The Letters
- When
- c. AD 50–51
- Written by
- Paul
- Chapters
- 5
The big idea
To a church under pressure Paul gives thanks, urges holiness, and comforts the grieving: the dead in Christ will rise when the Lord comes.
Themes
- Faith, hope and love
- The Lord’s coming
- Holiness
- Comfort in grief
Memory verse
Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Key passages
- 1:2–10A model church
- 4:1–12A holy life
- 4:13–18The dead in Christ
- 5:16–18Pray without ceasing
Links to other Scripture
- Acts 17:1–10The church founded
- 1 Corinthians 15:51–57We shall all be changed
- Matthew 24:30–31The Son of man coming
- John 11:25–26I am the resurrection
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- Paul thanks God for the church’s work of faith, labor of love and patience of hope. Which of those would someone name in you?
- “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks.” Write down three things to be thankful for right now.
- Paul comforts the grieving with the return of Christ. Who needs that comfort from you?
- In one sentence, this book is about…