帖前4:13-18

愿恩惠、平安从父神和救主耶稣基督归于在祂里面有死里复活盼望的人。阿们。

世上没有哪一个宗教愿意这样敞开谈论死亡的；事实上，大部分人的宗教或者世俗世界观避讳谈论死亡，尤其是华人的土著文化和宗教信仰。如果你仔细观察，只有基督信仰处处把“死”挂在嘴边，譬如我们每周所宣信的信经：“耶稣基督被钉死、埋葬。”在我们路德会的神学中，我们时常讲，十字架就是我们的神学，一切都是关乎基督和祂钉死十字架的。原因很简单，只有死亡被打败了，不再能够辖制人、恐吓奴役人，我们就可以自由地谈论死亡，并不需要忌讳什么，好似如果提到死，那么死就明天临到家门口，就遭殃了。基督不仅为我们而死，并且以自己的死吞灭死亡，除去遮盖万民的羞耻，而且祂第三天从死人中复活，赐给我们复活的盼望。可以说，若没有复活，就没办法谈论死亡，对付死亡。基督的复活也将是我们的复活，同样在使徒信经中，我们最后宣认：“我信身体复活，并且永生。”

不信主的人面对自己亲人朋友的死亡，是没有指望，是恐慌，还有恐慌之后更加沉浸在世俗事务的忙碌当中，甚至沉浸在肉体的欢愉和罪中之乐，这样似乎就可以不用去想解决不了的问题了，不用想自己的死亡以及死后的结局怎样。这也好像箴言31:6-7所讲的：“可以把浓酒给将亡的人喝，把清酒给苦心的人喝，让他喝了，就忘记他的贫穷，不再记念他的苦楚。”世人想的就是“今朝有酒今朝醉，明日愁来明日愁。”这个麻痹人的不仅是酒精，还有许许多多本来是好的事情，当然酒本身也是好的。许许多多的人沉浸在娱乐、体育、情欲当中，因为这些可以让人忘记真正的敌人，就是死亡。不是这样吗？

使徒保罗在帖撒罗尼迦前书这段经文前后，都在谈论人的行为，警戒信徒要保守自己圣洁，不沾染污秽，要“警醒谨守”，因为主必快快来到。“不要消灭圣灵的感动，不要藐视先知的讲论。但要凡事察验，善美的要持守，各样的恶事要禁戒不做。”保罗的劝勉可以说都是基于我们信徒的结局和盼望。这个世界是昏暗、绝望的，而基督来成为人生命的大光，我们被基督所拣选、所爱的人，已经成为光明之子，白昼之子，凭着信心等候那将来完全得救赎的日子。如果死亡不是结局，死人复活是真实的，是可盼望的，为什么还会沉浸在今生属肉体、属情欲的欢乐呢？我们怎能不去默想来世的永恒福分，将来“和主永远同在”的生命，并且以此来面对今生呢？

死人复活的基督信仰教导并不是不切实际、不实用的；恰恰相反，是最实用、最切合现实的信仰告白。我们的盼望会改变我们当下的行为和选择；基督徒对死里复活的教义的忽视或者不信，必然带来行为上的放纵和不圣洁。

保罗在第四章的前面部分提到：“神的旨意就是要你们晓得怎样用圣洁、尊贵守着自己的身体，不放纵私欲的邪情，像那不认识神的外邦人。”不认识神的，没有领受基督的救赎，没有死里复活之盼望的人，自然而然会在邪情私欲的放纵当中寻找慰藉，寻找短暂的忘记——忘记愁烦，忘记死亡和身后的事。在接下来的第五章，保罗继续论到，“我们不是属黑暗的，也不是属幽暗的。所以，我们不要睡觉像别人一样，总要警醒自守。因为睡了的人是在夜间睡，醉了的人是在夜间醉。”什么意思？

不认识神、不信主的人，认为日子就这样了，得过且过吧，管它将来如何呢？大家也都知道世界是黑暗的，事实上，如果世界是以放纵邪情私欲为主旋律，那么我们就应该顺应潮流，对不对？别人不都这样吗？如果世界是昏暗的，那么我独自清醒就会非常痛苦了，对不对？所以，也可以说，不信主的人也是选择“一直沉睡”，不要清醒过来，不要让基督的光照耀自己，不要白昼当头。“睡了的人是在夜间睡，醉了的人是在夜间醉。”国内有一位有名的牧师写了一本书，我没读过，但书名很有意思，叫做《叫醒装睡的你》。大家想一想是不是这样？世人不都是在装睡吗？因为醒过来实在是太痛苦了，就好像一直患有失眠症的人，没有人喜欢这样。

然而，我们这信靠主，有死里复活盼望的基督徒，是已经被主叫醒了，脱离了世人的昏昧无知，脱离了黑暗和绝望的忧伤，让我们任何时候都“属乎白昼，就当谨守，把信和爱当作护心镜遮胸，把得救的盼望当作头盔戴上。”（帖前5:8）我们现在不要想着属灵的歇息，而是一直警醒不倦，全副军装，打美好的仗，为要得荣耀的冠冕。总有一天我们要睡去，在基督里面睡去，那时候就真的可以卸下基督徒的军装，可以完全安息在主的怀抱，好好地睡上一觉了，直到复活之日被唤醒，身体和灵魂重新联合在一起，永远活在主面前。

我们基督徒在今世常常醒着，有点像患了失眠症的人，会有点儿痛苦，因为别人都在沉睡、装睡，沉浸在物质和消费所带来的新鲜感和刺激当中，而你却头脑清醒，想着天上的、将来的美好事物，并不以今世为满足，为自己的欢乐和安慰，等主再来叫我们复活之时，我们就真的得了安慰；而那些在今世装睡的人，不愿意被叫醒的呢？他们的虚假“平安稳妥”必要被破碎，就好像福音经文中的愚昧童女，新郎来了就慌里慌张，灯里面没有油，也没有时间去重新买油，门也关了，只能在外面哀哭切齿。

“主必亲自从天降临，有呼叫的声音和天使长的声音，又有神的号吹响；那在基督里死了的人必先复活。以后我们这活着还存留的人必和他们一同被提到云里，在空中与主相遇。”（帖前4:16-17）愿这死里复活的教义时常作我们的安慰，也让我们用这些话彼此劝慰，竭力保守圣洁，行神的旨意。奉耶稣基督的名。阿们。

1 Thess. 4:13-18

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ, to all who have in him the hope of resurrection from the dead. Amen.

No religion in the world is willing to speak about death this openly. In fact, most people’s religions, and most secular worldviews, avoid the subject, especially the indigenous culture and religious beliefs of the Chinese. If you look closely, only the Christian faith keeps “death” on its lips at every turn. Consider the creed we confess each week: “Jesus Christ was crucified, died, and was buried.” In our Lutheran theology, we often say that the cross is our theology, and that everything is about Christ and his crucifixion. The reason is simple: only when death has been defeated, and can no longer rule over people, terrorize them, and enslave them, can we talk freely about death without any taboo, as though mentioning death might bring it to our door tomorrow and bring disaster on the house. Christ not only died for us; by his own death he swallowed up death and removed the shame that covers all peoples. On the third day he rose from the dead and gave us the hope of resurrection. It can be said that without the resurrection, there is no way to talk about death or to deal with it. Christ’s resurrection will also be our resurrection, and so in the Apostles’ Creed we conclude: “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”

Unbelievers facing the death of family and friends have no hope. They are filled with dread, and after the dread they sink even deeper into worldly busyness, or even into the pleasures of the flesh and the delights of sin. In this way they seem able to stop thinking about the unsolvable problem, about their own death and what lies beyond it. This is like what Proverbs 31:6-7 says: strong drink for the one who is perishing, and wine for those in bitter distress, so that he may drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. The world’s motto is “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” What numbs people is not only alcohol but also many things that are good in themselves (and of course wine itself is also good). Countless people immerse themselves in entertainment, sports, and sensual desire, because these let people forget the real enemy, which is death. Isn’t that so?

Before and after this passage in 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul speaks about human conduct. He warns believers to keep themselves holy and unstained by impurity, and to “stay awake and be sober,” because the Lord is coming soon. “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good, and abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thess 5:19-22). Paul’s exhortations are all grounded in the end and the hope of us who believe. This world is dark and hopeless, but Christ has come to be the great light of human life. We who are chosen and loved by Christ have already become sons of light and sons of the day, and we wait in faith for the coming day of complete redemption. If death is not the end, and the resurrection of the dead is real and worth hoping for, why would we still immerse ourselves in the fleshly, sensual pleasures of this life? How could we not meditate on the eternal blessings of the world to come, on the life in which we will be “with the Lord forever,” and face this present life in that light?

The Christian teaching of the resurrection of the dead is not impractical or irrelevant. On the contrary, it is the most practical and realistic confession of faith. Our hope changes our present conduct and choices. When Christians neglect or disbelieve the doctrine of the resurrection, license and unholiness inevitably follow.

Earlier, in chapter 4, Paul says that it is God’s will that each of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God (1 Thess 4:3-5). Those who do not know God, who have not received Christ’s redemption and have no hope of resurrection from the dead, naturally look for comfort in indulging lustful passions. They look for a brief forgetting: forgetting their worries, forgetting death and what comes after. In chapter 5 Paul continues: we are not of the night or of the darkness. So let us not sleep, as others do, but keep awake and be sober, for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night (see 1 Thess 5:5-7). What does this mean?

People who do not know God and do not believe think: this is how life is, so just get by. Who cares what happens in the future? Everyone knows the world is dark. And if indulging evil passions and lusts is the world’s dominant theme, shouldn’t we just go with the flow? Isn’t that what everyone else does? If the world is dark, then being the only one awake would be very painful, wouldn’t it? So we could also say that unbelievers choose to “stay asleep,” refusing to wake up, refusing to let Christ’s light shine on them, refusing to let the day dawn. “Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.” A well-known pastor in China wrote a book, which I haven’t read, but the title is intriguing: Wake Up, You Who Are Pretending to Sleep. Think about it: isn’t this true? Aren’t worldly people all pretending to sleep? Because waking up is simply too painful, like someone who has long suffered from insomnia. No one likes that.

But we who trust in the Lord and have the hope of resurrection from the dead have been awakened by the Lord. We have left behind the darkness and ignorance of the world, and the sorrow of darkness and despair. At all times, “since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thess 5:8). For now, we should not think about spiritual rest. We should stay alert without weariness, in full armor, fighting the good fight to gain the crown of glory. One day we will fall asleep, asleep in Christ, and then we can truly lay down the armor of a Christian, rest completely in the Lord’s arms, and sleep well, until the day of resurrection when we are awakened, body and soul reunited, to live forever before the Lord.

In this present age we Christians are often awake, a bit like people with insomnia, and it is somewhat painful, because everyone else is asleep or pretending to sleep, absorbed in the novelty and excitement that material things and consumption bring. You, however, are clear-headed, thinking of heavenly and future good things, not content with this present age and its joys and comforts. When the Lord comes again and raises us, then we will truly be comforted. But what of those who pretend to sleep in this age and refuse to be awakened? Their false “peace and security” will be shattered, like the foolish virgins in the Gospel: the bridegroom comes, they panic, there is no oil in their lamps and no time to go and buy more, the door is shut, and they can only stand outside weeping and gnashing their teeth.

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will 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” (1 Thess 4:16-17). May this doctrine of the resurrection of the dead always be our comfort, and may we use these words to encourage one another, striving to keep ourselves holy and to do God’s will. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.