1 Thessalonians 4:16 — The Dead First!

16 … and the dead in Christ shall be rising first…

Since Paul left Thessalonica, one or more believers had presumably died. That must have raised questions. What would happen to them at the parousia of Christ? Would they miss this event while the believers still alive at that time went to meet the Lord? This is the concern Paul addresses from verse 13 onward. He does not want the Thessalonians to be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep.

Paul’s answer is surprising. In verse 15, he had already declared that the living should by no means outstrip those who have fallen asleep. And now he puts it even more strongly: the dead in Christ will rise first! The order is therefore exactly the reverse of what they may have feared. Priority goes to those who have fallen asleep, rather than to the living. Their death does not put them at a disadvantage at Christ’s coming.

Only afterward does the turn of the surviving living believers come. And ultimately, as the next verse makes clear, they will meet the Lord together with the resurrected believers. No one is passed over, and no one is left behind. Paul thus turns what had caused the Thessalonians concern into a message of great comfort. Those who have fallen asleep will not be too late. On the contrary, they are the first!

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