4:14 {12} For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in {d} Jesus will God {e} bring with him.
(12) A reason for the confirmation, for seeing that the head is risen, the members also will rise, and that by the power of God.
(d) The dead in Christ, who continue in faith by which they are ingrafted into Christ, even to the last breath.
(e) Will call their bodies out of their graves, and join their souls to them again.
4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, etc. If we believe in the death and resurrection of Christ, we must believe also that all who sleep in him will be raised with him.
4:14 So - As God raised him. With him - With their living head.
4:13-18 Here is comfort for the relations and friends of those who die in the Lord. Grief for the death of friends is lawful; we may weep for our own loss, though it may be their gain. Christianity does not forbid, and grace does not do away, our natural affections. Yet we must not be excessive in our sorrows; this is too much like those who have no hope of a better life. Death is an unknown thing, and we know little about the state after death; yet the doctrines of the resurrection and the second coming of Christ, are a remedy against the fear of death, and undue sorrow for the death of our Christian friends; and of these doctrines we have full assurance. It will be some happiness that all the saints shall meet, and remain together for ever; but the principal happiness of heaven is to be with the Lord, to see him, live with him, and enjoy him for ever. We should support one another in times sorrow; not deaden one another's spirits, or weaken one another's hands. And this may be done by the many lessons to be learned from the resurrection of the dead, and the second coming of Christ. What! comfort a man by telling him he is going to appear before the judgment-seat of God! Who can feel comfort from those words? That man alone with whose spirit the Spirit of God bears witness that his sins are blotted out, and the thoughts of whose heart are purified by the Holy Spirit, so that he can love God, and worthily magnify his name. We are not in a safe state unless it is thus with us, or we are desiring to be so.
