1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers [and sisters], about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope.
Paul takes up another topic in the letter at this point. The Thessalonians had a question about those among them who had fallen asleep. Asleep is a euphemism for those who have died (Mark 6:39). Since Jesus had not come again, what happens to those who have died? What happens when a person dies is one of the fundamental questions of humanity. Paul does not provide all the answers to that question in this passage. In 1 Corinthians 15:51, he calls this matter a “mystery.” We will only know how it all works out when Jesus comes again.
Christians have the fundamental hope of resurrection from the dead and eternal life. Paul preached about Jesus’ coming again as a fundamental part of his message. The Thessalonians already knew about this but did not understand it. They had become concerned when their members began to die. Paul has already mentioned the coming of Jesus three times in this letter (1:10; 2:19; 3:13), possibly in anticipate of a more detailed discussion of it at this point.
He did not want the Thessalonians to be like the rest, referring to unbelievers. Unbelievers have two related problems. First, they grieve because, second, they have no hope. Anyone who has lost a loved one knows about grief. Grief is the natural emotion that results from losing something or someone. Every human being experiences loss. Death is the great enemy of unbelievers because they think that this life is all that there is and that the loved one is gone from them and never to return. If this life is all we had, then it would be even sadder when a loved one dies because that totally and forever ends the relationship. Humans have an innate, deep sense of eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11). If this sense is ignored or filled with anything other than faith in God’s promises, the grief will be deep and difficult to overcome.
Hope is one of the greatest driving forces in a Christian’s life. We have hope that God’s promises are true and that there is something beyond death. We trust the gospel message that we can have eternal life through Jesus Christ. That does not mean that Christians will not grieve when someone dies. But if our deceased loved one was a believer, our hope in eternal life can lead us to celebrate that person’s life rather than to consider it a loss. Revelation 14:13 says that those who die in the Lord are blessed. Death is not the end for those in Christ. This is one of the most powerful messages of Christianity.
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