‘But we would not have you ignorant, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are falling asleep, that you sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope.'
It is clear that the Thessalonians had grasped the idea that Jesus Christ was imminently returning and were in expectation that it would be very soon. Thus when some died before that glorious event took place they were concerned lest that meant that those dying would lose out in some way. In view of the parallel they probably thought that death before Christ's coming meant that such people had lost their hope. The majority of Gentiles saw no hope beyond the grave. They saw death as the end. The comparison with them as those who ‘have no hope' suggests that was also how the Thessalonian Christians saw their fellow-Christians who had died.
‘Those who are falling asleep.' The picture of death as sleep is constant in the New Testament and was here intended to stress that death was not the end, it was only a ‘sleep'. The picture comes originally from Daniel 12:2 where it applied to both believers and the condemned and is directly connected with the fact of resurrection, compare also Psalms 17:15 and Isaiah 26:19 where it is only of believers. But in each case it is connected with the resurrection. Other references to death as sleep such as Job 24:20; 1 Kings 2:10 contain rather the idea of final sleep, such as was held by many Gentiles, from which, as far as they were aware, there was no waking up. We can understand why. A dead person often looks just like someone in the repose of sleep. The thought was that they had found final rest. But for the believer ‘sleep' indicated a state from which one day they would awake.
This idea of death as sleep carries on into the New Testament. Jesus Himself described those whom He was about to bring back from the dead as ‘asleep' (Matthew 9:24; Mark 5:39; Luke 8:52; John 11:11-13. Matthew speaks of ‘the saints who had fallen asleep' when describing their resurrection (Matthew 27:52). Paul regularly speaks of death as sleep (1 Thessalonians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 7:39; 1Co 11:30; 1 Corinthians 15:6; 1 Corinthians 15:18; 1 Corinthians 15:51, and only the last is directly connected with the resurrection, but with Paul we can be sure that the resurrection was always in mind, although 1 Corinthians 15:18 contains the theoretical idea that they have ‘perished'. See also Act 13:36; 2 Peter 3:4.
Sleep is a time of restoration and a kind of awareness. It is not necessarily a time of total lack of consciousness. Thus Paul can look forward to sleep beyond death as being enjoyed in the conscious presence of Christ (Philippians 1:23) and Jesus could say to the dying thief, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise' (Luke 23:43). Both Luke 16:19-31 and Revelation 6:9-11, although highly pictorial and not to be taken literally, indicate the consciousness of ‘sleeping' saints in the presence of God, and in the former case the awareness of sinners of the displeasure of God prior to the judgment.
‘That you sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope.' Paul sees them as sorrowing with the same sorrow as Gentiles who have no hope. Certainly the vast majority of the Gentile world saw no hope beyond death. The Platonists believed in the immortality of the soul and thus an afterlife of sorts in a disembodied state, but they were comparatively few and restricted mainly to the thinking classes. For the rest death was the end. Ancient literature and tomb inscriptions were full of the awareness of the hopelessness of death. Thus the fear of the Thessalonians appears to have been that those of them who died before the second coming died without hope. Paul answers this firstly by stressing the fact of the resurrection in order that they need not sorrow. This refers to sorrow over final death not sorrow over a temporary parting.