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i thessalonians 4
Haystack bible commentary"Stacks and stacks of commentary...."
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==I Thessalonians 4:1:
Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;
==I Thessalonians 4:2:
for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
==I Thessalonians 4:3:
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For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
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The word “fornication,” (translated here as "sexual immorality") from the Greek word porneia, is the same root from which we get the word pornography. Fornication refers to any sexual behavior deviant from God’s moral law. Thus, 1 Thessalonians 4:3 is a command to “abstain from pornography” since it is God’s will that we be sanctified or set apart. Attempting to live a life of holiness and moral purity is a spiritual battle and personal struggle (Rom. 7:8-23). But it is not a struggle that cannot be overcome
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==I Thessalonians 4:13:
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But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
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Paul didn’t want us to be uninformed about death “so that [we would] not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13, NIV). He wanted us to have a proper narrative in which death has a lifespan, a beginning and an end. He was acquainted with the sorrows of death and loss but learned how to orient his perspective around the story of God and everlasting life.
You can’t remove sin and death from the Christian story and still get eternal life. Nor can you acknowledge someone’s death and forget that they still live, fully alive in Christ. You can’t be filled with the Spirit of God and all manner of healing and ignore the reality of a broken soul. Nor can you live in the brokenness of a depraved soul and not allow God’s Spirit to fill you and lead you into healing. A healthy and vibrant faith seems to acknowledge the real suffering of our human experience, without losing sight of the bigger story of victory in which “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21, NIV). -Natasha Dongell; Wesleyan Church |
==I Thessalonians 4:14-15:
For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
==I Thessalonians 4:16:
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For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
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 Greg Laurie
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (NKJV). The words “caught up” are from the root word “harpazo,” which is translated “rapturus” in Latin, and you get your English word “rapture” from it. So after the Rapture happens, a mysterious, charismatic man emerges on the scene that the Bible calls the beast, and the Antichrist. The Antichrist inaugurates a seven year tribulation period. So the Rapture, then the Antichrist, then the Tribulation (so you can kind of get an idea of how things fit together). The Tribulation period begins peacefully. The Antichrist deceives people because he brings global peace temporarily. In fact, the Bible says through peace, he will deceive many. Then this all culminates in the Battle of Armageddon, fought at the end of the Tribulation period, and then comes the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. ― Greg Laurie, Harvest; Chronology of End Times Events 8.25.23
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==I Thessalonians 4:17:
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Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
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The "Rapture" is a belief, primarily among some American evangelical Christians, that faithful believers will be taken up into heaven to be with Jesus Christ at the end of time. This event is most famously described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, which says that believers "will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air".
The doctrine is largely rejected by mainline Christian denominations like the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and most Methodist and Presbyterian churches, which have different interpretations of end-time prophecies. The belief stems from an interpretation of passages in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians, though the word "rapture" itself does not appear in the Bible. It comes from the Latin word rapiemur, meaning "we shall be caught up". In this view, the rapture is a separate event from the Second Coming of Jesus. The rapture is a secret, sudden event where believers disappear, while the Second Coming is a public, glorious return. Adherents of the most common rapture theory, called pretribulationism, believe the rapture will occur before a seven-year period of worldwide suffering known as the Tribulation. This would spare believers from God's wrath, leaving non-believers to suffer on Earth. The popular notion of a pre-tribulation rapture is a modern invention, largely developed by Irish-English theologian John Nelson Darby in the 1830s. It was further spread through the notes of the Scofield Reference Bible in the early 20th century and was popularized in the 1970s and 90s by authors like Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye. Not all Christians who believe in a "catching up" event agree on when it will happen in relation to the Tribulation. The rapture occurs halfway through the seven-year Tribulation, after believers have endured the initial period of suffering. The rapture happens at the end of the Tribulation, at the same time as the Second Coming. This view holds that Christians will endure the period of trial and suffering. The rapture occurs sometime after the middle of the Tribulation but before the most severe punishments of God's wrath are poured out |
==I Thessalonians 4:18:
Therefore comfort one another with these words.