1 Thessalonians 4:13
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
It is quite possible for born-again Christians to be ignorant concerning life after life on earth. The way we mourn when we lose our loved ones betrays our revelation of eternal realities.
Of course, the Word of God does not prohibit grieving! It just distinguishes the right and wrong ways of grieving. The right way is called Hopeful Grief, while the wrong way is Hopeless Grief. Hopeful grievers understand that death is just like sleep. We know that when our loved ones go to bed, we bid them “good night”, not good bye. Because we expect them to wake up.
That is why the Bible uses the language of sleep to describe the tragedy of death. Yet to hopeless mourners, death is final. To them, it’s the end. They have no deep understanding of the reality of the resurrection and the wonderful new life ahead after our earthly sojourn. That is not your portion!
We grieve because we shall genuinely miss our loved ones for a season. Our usual fellowship has been interrupted for a while. But we have hope because Jesus’ resurrection is our guarantee that every follower of His will certainly wake up 1Th 4:14). We have hope because we have also put our trust in Jesus, and we shall not perish but shall also wake up from the sleep of death in eternity (John 3:16). One day, we shall be together again.
That is why the wisest decision each of us can make is to invest our trust in Jesus Christ. Then we will not be afraid of our own death and will be able to mourn others’ passage with hope. Because He lives, you can face tomorrow!
Pastor Josh