But we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are fallen asleep, to the end that ye be not grieved even as also the rest who have no hope.
The believers at Thessalonica were waiting for the Lord to return, and then some of their number died. Their grief exposed something they had never been taught. Paul answers it, and his answer shows what death now is for a Christian, and what sorrow belongs to those who know it.
Their fear was not that their friends were unsafe. It was that they had missed out.
This hope will not be disappointed. But as time went on and Christ still did not come, some of them "fell asleep." This troubled them. They thought the believers who had died might miss all the blessings and glories of the reign of Christ — blessings that those still alive on earth when Christ appeared would enjoy. They had little doubt about their eternal blessing, or about enjoying the heavenly blessings of the Father's house. But they feared they would miss the glories of the kingdom.
One writer traces the gap to how new they were in the faith:
No one had yet taught these Christians — warm and earnest-hearted, but young in the faith — how believers who had died could be with the Lord when He comes and share His glory. They were so full of the expectation of the Saviour's return that they had never thought of any of them dying before He came.
Their grief looked like the grief of people who have no hope. One writer asks how that could be:
Their grief was as excessive as the grief of everyone else — Jews, or rather people who do not know God — who have no hope. Why such extreme sorrow over people who, when they were called away, knew God's love and salvation in the Lord Jesus? Is eternal life worth nothing? Is the forgiveness of sins, or having the Holy Spirit? It can only have been ignorance on their part... So it was for lack of knowing better that they had given in to thoughts which plunged them into Christ-dishonouring sorrow.
Paul does not forbid grief itself.
Do not misunderstand these words. Believers are not forbidden to grieve. Not at all. God does not want His children to be unfeeling. He wants us to feel what we meet along the way, but He does not want us swallowed up by it, as others are. "The Hope" comes into the Christian's sorrow. It sweetens the most bitter cup and brightens the darkest hour.
Scripture uses one word for Christ's death and another for the believer's. The difference is deliberate.
Look closely at the words used here. We can be sure they are exact, as the words of Scripture always are. "Jesus died;" His people only "fall asleep." For Him it was truly death, in all its reality and severity, as the judgment on sin — the sign and picture of a deeper judgment. For them it is only "sleep" — rest and refreshment, and from it they rise to a day that never ends and never fades.
Some have taken this picture to mean the soul itself is unconscious until the resurrection. Darby rejects that, and he answers by asking who it is that falls asleep:
These passages show every Christian with spiritual understanding how absurd this idea is. And more than that: Scripture never speaks of the soul sleeping. It is a beautiful expression. It means that death was only falling asleep, to wake again. But it is always the person who falls asleep, never the soul... Scripture always says the person falls asleep, never the soul. It always means the Christian has died. It is a beautiful way of saying that he is not, as we put it, "dead and gone."
There is an obvious comfort to offer someone who is grieving. Paul passes it by.
Does he blame them for hoping too eagerly for the return of Jesus? Does he say they were too taken up with it, or that they were excited and lacked sober sense?... Not one such word falls from the apostle's pen... Nor does he comfort those who mourn in the usual way, by reminding them that they will soon follow — that they will soon be with their loved ones again in heaven. No indeed. True as that may be, he does not offer it as a ground of comfort.
- Ignorance. Their distress came from a gap in their teaching, not from weak faith. They feared their dead friends had lost their share in the coming glory.
- Excess. Sorrow goes wrong when it copies the sorrow of people who have no hope. These believers knew God's love, forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Kelly calls grief like theirs "Christ-dishonouring."
- Permission. Tears are allowed. Being swallowed up by them is not.
- Sleep. Christ's death bore the full severity of judgment. The believer's death is sleep — rest that ends in waking. And it is the person who sleeps, never the soul.
- Direction. Paul does not point mourners to where their friends have gone. He does not promise they will soon follow. He points them to the hope that comes into a Christian's sorrow.
For if we believe that Jesus has died and has risen again, so also God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.
Believers in Thessalonica were grieving over fellow Christians who had died. Paul's answer does not start with the grave. It starts with two facts about Jesus, and from them draws a conclusion about everyone who has fallen asleep.
The verse before this one tells the Thessalonians not to grieve like people who have no hope. That is not a command to feel nothing.
Do not misunderstand these words. Saints are not forbidden to sorrow. By no means. God would not have His children unfeeling. He would have us feel the circumstances of the way, but would not have us swallowed up by them, as others are. "The Hope" comes into the Christian's sorrow. It sweetens the most bitter cup and brightens the darkest hour.
The verse uses two different words for what happened, and the difference is deliberate.
Let us look closely at the words used here, for we may be sure they are exact, as always in Scripture. "Jesus died"; His saints only "fall asleep." With Him it was death itself, in all its reality and severity as the judgment upon sin. It was the sign and type of a deeper judgment. With them it is only "sleep" — rest and refreshment, from which they rise to a day that never ends and never fades.
Some take that word "sleep" to mean the soul itself goes unconscious until the resurrection.
Some say that at death the soul goes to sleep, and does not wake until the resurrection. But Scripture connects the thought of "sleep" with the body. The thought of "sleep in Jesus" only refers to the believer. Death is now robbed of its terrors for the Christian, so that it can be described as "sleep."
Older translations read "asleep in Jesus." Here the wording is "through Jesus," which can be taken in more than one way.
So we can appreciate the tenderness of the expression, "those who have fallen asleep through Jesus." Better still, I think: "those who have been laid asleep by Jesus" — by Him who holds the keys of death and hades, and who is their Saviour. Take it the first way, and the meaning is that "through Jesus" — through His work for them — death had become to them only a sleep. But that seems a strange way of saying it. Taken the second way, the words imply both the Lord's rule over death and His tender care of His people.
Paul rests the future of the dead on something already settled in the past.
The first thing he assures them is that God will bring these departed saints with Jesus when He comes again. In the last verse of chapter 3 he had spoken of "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with ALL His saints." Here he strengthens that assurance. The "all" includes those who "sleep in Jesus." God will bring them with Christ as surely as Jesus Himself died and rose again. For faith, the death and resurrection of Christ are the standard of absolute truth, reality and certainty.
Paul cures their ignorance by pointing them to a Person, not to a theory.
These saints were in ignorance, and sorrow was the result of their ignorance. The Apostle wants to dispel their darkness and wipe away their tears. And the way he takes is the only effective way of clearing the clouds and ending the sorrow. He presents Christ. He reminds us that Jesus has died and is risen again. His death and resurrection are the great pattern of those who sleep. Christ rose in secret, and His sleeping saints will rise the same way.
The promise is about the people themselves, not only their spirits.
It does not mean the Lord receiving them. Nor does He bring their spirits with Him to rejoin their bodies from the graves. It means that God will bring those who have fallen asleep with His Son, when He comes with all His saints. They will all be in that glorified company.
But how can people who are in their graves come with Him?
It is clear from Scripture that He does not find His church on earth when He appears in glory, but that it comes with Him. He first catches it up to Himself, and then it comes forth with Him in His glory.
- Ground. Everything rests on two facts already true: Jesus died and rose. What God did for Him settles what He will do for His own.
- Sleep. Jesus tasted death as judgment; for His people it is sleep — a word tied to the body, not to an unconscious soul.
- Through Jesus. He who holds the keys of death and hades lays His own to sleep. His rule over death and His care for His people meet in that word.
- Brought. God will bring them with His Son when Christ appears in glory. To do that, He first catches them up to Himself.
- Comfort. Grief is allowed; hopeless grief is not. The hope does not remove the tears; it sweetens them.