Come and study Holy Scriptures with us as Father Stephen DeYoung teaches verse by verse on the podcast, The Whole Council of God.

Father Stephen is a former Protestant pastor and Bible teacher in the Reformed Church,

but now an Orthodox priest serving at Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Verse 13.

This is the part of First Thessalonians that most people have heard.

It's read in the funeral service, but it's also just the most famous passage from First

Thessalonians.

Verse 13.

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren,

concerning those who have fallen asleep,

lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

So those who have fallen asleep are those who have died, those from the Christian community

in particular who have died is who he's talking about. He's saying, I don't want you to be

ignorant. And I don't like the phrasing so much here in the Duke King James. Go figure. But the point

he's getting at is he's not saying, I don't want you to grieve.

I don't want you to be sad that someone died.

Right?

That's not what St. Paul is saying.

You shouldn't be sad.

What he's saying is, I don't want you to grieve like those who have no hope right when

someone you love dies that's still something you grieve I can prove that right because when

Jesus friend Lazarus died he grieved and he grieved knowing he was about to raise him from the dead.

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