1 Thessalonians

To encourage a young church under pressure, to address grief about dead believers, and to explain the Second Coming.

Paul commends the Thessalonians as a model church whose faith has spread everywhere, addresses their grief over those who have died before Christ's return, and calls the living to holy alertness as those who belong to the day.

First Thessalonians' resurrection passage (4:13-18) is the primary New Testament text on the believer's resurrection and the return of Christ.