The New Testament · The Letters of St. Paul · Book 59 of 73
Prophecy in 1 Thessalonians
A young church grieves its dead and wonders what happens to them when the Lord comes. Paul's answer is probably the Church's oldest written teaching on the last things: the dead in Christ will rise, the living will go out to meet him, and “we shall always be with the Lord.”
In progress: 6 passages so far
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The book at a glance
Paul, with Silvanus and Timothy, writes to the church he had founded at Thessalonica, a port city of Macedonia, after he was forced to leave it (Acts 17:1–10). Most scholars hold it to be the earliest of his letters, and so perhaps the oldest book of the New Testament. It is warm and personal: thanksgiving for the Thessalonians' faith, memories of his time with them, and encouragement under persecution.
Every chapter ends by looking toward the Lord's coming, the parousia. Some in the church had died, and the living feared their loved ones would miss that day. Paul answers with a prophecy “on the word of the Lord” (4:15) and with an image that runs through Scripture: the children of light, awake and armed with faith, love and hope.
Key to the labels
How a passage stands
Fulfilled Accomplished in history, above all in Christ.
Unfolding Being worked out now in the life of the Church.
Future Clearly still to come at Christ's return.
Mystery Its meaning or moment is not yet settled.
What kind of passage it is
Prophecy God's word through a prophet, or Christ, about what will come.
Promise A pledge God makes, kept over generations.
Type A person or event that foreshadows Christ or the Church.
Image A picture Scripture returns to and completes at the end.
Apocalypse A vision unveiling history from heaven's side, in symbols.
More on the labels
| Passage | Subject | Standing |
|---|
| 1:9–10 | Awaiting his Son from heaven | Future |
| 2:19–20 | Our crown at his coming | Future |
| 4:13–18 | The dead in Christ will rise first | Future |
| 5:1–3 | Like a thief at night | Future |
| 5:4–11 | Children of the light, alert and sober | Unfolding |
| 5:23–24 | Blameless for the coming of our Lord | Future |
The passages
“…and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from [the] dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.”
- Reading
- Paul sums up the whole Christian life in three movements: turning from idols, serving the living God, and waiting for his Son. The waiting rests on something already done: God raised Jesus from the dead. The one who is coming is the same Jesus who died and rose.
- See also
- Acts 1:11; Philippians 3:20; Titus 2:13.
“For what is our hope or joy or crown to boast of in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming if not you yourselves?”
- Reading
- Here the word parousia, “coming,” appears for the first time in the letter, and so, if the letter is his earliest, for the first time in Paul's writings. It means presence or arrival. Paul pictures himself standing before the Lord on that day, and his crown is not an achievement but a people: the Thessalonians themselves.
- For now
- The hope of his coming is shared. What the apostle hopes to present to Christ is the Church he has helped to build.
“For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
- Reading
- Paul writes “so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope” (4:13). The faithful dead are not lost: “through Jesus” God will bring them with him (4:14). At the Lord's coming they rise first; then “we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord” (4:17). The Catechism cites this passage when it teaches that the dead rise “at the last day,” bound up with Christ's return (CCC 1001).
- The rapture reading
- Many Evangelical and other Protestant Christians read verse 17 as the “rapture”: Christ comes secretly or invisibly for his Church and takes believers out of the world before a time of tribulation, then returns visibly later. The word comes from the Latin Vulgate's rapiemur, “we shall be caught up.” The NABRE's own note explains that this reading joins the verse to Matthew 24:40–41, Luke 17:34–35 and passages of Revelation within a dispensationalist scheme. Those who hold it are fellow believers who long for the Lord's coming, and their hope deserves respect.
- The Catholic reading
- The Church reads one coming of Christ, public and glorious, as Paul describes it: a word of command, an archangel's voice, God's trumpet, with the resurrection of the dead at his coming (CCC 1001). The Church does not expect to be taken out before the final trial; she “will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover,” following her Lord in his death and resurrection (CCC 675, 677). St. John Chrysostom explains the “meeting” by the image of a king entering a city: “those who are in honor go out to meet him” (Homilies on 1 Thessalonians, 8). Being caught up is an honor, the faithful going out to welcome the King who is coming, not a departure before he comes.
- Note
- The NABRE note observes that Paul here assumes the coming will occur within his own lifetime, yet holds that its time is unknown (5:1–2). What mattered most to him was union with Christ. See Is the rapture in Revelation? at The Lamb's Victory.
- See also
- 1 Corinthians 15:51–52; Matthew 24:30–31. Paul ends: “console one another with these words” (4:18).
“For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.”
- Reading
- “Concerning times and seasons,” Paul says, “you have no need for anything to be written to you” (5:1). He repeats Jesus' own image of the thief (Matthew 24:43). “When people are saying, ‘Peace and security,’ then sudden disaster comes upon them,” like labor pains (5:3). The Catechism cites these verses both for the unknown hour of Christ's return (CCC 673) and for the final trial of the Church (CCC 675).
- Note
- No date-setting. The thief image forbids calculation. It does not ask readers to decode which slogan of peace in their own day is the one; it asks them to be ready on every day.
“For all of you are children of the light and children of the day.”
- Reading
- Because the day is coming, believers already belong to it. “Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober” (5:6), “putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation” (5:8). The reason is not fear: “God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:9).
- Why unfolding
- This is the Church's life between the Resurrection and the return, a time of watchfulness (CCC 672). “Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do” (5:11).
- See also
- Ephesians 6:13–17; Romans 13:11–12; Isaiah 59:17.
“May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- Reading
- The letter closes with a prayer for the whole person, body included, made ready for the Lord's coming. The promise rests on God, not on the Thessalonians' strength: “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it” (5:24).
- For now
- Holiness is the preparation for his coming. It is God's work in us, and he is faithful.
Still to come on this pageFurther passages to add: the wrath that has come upon those who hinder the Gospel (2:14–16), blameless in holiness “at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones” (3:13), and “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances” (5:19–21).
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