notes

Main point summary

Brothers, put your hope in Christ about those who have died and believed in Him because God will resurrect them.

Discourse

editing

NT

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

esv

mine

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep,

In fact , brothers, we want you to know the truth about life beyond death

g that you may not grieve as others do

So that , when you've lost someone dear to you, you, as christians, can overcome your grief, not like people who don't know Christ at all

h who have no hope.

In a similar situation , they get themselves into a deep despair because they don't put their hope in Christ just like you do

For i since we believe that Jesus died and rose again,

Why can we say that? Because , as the death and the resurrection of Christ are the foundation of our christian faith

even so , through Jesus, God will bring with him j those who have fallen asleep.

Then , as christians, we believe that God will resurrect with Jesus those who have died and believed in Him

Key: Commands Means Motives Anchors

discourse

Notes

The authors address this text to christians (here, to the brothers in Thessalonica). The main purpose of this two verses is that there is a hope of salvation for those who have died in Christ. They write this passage especially to encourage those who have lost their dear and tended to despair. The authors show the reasons why a christian can overcome his grief when he/she loose someone dear to him/her. My meditation: It can be inferred from this short text that even as a christian, we can face the sorrow of death. But we can face it differently, not like the unbelievers. The main difference is that our hope is in Christ and his resurrection, because we believe that God will resurrect whoever has believed in Christ on his second coming. That brings us joy! So we cannot stay in a deep and long despair! Next step: My next step after completing this course is to study thoroughly the epistle of James. It's worth pointing out that the chapter two of this letter is very misinterpreted, especially in my country. Even though this epistle doesn't lend itself easily to analysis, its content can nethertheless be grouped under two headings: the true religion and the false religion. However, as its main theme deals with the practices of the true religion, I need to clearly emphasize the context in which the author wrote this epistle as well as its recipients. As we have our cultural "glasses" when reading this epistle (and again especially chapter two), paraphrasing is vital to understand God's message through this letter. Anyway, all paraphrasings should only based on and always referred to the context to clearly share the appealing message of the whole letter.