The Saints in Heaven

“Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4:18.

Here a question may arise, whether the saints, when they go to heaven, have any peculiar comfort in meeting with those who have been their pious friends on earth? I answer in the affirmative, and I think it is evident from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18: “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. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 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. 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: 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” Here it is evident:

1. That what the apostle mentions, as a matter of comfort to Christians respecting their departed Christian friends, is that they shall meet them, and see them again. It is not only that their departed friends, though dead, are happy, but they shall see them, and be with them again. This is here plainly asserted. Mourn not for them, says the apostle, as those that have no hope; for when Christ comes, God shall bring them again, and we which are alive shall be caught up with them; and so we shall be ever with the Lord together. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. The apostle therefore, must be understood to mean, that they should comfort one another when mourners, with the consideration that they should hereafter be with their departed friends again in a glorious and happy state, and never part any more.

2. That there will be something else that will give comfort in meeting them in a future state, than in seeing other saints; otherwise why did the apostle mention it for their comfort, that they should see them again rather than other saints whom they had not seen nor heard of? The apostle’s speaking thus to the Thessalonians might give them just ground to expect, that the peculiar strong affection which they had cherished for their departed friends, which was crossed by their departure, would be again gratified by meeting them again; for this crossing of that affection was the ground of their mourning. If the Thessalonians knew, that to see their friends again in another world would be no gratification to the affection which they had for them as their friends, and did no way think or conceive of it as such, then to think of seeing them would be no more comfort to them or remedy to their sorrow than to think that they should see any other saint that lived or died in another country, or in a past age; and that, because it would be no remedy to the ground and foundation of their mourning, namely, the crossing of their affection to them as their friends; and if it would be no remedy to their mourning, to think thus respecting it, it never would have been mentioned to them by the apostle as a ground of comfort, or reason why they need not mourn. That was what they mourned for, namely, that they should not have their affections towards them satisfied, by seeing them and conversing with them again. That for which the heathen here spoken of, that have no hope, mourned excessively, was that they should never any more have their affection gratified. Hence it follows that the special affection, which the saints have in this world to other saints who are their friends, will in some respects remain in another world.

There is no reason why we should suppose that saints that have dwelt together in this world, and have shown kindness to each other, have been affectionate towards each other’s true happiness, should not love one another with a love of gratitude for it in another world. There is no reason why good ministers whom God hath made the instruments of salvation to others, should not have special joy in meeting their converts in heaven. 2 Corinthians 1:14, “As also ye have acknowledged us in part that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 2:19, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For ye are our glory and our joy.”

I see no reason why those that love one another with a virtuous love, and from such a love have shown kindness one to another, should not love one another the better for it in another world. There is no reason to think, that the friendship contracted here on earth between saints will be rooted out in another world. All natural affections so far as founded in animal nature or the infirmity of the present state, will cease in another world; and with respect to any affection that the godly have had to the finally reprobate, the love of God will swallow it up, and cause it wholly to cease. But I see nothing that argues that one saint in glory may not have a special respect to another because God made use of that other as an instrument to bring him into being, and thus made him the remote occasion of his happiness; or that when pious parents lose pious children, they may not comfort themselves with the thought that they shall go to them, as probably David did when he said concerning his child, 2 Samuel 12:23, “But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me:” or that even a former acquaintance with persons and their virtues may not occasion a particular respect in another world. They may go to heaven with a desire to see them upon that very account. The impressions which they have of their amiable qualifications, in consequence of their acquaintance with them here, may yet remain in another world.

(Extract from a sermon by Rev. Jonathan Edwards on Romans 2:10.)