While I’ve always understood this passage to be taken in the context of hope and encouragement, I was often confused as to what that hope actually was.

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” [1Thes. 4:13]

This is a remarkable preface by the apostle Paul who, through a revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ, continued to expand on some relevant details concerning an event that had been prophesied about more than once in the Old Testament Jewish writings.

Could it have been that some of the brethren in the Church at Thessalonica had never heard of [or had forgotten] what the Jews commonly understood concerning the coming resurrection of the righteous dead predicted in Daniel 12:2? Other New Testament authors were obviously alluding to this prophesy in the book of Daniel. [see: John 11:24, Acts 24:15].

Now grieving for the dead would have been an appropriate gesture considering the state of finality it brought with it, that is, unless they actually had something to look forward to—like being brought to life again.

It’s obvious that Paul was recounting to the reader an event that had already been predicted by Jewish prophesy. But it was also evident that he was attempting to lay to rest any apprehension a First Century New Covenant saint might have had about it. That is to say, there should be no cause for anxiety concerning the fate of the dead, because they’d live again in the future:

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep In Jesus.” [IThes. 4:14] [my emphasis]

It seems to me that the reason for Christ’s resurrection was being stressed here. God raised Jesus. The righteous dead who belong to Him would follow suit.

It would happen because Christ proved that it can happen!

But to say that this sentence implies that Jesus will bring these righteous dead [in some disembodied form?] with Him “from Heaven” patently contradicts the following two verses:

“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” [IThes. 4:15-16] [my emphasis]

In this sentence, the Greek phrase, oi νεκροὶ, is translated as “the dead.” It’s recorded as a Masculine Nominative Plural noun, intended to define more than one person. On the other hand, if those which are to be raised were merely bodies, they’d be defined with a Neuter Nominative Plural noun.

Paul didn’t consider the “dead in Christ” to be just bodies, but rather, brothers and sisters “asleep in Christ.”

More importantly, the Greek adverb οὕτως, meaning “thus, so, in the same manner,” and translated in the NASB Version as “even so” in vs. 4:14, would suggest that Paul regards this future event in the same light as the miracle of Christ being raised from the dead.

Those who had fallen asleep shall be raised in the same manner as Jesus was.

Literally translated, 1Thes. 4:13 would read: “For if we believe that Jesus died and was raised, In the same manner also, God shall bring [or lead] with Him [that is, Jesus] those who fell asleep through Jesus.” Jesus shall descend from the heaven and the dead will first rise from that state—that is, before they and those “alive and remaining” are to be “taken up” into the clouds to meet and be always with the Lord.

Paul is describing, in some detail, the sequence of events connected to the only anticipated return of Jesus Christ to the Earth ever mentioned in the texts of the New Testament. Nothing here suggests that the Lord and those who shall meet him in the “air” will embark on a journey beyond the stratosphere.

However, an interesting ancient Palestinian tradition might explain why Christ’s people are portrayed as going up to meet Him before He arrives. At that time, and in that culture, when a person of prominence was approaching a destination, it was considered to be a gesture of respect to send representatives out to meet him on his journey who would accompany him the rest of the way.

Nothing is more reassuring to me than the apostle Paul’s deeply held conviction that the irrefutable hope of God’s people is secure in Christ’s love, regardless of whether they’re living or dead:

“But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For Iam convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which Is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Rom. 8:37-39]