Paul is zeroing in specifically on the topic of believers who have died, making sure his readers have accurate understanding about that particular group of people.

In this verse, the word refers to believers who have physically died, using the gentle image of sleep to remind us that death for a Christian is not a permanent end but a temporary rest before resurrection.

Paul uses this word to show that his teaching about resurrection has a specific goal — he wants grief to be replaced with hope, not just eased by information.

Paul didn't want believers crushed by grief over their dead loved ones the way people are who have nothing to hold onto — not because loss doesn't hurt, but because their sorrow had nowhere to go.

Don't grieve the same way those without hope do — your sorrow should look different because your foundation is different.

Those who have no relationship with God grieve without comfort because they have nothing beyond this life to hold onto — but you are not among them.

In this verse, it points to those who are gripped by hopelessness — non-believers don't just lack hope, they carry no hope at all, holding nothing to anchor them beyond death.

Unlike the vague, uncertain hope the world offers, this is a rock-solid confidence in God, who guarantees that death is not the end for those who belong to him.