Sons of the Daybreak
Introduction: Two Kinds of Time
There are two ways to live in this world. You can live as though history is a random, meaningless series of events, a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Or you can live as though history is a story, being told by a master storyteller, with a beginning, a middle, and a glorious end. Our secular age has chosen the former, and as a result, it is terrified of the future. It is an age of anxiety, of frantic distraction, of whistling past the graveyard. They have no anchor, and so they are tossed to and fro by every cultural squall.
But the Christian lives in a different timeline. We know the author. We have read the end of the book. And because we know the end, we understand the present. The apostle Paul, having just comforted the Thessalonians with the glorious truth of the resurrection and the return of Christ, now turns to the practical implications of this reality. He addresses the question of "when," not by giving a date for the end of the world, but by explaining the nature of the age we live in. He teaches us how to tell time, not by looking at a calendar, but by looking at the character of the world and the character of the church.
What Paul describes here is not a "woe is me, the sky is falling" panic that has characterized so much of modern evangelicalism. That is a theology of retreat. No, this is a theology of confident advance. Paul is describing the fundamental collision of two kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness, which operates on lies and is therefore always surprised by the light of God's judgment, and the kingdom of God's dear Son, which is a kingdom of light, truth, and sobriety. The "Day of the Lord" is not something Christians are to fear; it is our vindication. It is a terror to those who love the dark, but for us, it is the final daybreak.
The Text
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 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. 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; 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. 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. For God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore, comfort one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
(1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 LSB)
The World's Surprise Party (vv. 1-3)
Paul begins by reminding the Thessalonians of what they already know. Sound doctrine is the bedrock of a steady church.
"Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night." (1 Thess. 5:1-2)
The phrase "times and seasons" refers to the chronological unfolding of God's plan. The Thessalonians, like all well-taught Christians, were not in the dark. They understood the basic shape of eschatology. Paul isn't introducing a new topic; he's applying a known one. And the central point is this: the Day of the Lord comes like a thief. A thief does not come when he is expected. He comes when the householder is asleep, complacent, and unprepared. This "Day of the Lord" is a term freighted with Old Testament significance. It refers to any time God steps into history in a dramatic way to execute judgment and to save His people. It happened to Babylon, to Egypt, to Israel in 70 A.D., and it will happen in a final, ultimate sense at the end of history. The principle is the same. For those who are not watching, for the world, God's judgments are always a shocking surprise.
When does the thief come? He comes when the world is chanting its mantras of self-assurance.
"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." (1 Thess. 5:3)
Notice the pronoun: "they." Not "you." The world's great lie is that man can achieve peace and safety apart from the Prince of Peace. Every humanistic project, from the Tower of Babel to the United Nations, is an attempt to build a secure world on a foundation of rebellion against God. And the more a culture decays, the louder its elites shout about "progress" and "safety." They redefine deviancy as normal, they call evil good, and they promise a utopia built on sand. And it is precisely at the moment of peak hubris, at the very moment they declare their godless system secure, that the judgment falls. It is not slow; it is "suddenly." It is not optional; "they will never escape." And it is not random; it is as certain and inevitable as labor pains on a pregnant woman. Once the process starts, it cannot be stopped. This is the pattern of history. When a civilization gives itself over to idolatry and sexual chaos, its collapse is not a matter of "if," but "when."
The Christian's Identity (vv. 4-5)
But for the Christian, the story is entirely different. The thief is only a surprise to those who are in the dark.
"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;" (1 Thess. 5:4-5)
This is the great continental divide of the human race. It is not divided by race, or class, or nationality, but by paternity. You are either a child of darkness or a son of light. This is not something you achieve; it is something you are by the new birth. God, who said "Let there be light" in the first creation, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). Our fundamental identity has been changed. We were once darkness, but now we are light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8).
Because we are "sons of day," we belong to the new age that has already dawned in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The future has broken into the present. We are citizens of a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Therefore, the "Day of the Lord," which is a day of terror and darkness for the world, is for us the day of our King's final victory. We are not surprised by it because we are living in the light of it already. We can see the rot and decay of the kingdom of darkness for what it is because we have the light of Scripture. We are not surprised when a culture that rejects God falls apart. We expect it. We are not surprised by judgment; we are surprised it has been delayed so long.
The Christian's Duty (vv. 6-8)
This new identity necessarily leads to a new way of life. Theology always determines ethics. Because we are sons of day, we must live like it.
"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." (1 Thess. 5:6-7)
The world is asleep. It is in a spiritual stupor, oblivious to the reality of God, judgment, and eternity. It is drunk on its own propaganda, its own pleasures, its own self-worship. Sleep and drunkenness are activities of the night; they belong to the kingdom of darkness. They are characterized by a lack of awareness, a lack of self-control, and a vulnerability to danger.
The Christian is called to the opposite. We are to be "awake," which means spiritually alert and vigilant. We are to be "sober," which means clear-headed, self-controlled, and free from the intoxicating influences of the world. A sober mind is one that thinks biblically about everything. It evaluates the culture, politics, and entertainment of the day through the grid of Scripture. It is not swept away by emotional fads or intellectual fashions. It is steady, stable, and ready.
And this is not a passive state. It is a battle-ready posture.
"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." (1 Thess. 5:8)
Paul uses the image of a soldier. We are in a war. To be awake and sober is to be on duty. And we are not sent into this battle unarmed. Our vital organs, our heart, are protected by the "breastplate of faith and love." Faith is our confident trust in the promises of God, and love is our glad obedience to the commands of God. These two things protect our affections from the mortal wounds of sin and despair. Our mind, our head, is protected by the "helmet, the hope of salvation." This is not a flimsy wish; it is the iron-clad certainty that our salvation is secure and that God will bring us safely home. This hope protects our minds from the lies of the devil that tell us our fight is hopeless, that God has abandoned us, or that sin will ultimately win. With our hearts guarded by faith and love, and our minds guarded by hope, we can face any assault.
The Christian's Destiny (vv. 9-11)
The foundation for all this watchfulness and warfare is our eternal destiny. We fight not for victory, but from victory.
"For God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him." (1 Thess. 5:9-10)
Here is the bedrock of our assurance. Our future is not determined by chance or by our own wavering efforts. It has been settled by a divine "appointment." God, in His sovereign grace, has destined us not for wrath, but for salvation. The Day of the Lord holds no terror for us because the wrath we deserved was poured out upon our substitute, Jesus Christ. He died for us. That is the ground of our salvation.
And the result is glorious. "Whether we are awake or asleep," meaning whether we are alive when Christ returns or have already died in the faith, the outcome is the same: "we will live together with Him." Death is no longer a threat; it is merely a doorway into the immediate presence of Christ. This is the certain hope that makes us fearless. This is the truth that allows us to be sober when the world is drunk with fear.
Because this is our shared destiny, it must shape our life together.
"Therefore, comfort one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing." (1 Thess. 5:11)
The Christian life is not a solo mission. We are a body, an army. And the way we maintain our fighting trim is by constantly applying these truths to one another. "Comfort" here is the same word as "encourage." We are to speak these truths into each other's lives. When a brother is discouraged, we remind him that he is not appointed for wrath. When a sister is fearful, we remind her of the helmet of hope. We "build up one another" in the faith. This is the central business of the church: to be a community of daybreak, reminding each other that the night is far spent, the day is at hand, and our King is coming. We are not to be isolated, sleepy, or drunk. We are to be together, sober, and armed for the glorious, confident, and victorious advance of the kingdom of God.