“Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
1 Thessalonians 4:17
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, Paul writes to believers in Jesus at the church in Thessalonica about the fate of believers who’d already died. The apostle’s words were driven by the practical concerns of his readers. These early believers had expected Christ to return in the near future, and—much like the disciples—they thought He’d set up an earthly kingdom.
For them, that meant that those who died before His return would miss out on the kingdom of God. This concern caused them grief, so Paul wrote to them about the hope of the resurrection so they wouldn’t grieve without hope (v. 13). Instead, they were to have hope that the brothers and sisters who’d died in Jesus would indeed experience life with Him. In fact, at Christ’s return, they’d precede the living to join Him forever (v. 17).
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