“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.” 1 Thess. 4:13
November 24, 2025
It is a tremendous comfort to know that the death of one’s loved one means they have gone into the presence of Jesus Christ. The hope of a promised resurrection body and being reunited with believers in heaven is a joyful hope. Sadly, those who die without having put their trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life is hopeless grief. This doesn’t mean that Christians don’t grieve as much as unbelievers. To die without possessing the one true hope, the Christian hope, which Christ validated by His resurrection, is an awful kind of death. Too many eulogies at funerals give the false impression that merely to die means going to heaven. Many a Hollywood Movie has perpetuated this fiction. To make matters worse, there are preachers who don’t tell the truth about what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). What about your own funeral? Death spares none of us. Will your family and friends grieve a hopeless grief or a hope-filled grief?
H
“Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called ‘the rejoicing of hope’ (Hebrews 3:6).” William Gurnall