To this very day, the doctrine of the Second Advent has had a similar effect on some.

We have heard of those who have given up their homes and businesses to wait for the

Lord's return, forgetting that the best way to be ready is to do what He Himself

commanded "occupy, till I come" (Luke 19: 13). To do nothing, to be idle is to open the

door to the Adversary and this was happening at Thessalonica, hence the Apostle's

warning. By example as well as by precept, he taught them to be busily engaged in doing

the Lord's will, whether in the home, trade, or in the Lord's work.

We now enter upon a new section of the epistle which revolves around the question of

hope and accordingly we set out its structural outline.

A | 4: 13. I would not have you ignorant concerning them that sleep.

B | 4: 14. First reason--Resurrection and sleep.

C | 4: 15. Second reason--Living shall not go before them that sleep.

D | 4: 16, 17. Ever with the Lord.

E | 4: 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

A | 5: 1-3. You know perfectly concerning the day of the Lord.

B | 5: 4-6. First reason--Let us not sleep.

C | 5: 7, 8. Second reason--Those that sleep in the night.

D | 5: 9,10 Live together with Him.

E | 5: 11. Wherefore comfort yourselves together.

It is evident that some had lost dear ones and they were deeply concerned about them

in view of the Lord's early return. Would they be left behind? Would those that are alive

be taken and those who had died be left in their graves until a later period? To these

problems Paul now turns and seeks to give them comfort and instruction.

In five other places the Apostle states that he did not wish believers to be ignorant or

without knowledge of certain vital truths. In Rom. 11: 25 he is dealing with the secret

of Israel's blindness lest they should be wise in their own conceits and imagine that God

had cast off the unbelieving nation forever and exalted the Gentile to take their place. In

I Cor. 10: 1 he reminds the Corinthian church that, while all Israel at the Exodus were

`baptized unto Moses, in the cloud and in the sea', and were typically redeemed and

linked with all that Moses stood for in law and ceremonial type and shadow, yet all did

not enter the promised land, for with `many of them God was not well pleased' (10: 5).

They lost their prize, that is, entering into the inheritance of Canaan. In the same epistle

Paul uses the phrase again and states that he would not have them ignorant concerning

spiritual gifts (12: 1). Detailed instructions were necessary so that these gifts should be

used in an orderly fashion and to the edification of the local assembly.

When we writes his second letter to the church at Corinth he says that he would not

have them ignorant of the trouble he had endured in Asia. So great was it that he