I have recently had occasion to examine grieving in greater detail.  One of my daughter’s friend’s parents died, a dear family friend died, and a family member of a good friend has died.  Obviously, that is a lot of grief.  How should we handle that as Christians?  How should a Christian grieve?

There are some that read their KJV Bibles in 1 Thess 4:13: “13 But I would not hae you to be ignorant, bretheren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope."  From "that ye sorrow not" they take away that Christians should never mourn; mourning and grieving are signs of a lack of faith to them.  So medicine and doctors are signs of a lack of faith to them.  I wonder, to they take vitamins, aspirin, Tylenol?  Do they put a Band Aid on a scrape or cut?

One of the keys to New Testament theology, believe it or not, is grammar, specifically Greek grammar.  Words have meaning, but no language corresponds perfectly with another.  Even English does not always correspond to English; by that I mean that over time the meaning of words morph.  The KJV is 400 years old this year, and word meanings change.  We need to understand the meaning of the original language, in this case, Koine Greek.

1 Thess 4:13 in Koine Greek reads:  13Οὐ θέλομεν δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, ἀδελφοί, περὶ τῶν κοιμωμένων, ἵνα μὴ λυπῆσθε καθὼς καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ οἱ μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα.

The key word in that is the word καθώς.  καθώς means: “as, like as, according as, even as.”  From this we see a comparison; the grieving of Christians is not like or in accordance with the grieving of unbelievers (ἀγνοεῖν, from which we get “agnostic”).  This does NOT say that Christians are not to grieve, while unbelievers may grieve.  What it does say is that we are not grieve as they do, i.e. without hope.  We grieve, but we have hope, hope that is spelled out in the remainder of the verses.

¹³ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thess. 4:113-18

In our grief, we should find comfort in the promised victorious return of Jesus.