1 Thess. 4:13; Job 17:10-16, Death and Dying (3)

Paul’s second purpose, after curing ignorance, is to engender hope.  He does this, of course, with a good dose of the truth.

·        Let us first note that Paul does not tell us not to grieve at all when a loved one dies.  He says we should not engage in the excessive, hopeless grief of the heathen.

·        How do the heathen hope?  Because they have no assurances about the after-life, no hope, the grief might involve days of mourning, or cutting oneself, or some other extreme measures.  Their hopelessness not only effects those who grieve; it also effects them when they are confronted with death.  The book of Job describes some of the ways hopeless people face death that reveal their ignorance:

o   Job 4:6; 11:13-20: They want to face death with their own righteousness.  Job’s friends tried to get Job to do that.

o   Job 9:27-28: They may want to face death with a smile.  That is the best that, for example, an annihilationist can do.

o   Job 19:13-20: They may think they can face death with friends and family at their side.  But these people are alive; they have never faced death themselves.  They can offer nothing.

o   Job 17:13-16: They may seek solace simply in the grave and the rest it will bring to their tired bodies.  But that does nothing about the coming judgment.

·        This hopelessness is revealed in grave markers that were found from Roman times.

o   Live for the present hour, since we are sure of nothing else.

o   I lift my hands against the gods who took me away at the age of twenty though I had done no harm.

o   Once I was not.  Now I am not.  I know nothing about it, and it is no concern of mine.

o   Traveler, curse me not as you ass, for I am in darkness and cannot answer.

·        Contrast this to the marvelous hope of Christians seen in grave markers in the Catacombs.

o   Here lies Marcia, put to rest in a dream of peace.

o   Lawrence to his sweetest son borne away of angels.

o   Victorious in peace and in Christ.

o   Being called away, he went in peace.

These were written of people who were persecuted.  They reveal people who believed and lived according to Paul’s rule of life: For to me to live is Christ, TO DIE IS GAIN (Phil. 1:21).  They knew that Christ within meant they had the One who is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27), the Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5), the Advocate who stands for all believers (1 Jn. 2:1-2).  Christ has preceded us in death that He might destroy him who has the power of death and held us in bondage to fear (Heb. 2:14-15).  Let us not grieve as those who have no hope!