But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Comment: Is there a difference between a ‘funeral’ and a ‘Celebration of Life’ when someone dies? The answer, I guess, is in attitude rather than in the word which is used! There was a general expectation that Jesus would return to the earth soon after He had ascended to His Father. This obviously didn’t happen and hasn’t happened yet. Obviously Jesus’ return was preached and taught as the initial believers spread the gospel into new areas. As people died in societies without hope for the future and fearing that their friend/relative wouldn’t be accepted by the ‘gods’, grief was normal. For a Christian grief is normal and healthy but grief for a termination of an earthly relationship – not grief because of fear as to how a fellow believer would get on in the after-life! Paul uses the euphemism ‘fallen asleep’ instead of ‘died’ because for a Christian there will be a ‘waking up’ in the future. Paul describes Jesus as He comes announcing His coming with a trumpet call, then the Dead in Christ will be raised and only then living believers will join Jesus, and those, who were dead, have been already raised and His people will be one in the Presence of God for ever. This picks out the ‘guts’ of the issue – many details are filled out in various portions of the Bible. Paul’s point here is that they don’t, when they face death, have to grieve in the forlorn way that their pagan friends did. God has everything under control.
Prayer: Thank You, Father, that death isn’t the end because of the way that you have made mankind. Thank You also for what Jesus, by His death and Resurrection, did in making restoration of good standing in Your sight possible!
As I read it! 