Our confidence and security depend not on the fickleness and frailty of our faith but on the firm purposes and promises of God who has appointed these things. God did not destine us for the wrath of His judgment but He did destine us to receive salvation.

God did not appoint us to wrath.
(1 Thessalonians 5:9, NKJV)

Though we have explored the section as though there were a warren of side roads, in many ways 1 Thessalonians 4:13 through 5:11 forms a teaching block, a single road with a variety of vistas we can marvel at along the way.

The Holy Spirit is ministering to the people of God through His apostle in their confusion of mind and turmoil of soul. He addresses them in their grief over the death of loved ones. He explains the unfolding of events in their time, unknown to them but known to God whose plan those events serve.

The issue is their grief and the explanation Paul gives is intended to assuage that grief, and not with pious platitudes or well wishes. He lays out the declaration of God. The hope he describes is not a possibility, not even a probability; it is a certainty bound up in the saving purposes of our triune God. The writer of Hebrews describes our hope as “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Heb. 6:19) because it rests in the accomplished work of Christ.

That certainty is why Paul can say, “Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18), and again, “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing” (1 Thess. 5:11).

What comfort would it be if what the apostle describes were iffy? How could their faith be built up if the materials he offered were not solid? The ability of what he has said to provide comfort, encouragement, and strength is dependent on the unshakeable and certain truths he describes as realities.

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