Daily Devotion – October 28, 2020 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
4:14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.
4:15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.
4:16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.
4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Who knows how it will be at the end of the ages? I don’t suppose we think much about the second coming of Christ. But have you ever imagined it?
The early church believed that day would be coming soon, so there was even controversy about many aspects of Judgment Day. One question was whether those alive at the time of the second coming would have first place in the kingdom of heaven. Paul wants every one of his hearers to know that there will be no hierarchy in heaven, or even in the process of being taken into heaven. He wants the grieving who have lost loved ones to know that those who have died will be equally quickly welcomed by their Savior. In fact, if anything, those who have died believing will be awakened first into the new kingdom.
Why is that so important?
Some of you may know that I am a funeral celebrant. I am the person they call if the person who died does not have a church home and thus lacks a pastor nearby to do the funeral. Many of these people are not considered believers by their surviving family. But that doesn’t mean the survivors do not need comfort about the fate of their loved one. Paul’s words here are meant to offer a picture of resurrection and reunion when the Lord meets us on the Last Day. These words give hope to the grieving.
Since none of us know what that great day will be like, but all of us need hope at some point in our lives, we should rejoice that Paul has given us this picture of our loved ones being raised by Jesus to enjoy eternal life with Jesus and with us. What more can we ask to assure our hope? Because of a loving God and a generous Jesus, we and those we love and miss will be reunited to a life of joy.
Dear Lord, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us the writings of Paul to comfort us. When we have to say goodbye to a loved one, and when we wonder how we will be able to stand not seeing them again, remind us that Paul loved the church in Thessaloniki enough to paint them this amazing picture of reunion to comfort them. And so may we be comforted, ages after he wrote it for them. Amen.
