The Coming of the Lord

A study of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11

In almost every one of his letters, Paul refers to the return of Christ. But he rarely gives any details. His letters to the believers in Thessalonica are exceptions. Apparently they had asked for more information on this topic.

The return of Christ (verses 13-18)

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. It seems that the Thessalonians had asked about what happens to believers who die before Christ returns. Paul replies that we do not grieve in the way that unbelievers do. Death is still an enemy, so we may grieve, but our sorrow is mixed with hope because we know that we will all live again in far better circumstances.

Paul begins by stating the doctrine: We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. Because Jesus has been raised from the dead, we will be, too, if we are spiritually united with him. Those who die will come with Jesus. Just what they are doing in the meantime, Paul does not say.

He quotes a saying of Jesus—one that is not in the Gospels: According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. By using the word “we,” does Paul imply that he expects to live until Christ returns? Many scholars think so, and they suspect the Thessalonians had a similar belief, thus causing their worries about those who die in this age.

However, it is not necessarily so. If Paul had used the third-person “those,” he could have implied that he would not live until the return, and since he did not know one way or another, he used the more pastorally optimistic “we.”¹ Paul knew that believers could die before Christ returned, and simple logic would tell him that he might be one of them.

Paul’s point is that people who live until Christ returns will not have any advantage over Christians who die. The living ones will not rise to greet Christ while the dead ones are still struggling to get out of their graves!

Paul sketches a simple sequence: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. There will be a loud sound, and the dead will rise. Do they come with Christ from heaven, or do they rise from graves on earth?

Paul is not dealing with that question—he is just addressing sequence. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. This is the key verse of the “rapture” theory, which says that Christians will rise into the air to meet Christ and then go with him to heaven while the Great Tribulation savages unbelievers on Earth.² Those ideas are not in this verse; they come from other books of the Bible.

Actually, no verse teaches the rapture—it is only when verses from different sections of the Bible are combined, that anyone can construct the theory. The Bible does not promise that believers will escape the Tribulation, nor does it say that Christ will come once for the saints, and then a few years later for the Last Judgment. The believers in Thessalonica would not understand Paul to be saying anything like this.

What would they think? Paul refers to the presence or parousia of the Lord; the word parousia was also used for the arrival of a king in a city. Whenever the ruler visited, there was a lot of pomp and ceremony. Heralds announced the impending event, and city officials formed a procession to greet the king as he approached, and they would escort him into the city.

By using the word parousia, Paul is suggesting that kind of scene: Christ the king will come and his people will go to greet him and escort him as he comes to where they live. The Thessalonian believers were asking about who would be first in the welcoming procession. Those who die are not left out of the party—they’ll be raised so everyone can celebrate together.

The bottom line is simple: And so we will be with the Lord forever.

And then  Paul writes, Therefore encourage each other with these words. What are the encouraging words? Is it that the dead in Christ will be in the welcoming delegation? That we will be in the clouds? Those are good, but such details pale into insignificance when compared with the eternal result: We will be with Christ forever. That is the message that puts all our trials into perspective, and gives us courage to be faithful until the end.

No need for surprise (5:1-11)

Paul then discusses the timing in more detail: About times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Jesus also referred to a thief in the night in the Olivet prophecy (Matt. 24:43). This may have been a common proverb about someone coming at an unexpected time.

While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. Labor pains are not totally unpredictable, but this was probably another proverb for something that could not be scheduled precisely.

What sort of “destruction” did Paul have in mind? He refers to “wrath” in verse 9, but he doesn’t give us many details about it. Paul may be referring to the turmoil or tribulation that was expected before the day of the Lord, or perhaps to the day of judgment itself, when some people will find that the world is ruled by someone they don’t like, and they will suffer the consequences of their own actions.

Paul’s purpose is not to tell us about destruction, but to encourage us that we will not experience it: But you are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. They do not know when the day will be—Paul’s point is that they won’t suffer loss, because they are always ready.

You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. Paul is using “darkness” as a spiritual category, just as some of the Dead Sea Scrolls do. The believers are children of light, children of God, not of evil and darkness, and that should change the way they live.

But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. Paul here uses another metaphor, perhaps adapted from Isaiah 59:17. Faith, love, and hope should cover and protect our hearts and minds.

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. God does not want us to experience the unpleasant consequences of sin. He has planned something far better for us—salvation.

In this letter, written to people who were already Christians, Paul does not say much about how a person is saved. The only glimpse comes in verse 10: He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. This is where the discussion started: Whether we live until Christ returns (are awake), or if we die (are asleep), either way, the purpose and result is the same: we will live with him. That’s the salvation he obtained for us.

The Greek word parousia comes from the preposition para, meaning “near,” and the participle ousia, which means “being.” Literally, it means “being near”; in everyday Greek it meant “presence” or “arrival.” In addition to these ordinary uses, it also “became the official term for a visit of a person of high rank, especially of kings and emperors visiting a province.”³