Commentary - 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Bird's-eye view

In this section of his first letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul turns from comforting the saints about their brethren who have died in Christ to exhorting the living saints about the nature of Christ's return. Having just described the glorious, loud, and triumphant Second Coming, he now addresses the timing of it, or rather, the foolishness of trying to nail down the timing. The central point is one of radical contrast. For the unbelieving world, the day of the Lord will be a sudden, catastrophic surprise, a thief in the night that brings destruction. But for believers, who are sons of light and of the day, that day should not be a surprise at all. This is not because we have a secret decoder ring for prophecy charts, but because our entire orientation has changed. We are not people of the dark, so the dawning of the final Day is not something that should catch us off guard. The application, therefore, is not to get out our calculators, but to get on our armor. The Christian response to the Lord's impending return is moral vigilance, sobriety, and the active exercise of faith, hope, and love. This is all grounded in the bedrock truth that God has not appointed us to wrath, but to salvation, a destiny secured by the death of Christ.

Paul's teaching here is intensely practical. Eschatology is not a parlor game for the curious; it is the foundation for ethics. Because we know the end of the story, we are called to live a certain way in the middle of it. The whole passage is designed to comfort and build up the saints, reminding them of their secure position in Christ and calling them to live consistently with that identity. We are to be a people characterized by alertness, not by sleepy, drunken stupor. We are day-people, and we should live like it.

Outline

Context In 1 Thessalonians

This passage flows directly out of the famous "rapture" passage at the end of chapter 4 (4:13-18). There, Paul comforted the Thessalonians who were grieving over fellow believers who had died. He assured them that the dead in Christ will rise first and will not miss out on the Lord's return. That description was loud, public, and glorious, with a shout, the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet of God. Now, in chapter 5, he anticipates the natural follow-up question: "When will this happen?" Paul pivots from the manner of the return to the timing and, more importantly, the church's proper posture in light of that timing. He uses the well-known Old Testament concept of "the day of the Lord" to frame his instruction. This section completes his thought on eschatology that began in 4:13, providing the ethical implications of the glorious hope he has just described. It serves as a bridge to the final section of the letter, which contains a series of practical, staccato exhortations for church life (5:12-22).

Key Issues

The Day of the Lord

Before we dive in, we must have a right understanding of the phrase the day of the Lord. Our dispensationalist friends have trained us to think this refers exclusively to the final Second Coming, a single event at the end of time. But that is not how the Bible uses the phrase. Throughout the Old Testament, "the day of the Lord" refers to any time God steps into history in a dramatic way to execute judgment and bring deliverance. The fall of Babylon was a day of the Lord (Isa 13:6, 9). The judgment on Egypt was a day of the Lord (Jer 46:10). The locust plague in Joel was a day of the Lord (Joel 1:15). These were historical, temporal judgments that served as foreshadowings, or types, of the final Day of the Lord. So when Paul uses this phrase, his hearers would understand it to mean a time of decisive divine intervention. While it certainly includes the Final Coming, the principle applies to any great historical judgment, including the one that was looming just over the horizon for that generation: the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The principles of readiness are the same, whether for a temporal judgment or the final one.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need of anything to be written to you.

Paul begins by gently setting aside the Thessalonians' curiosity about timetables. The phrase times and seasons is a common biblical pairing that refers to chronological details, the kind of stuff that prophecy-chart enthusiasts love. Paul says, "You don't need me to write to you about this." This is not because it is unimportant, but because they already possess the essential knowledge. He had taught them the basics during his time with them. This is a polite way of saying that a lust for detailed prophetic calendars is a distraction from the main point. The crucial thing is not knowing the date, but knowing the nature of the day.

2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

Here is what they know "full well." The central characteristic of the day of the Lord's arrival is its unexpectedness. The metaphor of a thief in the night is potent. A thief does not send a save-the-date card. He comes when the householder is asleep, secure, and unprepared. His arrival is sudden, unwelcome, and disruptive. Jesus Himself used this same imagery (Matt 24:43; Luke 12:39). The point is not that the Lord's coming is illegitimate, like a thief's, but that it will be a complete shock to the unprepared world.

3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman who is pregnant, and they will never escape.

Paul now describes the mindset of the world, "they," just before the judgment falls. They are speaking of "Peace and safety!" This is the cry of a deluded world, confident in its own security systems, its political arrangements, and its technological prowess. It is the spirit of secular optimism, completely oblivious to the storm gathering on the horizon. And at the very moment of this self-congratulatory peace, sudden destruction will hit. The second metaphor is of labor pains. For a pregnant woman, the onset of labor is sudden, intense, and inescapable. You cannot talk your way out of it or reschedule it. Once it begins, the process will run its course. So it is with God's judgment. For the world basking in its false security, the coming of the Lord will be a sudden, agonizing, and irreversible catastrophe.

4-5 But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief, for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;

Here is the great pivot. The "thief" metaphor does not apply to believers in the same way. The reason is not that we have inside information on the date, but that we are in a different spiritual location. We are not "in darkness." Darkness in Scripture is a metaphor for ignorance, sin, and rebellion against God. The world is in darkness, which is why the coming of the Lord, the great Light, is such a shock. But believers are sons of light and sons of day. This is our fundamental identity in Christ. We have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son (Col 1:13). Light is our native element. Therefore, the dawning of the Great Day should not overtake us as though we were creatures of the night. It is the day we have been waiting for, the consummation of all we believe.

6-7 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.

The ethical application flows directly from the theological identity. If we are people of the day, we must act like it. Paul uses two related metaphors: sleep and drunkenness. "Sleep" here is not literal sleep, but moral and spiritual lethargy, a state of being dull, unresponsive, and careless. "Drunkenness" is a state of being intoxicated with the world's pleasures and priorities, unable to think clearly or make righteous judgments. These are activities that belong to the night. The "others," the sons of darkness, live in this state perpetually. But for us, it is entirely inappropriate. The command is to be awake and sober. This means to be spiritually alert, vigilant, clear-headed, and self-controlled. We are to be on watch.

8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

Being awake and sober is not a passive state. It is an active, armed readiness. Paul switches to military imagery, which he develops more fully in Ephesians 6. The Christian life is a battle, and we are to be soldiers on duty. Our vital organs are to be protected by the breastplate of faith and love. Faith is our trust in God and His promises, and love is our active obedience toward God and our neighbor. These protect our heart. Our head, our mind and thinking, is to be protected by the helmet of the hope of salvation. This is not a wishy-washy "I hope I'll be saved," but the confident, settled assurance that our salvation is secure. This hope protects our minds from the lies of the devil and the despair that can come from worldly troubles.

9 For God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

This is the foundation for our hope. This is why we can be confident. Our ultimate destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of divine appointment. God, in His sovereign good pleasure, has not destined us for His wrath. The "they" of verse 3 are appointed to wrath, and that appointment will be kept. But we have a different appointment. We have been appointed to obtain salvation. And this is not based on anything in us, but is entirely through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a glorious statement of God's sovereign grace in salvation. We are saved because He chose to save us.

10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

The means of this salvation is the substitutionary death of Christ. He died for us, in our place. The purpose of His death was to secure our eternal union with Him. Paul uses "awake or asleep" here in a different sense than in verse 6. Here, "asleep" refers to those who have physically died in Christ, picking up the theme from chapter 4. "Awake" refers to those who are still alive when the Lord returns. The point is that our state at the time of His coming, whether living or dead, makes no difference to our ultimate destiny. Because He died for us, all of us, the living and the dead, will live together with Him. This is the ultimate goal of salvation: eternal, conscious fellowship with Jesus Christ.

11 Therefore, comfort one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

The conclusion is pastoral. This robust doctrine of eschatology and sovereign grace is not meant for theological speculation that puffs up or divides. It is meant for mutual encouragement and edification. "Comfort" is the same word used in 4:18. The truth of our secure destiny in Christ is the ultimate comfort in the face of death and worldly turmoil. "Build up" is an architectural term; we are to be strengthening one another, adding to each other's faith and stability. Paul ends with a commendation, "just as you also are doing," acknowledging that they are already putting this into practice. He wants them to continue and abound in it all the more.

Application

The message of this passage crashes into our modern evangelical world with considerable force. Much of our popular eschatology has produced exactly what Paul warns against: either a sleepy indifference ("it's all going to burn up anyway") or a feverish obsession with signs and timetables that distracts from our primary duties. Paul calls us to a third way: the way of the vigilant soldier.

First, we must recognize that our fundamental identity has changed. We are sons of the day. We are not to be characterized by the moral stupor of the world around us. This means we must be sober-minded about the culture. We cannot be drunk on its entertainments, its politics, its priorities. We must be clear-headed, judging all things by the Word of God. We are awake, which means we are paying attention to our moral and spiritual condition.

Second, this alertness is not a fearful, anxious peering into the shadows. It is a confident, armed readiness. We are to put on our armor daily. We protect our hearts with faith in God's promises and active love for the brethren. We protect our minds with the sure and certain hope of our final salvation. A Christian who has his helmet on straight is not going to be knocked silly by every alarming headline or cultural tremor. His hope is not in the stability of this age, but in the salvation secured by Jesus Christ.

Finally, all this doctrine is meant to be shared. It is fuel for fellowship. We are to take these truths and use them to comfort and build up our brothers and sisters. When a brother is discouraged, we remind him that he is not appointed to wrath. When a sister is anxious, we remind her of the helmet of salvation. This is how sound doctrine builds a sound church, a church that is awake, sober, and ready for the return of the King.