Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Thessalonians 4:15

"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep." — 1 Thessalonians 4:15 (ASV)

By the word of the Lord.—Literally, in. This is a most direct claim to plenary inspiration. It does not mean “According to certain words which Christ spoke,” nor does it mean “By means of a revelation from the Lord to me,” but “By way of a divine revelation:” “I tell you this as a message straight from God.”

In what way apostles and prophets became conscious of supernatural inspiration we cannot tell; but elsewhere St. Paul also speaks of possessing this consciousness at some times and not at others. (See 1 Corinthians 7:10; 1 Corinthians 7:12; 1 Corinthians 7:25; 1 Corinthians 7:40.) He means this declaration here to hold true for the details, which are such that no one would invent and teach them with such solemnity. At the same time, it must be remembered, regarding the details, that it is the very idiom of prophecy (which St. Paul uses here) to express spiritual facts through material imagery.

We who are alive and remain.—Literally, We, (that is) the quick, those who are left over. There is not the slightest necessity for supposing from these words that St. Paul confidently expected the Advent before his death. He very likely did, but it cannot be proved from this passage. If the “we” had stood alone, without the explanatory participles, it might have amounted to proof, but not so now. His converts are strongly under the impression that they will be alive at the Coming, and that it will be worse for the departed; therefore,

St. Paul (becoming all things to all men) identifies himself with them—assumes that it will be as they expected—and proves more vividly the fallacy of the Thessalonians’ fears. It would have been impossible, on the contrary, for St. Paul to have said “we who are dead” without definitively abandoning the hope of seeing the Return. Besides this, St. Paul is only picturing to the imagination the scene of the Advent; and for any person, it is far easier to imagine oneself among the quick than among the dead at that moment.

Shall not prevent—i.e., “be before,” “get the start of.” If it were not for these words, we might have imagined that the Thessalonians had not been taught to believe in a resurrection at all, which would have been a strange departure from the usual apostolic gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1 and following).

We learn here what the exact nature of the Thessalonians’ anxiety concerning the dead was. They were full of excited hopes for the coming of that kingdom which had formed so prominent a part of the Apostles’ preaching there (Acts 17:7); and they were afraid that the highest glories in that kingdom would be claimed by those who were alive to receive them, and that the dead, not rising until afterward, would have less blessed privileges.

This would make them not only sorry for their dead friends but also reluctant to die themselves. The negative in this clause is very emphatic in the Greek and throws all its force upon the verb: “We shall certainly not get the start of those who sleep;” i.e., “if anything, we shall be behind them; they will rise first.”