January 27, 2023

1 Thessalonians 4:9-18 (HCSB)
Loving and Working
9 About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 10 In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers, to do so even more, 11 to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 so that you may walk properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone. The Comfort of Christ’s Coming 13 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14 Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. 15 For we say this to you by a revelation from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Jalen Kramm
There is a lot here, but I would really like to boil it down to the simplest of applications for you. The main point is boiled down in verse 13, “that you may not grieve as others who have no hope.” Why is it that we don’t act like the world (a.k.a. those who have no hope?) It is because we are informed. Informed with what? The Word of God, of course! Paul does not say to not grieve, rather he says we can grieve differently than lost people because we are informed with truth, the Truth, of which there is only one. This is not just “my interpretation," this is the Word of the Lord telling us that truth is what should rule our life. We are absolutely allowed to have feelings, as seen here, but those feelings must never overpower what we know to be true. Yes, I understand we are human, but us being “only human” has put Christ on the cross so that doesn’t really get us out of anything. We must study the truth, so we are able to navigate life in the way that is pleasing to the Father and preaches the gospel to those without hope. I wear my feelings on my sleeve most of the time, so I get it, and I say feel your feelings out to the full extent. It is part of what makes you feel alive; BUT Truth must have the final say in our lives. Feelings are always going to be in the car as we drive down life’s road, but they can never be allowed in the driver’s seat