1 Thessalonians 4 explained: How to Live, How to Grieve

Keep growing (vv. 1-2)

Paul reminds this young church how he taught them to live while he was with them, teaching he says carried Jesus' authority. They are already living this way, and he asks them to do it more and more.

Sex and holiness (vv. 3-5)

God wants them set apart as his own, which includes avoiding sex outside marriage, something the Greek and Roman world around them often tolerated, especially for men. In verse 4 the Greek literally says "vessel," which may mean your own body or your own wife, so translations differ.

Wronging no one (vv. 6-8)

Verse 6 most likely means not wronging a fellow believer sexually, such as by sleeping with their spouse, though some read it as cheating them in business. Paul warns that the Lord punishes such wrongs, and that rejecting this teaching means rejecting God, who gives them his Holy Spirit, his own presence living in them.

Love and steady work (vv. 9-12)

They already love fellow believers across Macedonia, their region of northern Greece, and Paul urges more of that, along with quiet lives, minding their own affairs and earning their own living so outsiders respect them. Some think a few had stopped working because they expected Jesus to return soon, but the text does not say why Paul raised it.

Grief with hope (vv. 13-15)

The church seems to have feared that believers who died before Jesus' return would miss out, so Paul assures them the living will have no advantage over the dead. He calls death "sleep" and does not forbid grief, but says it need not be hopeless, because the God who raised Jesus will bring those who died trusting him back with Jesus.

When the Lord comes (vv. 16-18)

With a shout, the voice of an archangel (a chief angel) and God's trumpet, images that echo scenes in Israel's scriptures where God arrives as king, those who died trusting Christ rise, and the living are "caught up" with them to meet the Lord. Some evangelical Protestants read this as a "rapture" that removes believers before a final time of trouble, while Catholic, Orthodox and many other Protestant Christians read it as Jesus' one public return.

Key verse: 1 Thessalonians 4:13

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on verses 16 and 17. Some evangelical Protestants see a "rapture" (from the Latin for "caught up") that lifts believers away before a later return, often linking it with Paul's promises that God will rescue believers from coming wrath (1:10, 5:9). Catholic, Orthodox and many Protestant readers note that the Greek word for "meet" often described a city's people going out to welcome an arriving ruler and escort him in, and so read it as believers greeting Jesus as he comes to earth.

Something to think about

Paul says grief and hope can sit side by side; has that been true in your own experience of loss, and what made it so or not?