Bereaved (ἀπορφανίζω)

The term “causing children to become orphans” is used only once in Scripture, describing how Paul perceived the actions of the Jews against the Thessalonians when they stirred up the city against him and forced him to leave.

But we, brethren, were bereaved from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, were more diligently eager to see your face with great longing—1 Thessalonians 2:17.

Paul spent three weeks with the Thessalonians before the Jews, moved by jealousy, stirred up the city and forced him and Silas to leave (Acts 17:2). Later, he sent Timothy to strengthen their knowledge of the faith and to bring back word of their steadfastness (1 Thessalonians 3:1–2).

James uses a form of the word “bereaved” in James 1:27, referring to children who are orphans and to the one who possesses a clean and undefiled religion before God. A person who considers himself religious should be cautious to ensure that his actions reflect what he claims to believe. The one who looks into the mature law of liberty—the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus—and continues in it will not be a forgetful hearer but a doer, living out the faith he has in Christ through grace.

In the upper room, Jesus declared that He would not leave us as orphans. Although He was going away, He promised to send another to abide with us into the age (John 14:18). True to His word, after His final ascension into the heaven—having shown many proofs over forty days that He was raised from the dead—He asked the Father, and the Holy Spirit was sent to dwell with all those of the Church throughout this malignantly evil age (John 14:16–17).

Although not clearly expressed in many English translations, the phrase “having been taken” in 1 Thessalonians 2:17 describes how the Jews caused the Thessalonians to be orphaned from their father in the faith. Yet, because the gospel did not come to them in word only, but also in inherent ability and by the Holy Spirit, they remained in the faith until Paul was able to send fellow workers to bring them along in maturity.