Smoodock's Blog

We are studying Paul’s epistles to the Thessalonians from the perspective of his eschatological presentation in the text, especially that of 1Thessalonians 4:13-18 and into chapter 5. Nevertheless, in order to understand Paul’s mention of the coming of the Lord there, we are taking a look at the context of his mention of the Lord’s coming in the chapters leading up to that passage, and also how that compares with his mention of the Lord’s coming in what we call Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians. In doing so, we have thus far discovered some very important facts about the Thessalonians, as well as some difficult questions that need to be answered, if, indeed, the coming of the Lord in First Thessalonians chapter four is a different coming than that mentioned in other parts of Paul letter.

First of all, there is a persecution motif that runs throughout Paul’s Thessalonians epistles, and we discovered that this parallels Jesus own mention that his disciples would be persecuted as they preached the Gospel (Matthew 23:34-36; 24:9-10, 14). In fact, Paul claimed that it is impossible to escape being persecuted, if one desires to enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22; ), which is also what Jesus claimed (Matthew 11:12; 23:13, 34-36; John 16:1-2, 33).

Luke records that when Paul came to Thessalonica and preached the Gospel there, the Jewish authorities rose up against him and provoked the city governors to expel Paul from the city (Acts 17:1-10). His expulsion wouldn’t last more than one year, because, according to that law, he was free to return after the terms of the governing officials expired. The point of my mentioning this is that Paul wasn’t ready to leave Thessalonica. His expulsion meant there would be a lot of unanswered questions the new believers would have, but couldn’t be answered immediately, which wouldn’t be the case if Paul were there. For example, the Thessalonian believers were troubled over the fact that some of their friends and relatives had died, before the coming of the Lord:

“But I would not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you be not grieved, even as others who have no hope” (1Thessalonians 4:13; emphasis mine).

Notice that the Thessalonian believers were under the mistaken presumption that their loved ones had no hope, because they had died before the return of Christ. There are two things we need to understand about this mistaken presumption. First, Paul, as we have said above, left Thessalonica prematurely. That is his expulsion from the city kept him from teaching the brethren properly and completely. Apparently, he had already told them that Jesus said he would return in their expected lifetime (cp. Matthew 16:27-28). Therefore, since some relatives or friends died before Christ returned, it was presumed they had no hope. Therefore, Paul had to correct their misunderstanding in his letter (1Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Secondly, think about the absurdity of the believers mistake, if, in fact, Paul had told them that Christ’s return wouldn’t occur for thousands, perhaps, tens of thousands of years. Why would any sensible person believe their friends and relatives would need to live until the coming of Christ, if he wasn’t expected to return for thousands of years? The whole ignorant presumption is absurd in that light. The mistake is illogical in the extreme. However, if they were told Christ would return in their lifetime, but they didn’t know some would die before that time, then their confusion is understandable. If they expected to live until that day, indeed, that it was a promise of God (John 11:26), then the death of one’s friends and relatives would become a grievous concern.