1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord… It is important here to observe that the apostle's language is not to be pedantically restricted as if "we" were necessarily to be taken literally. It is the broad, emotional, imaginative, not the restricted and historical "we" — the we not of him who associates himself with some accidental and arbitrary class, but of him who believes in the "Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints" — the we of a true member of the supernatural community. He writes as a living man to living men, from the point of view of intimate communion with them; with that prophetic sympathy with the Church of the future which makes his pulses throb in unison with the waiting congregation of the redeemed. He puts himself in the same attitude with those who shall be alive at the Great Advent, "All who are alive on earth as we now are." Speaking as the mouthpiece of a generation which, like each of its successors, represents those who shall be alive at the Lord's coming, he says, "We" — we, the living, the "left over" — a word which is not without a tinge of sadness, in subtle harmony with the purpose Paul had in view. The fear which the Thessalonians had for their beloved ones was lest they might have suffered loss. They pitied them because they were taken. By this twice-repeated word, the pathetic refrain of this wonderful dirge (vers. 15, 17), the apostle seems to say — not that they are to be pitied; rather we who are left over, left without them in the world. If there is any leaving out in the case, it is we who are left out, not they. (Bp. Alexander.) Parallel Verses KJV: For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. |
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