But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.
All Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 4:13 Go To 1 Thessalonians 4
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Here Paul now proceeds to start his discourse concerning the resurrection. And why? … [Because] this subject of the resurrection was sufficient to comfort those who were grieving. Indeed that which Paul now teaches about the resurrection makes the resurrection eminently worthy of belief…. To continue to endure misery for the departed is to act like those who have no hope. Hear this, women, as many of you as are fond of wailing, as many as grieve impatiently; by doing so you act just like the heathens. Do you not grieve like a pagan when you beat yourself and tear your cheeks? Why do you lament if you believe that he will rise again, that he has not perished, that the matter is but a slumber or a sleep? You say, on account of his company, his protection, his care of our affairs, and all his other services. When, therefore, you lose a child at an untimely age, who is not yet able to do anything, on what account do you lament? Why do you seek to recall him? He was displaying, you say, good hopes, and I was expecting that he would support me financially. On this account I miss my husband, on this account my son, on this account I wail and lament, not believing the resurrection, but being left destitute of support, having lost my protector, my companion, who shared with me in all things—my comforter…. It is for these things that I afflict myself, for these things I wail…. But none of this is painful to us, if we are willing to cultivate wisdom.
