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.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
Long throughout history has the word “asleep” been used as a descriptor of death.* Used in the Old and New Testament, the Iliad, and other ancient Greek and Latin writings, the readers of the letter to the Thessalonians would have understood that Paul speaks of those that they love who have passed away.* Even in modern times, gangster movies describe “sleeping with the fishes” to describe a watery death.
While we all share an understanding that the use of the words “sleep” and “death” may be synonymous, Paul invites us to not share something with the ancient Greeks. According to the ancient Greeks, death was final.* To them, to “go to sleep” in death was to enter into an eternal rest.* The radical, history-disrupting message of Christians is that death is no longer a permanent status!* How can this be?
Paul tells us that because Jesus raised from the dead, we too can put our hope that we will raise as well!* This is phenomenal news because it changes the way that we look at death.
Like Paul, the Greeks also taught that we should limit our grief about the loss of loved ones.* The Greeks, however, believed that we should limit our grief because death is coming for us all.* Their fatalistic view sought to numb and deaden the emotional loss associated with eternal separation from those we love.* Why? Because in their view, it was going to happen one way or another anyway.
For the Christian, we ought to limit our grief because hope is so real for us! Christians are permitted to grieve the loss of loved ones, but we should not drown in our grief as if we have no hope, nor should we quiet our pain because of a fatalistic view of the finality of death.*
For those who put their trust in Jesus, God says to us through Paul, “cry for the loss, but recognize that it’s temporary.”
Because of the work of Jesus, death becomes a doorway to a place of peace. Like sending a loved one to a foreign land that we know we will one day join, we cry tears for the time apart, but we know that reunion awaits us.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to allow yourself to fully grieve the death of someone you love. Perhaps today you have been grieving as if you have no hope, and God wants you to remember the hope that He provided through Jesus. Perhaps today God wants you to share that hope with someone that you love.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Holmes, M. (1998). 1 and 2 Thessalonians (pp. 148–149). Zondervan Publishing House.
Shogren, G. S. (2012). 1 & 2 Thessalonians (pp. 180–183). Zondervan.
Green, G. L. (2002). The letters to the Thessalonians (pp. 216–221). W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.
Kim, S., & Bruce, F. F. (2023). 1 & 2 Thessalonians (D. B. Capes, Ed.; Second Edition, Vol. 45, pp. 374–385). Zondervan Academic.
Morris, L. (1984). 1 and 2 Thessalonians: An introduction and commentary (Vol. 13, pp. 87–89). InterVarsity Press.
Beale, G. K. (2003). 1–2 Thessalonians (pp. 131–136). InterVarsity Press.
Weima, J. A. D. (2014). Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: 1–2 Thessalonians (R. W. Yarbrough & R. H. Stein, Eds.; pp. 307–320). Baker Academic.