1 Thessalonians, one of Paul's shortest nondisputed letters (ones scholars agree Paul actually wrote) packs in a lot of information. Though the words certainly exist and certainly continue encouraging Christians, I think they have much more traction when we view them as letters that are illuminated by their context in order to speak more deeply into ours. As with many of the early Christians, the Thessalonians believed Christ's return would happen during their lifetimes. When those among them began dying, it called into question their belief of what would happen to those when the second coming occurred. Paul exhorts them to hope, and gives one of the most beautiful descriptions of Christ coming:
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. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. 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. 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. 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
In other words, Paul says, "Whatever you imagine Christ's coming to be, it will be better than that. Whenever that happens and however that happens, you will be caught up with Christ himself; standing in his presence, you will not be able to pay attention to the things around you, for you will have seen your salvation with your very own eyes." Perhaps Paul's words represent a divine revelation, or perhaps they represent encouragement for the Thessalonians, as indicated in verse 18, and encouragement for us. In Paul's words (though he somehow managed to sandwich it in a conversation about dietary regulations), "7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living," (Romans 14:8). As such, whether the community at Thesslonica lived or whether they died was immaterial; what matters is that they, whether alive or dead, belong to Christ. And so Paul's words speak also to us: Christ's claim upon us does not have to do with our lives and our circumstances but rather our identities in him. The rest, finally, only fades in comparison.
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