With the Thessalonians, their one hope was Christ’s coming; they were waiting for it, as though it might be any day. But while waiting thus, some had been removed from their midst by death, and they do not seem to have apprehended that their departed brethren would be raised to participate in their joy at the coming of Jesus. It is on this point the Apostle now instructs them. Concerning them which were asleep, they were not to sorrow, as others who had no hope.
“If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, [marking it thus as a new, special revelation] that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent [or go before] them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:14-17).
The Apostle uses this hope to seek to perfect what was lacking in their faith. Already they knew that the Son of God was to return from heaven and that on His return He would reign over the kingdom promised to Him of old. It was for this they had been waiting from the day of their conversion. Now they are told that their sleeping brethren are to have part in the glory of that coming kingdom and that so far from losing anything by having departed, their resurrection will be the first event connected with the descent of the Christ. The risen saints and those who are alive and remain are then to be caught up together. The meeting-place is to be in the air. Such are the additional truths contained in this transcendently important passage. Surely there is nothing here to place in the distance the hope of Christ’s coming. “WE which are alive and remain” placed in contrast with “them which are asleep” would suggest anything rather than the necessary, inevitable lapse of centuries before it is possible for that event to transpire! The language used can only correspond with the firm persuasion that we may, and with the desire that we should, be alive when the Lord Jesus shall descend.
The Two Parts of His Coming
But this is not the whole. After comforting the Thessalonians and exhorting them to “comfort one another with these words,” he proceeds to say, “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.” They needed to be instructed on the points just handled — the resurrection of the sleeping saints and their rising with those who are alive to meet the Lord in the air — these were new truths, of which they had till now been ignorant. But of the times and the seasons there was no need to write to them. Why? “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” Here we enter upon another subject. The descent of the Lord Jesus into the air, and the translation of the church to meet Him there, is one thing. The day of the Lord, and its coming upon the ungodly as a thief in the night, is another thing. The one is all brightness and joy; the other is all gloom and darkness and terror. The Thessalonians had to receive a new, fresh revelation through the Apostle to acquaint them with the former; with the latter they were already acquainted by means, doubtless, of the Old Testament scriptures, as well as by the ministry among them of the Apostle and his companions.
The Day of the Lord
“The day of the Lord” is a phrase of frequent occurrence in the Old Testament and always refers to the execution of judgment on the earth. In its full sense, it doubtless implies the yet-future day of the Lord’s actual presence to execute judgment on the wicked and to establish by power His own rule over the earth. It may be used in some instances of remarkable interpositions of God in judgment, where the Lord’s actual presence is not included in the meaning of the phrase. Still, in such instances we have types and specimens of what the day of the Lord is, in its full, absolute sense. And wherever it occurs, it will be found connected with judgment. “The day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low” (Isa. 2:12). “Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come” (Joel 1:15). “The day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand: a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains” (Joel 2:1-2). “Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?” (Amos 5:20). Such is the force of this expression in the Old Testament. In the New, it is similar. “As the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of Man be in His day” (Luke 17:24). Noah and the flood and Lot and the burning of Sodom are referred to, and it is said, “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (vs. 30).
Gathering His Saints and
Smiting His Foes
Peter, on the day of Pentecost, speaks of “that great and notable day of the Lord.” Our Lord Himself warned His hearers to “take heed” lest that day come upon you unawares. “As a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:35). We need not give further evidence as to the meaning of the phrase “the day of the Lord.” In all these passages, as in the one in 1 Thessalonians 5, it points to the execution of sudden and overwhelming judgments on the wicked, introductory to the establishment by power of Christ’s earthly kingdom. How striking the contrast between the descent of the Lord Jesus in the air, which is presented to the Thessalonian saints as the consummation of all their hopes, and this “day of the Lord,” which is to come “as a thief in the night” on the whole world of the ungodly. True, they are just different stages of the one great event, the coming of the Lord, but in their character how distinct! In the one case, the Lord descends in the air; in the other, His judgments fall on the earth. In the one case, the Lord comes to gather His saints; in the other, to smite His foes. And the saints are instructed as to the one, that they may know assuredly that they are exempt from the terrors of the other. “Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thess. 5:4-5). We are already, in our hopes and destinies and in the spirit of our minds, children of the day. Before the day actually bursts on the sleeping world, drunken with its carnal joys, we shall have been caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and we shall be with Him when His appearing frightens and overwhelms His foes. Such is the doctrine of this first epistle. May it be written indelibly on our hearts and exert there all its consoling and sanctifying power.
W. Trotter, adapted