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”

“By the word of the Lord”: “We do not say this on our own authority” (Vincent p. 40). Paul is claiming direct revelation (Galatians 1:12; Galatians 2:2; Ephesians 3:3). This same expression is often used to describe God's messages to His prophets (Micah 1:1; Hosea 2:1; Jeremiah 2:2; Luke 3:2). “If we had only Paul's hopes or opinions as support for our hope it would not be very solid assurance. Since the Lord Himself informed Paul about this matter, we place our total reliance upon it” (Fields p. 115). Sometimes people ridicule Christians for placing their complete trust in the Scriptures, as if Christians are the only ones who place their confidence in something. The bottom line is that Christians place their trust in the word of God, everyone else places their trust ultimately in the words of men, either their own and the words of others. Now, who looks foolish?

“That we that are alive”: Christians will be alive on the face of the earth when Jesus does come. Evil will never be able to destroy the church (Matthew 13:36).

Unfortunately, even some Christians have taught that Paul believed that Jesus was going to come within his own lifetime, because he says, "we" that are alive. How quickly people forget that in this very same context Paul says he does not know when Jesus will come (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). In other passages he places himself among those that will be raised (1 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 4:14). Actually Paul is simply using the same type of language we would use today. "We" may be among those alive when Jesus comes or "we" may be dead. Stott notes, “Now the call for watchfulness does not necessarily mean that the Parousia will come in our life-time, but only that it may” (p. 101).

“Unto the coming of the Lord”: The word “coming” “became the official term for. visit of. person of high rank, especially of kings and emperors visiting. province. Thus the coming of Jesus will be. revelation of God and. personal, powerful visitation by Jesus, the King” (Stott p. 97). Some religious groups have tried to make the second coming into something impersonal, that is, like. coming of. better world. Yet Jesus is personally coming back! (Acts 1:11) “Shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep”: The word “precede” means to “prevent in the older sense of anticipate, be beforehand. The living shall not share the blessings of the advent sooner than the dead in Christ” (Vincent p. 41). “The word ‘prevent' now means to hinder or restrain. But in 1611 when the King James version was translated, it meant to ‘go before' or ‘come before'. It is from the Latin word praevenio, meaning ‘to come before, to get the start of'” (Fields p. 116). Thus Paul is saying, that those who have fallen asleep will not in any sense miss out on the events of the last day. They will not even be. second or two late in arriving. The living will not get. head start on them.

As we move into the next verse, Morris makes. very good observation: “This verse (1 Thessalonians 4:16) makes us reflect on the very little that the New Testament has to say about the manner of the Parousia. Nowhere else have we as full. description of what is to happen as here. The point of it all is that the Scriptures are intensely practical in this matter. There are things that our curiosity would like to know, but the Bible is not there to gratify our curiosity. Rather, it is to help our Christian lives, and for that the important thing is that we should be ready whenever the Lord comes” (p. 142).