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I. THE EVENT PREDICTED. "Will God bring with Him."

1. This is affirmed to meet the fear that God could not do so. The ground of their sorrow was that their departed friends would be deprived of the glories of Christ's advent, which was thought to be near. Paul now assures them that the dead will share it as powerfully as the living.

2. The Thessalonians thus believed in Christ's second coming. This was a subject often on our Lord's lips, and is a prominent feature in this Epistle. It is kept in the background by many Christians to their disadvantage. Frequent thought about it is requisite to spirituality of mind. Paul says, "Our conversation is in heaven," and his reason is "from whence also we look for the Saviour." Heavenly mindedness is the drawing of self to Christ.

3. If God brings departed saints with Him, they are with Him now, otherwise He could not bring them. They are "the general assembly of the first born;" "Spirits of just men made perfect;" "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." The New Testament again and again asserts that the saints after death go direct into God's presence.

4. When departed spirits are brought by God they will know one another. It is amazing to suppose that we should know each other on earth and not in heaven; that we should have a less amount of perception as to each other's character and identity there than here. If this be admitted the passage which was intended to comfort is a mockery. How could the Thessalonians be comforted by the coming of their deceased friends if they were not to know them? Read 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20. How could Paul's converts be his crown of rejoicing if he was not to know them? The same doctrine is proved from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and from the appearance of Moses and Elias at the Transfiguration.

II. ITS CERTAINTY.

1. If we believe that Christ died and rose again it follows as a necessary consequence that those who sleep in Him He will bring with Him. Observe how everything is based on the death and resurrection of Christ; and in view of that it is no wonder that the first preachers were selected because they were witnesses of the resurrection.

(1) The object of Christ's death was "to redeem unto Himself a peculiar people." When God speaks of the results of that death as to its primary purpose, He says, "He shall see His seed;" "He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied."(2) The object of the resurrection was to be the guarantee that the work of redemption was accomplished, and to be the first fruits of its accomplishment; to be followed by its proper results, a harvest. So that if we believe these two facts, i.e., that Christ finished the whole work that the Father gave Him to do, we must believe that the Father will fulfil His covenant part of the trans. action and give to Christ the seed, and that the seed shall be perfected and glorified. To this it is necessary that He should bring the spirits of the saints to meet their bodies, which is the assertion of Paul here.

2. It follows, also, that the Church being thus perfected in herself must also be perfected in her circumstances. "Father I will also that those whom Thou gavest Me be with Me," etc. (ver. 17).

III. ITS OBJECT AND PURPOSE. The reunion of the saints —

1. With their bodies.

2. With their friends.

3. With Christ, body and soul.Conclusion: The passage is full of comfort, but there is a tremendous limitation in it. It refers exclusively to those who sleep in Christ and those who are living in Him when He comes. Are you "in Christ"?

(C. Molyneux, M. A.)

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KJV: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

WEB: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.