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1 Thessalonians 4:11-13
New Catholic Bible
1 Thessalonians 4:11-13
New Catholic Bible
11 Strive to live quietly, to attend to your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you.[a] 12 In this way, you will earn the respect of outsiders and not have to be dependent on anyone.
13 The Dead and the Living at the Lord’s Coming.[b] We do not wish you to be uncertain, brethren, about those who have fallen asleep.[c] You should not grieve as do those who have no hope.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Thessalonians 4:11 The early Church strongly believed in the need of Christians to earn their living. However, some of the converts—possibly as a result of their belief in Christ’s imminent return (see 2 Thes 3:11)—were not working and so were letting others support them.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:13 We are now at the heart of the Letter. Some Christians of Thessalonica have a few difficulties. One or other believer has died, and they cannot shake the image of those beautiful cemeteries built at the edge of cities like “high places” of despair. Christ must appear; this definitive coming mobilizes the hope of all; but will not Christians who have died be deprived of this grand and triumphant coming?
In speaking of this resurrection, Paul uses the images and symbols of the Jewish apocalypses, just as in describing the return of Christ he compares it to the “parousias” or official visits of the emperors to the great cities, where the people escorted them in a lengthy procession. The scene has its grandeur, but the essential is to be found elsewhere: the solid conviction of believers that they are with Christ forever. These words sum up the final message of Christian hope. - 1 Thessalonians 4:13 Those who have fallen asleep: sleep was an especially apt metaphor for death, since the finality and horror of death disappear in the assurance of the resurrection.
