Week 45: Comfort One Another
Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:13-18
With all that is going on around us, it may seem that God is punishing mankind in these last days. After all, considering the way the world and we as a nation have forsaken Him, who could blame Him. However, even in a world where hope is such a rare find Christians do not need to grieve as the rest of the world does. In spite of everything we see and feel in these times we have something we can put the full weight of our hope upon. It is the promise of the grace that will be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Great thinkers abound with strong opinions on just how this hope will be realized. I am not among them. One thing I do know, however, is that our hope can rest fully on God’s promise that, whether dead or alive, when that mighty trumpet sounds, we who are in Him will, “—meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
This is what I long for; this is the promise that is worth putting all my hope on. To always be with the Lord, face to face, my lowly body having been transformed to be like his glorious body. The metamorphous complete and the final degree of likeness to His glory reached! To always be in the presence of a Holy God, without any need to hide my sinful face from His glory!! No more sinful heart. No more darkness within or without. Only the pure and glorious and holy presence of our God and His glorified people!! Now that is a promise worth resting our hope on.
“Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”
Footnote: A little further in this letter (5:9-11) Paul reassures us, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with him Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing.”
—Dave Edwards