1
THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 4.
With
chapter 4, begins the hortatory (parenetique) part of the Epistle. If Paul is reassured (rassure) by the new
reports of Thessalonica by Timothy (3:16), he has an ardent desire of joining
his brothers in the great city of Macedonia, not only for the joy of seeing
them again, but also to remedy the deficiencies (lacunes) in their faith
(3:10). But he does not wait to see
this, of which he was ignorant at the time, for to communicate to the orphan church,
the more urgent the exhortations and instructions. To this he devotes the second part of this
letter (4:1-5:24).
The developments which follow are inspired by what he knew
of the moral and spiritual state of the Church at Thessalonica. How did Paul know this? Without a doubt, by Timothy, but also by a
letter from the leading circles of the Church at Thessalonica, who truly
desired from him, instructions and answers to questions which had preoccupied
the agitated church.
4:1-2. More progress
continually.
4:1. The construction of the Greek is complicated. The two verbs `erotomen' and `parakaloumen'
"make to depend," the proposition expressed their object and
introduced by `ina'. Paul refers to the
teaching he had orally given the Thessalonians, and they had received it and
had already begun to obey it.
Paul requests them to continue to progress in the path they
had already begun to walk, and in which alone they could please God, - to walk
to please Him. Moreover, he recognizes
they were already volunteers in this walk of pleasing God.
4:2. Paul reminds
them that he had given them certain instructions when he was in the midst of
them; and that they ought to have been attentive to such in the Spirit. But he does not exhort merely on the plane of
human wisdom or human morality, but he exhorts the Thessalonians in the Lord
Jesus, that is, in the faith and obedience of the Lord, whose authority they
recognized and confessed.
The reference to Jesus perhaps very diverse, to His words,
His example, to His Spirit, to His grace etc.
This means it could have been a question of the historical Jesus, rather
than of Christ glorified. This latter
remark is very important. The primitive
church was ignorant of the distinction between the historical Jesus and Christ
glorified: the Lord Jesus for them, was the Lord as much during his earthly
career, as since His elevation to the right hand of God. It is because they were the words of the Lord
of the Church, that the words of Jesus had authority over the believers,
(1.Cor.7:10).
4:3-8. Sanctification Excludes Impurity.
`Gar' - "indeed," indicates that Paul makes
reference to the instructions that the Thessalonians had heard from his own
mouth (4:2), and that he takes back none of them. "This is the will of God." `Thelema' is without the article, because the
instructions are not the entire will of God.
`Agiasmos' - the sanctification, the action of the
sanctifier and should not be confused with `agiosune', "holiness,
saintliness" (3:13).
What is the force of the genitive `umon', "of you,
yours?" The context through its
imperatives suggests a subjunctive genetive: "God wishes that you sanctify
yourselves." - Frame. But it
recalls that our God has revealed this will in Jesus Christ, who is our sanctification,
(1.Cor.1:30). God has sanctified us in Jesus Christ, and has made us saints,
(1.Cor. 1:2), and that we can sanctify ourselves, to live as men who belong to
God. The emphasis of the New Testament
is on the character more than doctrinal exactness; on Christlikeness, rather
than orthodoxy.
The apostle vigorously reminds his Thessalonian brethren
that this sanctification bears on the relation between the sexes. They must abstain from sexual license. `Porneia', is a term at once general and precise. It designates all sexual relations outside of
marriage. In the eyes of Judaism and of
Paul, it was one of the striking manifestations of the sin of the heathen. Fornication holds front rank in the list of
pagan vices, (Rom.13:13; 1.Cor.5:1,9; 16:9; Gal.5:19; Eph.5:3; Col.3:5).
The sanctification demanded of Christians who had come from
paganism, meant a complete break with the manners (moeurs) of their
surroundings and former life, (1.Cor.6:9; Eph.5:3).
4:4. This abstaining
from immorality is not a matter of policy, much less a moral or of
morality. As the apostle hates to add a
positive precept to the negative one, "that each of you know to obtain his
wife in sanctification and honour."
This is a notorious exegetical difficulty.
`Posseder' - to own, possess, to have, to enjoy (a wife).
`Katasthai' - to acquire, obtain, get. `Skuos' - utensil, vessel.
"To acquire for himself his own vessel." But vessel is here used in a metaphorical
sense. What does it designate? In antiquity as in our days, exegetes are
divided on the subject. Some thought
that the vessel is the body and they can claim the support of 2.Cor.4:7. The exhortation to know how to master the body,
agrees well with how the subject is treated in 1.Cor.6:19.
However, there are grave objections to this
interpretation. `Katasthai' is sometimes
used in the sense to possess, to have, to enjoy, (a wife). Another objection is, why does the apostle say,
"that each of you know to possess (enjoy) his own body." - as if it
could be a question of someone else's body?
There are Rabbinic examples of the wife called a
vessel. Against the sexual license of
the pagans, Paul proposed monogamous marriage.
That each have a wife who may be his own and not the wife of all, the
woman of an evening or an hour. Still,
is it necessary that each take a wife?
It is necessary that a Christian must break with his old way of living,
so as to contract a marriage in sanctification. This is to say without
compromising his consecration to God, but on the contrary in the present (now)
and in the fortifying by his marriage also.
The reverence of this demand, presupposes the choice of a
Christian wife, or to prepare to become united in marriage. The passage may have in view the difficulty
that young Christians had in obtaining wives.
Jews and pagans were not inclined to give their daughters to
Christians. Young Christian daughters
were not numerous, and would be the daughters or fiancée or slave of a
Christian. They must be engaged in
rivalries and conflicts in obtaining a wife.
"In honour."
Not all means are good, and a Christian must have a more clear idea than
the pagan of what is honourable or dishonourable. Any who are lacking in respect for the rights
of others, everything which is compatible with love - is to fail to hold
honour. Besides, Paul is definite in his
thought and adds: "not in the passion of lust." The passion born of desire, this is well known,
not respecting the person and every barrier that would rise up before it, the
honour is very quickly overthrown. To
know God is to know Him in His will revealed in Jesus Christ.
`Eviter' - avoid.
`Leser' - to wrong.
`Duper' - cheat.
`Proposition' - proposition, statement.
`Nouveau' - fresh, additional.
4:6. If each Christian
obtains for himself a wife in the conditions announced in verse 4, it is to
avoid wronging or defrauding his brother in this affair. The sense of this new statement is not easy
to understand, and that of the different additional explanations it confronts. It is necessary to set aside (ecarter) that
which translates `en to pragmati' by, "in business." The sense is that the Thessalonian Christians
still prone to live as pagans lived, were exposed to the temptation of
cheerfully overlooking the rights of their brother in seeking to take a
wife.
Is it necessary to think only of adultary? The words are framed rather generally, and
aim at protecting the rights of the brother generally in this matter. Finally Paul draws their attention to the
gravity of their responsibility before God, for the Lord is the Avenger of all
such. Not any disobedience to His will,
any wrong (tort) to a brother shall escape in the Lord, and go unpunished. This vengeance of sins committed can work
itself out in this present existence, it shall consummate certainly in the last
judgment of God.
4:7. The words,
"God has called us," go back to the moment where, by the Spirit, God
gave faith to the believers. Paul
insists on the condition in which the call of God found the believer, or in the
condition in which it places the believer. It does not say God has called us to
sanctification, but He has called us to Himself in sanctification.
`Agiasmos' refers to the act of God, of which we have been
the object in Jesus Christ, and which are attained in His call, an act that we
have to recognize and assume its demand.
"God has not called us on the ground or base of
impurity."
`Epi' with the dative has a meaning more causal than
final. It was in impurity they lived
before their conversion. That they had
been called by God did not sanction their former way of living, on the
contrary, it is in sanctification that He has called them, in their breaking
with the world by this call, a world polluted by sin. From them it is evident that God cannot leave
unpunished among those who belong to Him the many infringements to His holy
will endorsed by Paul, when he said that the Lord is the Avenger of all such.
4:8. Finally, Paul
draws out the consequences of his instructions that he may emphasise the need
of doing the will of God. Those
despising, shall not merely despise man only, but God, see 1.Sam.8:7. The apostle's word recalls for us words of
the Lord, see Matt.10:40; Lk.10:16; 9:44; Mk.9:37; Jn.12:44.
If the Thessalonians learned in the Lord Jesus the will of
God in respect to them; they had proved also the sanctifying influence; this
God whom they despised or rejected, is He who has given to them His Holy
Spirit, and it is this same Divine influence that they themselves opposed in
persisting to live in impurity, 1.Cor.6:19.
The words `to agion' is emphasized.
The Spirit given to them is Holy.
They therefore, commit a grave sin in despising or rejecting God.
In verses 3-8 we have an example, and not the least, of the blanks or defects of the faith of the
Thessalonians, which Paul feels is in urgent need to be remembered (3:10). The faith in the Lord Jesus Christ was also
obedience, without which it is not fully faith.
Certainly, the Thessalonians were real believers, but they still lacked
the awareness of the moral demand of the faith.
A demand they may have regarded as overbearing and new.
4:9-12. For a model
Christian life, they must be good examples.
The Thessalonians may have written to Paul. But Paul approaches the subject by writing
that there was no need that he should write to them. Why does he do this? If Paul had been appealed to that he exhorts
the community in love, it was not probably by the whole community, but by a
group which had some reasons to complain in this respect: the directors or
leaders (5:12). The apostle is willing
to recognize that the Thessalonians are aware of the love they owed to their
brothers. They had been instructed by
God Himself in Jesus Christ, and in this love no human teacher was able to
instruct them. They had given proof of
their love to all the brethren of Macedonia - in a practical way.
But Paul
exhorted them to make even more progress in love. The following verses (4:11-12) may indicate
the manner in which they were to make progress in love. There are three things mentioned. The Thessalonians are to aspire to be:-
a. Quiet. Some were agitated, excited with over
occupation with eschatological events.
b. Occupied. Occupied with their own affairs. Some were occupied with the affairs of
others, which thereby provoked disputes and damaged fraternal love.
c. Work. To work with their hands. Probably, some under the intense expectation
of the coming of the Lord, abandoned work and became a charge to their brethren,
and so provoked legitimate indignation.
The Church was probably composed of common people and slaves who
laboriously earned their living. The
imminence of the Coming of the Lord, made some think that they had no reason to
be tied down to tiresome work, which was despised by Greeks. In the light of this, we understand better
the importance of the example that Paul himself gave by working with hands
(2:9). The apostle reminds them that
they were given these same instructions verbally, when they were with them.
4:12. Paul wishes
that the Thessalonians may by their obedience to him obtain two very important
results. Firstly, that they live in an
honourable manner in the judgment of those outside, that is, to those who were
unbelievers. Does he mean that the
standard these people would give should be the norm of Christian living? Certainly not, for their must be a life in a
manner worthy of God (2:12). Paul is
convinced that the Christian life has its supreme norm in the will of God, in
walking in love, to satisfy moral demands that are better than the people of
the world practice and accept. It is
very important that those outside may not be sent further away - put at a
distance - from the Gospel and the Church by the faults and inconsistencies of
the Christians.
By means of instructions the apostle would appeal especially
that they work, so that none have need of nothing. Not only in their personal dignity demand
that they be materially independent by their work, but even more the concern
that they be a charge to their brethren, for to be independent and no charge is
a form of love.
4:13-18. The death of
believers is illuminated by hope. 4:13.
"But we would not that you remain in ignorance, brothers." These words are formulated to arouse the communication
he is about to make. It is likely that a
letter from Thessalonica indicated there was trouble aroused in the church by
the decease of some believers. They ask
with anxiety on the nature of the death?
Would they miss the glorious coming of the Lord? Shall they be at a disadvantage with the
living believers when He comes? And who
can be sure he shall not die before the day of the Lord? It was urgent to dispel these painful
uncertainties concerning those sleeping.
I prefer the reading with the present tense. It is not a question only of something past,
but of a fact which could re-occur.
`Koimaomai' in the passive - "to fall asleep," was
already with both Jews and Greeks a current way of speaking of the dead. It is not necessary to conclude from it the
state of the dead that it designates, although it may not be probable without
intention that Paul here uses this euphemism.
"In order that you may not be sad as the others who
have no hope." Does Paul mean to
say that Christians ought not to mourn (se affliger) over the death of their
brothers, and distinct (sedistinguer) from unbelievers? Or can they regret the loss of their
deceased, but not in the same manner as unbelievers who have no hope?
The apostle never contests the rightfulness of sorrow (Rom.12:15; 1.Cor.12:26). He does not counsel us to become as hard as a
rock and reject every human sentiment, but the sorrow of the Christian before
death has a particular quality: it is brightened by hope and a consolation is
promised to him. It differs thus from
that of others, who have no hope. For
Paul there is no hope than in Jesus Christ, so Jews (2:16) and pagans are those
who have no hope. It is of the pagans
especially, that he here thinks. His
brothers at Thessalonica recently belonged to such pagans, to whom despair
before death had been only real as is attested by the letters and inscriptions
of the period.
Had Paul then left the Thessalonians without hope before
death? So that the death of some among
them had likewise troubled? Certainly
not! They had heard of the imminent
coming of the Lord with which they would be linked in His glory (1:3,10,; 2:19;
3:13), but it is precisely on account of (a causede) this hope that they
mourned for the death of their brothers, it seemed as if they would not be
present when the Lord came. Also the
apostle endeavours (s'eforcer) to show that their hope is in our Lord Jesus
Christ was as significant for the believing dead as it was for the living, and
that the believing dead shall be reunited, to welcome (accuellir) the Lord in
His glory and participate in His reign.
4:14. Right away Paul
founds his argument on the certitudes of the faith the Thessalonians like
himself believed. However, a fact worthy
of remark, in this declaration which is a kind of summary, very incomplete, of
the confession of faith, it is that it is a question of Jesus and not of Christ
(1.Cor.15:3), or of Lord (Rom.10:9).
Without doubt, Jesus is not the object of the faith, because that is
Christ, the Lord, the Son of God, but here obviously the apostle recalls to the
Thessalonians that they believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, a man
in whom the resurrection of the dead has commenced, and who is the pledge
(1.Cor.15:20).
Paul then had certainly spoken to the Thessalonians of the
resurrection of the dead, from which the resurrection of Jesus is inseparable
(1.Cor.15:12-16,20), but he had not previously instructed them of the
privileges that the believers shall have of the resurrection before all the
others (v.16; 1.Cor.15:23), then of the coming of the Lord. The general resurrection in the end of time
is then supposed here as 1.Cor.15:24.
`D'emblee' - at once, at the first onset, right away.
It is an unfortunate fault that Paul expresses in clear
terms for us the consequence to be drawn from the faith of the resurrection of
Jesus. Normally the proposition:
"if we believe that," named the conclusion of the description -
"even we believe we are able to believe that." But Paul has changed the construction and of
the subject, and has said, "in like manner also God shall bring with Him
those who are dead." (Translate aorist by a previous future. It does not reduce these dead to those who
are dead at the moment of Paul's writing).
His thought is carried of a bond towards the fact which signifies, God, the Sovereign
Master of history, the executor of a plan of redemption, of which the death and
resurrection of Christ constitute the decisive act, God shall accomplish that
He has commenced.
"He shall bring with Jesus; at His glorious coming,
those who shall be dead." This fact
ought to dispel all the anxiety and sorrow of the Thessalonians concerning the
matter of their dead: they shall not be frustrated; they shall not miss the
`Day of the Lord'. "God shall bring
them with Him." ("God shall
bring to present with you." See 2.Cor.4:14). The right relation enacted between this final
act and the death and the resurrection of Jesus by `outos kai', "in the
same manner also," supposes that the dead believers have been raised, but
Paul has not said in his haste to proclaim the decisive fact, their
participation in the Coming of the Lord and His glory. And he has perhaps an allusion to the
resurrection of believers in a complement which always embarrassed the
exegetes, and that we have intentionally left aside until the present: `dia tou
Iesou', "by Jesus," or rather "by this Jesus"
Masson prefers to attach `dia tou Iesou' with `axei', and
not with `tous Koimethentos'. See
N.E.B. Their dead shall participate in
the triumphant coming of the Lord. God
shall bring with Him those who are dead.
How? By what means? By whom?
By this Jesus, by whom the death and resurrection, come to be
repealed. Jesus shall be the mediator of
the accomplishment of the work of redemption in the end of time, as He has been
the mediator in the centre of the history of salvation. It is with this Jesus, who died and rose
again, with Him God shall bring those Christians who sleep.
4:15. The particle
`gar' indicates that Paul is about to justify the affirmation of 4:14.b. which
can appear as one of singular hardness.
"The word of the Lord." This word is not expressly cited, only freely
used in verse 16. From it Paul is
authorised to give to the Thessalonians the assurance which he expressed in
verse 15. It is that which confers
weight or importance to his teaching that follows.
`Oti', "that," it is here declarative and
introduces that which Paul can affirm in his reference to a word of the Lord. Such
was the intensity of the waiting for the coming of the Lord that Paul expresses
himself as if the Thessalonian brethren and himself ought to be still living
and surviving when the Lord shall come.
But Paul did not in the least pretend that God could not demand each
day, the sacrifice of his life (1.Cor.15:30; 2.Cor.1:8; Phil.2:17). Moreover, in this fragment, Paul does not
speak only of believers dead when he writes, but of those who shall be dead at
the Parousia of the Lord. But the new affirmation which ought to put an end to
the ignorance of the Thessalonians (4:13), as in 14.b. is already found in these words, "we shall
certainly not precede those who sleep."
This answers the anxious question, shall the dead Christians be
deprived? Shall surviving believers have
an unfair advantage over the dead?
Should not they wait the Coming of the Lord and the Resurrection, to be
reunited in their Lord, and participate in His kingdom, in which the living
have been associated from the first day?
Paul argues that these privileges do not belong exclusively
to the living. They shall not precede to
the Coming of the Lord, when He shall come to reign on the earth. How shall this be so? How shall the dead believers be on an equal
footing with the living when the Lord shall come? Paul describes this in verses 16-17.
4:16. "For," is here causal and introduces the
reason for which Paul holds that the surviving believers unto the Parousia
shall not precede those who are dead.
The Lord in His own person shall descend from heaven. As from Acts 1:9-11 Jesus raised, has been
elevated in the heaven where He is seated at the right hand of God; in the day
of His Parousia He shall descend from heaven to make known His reign through
all His creatures (1.Cor.15:24). It is not easy to determine the sense of the
three complements which accompany the principle verb: "He shall
descend." Are they additions of the
same value? (Dibelius). The last two are
coordinated by a `kai', "and," are really an application of the
first. But what is their
significance? It can perhaps be
temporal; when an order, shout, shall re-echo, when shall sound the trump of
God etc. The trump of God reminds us
that God is the author of this reunion.
It is necessary to remark, however, that the Parousia of the
Lord does not signify to Paul here, that in the dimension which the
resurrection of believers is to him connected, also it is little likely that
the three complements ought to determine the Parousia alone, but the Parousia
ties up with the resurrection of those who are in the Lord (1.Cor.15:52). They indicate in all likelihood the facts
which shall accompany the descent of the Lord from heaven, and shall involve
the resurrection of believers, whilst they shall re-echo an order, shout, the
voice of the archangel and the trump of God.
It is probably not necessary to be precise where Paul has not been
precise. However, we are not to forget, in verse 14.b, he has expressly
designated as the author of the reunion of believing dead and resurrection with
Jesus, then of his glorious coming.
It is likely then that the "order," (or
"shout"), the voice of the archangel and the trump ought to call up
or conjure up in a concrete manner the sovereign intervention of God.
The `keleusma', "shout of cammand," is addressed
as the sequence shows, to the dead in Christ; it is the all-powerful word which
raises them. Is the `shout' transmitted
by the voice of the archangel, whilst the `trump of God', signal of the last
events which accompany it? It is possible,
unless we can affirm it, and we ought to respect the deliberate discretion with
which the apostle here uses some of the truths of the apocalyptic tradition to
show as sensible the action of God.
"The dead in Christ shall rise first." Such is the first argument Paul uses to
convince the Thessalonians that they shall know that their deceased shall not
be at any disadvantage in connexion with the survivors unto the Parousia. The first event associated with the descent
of the Lord from heaven, shall be the instantaneous resurrection of the
believing dead (1.Cor.15:52). The dead
in Christ, those who have died in the faith in Christ, constitute a group or
order (tagma), a particular group of the resurrection and only they shall be
raised when the Lord comes (1.Cor.15:23; `oi tou chris tou' - those who belong
to Christ). The "trumpet" is
one of the features of the description of the theophanies in the Old Testament,
Psa.47:6; S.S.1:16; Zech.9:14; Ezek.18:3. (French Bible), and particularly of
the great theophany of Sinai, Exod.19:16,19; 20:18.
4:17. With some
traits of extreme brevity, Paul sketches or outlines the realization of the
hope mentioned already in verse 14.b, and which shall commence by the
resurrection of the deceased believers (v.16.b). Next, we the living, the survivors, together
with them, we shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord, in the
air. There shall then, no longer, be any
difference between the state of believers who are deceased, and that of their
surviving brothers. They shall
henceforth be newly reunited and shall have the same destiny. The words, "together with" express
very strongly, that nothing shall any more separate the surviving believers at
the Parousia, from their deceased brothers.
Our text more than any other Pauline text, affirms most clearly, they
shall for themselves meet again always.
The New Testament does not insist upon this aspect, if popular of the
Christian hope. The catching up of
believers presupposes that the survivors have been transformed, clothed with
their spiritual bodies like those raised (1.Cor.15:22). Like as Christ at His own Ascension
(Acts.1:9). They are all together
carried away in the clouds, which, here as elsewhere, draws attention to and
veils everything in the time of the action of God.
The clouds are characteristic of the descriptions of the
theophanies, especially that of Sinai.(Ex.19:9,13,16, see Dan.7:13,LXX., also
Matt.24:30; Mk.13:26). The part the
clouds play must not be reduced to that of a vehicle. They are a sign of the presence and action of
God. But the aim of the catching up of
believers is indicated by the complement - "to meet the Lord in the
air." The account is precise and concrete.
The word `apantesis', "to meet," is a technical
term which designated a wide usage in the Hellenistic world: when a sovereign
or some great person approached the city, then at his parousia in the Hellenistic
sense of the term, the entire population went out to meet him and receive him
and to form a triumphant escort or procession for his entry into the city. The phrase "to meet the Lord,"
would awake in the spirit of his readers or Greek hearers the colourful image
of official and joyful entry.
Did Paul borrow this phrase from the Hellenistic world as
Dibelius and others have held? It does
not appear so. Dupont has shown,
indeed,that the expression `apantesis' and `eis apantesis' occur frequently in
the LXX, and in the account of the great theophany of Sinai, especially
Ex.19:10-18, where figure many of the descriptive elements of our text (voice, trumpet, cloud). It is also said, that Moses made the people
to go outside the camp to meet their God, Ex.19:17.
Why the display of the coming of God in the end time? Shall it be any different from that it was
when the Lord descended on Sinai, to give the Law to the people? This had been the resonance of the term,
`apantesis', in the Hellenistic environment or circles. It is likely that Paul held to the Biblical
and apocalyptic tradition. The
`apantesis' is the welcome that Christians shall give to the Lord descending
from heaven, reproduces and brings back in the end of time, the welcome that
the Israelites had given to God when He ascended on Sinai. Where shall take place the meeting of the
Lord and His own? In the air, between
heaven, from where shall descend the Lord (v.16), and the earth from where the
believers shall have been transported in clouds. And what direction shall the triumphant
procession of the Lord and His own take?
Exegetes have given different answers to this question and many hesitate
to make a decision.
It is necessary to put aside the idea that the Lord and His
Church shall remain for some time in the air.
According to some exegetes, the Lord will return to heaven with His
glorious cortege, and there we shall forever be with the Lord. But this interpretation does not do justice
to the idea of `apantesis', to meet, to welcome. For then, it would no longer be the believers
who meet the Lord, but the Lord shall descend from heaven to meet the believers,
but that does not agree with the text. The Lord shall descend from heaven to
the earth (16.a), and this is to make a cortege that of believers glorified,
that He shall catch them up into the air.
But the cortege once formed, shall gain the earth, over which the Lord
shall reign, until he has put into submission all the hostile powers.
4:17.b. Believers
shall not any more be separated from the Lord, as they were while remaining in
their fleshly bodies (2.Cor.5:6, "absent from the Lord.", Phil.1:24),
or if they were dead (v.16.b). To be
always with the Lord, such is the goal, the end that the apostle assigns to the
destiny of Christians. The expression is
one of remarkable sobriety, which concedes nothing to curiosity, and distinguishes
itself advantageously from Jewish apocalyptic descriptions. Without himself departing from this sobriety,
the exegete owes the demand that Paul would say in assuring the believers,
"that they shall always be with the Lord." They shall always live in the most intimate
spiritual communion with Him. What more
can the believer demand? They shall
always be in community with one another, and with the Lord.
"With the Lord," is to be understood in an
eschatological sense, in relation to the glorious coming of Christ, and the
events which follow it, - the participation of the believer in the event, in
the reign, and in the glory of Christ. The idea of the participation of the
disciples in the reign of Christ is frequent in the New Testament, (Matt.13:43;
25:34; Apoc.5:10; 20:4-6; 22:5; Rom.5:17; 8:17; 1.Cor.4:8; 15:23-28;
2.Tim.2:12. The Parousia shall inaugurate
the reign of Christ on the earth - He shall reign until He has put all His
enemies beneath His feet. Believers
shall participate in His victories. To
be forever with the Lord implies then, more than intimate communion with Him,
it is rather to be forever a participator in His cortege. The creation itself will be delivered - this
is the dimension of Christ's redemptive work, and in the course of His reign,
the believers shall always be with Him.
4:18. Paul considers
he has said enough to attain his goal (v.13), and invites the Thessalonians to
console themselves, and to comfort one another with the words that have put an
end to their ignorance (v.13), and replies their communication seeking
certainty that they shall not miss out in the Coming of the Lord (v.15), and
raised, participate with Him in His reign.
The verses emphasize the sovereign action of God. He shall bring by this Jesus the dead
believers. They shall form part of His
glorious cortege. This means the dead
shall be raised, and God alone is able to raise the dead (Rom.4:17;
2.Cor.1:9). It indicates the sovereignty
of God. This liberating event in all its
aspects is the work of God, but is accomplished by this Jesus, who has died and
is raised, who shall descend from heaven with all the majesty of the Lord.
"The word of the Lord." It is on the ground or authority of this word
that the apostle can affirm that living believers shall have no advantage over
the Christian dead at the Coming of Christ.
This word ought then to be found in verses 16-17. Some exegetes understand it of a word of
Jesus (Frame, Neil), but one who expect such to make mention of the Son of Man,
and have parallels to the phraseology of the Synoptics. Joachim
Jeremias took it of a spoken word of Jesus, not preserved for us in the
Gospels. But Massam finds this
difficult, since it has not been preserved in the Gospels. Massam finds the answer to the problem, in
that a revelation was given to Paul, 1.Cor.15:51 concerns a similar situation -
the dead Christians and surviving believers - Paul qualified his word there as
a mystery. It was then for him one of
the mysteries of God, 1.Cor.4:1. It was
then the wisdom Paul reserved for Christians who were mature (1.Cor.2:6), which
had its object the glory of believers (v.7) i.e. the fulfilment of their final
destiny. These mysteries were revealed
by the Spirit (2:10), but there is for Paul an intimate relation between the
Lord and the Spirit, (2.Cor.3:17; Rom.8:9), that is not unusual of all He calls
the word of the Lord (1.Thess.4:15), and elsewhere a mystery, (1.Cor.15:52).
"The word of the Lord," then, likely was a
revelation from the Spirit received by Paul seeking an answer to the question
which had arisen very soon in the Church:
What shall happen to the dead believers at the Lord's Parousia? And the answer given by the Spirit has been
formulated by the help of traditional and apocalyptic imagery, which permits a
precise revelation of the coming glory of the Lord, and the reunion of
believers with Him. It must refer to a
revelation given to Paul, for in the first Epistle to Corinth (15:51), we have a similar
communication as a mystery, i.e. to a revelation. It was therefore one of the mysteries of God.
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