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Following is an excerpt of "Ignorance is NOT Bliss (6 of 9)" by Keith Krell added on 10/16/2009.
This content is part of a series.
Ignorance is NOT Bliss (6 of 9)
Series: No Rest for the Righteous
Keith Krell
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18


Early Edition was a popular television program in the 1990s that featured a young man who received the next day's newspaper a day ahead of time. Because he always knew the future, this man's task in each episode was to save people from a tragedy or problem he had read about in tomorrow's paper. So if he knew a building was going to burn, he tried to keep people from entering it. Or if someone was going to be hurt by an act of violence or an accident he tried to prevent the encounter from taking place.

If you own a Bible, you have an "early edition" of future events. By reading God's prophetic Word, you can know God's plan for all eternity. Perhaps you're thinking, "I'm not interested in prophecy and all that end times gobblygook." To which I would reply, "Do you long to have hope?" By hope I mean absolute confidence and peace in your present and future circumstances. Hope is one of the great characteristics of Christian reality. At the start of the letter (1:3), Paul tells us that hope produces perseverance. If there is no hope in the church, there will be no perseverance, and no perseverance will mean the demise of local churches. Fortunately, there is good news: God provides hope in a hopeless world. In 1 Thess 4:13-18, Paul shares two convictions that we can count on.

1. Hope in your resurrection (4:13-16). In this first section, Paul promises us that if we have placed our faith in Christ, we will one day be resurrected. In 4:13 Paul reveals a problem: "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope." The word "but" introduces a new subject but also connects to the previous paragraph. The restlessness of disorderly believers (4:11-12) was, in part, caused by an incomplete understanding of the resurrection of the body. The Thessalonians rightly understood that Christ was going to return; however, they had not considered the possibility that some of their loved ones and friends would die before it occurred. They, therefore, plunged into deep grief. Doubts filled their minds as to the status of these prematurely deceased believers. All sorts of questions were going through their minds: "What will happen to our loved ones who die before Christ returns? Will they miss out on the resurrection? What about those of us who are alive when Christ returns? Will we receive our resurrection bodies then or later?"

In light of these questions, Paul educates these believers about the status of their brothers and sisters who have passed away. In 4:13, he states the pur¬pose of this entire passage with the phrase "so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope." Is Paul being cruel and heartless here? No! It is not wrong to grieve over the death of a loved one. Jesus Himself grieved over the death of Lazarus (John 11:35) and He kn ...

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