"SO SHALL WE EVER BE WITH THE LORD" 1 Thessalonians 4 vs. 17

These words from the lst Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians come to us as words of comfort and as words of hope. They emphasize one of the great lessons taught us at Easter, that because Christ rose from the dead the future of the believer is assured.

We are often puzzled about the state of our blessed dead. Well, God's Word tells us all we need to know about them. No doubt it leaves much to be revealed at that great day when all secrets shall be disclosed; but the Apostle tells us clearly that the soul which has passed away in the faith of Christ is with Jesus. 'Them also which sleep in Jesus' is the phrase used in vs. 14 of the same chapter. There could not be a more beautiful description of the faithful departed.

Truly Paul has ground for rebuking unseemly grief. We are not to sorrow as those who have no hope; we have a sure and certain hope, and it is fixed upon the risen Saviour.

It was this great message of Jesus and the resurrection that Paul once preached to the Thessalonians, and now, when he is writing to them, he reminds them again that it is Jesus and the resurrection which is their hope for this world, the world to come, and through all eternity.

To us the chief joy of heaven will be that we shall be in the presence of Jesus. He prays, "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am". To be with Christ, that is the deepest aspiration of the Christian heart. And when we think of that Supreme joy of heaven we cannot wish our relatives and friends back again in this troublesome world. We cannot doubt but that they who were longing to see Christ, their Saviour, have already seen the King in his beauty.

Do not these words of Paul to the Thessalonians emphasize the closeness of the union which exists between Christ and the believer? 'Sleep in Jesus' and 'the dead in Christ' - could anything be closer and nearer? These expressions send us back to the words of the Master himself, "I 90 to prepare a place for you ... I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also".

No separation, 'for ever with the Lord'. And as the believer is, and will be, one with Christ, so in the great resurrection 'day shall we be one with each other. That will be the great reunion - father, mother, children, brother, sister, husband, wife - meet once more.

We are looking forward to that day. We pray that we all together may be partakers of the heavenly Kingdom. The Apostle, having spoken to the Thessalonians of this glorious hope, bade them, "comfort one another with these words".

Do they bring comfort to us? They may heal the sorrow caused by the departure of our loved ones, but is it a source of comfort to ourselves also to know that by faith we have a future beyond the grave, and that our chief joy of heaven will be the presence of Jesus, our Saviour? Do we have as Paul had a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, because that is the best?