Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Thessalonians 4:18

"Wherefore comfort one another with these words." — 1 Thessalonians 4:18 (ASV)

Wherefore comfort one another. The marginal reading is exhort. The word comfort probably best expresses the meaning. They were to bring these glorious truths and these bright prospects before their minds, in order to alleviate the sorrows of bereavement. The topics of consolation are these: first, that those who had died in the faith would not always lie in the grave; second, that when they rose they would not occupy an inferior condition because they were cut off before the coming of the Lord; and third, that all Christians, living and dead, would be received to heaven and dwell forever with the Lord.

With these words. That is, with these truths.

REMARKS.

1. This passage (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18) contains a truth which is to be found in no pagan classical writer, and nowhere else, except in the teachings of the New Testament. For the elevated and glorious view which it gives of future scenes pertaining to our world, and for all its inestimable consolations, we are wholly indebted to the Christian religion. Reason unassisted by revelation, never dared to conjecture that such scenes would occur; if it had, it would have had no arguments on which the conjecture could be supported.
2. The death of the Christian is a calm and gentle slumber (1 Thessalonians 4:13). It is not annihilation; it is not the extinction of hope. It is like gentle repose when we lie down at night, and when we hope to awaken again in the morning; it is like the quiet, sweet slumber of the infant. Why, then, should the Christian be afraid to die? Is he afraid to close his eyes in slumber? Why dread the night—the stillness of death? Is he afraid of the darkness, the silence, the chilliness of the midnight hour, when his senses are locked in repose? Why should death to him appear so terrible? Is the slumbering of an infant an object of terror?

3. There are magnificent scenes before us. There is no description anywhere which is more sublime than that at the end of this chapter. Great events are brought together here, any one of which is more grand than all the pomp of courts, all the sublimity of battle, and all the grandeur of a triumphal civic procession.

   The glory of the descending Judge of all mankind; the attending retinue of angels, and of the spirits of the dead; the loud shout of the descending host; the clangor of the archangel's trumpet; the bursting of graves and the coming forth of the millions there entombed; the rapid, sudden, glorious change on the millions of living men; the consternation of the wicked; the ascent of the innumerable host to the regions of the air; and the solemn process of the judgment there—what has ever occurred like these events in this world? And how strange it is that the thoughts of men are not turned away from the trifles—the show—the shadow—the glitter—the empty pageantry here—to these bright and glorious realities!

4. In those scenes we shall all be personally interested. If we do not survive until they occur, yet we shall have an important part to act in them. We shall hear the archangel's trumpet; we shall be summoned before the descending Judge. In these scenes we shall mingle not as careless spectators, but as those whose eternal doom is there to be determined, and with all the intensity of emotion derived from the fact that the Son of God will descend to judge us, and to pronounce our final doom! Can we be too much concerned to be prepared for the solemnities of that day?

5. We have, in the passage before us, an interesting view of the order in which these great events will occur. There will be:

   1. The descent of the Judge with the attending hosts of heaven;
   2. The raising up of the righteous dead;
   3. The change which the living will undergo (1 Corinthians 15:52);
   4. The ascent to meet the Lord in the air; and
   5. The return with Him to glory.

   What place in this series of wonders will be assigned for the resurrection of the wicked is not mentioned here. The object of the apostle did not lead him to refer to that, since his purpose was to comfort the afflicted by the assurance that their pious friends would rise again, and would suffer no disadvantage by the fact that they had died before the coming of the Redeemer. From John 5:28-29, however, it seems most probable that they will be raised at the same time with the righteous, and will ascend with them to the place of judgment in the air.

6. There is no intimation here of a "personal reign" of Christ upon the earth. Indeed, there is no evidence that He will return to the earth at all. All that appears is that He will descend "from heaven" to the regions of "the air," and there will summon the living and the dead to His bar.

   But there is no intimation that He will set up a visible kingdom then on earth, to continue a thousand or more years; that the Jews will be regathered in their own land; that a magnificent city or temple will be built there; or that saints will hover in the air, or reign personally with the Lord Jesus over the nations.

   There are two considerations in view of this passage, which, to my mind, are conclusive proof that all this is romance—splendid and magnificent indeed as an Arabian tale, but wholly unknown to the apostle Paul. The one is, that if this were to occur, it is inconceivable that there should have been no allusion to it here. It would have been such a magnificent conception of the design of the Second Advent, that it could not have failed to have been referred to in a description like this.

   The other consideration is that such a view would have been exactly in point to meet the object of the apostle here. What could have been more appropriate in comforting the Thessalonian Christians respecting those who had died in the faith, than to describe the gorgeous scenes of the "personal reign" of Christ, and the important part which the risen saints were to play in that great drama! How can it be accounted for that the apostle did not refer to it? Would a believer in the "personal reign" now be likely to omit so material a point in a description of the scenes which are to occur at the Second Advent?

7. The saints will be forever with the Lord. They will dwell with Him in His own eternal home (John 14:3). This expression comprises the sum of all their anticipated felicity and glory. To be with Christ will be, in itself, the perfection of bliss; for it will be a security that they will sin no more, that they will suffer no more, and that they will be shielded from danger and death. They will have realized the object of their long, fond desire—that of seeing their Savior; they will have suffered the last pang, encountered the last temptation, and escaped forever from the dominion of death. What a glorious prospect is this! Assuredly we should be willing to endure pain, privation, and contempt here for the brief period of our earthly pilgrimage, if we may come at last to a world of eternal rest. What trifles are all earthly sorrows compared with the glories of an endless life with our God and Savior!

8. It is possible that even the prospect of the judgment day should be a source of consolation (1 Thessalonians 4:18). To most men it is justly an object of dread—for all that they have to fear is concentrated on the issues of that day. But why should a Christian fear it?

   In the descending Judge he will hail his Redeemer and Friend; and just in proportion as he has true religion here, will be the certainty of his acquittal there. Nay, his feelings in anticipation of the judgment may be more than the mere absence of fear and alarm; it may be to him the source of positive joy.

   It will be the day of his deliverance from death and the grave. It will confirm to him all his long-cherished hopes. It will put the seal of approbation on his life spent in endeavoring to do the will of God. It will reunite him to his dear friends who have died in the Lord.

   It will admit him to a full and glorious view of that Savior whom having not seen he has loved; and it will make him the companion of angels and of God. If there be anything, therefore, which ought to cheer and sustain our hearts in the sorrows and bereavements of this life, it is the anticipation of the glorious scenes connected with the Second Advent of our Lord, and the prospect of standing before Him clothed in the robes of salvation, surrounded by all those whom we have loved who have died in the faith, and with the innumerable company of the redeemed of all ages and lands.

1 Thessalonians - Chapter 5