1 Thessalonians 4

1 Thessalonians 4:1

III. PRACTICAL EXHORTATIONS (4:1-5:22) A. The Sanctification that Fulfills God’s Will (4:1-8) 4:1 The word finally doesn’t mean that Paul is about to close the Letter. It often indicates a change of subject, such as a shift to practical exhortations. Three prominent words at the close of chapter 3 were holiness, love, and coming. These are three of the principal subjects of chapter 4: (1) Holiness (vv. 1-8), (2) Love (vv. 9, 10), and (3) Coming (vv. 13-18). The other main theme is industriousness (vv. 11, 12). Chapter 4 opens with a plea to walk in holiness and thus to please God, and closes with the taking up of the saints. Paul was probably thinking of Enoch when he wrote this. Notice the similarity: (1) Enoch walked with God (Gen_5:24 a); (2) Enoch pleased God (Heb_11:5 b); and (3) Enoch was taken up (Gen_5:24 b; Heb_11:5 a). The apostle commends the believers for their practical holiness, but urges them to advance to new levels of accomplishment. Holiness is a process, not an achievement. 4:2 While he was with them, Paul repeatedly charged them, with the authority of the Lord Jesus, that they should please God by lives of practical holiness. 4:3 The will of God for His people is their sanctification. To sanctify means to set apart for divine use. In one sense, all believers have been set apart from the world to the service of the Lord; this is known as positional sanctification, and it is perfect and complete (1Co_1:2; Heb_10:10). However, in another sense, believers should sanctify themselves, that is, they should separate themselves from all forms of sin; this is known as practical or progressive sanctification. It is a process that will continue until the believer’s death or the Lord’s return. It is this latter use of the word that is found in verse 3. (See the discussion of sanctification under 1Th_5:23 below.) The specific sin against which Paul warns is unlawful sexual activity, and in this section is probably the same as adultery. It is one of the principal sins of the heathen world. The admonition, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, is needed today as much as in the first century of the church. 4:4 The Christian program is for every one to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. The word vessel in this verse may mean a wife or it may mean the man’s own body. It is used of a wife in 1Pe_3:7 and of the body in 2Co_4:7. The RSV understands it to mean a wife: that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor.The NEB adopts the view that the body is meant: every one of you must learn to gain mastery over his body, to hallow and honor it.If we allow the context to decide, then vessel means the man’s wife. The teaching is that each man should treat his wife honorably and decently, never stooping to any form of marital unfaithfulness. This reinforces monogamy as God’s will for mankind (see also 1Co_7:2). 4:5 The Christian view of marriage is in sharp contrast to that of the ungodly. As one commentator said, When Jesus laid His hands on the woman in Luk_13:13, she was made straight. When pagan man touches a woman, she is made crooked.The Gentiles think of sex as a means of gratifying the passion of lust. To them chastity is a weakness, and marriage a means of making sin legal. By their filthy conversation and their obscene writings on public walls, they glory in their shame. 4:6 Sexual immorality is a sin against God’s Holy Spirit (1Co_6:19); it is a sin against one’s own body (1Co_6:18); but it is also a sin against other persons. So Paul adds: that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter. In other words, a Christian man must not go beyond the bounds of marriage and defraud a brother by stealing the affections of the brother’s wife. Though these offenses are not generally punished in criminal courts today, the Lord is the avenger of all such. Sexual sins bring on a terrible harvest of physical and mental disorders in this life, but these are nothing compared to their eternal consequences, if they are unconfessed and unforgiven. Paul had forewarned the Thessalonians of this. One of Britain’s most gifted writers of the nineteenth century fell into sexual sin and ended in prison and disgrace. He wrote: The gods have given me almost everything. But I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease. … Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search for new sensation. … I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the housetop. I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace. He grew careless of the lives of others, or, as Paul would say, he transgressed and wronged his brother in this matter. 4:7 God did not call us on the basis of moral uncleanness, but in connection with lives of holiness and purity. He has called us from a cesspool of degradation, and has begun in us a lifelong process designed to make us more and more like Himself. 4:8 Anyone who rejects this instruction isn’t simply despising the teaching of a man, such as Paul; he is defying, disregarding, flouting, and rejecting God Himselfwho has also given us His Holy Spirit. The word Holy is emphatic here. How can one who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit indulge in sexual sin? Notice that all members of the Trinity are mentioned in this paragraph. The Father (v. 3), the Son (v. 2), and the Holy Spirit (v. 8). Wonderful thought! All three Persons in the Godhead are interested and involved in the sanctification of the believer. The subject changes now from lust (vv. 1-8) to love (vv. 9-12), and the exhortation changes from abstain to abound.

1 Thessalonians 4:9

B. The Love that Thinks of Others (4:9, 10) 4:9 Not only is the believer to have a controlled body; he should also have a heart of love for his brothers in the Lord. Love is the key word of Christianity as sin is of heathenism. There was no need to write to the Thessalonians about this virtue. They were taught by God to love their brothers, both by divine instinct (1Jo_2:20, 1Jo_2:27) and by the instruction of Christian teachers. The believers at Thessalonica distinguished themselves by loving all the Christians in all of Macedonia. By commending them for it, Paul memorialized them forever. 4:10 As has been mentioned, brotherly kindness is not an achievement; it is something that must be practiced continually, and so Paul exhorts the believers to increase more and more in this grace. Why is love of the brethren so important? Because where there is love, there is unity; and where there is unity, there is the Lord’s blessing (Psa_133:1, Psa_133:3).

1 Thessalonians 4:11

C. The Life that Speaks to Outsiders (4:11, 12) 4:11 Paul encouraged the saints to aspire to do three things. In today’s parlance the three commands in this verse would be:

1. Don’t seek after the limelight. Be content to be little and unknown, loved and prized by Christ alone.2. Mind your own business instead of butting into other people’s affairs.
2. Be self-supporting. Don’t be a parasite or a moocher, sponging off others. 4:12 The fact that we are Christians and are looking for Christ’s coming does not relieve us of the practical responsibilities of life. We should remember that the world is watching us. Men judge our Savior by us. We should walk properly toward unbelievers and be independent of them financially.

1 Thessalonians 4:13

D. The Hope that Comforts Believers (4:13-18) 4:13 Old Testament believers had an imperfect and incomplete knowledge of what happened to a person at the time of death. To them sheol was an all-purpose word used to describe the disembodied state, both of believers and unbelievers. They believed that everyone would die eventually, that apparently there would be one general resurrection at the end of the world, and then a final judgment. Martha reflected these sketchy views when she said, I know that he (Lazarus) will rise again in the resurrection at the last day (Joh_11:24). The Lord Jesus brought life and immortality to light by the gospel (2Ti_1:10). Today we know that the believer departs to be with Christ at the time of death (2Co_5:8; Phi_1:21, Phi_1:23). The unbeliever is said to be in Hades (Luk_16:22-23). We know that not all believers will die, but that all will be changed (1Co_15:51). We know that there will be more than one resurrection. At the Rapture, only believers will be raised (1Co_15:23; 1Th_4:16); the wicked dead will be raised at the end of the thousand-year reign of Christ (Rev_20:5). When Paul first went to Thessalonica, he taught the Christians about Christ’s coming to reign and the events that would follow. But in the meantime, problems had arisen regarding those saints who had died. Would their bodies remain in the graves until the last day? Would they be excluded from participation in Christ’s coming and in His glorious kingdom? To answer their questions and to allay their fears, Paul now describes the order of events at the time of Christ’s coming for his people. The formula, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, is used to alert readers to an important announcement. Here the announcement concerns those who have fallen asleep, that is, those believers who have died. Sleep is used to describe the bodies of departed Christians, never their spirits or souls. Sleep is an appropriate simile of death, because in death a person seems to be sleeping. Even our word cemetery comes from a Greek word meaning sleeping place (koimeterion). And sleep is a familiar simile, because every night we act out this symbol of death, and every morning is like a resurrection. The Bible does not teach that the soul sleeps at the time of death. The rich man and Lazarus were both conscious in death (Luk_16:19-31). When the believer dies, he is present with the Lord (2Co_5:8). To die is to be with Christ, a position which Paul speaks of as gain and as being far better (Phi_1:21, Phi_1:23). This would scarcely be true if the soul were sleeping! Neither does the Bible teach annihilation. There is no cessation of being in death. The believer enjoys eternal life (Mar_10:30). The unbeliever suffers eternal punishment (Mar_9:48; Rev_14:11). With regard to those saints who have died, the apostle says that there is no need for hopeless sorrow. He does not rule out sorrow; Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, though He knew He would raise him in a few minutes (Joh_11:35-44). But he rules out the despairing grief of those who have no hope of heaven, of reunion, of anything but judgment. The expression others who have no hope invariably reminds me of a funeral I attended where the stricken relatives clustered around the casket of an unsaved relative and wailed inconsolably, Oh, Marie, my God, my God, Marie! It was an unforgettable scene of unrelieved hopelessness. 4:14 The basis of the believer’s hope is the resurrection of Christ. Just as surely as we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so we believe that those who have fallen asleep in Jesus will be raised and will participate in His coming. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive (1Co_15:22). His resurrection is the pledge and proof of ours. Notice the expression sleep in Jesus or those who through Jesus sleep. Knowing that it is merely the Lover of our souls giving sleep to the bodies of His beloved ones robs death of its terror. Our positive assurance concerning those who have died in Christ is that God will bring them with Him. This may be understood in two ways:

1. It may mean that at the time of the Rapture, God will raise the bodies of believers and bring them back to heaven with the Lord Jesus.
2. Or it may mean that when Christ comes back to the earth to reign, God will bring back with Christ those who have died in faith. In other words, the apostle is saying, Don’t worry that those who have died will miss out in the glory of the coming kingdom. God will bring them back with Jesus when the latter returns in power and great glory. (This is the generally preferred meaning.) But how can this be? Their bodies are now lying in the grave. How can they come back with Jesus? The answer is given in verses 15-17. Before Christ comes to set up His kingdom, He will return to take His own people home to be with Him in heaven. Then at a later date, He will come back with them. 4:15 How did Paul know this? His answer is, this we say to you by the word of the Lord. He received this as a direct revelation from the Lord. We are not told how he received itwhether by a vision, by an audible voice, or by the inward impression of the Holy Spirit. But it is definitely a truth unknown to men up to that time. Then he goes on to explain that when Christ returns, the living saints will not have any precedence or advantage over sleeping saints. In this verse Paul speaks of himself as one who would be alive at Christ’s coming (see also 1Co_15:51-52). However, in 2Co_4:14 and 2Co_5:1, he speaks of the possibility of his being among those who will be raised. The obvious conclusion is that we should look for the Lord to come at any moment, yet realize that we may be called to reach heaven by way of death. 4:16 The exact order of events at Christ’s coming for His saints is now given. The Lord Himself will descend from heaven. He will not send an angel, but will come Himself! It will be with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. Several explanations have been offered as to the significance of these commanding sounds, but frankly it is almost impossible to speak with finality about them:
3. Some feel that the shout is the voice of the Lord Jesus Himself which raises the dead (Joh_5:25; Joh_11:43-44) and changes the living. Others, like Hogg and Vine, say that the shout is the archangel’s voice.
4. The voice of Michael, the archangel, is commonly understood as an assembling command for the OT saints, since he is so closely associated with Israel (Dan_12:1; Jud_1:9; Rev_12:4-7). Others think its purpose is to revive Israel nationally. And still others suggest the voice of an archangel summons the angels as a military escort to accompany the Lord and His saints through enemy territory back to heaven (cf. Luk_16:22).
5. The trumpet of God is the some as the last trumpet of 1Co_15:52, which has to do with the resurrection of believers at the time of the Rapture. It calls the saints to eternal blessing. It is not to be confused with the seventh trumpet of Rev_11:15-18, which signals the final outpouring of judgment on the world during the Tribulation. The last trumpet here is the last for the church. The seventh trumpet of Revelation is the last for the unbelieving world (though it is never specifically called the last trumpet). The bodies of the dead in Christ will rise first. Whether this includes the OT saints is debatable. Those who think it does point out that the archangel’s voice is heard at this time, and that he is closely linked with the destinies of Israel (Dan_12:1). Those who think that the OT saints will not be raised at the Rapture remind us that the phrase in Christ (the dead in Christ) is never applied to believers who lived before the Church Age; these believers will probably be raised at the end of the Tribulation (Dan_12:2). In any case it is clear that this is definitely not a general resurrection. Not all the dead are raised at this time, but only the dead in Christ. 4:17 Then the living shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The word Rapture, which we use to describe this first phase of the Lord’s return, is derived from the verb used here in the Latin Bible meaning caught up. A rapture is a snatching away or a catching up. It is used of Philip in Act_8:39, of Paul in 2Co_12:2, 2Co_12:4, and of the male Child in Rev_12:5. The air is Satan’s sphere (Eph_2:2), so this is a triumphal gathering in open defiance of the devil right in his own stronghold. Think of all that is included in these verses! The earth and the sea yielding up the dust of all the dead in Christ. Then the transforming miracle by which this dust is formed into glorified bodies, free forever from sickness, pain, and death. Then the space-flight to heaven. And all of this taking place in the twinkling of an eye (1Co_15:52). Men of the world have difficulty believing the account of the creation of man in Genesis 1 and 2. If they have difficulty with creation, what will they do with the Rapturewhen God will recreate millions of people from the dust that has been buried, scattered, strewn, or swept up on the beaches of the world? Men of the world are enthusiastic about space travel. But can their greatest exploits compare with the wonder of traveling to heaven in a split second without taking our own atmosphere with us, as the space men have to do when they go on short hops to outer space? In connection with Christ’s coming there is a sound to hear, a sight to see, a miracle to feel, a meeting to enjoy, and a comfort to experience. It is also good to notice the recurrence of the word Lord in these verses: the word of the Lord (v. 15), the coming of the Lord (v. 15), the Lord Himself (v. 16), to meet the Lord (v. 17), to always be with the Lord (v. 17). Forever with the Lord! Who can tell all the joy and blessedness that is included in these words? 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. Thoughts of the Lord’s coming do not produce terror for the believer. It is a hope that thrills and cheers and comforts.

EXCURSUS ON INDICATIONS OF THE LAST TIMES There are many indications that the Rapture may be near. We consider the following as straws in the wind:

1. The formation of the State of Israel in 1948 (Luk_21:29). The fig tree (Israel) is shooting forth, that is, putting forth its leaves (Luk_21:29-31). For the first time in centuries, the Jews have a national existence in their own homeland. This means that the kingdom of God is near.
2. The rise of many other nations (Luk_21:29). Jesus predicted that not only the fig tree would shoot forth but all the trees as well. We have recently witnessed the demise of colonial governments and the proliferation of new nations. It is an era of new nationalism.
3. The return of Israel to the land in unbelief (Eze_36:24-25). Ezekiel prophesied that it would only be after their return that they would be cleansed from their sins. Israel today is largely an agnostic nation; only a small (but very vocal) segment of the people are orthodox Jews.
4. The ecumenical movement (Rev. 17, 18). We understand Babylon the Great to be a vast religious, political, and commercial system made up of apostate religious bodies that profess to be Christian, perhaps a merger of apostate Catholicism and apostate Protestantism. Christendom is becoming increasingly apostate (1Ti_4:1; 2Th_2:3) and is moving toward a world super-church.
5. The worldwide increase in Spiritism (1Ti_4:1-3). It is sweeping over vast areas of the earth at this moment.
6. The drastic decline of moral standards (2Ti_3:1-5). The daily newspapers offer plenty of evidence of this.
7. Violence and civil disobedience (2Th_2:7-8). A spirit of lawlessness is abounding in the home, in national life, and even in the church.
8. People with a form of godliness but denying its power (2Ti_3:5).
9. The rise of the anti-Christian spirit (1Jo_2:18), manifested in the multiplication of false cults which profess to be Christian but deny every fundamental doctrine of the faith. They deceive by imitation (2Ti_3:8).
10. The tendency for nations to confederate along lines that approximate the line-up of the latter day. The European Common Market, based on what is known as the Treaty of Rome, may lead to the revival of the Roman Empirethe ten toes of iron and clay (Dan_2:32-35).
11. Denial of the impending intervention of God in the affairs of the world by way of judgment (2Pe_3:3-4). To these could be added indications such as earthquakes in many countries, the threat of worldwide famine, and the increasing hostility among nations (Mat_24:6-7). The failure of governments to maintain law and order and to suppress terrorism creates the climate for a world dictator. The building of nuclear arsenals gives added meaning to such questions as, Who is able to make war with him? i.e., the beast (Rev_13:4). Worldwide television facilities may be the means for fulfilling Scriptures describing events that will be seen simultaneously all over the planet (Rev_1:7). Most of these events are foreseen as occurring before Christ returns to the earth to reign. The Bible does not say they will take place before the Rapture but before His appearing in glory. If that is so, and if we see these trends developing already, then the obvious conclusion is that the Rapture must be near at hand.