1Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more. 2For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, 4that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, 5not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God, 6that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. 7For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. 8Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.
9But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, 10for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more; 11and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you, 12that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.
13But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, 17then 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. 18Therefore comfort one another with these words.
The first reaping of the earth was done by an angel looking like a son of man at the instructions of an angel.
Some interpreters view this angel as Jesus. However, Jesus is never called an angel but is distinguished from them. This one is not “the Son of Man,” the title Jesus took for Himself, but “like a son of man.” In other words, this angel looked human. He follows the instructions given by another angel. Though the angel could be carrying a message from the throne of God, it is not likely and does not follow the pattern of the rest of Revelation.
The reference to the angel sitting on a cloud may also allude to the rapture of the church. Paul reveals that the church, when raptured, will be caught up to Jesus “in the clouds” (1 Thess 4:17).
The sickle used by this angel indicates he harvested wheat that was ripe, ready for harvest. Though this harvest could be seen as judgment, it may also be a positive harvest, possibly a picture of the rapture of the church. This would fit with the Parable of the Wheat and Tares (Matt 13:24-30, 36-43). This vision is not chronologically connected to the events in Revelation. It could have happened at any time from chapter 4 through the return of Christ in chapter 19.