then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.
All the New Testament teachings concerning the things of the end of the world, the coming of Christ and the final judgment. were not given to tease the intellectual curiosity of believers; but they all must be understood in the light of the passage before us, which comes to us in a section of exhortations; and, in the light of the purpose of Paul's words here, the passage supplies faith, confidence and certainty that death cannot rob any child of God of rewards which God may allow to be rightfully his.  In the light of such a purpose, the passage does all it was intended to do, but it does not go beyond that.