since even among them the Sadducees denied the resurrection of the dead—and all the pagans, who had no conception of the resurrection, and as for life beyond the grave, encumbered it with grotesque fantasies that gave many occasion to deny immortality altogether. Hence the Apostle calls them those “which have no hope” (Eph. 2:12). Their writers say: hope is the portion of the living, but the dead are without hope (Theocritus). The sun sets and rises; but for us, once the ray of life is quenched, there lies before us the eternal night of unawakening sleep (Catullus). No one has yet returned from those whom once the cold pause of life has seized (Lucretius). — It is fitting for such people to lament the dead, “for all the dead are nothing to them” (Chrysostom). But Christians, who look forward to a better mode of existence after death, should not grieve but rejoice over those who depart—that they have completed their course and go to receive the crown prepared for them (2 Tim. 4:8).

What is the Apostle’s thought in this comparison: “even as others?” Does he wish to remove all grief, saying: that you may not grieve at all, as those who have no hope grieve? Or does he only say: that you may not grieve to such a degree and in such a spirit as they do? Blessed Theodoret accepts the latter: “The Apostle does not altogether forbid grieving, but rejects the immoderation of grief and consoles with the hope of the resurrection. For those who have no such hope may be excused for indulging in moderate grief. Therefore he did not say: concerning the dead, but concerning those who are asleep—placing consolation in the very name: for after sleep comes awakening.” Holy Chrysostom insists on the former: “To grieve over the dead belongs to those who have no hope. And indeed, a soul that knows absolutely nothing of the resurrection and counts this death as death (that is, as annihilation) naturally grieves over the dead as over those who have perished, and laments and weeps inconsolably; but you, who hope for the resurrection—why do you weep?”

In the spirit of Christian faith and hope, the latter is more fitting for Christians; for death has lost its sting for them. And whoever clearly and with conviction contemplates what awaits Christians after death will not weep over the dead. The former is more indulgent toward our infirmities. One may say it thus: begin with moderate grief and ascend to good cheer in the face of death, bidding farewell to the departed as one bids farewell to those setting out for another country to a better life.

1 Thess. 4:14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Grief over the dead arises, first, from separation from them, and second, from uncertainty about what will become of them. The first cause of grief the Apostle weakens in the present verse, saying that when the Lord appears, God will bring the dead back to us into mutual fellowship; the second—in the following verses, saying that they, having risen, will together with the living be caught up on the clouds to meet the Lord and will be always with Him there.

The Apostle’s aim in this verse is not to prove the resurrection of the dead, but only to bring to mind the whole truth and present it more clearly, so that the conclusion would come of itself: so then what is there for you to grieve about? He clarifies and quickens this truth in the mind by placing it in connection with the Lord’s resurrection and expressing it in a brief saying that, like a flash of lightning, illuminates the whole domain of life and death. The resurrection of the dead, not only here but everywhere, holy Paul places in dependence on the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:12–23; 6:14; 2 Cor. 4:14). The risen Christ is the First-fruits (1 Cor. 15:20). His resurrection is the pledge of the resurrection of all. Those held under the fear of death are raised through faith in the risen Lord to the hope of resurrection and eternal life. “If the resurrection of Christ seems to us worthy of belief, we cannot but believe that we too shall obtain the resurrection, because the mystery of the Incarnation is administered on our behalf” (Theodoret). But the resurrection of Christ is not only the ground of belief in the resurrection of all; it is also the cause of the resurrection itself. For Christ the Lord and all who believe in Him constitute one body, living in union. Where the Head is, there too are the members; the Head has risen, and He will draw the members to Himself. “But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Cor. 15:23). “He raised all people by His flesh (laid the foundation for this resurrection), which is why He is also called ‘the firstborn from the dead’ (Col. 1:18)” (Damascene).

It was not in vain that holy Paul also mentioned the death of the Lord. His death enters into the content of hope. He died for our sins, which are cleansed by faith in His death on the Cross. This is what adorns faith in the future life with bright hopes. This life is darkened by the fear of punishment for sins; but the death of the Lord drives away this fear. The death of the Lord is not accidental but necessary, just as is the resurrection. By the one and the other the spirit is disposed toward hope and abides in it.

After the words “if we believe” one would have expected: we must believe that God and so forth. But holy Paul says directly: even so “will God bring with him them that sleep in Jesus.” In his unshakeable assurance of this he does not say that we must believe or hope, but sets forth the very fact that is hoped for and believed. He needed to draw not faith from faith, but fact from fact. The Lord Jesus died and rose again; those who believed in Him died—and will rise again. But of the Lord he says that He “died” “and rose again”—Himself: He died by His own will and rose by His own power; believers, however, will be raised by the power of God. Hence he says: “even so will God bring” them.

“Will bring”—either into the circle of the living: they are not here now, they have departed from us, but then God will bring them back to us and we shall see them. “The words: ‘will bring with him’ give to understand that they shall be gathered from many places” (Chrysostom). Or—will bring into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, that they may be with Him where He is, as partakers of the blessings He has acquired for those who believe in Him by His death and resurrection. Comparing this word with what precedes, one cannot but see that it stands in place of—will raise; will bring through resurrection, or having first raised them. “Will bring—either before His own face, or to the resurrection” (Oecumenius). The words of our translation, “them that sleep in Jesus,” stand in Greek as δια `Ιησου — through Jesus. Explaining this expression, our ancient commentators, following holy Chrysostom, connect the words δια `Ιησου either with “sleep,” in the sense of: those who have fallen asleep in Jesus—that is, in faith in Jesus Christ—or with “will bring,” in the sense that God will bring the dead to life in the body through Jesus Christ, for “the Son is the author of the resurrection and of our beholding the Father” (Oecumenius); “He will be the mediator of the resurrection of the dead and will present them before the face of the Father” (Theophylact). Holy Chrysostom, having adduced both explanations, seems to give preference to the first, for, passing over the second, he dwells his attention only on the first, saying: “How then do the faithful die in Jesus? — Clearly, by having Christ in themselves.” — This is more in keeping with the structure of the text, and its equivalent expression is found below in 1 Thess. 4:16: “the dead in Christ.”

The Apostle’s words, that God will bring those who have died in Christ, give occasion for the question: what then will happen to those who died not in Jesus—that is, to unbelievers? Oecumenius resolves it thus: “What then, someone will say—is the resurrection not universal, as though unbelievers will not rise? — No, that is not it—but not all will be brought. For to be brought means the rapture on the clouds and the presentation before the face of the Judge. The faithful, those who truly bear this name, shall be caught up on the clouds to meet Christ, while the unfaithful will await His arrival below, not being worthy to meet Him.” This thought he took from holy Chrysostom, who writes: “The Apostle here speaks not only of resurrection but of resurrection and the honour with which believers will be surrounded in the state of glorification. In the resurrection, he says, all will share; but in the glory—not all, but only those who have fallen asleep in Christ. And since he wishes to console them, he consoles them not only by speaking of the resurrection, for they already knew of it, but also of the great honour and the speed with which the resurrection will follow.”

1 Thess. 4:15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent those who are asleep.

The Apostle said that those who have died in Christ will again be brought into the circle of life in the body—into mutual fellowship with all; now he shows how this will take place, 1 Thess. 4:16. But in explaining this, he discloses new features of the events of the last days that had until now been unknown. The Lord said that in due time the elect would be gathered from all the ends of the earth to be blessed with Him (Mt. 24:31; Mk. 13:27); but what would happen to those whom the Second Coming of the Lord would find alive had not been said anywhere. This the Apostle now discloses, speaking not of himself but in the name of the Lord and with His words: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord”—by the word heard from the Lord—we speak thus as the Lord commanded.

What is this word of the Lord? — Some hold it to be the same word by which the Lord Himself depicted His Second Coming as recorded in the Gospel. But there nothing is said about the circumstances of which the Apostle writes here. Others understand by the word of the Lord a word that went forth from the Lord but was not preserved in the Gospel—like: “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). This view could well be accepted, were it not known from the Apostle’s own lips that he received immediate revelations from the Lord (1 Cor. 11:23; 2 Cor. 12:1; Gal. 1:12). This last must be recognised as the only truly correct interpretation of the words “by the word of the Lord.” And this is all the more obligatory because the Apostle himself points to a circumstance related to this same event as to a revelation: “Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51). But a mystery—how else can it be known than by revelation? Holy Chrysostom writes: “Intending to say something extraordinary, he added an assurance: we say this not of ourselves, but having heard it from Christ. The prophets, wishing to show the truthfulness of what they were about to say, say before all else: ‘the vision which Isaiah saw’ (Is. 13:1); or: ‘the word of’ the Lord, ‘that came to Jeremiah’ (Jer. 1:1); and yet again: ‘thus says the Lord’ (Is. 8:11). Many saw God Himself sitting on a throne (Is. 6:1), so far as it was possible for them to see Him. But Paul, who did not see Him seated but had Christ speaking within him, instead of saying: ‘thus says the Lord,’ said: ‘since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me’ (2 Cor. 13:3), and again: ‘Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor. 1:1), and by this showed that he said nothing of himself, because an apostle conveys only the word of the one who sent him. And again: ‘I think also that I have the Spirit of God’ (1 Cor. 7:40). Thus he proclaimed all things by the prompting of the Spirit. But what he now says, he heard from God (who spoke to him in distinct words).”

“We who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord.” These words give occasion for thinking that the Apostle was convinced that he and all believers of his time would live to see the Second Coming of the Lord—that it would take place during their lifetime on earth. But such a conviction in him cannot be supposed, for this would mean determining the time of the Lord’s coming, while he himself says that the time of this coming should not be determined. He would thus be in contradiction with himself. Hence some understand the word “remain” as if it were: having remained—in the event that we remain, if we live to see the Second Coming of the Lord. The structure of the Greek permits such a rendering. And the holy fathers, seeing that the Lord’s coming did not take place within the bounds of the Apostle’s lifetime, hold that in speaking thus “he was not speaking of his own person, but of people who would live to that time” (Theodoret). “In using the expression ‘we,’ he had not himself in mind, but understood the faithful (Chrysostom). Since he was speaking of the living (who will be alive at the coming of the Lord) and was himself still alive, he used the usual common expression: we who are alive” (Damascene). Others do not allow the conditional sense and see in the Apostle an absolute and unconditional statement. This too may be agreed to. The Lord said: watch, “for you know not what hour the Son of Man comes” (Lk. 12:40). Because the hour is unknown, no one could determine it; but by that very reason everyone must await it, be ready, hold himself in such a state as though the last day were about to overtake him this very moment, and think and speak of himself as of one who is already caught by that day, as though already present at the coming of the Lord. In this sense the Apostle speaks of himself and of all believers as of those overtaken by the coming of the Lord. As at that time the Apostle with the believers of that day, so at all times all believers ought to hold themselves inwardly in like manner. The Lord is coming—and with us, who remain to the coming of the Lord, this and this will come to pass. — That until now, under no generation of believers, this has happened, does not mean that it will not come to pass in our lifetime, and our duty—to hold ourselves in our hearts as those overtaken by the coming of the Lord—loses none of its binding force thereby. In this sense in the New Testament the last day is everywhere presented as imminent (1 Cor. 15:51–52; 1 Pet. 4:7; 1 Jn. 2:18; Jas. 5:8).

“Shall not prevent those who are asleep”—shall not go before them so as to taste the blessed life with the Lord more quickly or more fully than they do, as happens in a race, where the one who outstrips the others and reaches the appointed mark first receives the prize to the exclusion of the others.