But we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are fallen asleep, to the end that ye be not grieved even as also the rest who have no hope.
The believers at Thessalonica were waiting for the Lord to return, and then some of their number died. Their grief exposed something they had never been taught. Paul answers it, and his answer shows what death now is for a Christian, and what sorrow belongs to those who know it.
Their fear was not that their friends were unsafe. It was that they had missed out.
This hope will not be disappointed. But as time went on and Christ still did not come, some of them "fell asleep." This troubled them. They thought the believers who had died might miss all the blessings and glories of the reign of Christ — blessings that those still alive on earth when Christ appeared would enjoy. They had little doubt about their eternal blessing, or about enjoying the heavenly blessings of the Father's house. But they feared they would miss the glories of the kingdom.
One writer traces the gap to how new they were in the faith:
No one had yet taught these Christians — warm and earnest-hearted, but young in the faith — how believers who had died could be with the Lord when He comes and share His glory. They were so full of the expectation of the Saviour's return that they had never thought of any of them dying before He came.
Their grief looked like the grief of people who have no hope. One writer asks how that could be:
Their grief was as excessive as the grief of everyone else — Jews, or rather people who do not know God — who have no hope. Why such extreme sorrow over people who, when they were called away, knew God's love and salvation in the Lord Jesus? Is eternal life worth nothing? Is the forgiveness of sins, or having the Holy Spirit? It can only have been ignorance on their part... So it was for lack of knowing better that they had given in to thoughts which plunged them into Christ-dishonouring sorrow.
Paul does not forbid grief itself.
Do not misunderstand these words. Believers are not forbidden to grieve. Not at all. God does not want His children to be unfeeling. He wants us to feel what we meet along the way, but He does not want us swallowed up by it, as others are. "The Hope" comes into the Christian's sorrow. It sweetens the most bitter cup and brightens the darkest hour.
Scripture uses one word for Christ's death and another for the believer's. The difference is deliberate.
Look closely at the words used here. We can be sure they are exact, as the words of Scripture always are. "Jesus died;" His people only "fall asleep." For Him it was truly death, in all its reality and severity, as the judgment on sin — the sign and picture of a deeper judgment. For them it is only "sleep" — rest and refreshment, and from it they rise to a day that never ends and never fades.
Some have taken this picture to mean the soul itself is unconscious until the resurrection. Darby rejects that, and he answers by asking who it is that falls asleep:
These passages show every Christian with spiritual understanding how absurd this idea is. And more than that: Scripture never speaks of the soul sleeping. It is a beautiful expression. It means that death was only falling asleep, to wake again. But it is always the person who falls asleep, never the soul... Scripture always says the person falls asleep, never the soul. It always means the Christian has died. It is a beautiful way of saying that he is not, as we put it, "dead and gone."
There is an obvious comfort to offer someone who is grieving. Paul passes it by.
Does he blame them for hoping too eagerly for the return of Jesus? Does he say they were too taken up with it, or that they were excited and lacked sober sense?... Not one such word falls from the apostle's pen... Nor does he comfort those who mourn in the usual way, by reminding them that they will soon follow — that they will soon be with their loved ones again in heaven. No indeed. True as that may be, he does not offer it as a ground of comfort.
- Ignorance. Their distress came from a gap in their teaching, not from weak faith. They feared their dead friends had lost their share in the coming glory.
- Excess. Sorrow goes wrong when it copies the sorrow of people who have no hope. These believers knew God's love, forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Kelly calls grief like theirs "Christ-dishonouring."
- Permission. Tears are allowed. Being swallowed up by them is not.
- Sleep. Christ's death bore the full severity of judgment. The believer's death is sleep — rest that ends in waking. And it is the person who sleeps, never the soul.
- Direction. Paul does not point mourners to where their friends have gone. He does not promise they will soon follow. He points them to the hope that comes into a Christian's sorrow.
For if we believe that Jesus has died and has risen again, so also God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.
Believers in Thessalonica were grieving over fellow Christians who had died. Paul's answer does not start with the grave. It starts with two facts about Jesus, and from them draws a conclusion about everyone who has fallen asleep.
The verse before this one tells the Thessalonians not to grieve like people who have no hope. That is not a command to feel nothing.
Do not misunderstand these words. Saints are not forbidden to sorrow. By no means. God would not have His children unfeeling. He would have us feel the circumstances of the way, but would not have us swallowed up by them, as others are. "The Hope" comes into the Christian's sorrow. It sweetens the most bitter cup and brightens the darkest hour.
The verse uses two different words for what happened, and the difference is deliberate.
Let us look closely at the words used here, for we may be sure they are exact, as always in Scripture. "Jesus died"; His saints only "fall asleep." With Him it was death itself, in all its reality and severity as the judgment upon sin. It was the sign and type of a deeper judgment. With them it is only "sleep" — rest and refreshment, from which they rise to a day that never ends and never fades.
Some take that word "sleep" to mean the soul itself goes unconscious until the resurrection.
Some say that at death the soul goes to sleep, and does not wake until the resurrection. But Scripture connects the thought of "sleep" with the body. The thought of "sleep in Jesus" only refers to the believer. Death is now robbed of its terrors for the Christian, so that it can be described as "sleep."
Older translations read "asleep in Jesus." Here the wording is "through Jesus," which can be taken in more than one way.
So we can appreciate the tenderness of the expression, "those who have fallen asleep through Jesus." Better still, I think: "those who have been laid asleep by Jesus" — by Him who holds the keys of death and hades, and who is their Saviour. Take it the first way, and the meaning is that "through Jesus" — through His work for them — death had become to them only a sleep. But that seems a strange way of saying it. Taken the second way, the words imply both the Lord's rule over death and His tender care of His people.
Paul rests the future of the dead on something already settled in the past.
The first thing he assures them is that God will bring these departed saints with Jesus when He comes again. In the last verse of chapter 3 he had spoken of "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with ALL His saints." Here he strengthens that assurance. The "all" includes those who "sleep in Jesus." God will bring them with Christ as surely as Jesus Himself died and rose again. For faith, the death and resurrection of Christ are the standard of absolute truth, reality and certainty.
Paul cures their ignorance by pointing them to a Person, not to a theory.
These saints were in ignorance, and sorrow was the result of their ignorance. The Apostle wants to dispel their darkness and wipe away their tears. And the way he takes is the only effective way of clearing the clouds and ending the sorrow. He presents Christ. He reminds us that Jesus has died and is risen again. His death and resurrection are the great pattern of those who sleep. Christ rose in secret, and His sleeping saints will rise the same way.
The promise is about the people themselves, not only their spirits.
It does not mean the Lord receiving them. Nor does He bring their spirits with Him to rejoin their bodies from the graves. It means that God will bring those who have fallen asleep with His Son, when He comes with all His saints. They will all be in that glorified company.
But how can people who are in their graves come with Him?
It is clear from Scripture that He does not find His church on earth when He appears in glory, but that it comes with Him. He first catches it up to Himself, and then it comes forth with Him in His glory.
- Ground. Everything rests on two facts already true: Jesus died and rose. What God did for Him settles what He will do for His own.
- Sleep. Jesus tasted death as judgment; for His people it is sleep — a word tied to the body, not to an unconscious soul.
- Through Jesus. He who holds the keys of death and hades lays His own to sleep. His rule over death and His care for His people meet in that word.
- Brought. God will bring them with His Son when Christ appears in glory. To do that, He first catches them up to Himself.
- Comfort. Grief is allowed; hopeless grief is not. The hope does not remove the tears; it sweetens them.
(For this we say to you in [the] word of [the] Lord, that *we*, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord, are in no way to anticipate those who have fallen asleep;
Believers in Thessalonica had died, and their friends feared the dead had missed the Lord's return. Paul answers not with advice but with a word from the Lord Himself: the dead lose nothing.
The opening phrase tells us where this teaching came from.
Paul introduces this explanation with the words "this we declare to you by a word from the Lord." That shows what follows is not something already made known, but something freshly revealed. His authority for saying it is not Old Testament scripture, and not anything said before, but the direct revelation of the Lord.
The Old Testament already said much about the future. This was not part of it.
This was a new revelation, as he hints when he opens the subject in verse 15. The day of the Lord was not a new revelation. Hardly any great subject comes up more often in the Old Testament, from Isaiah to Malachi. Even where that phrase is missing, the idea is usually there. But the Old Testament never made known what the apostle teaches the Thessalonian believers here. They are distinct truths.
The Thessalonians had no New Testament to consult and no comfort from the culture around them.
This is a special and unique revelation, which he gives to the grieving Thessalonians. It was prompted by the mistake they had made when some of their fellow believers died. They feared that these dead friends had lost their share in the coming glorious meeting between the Lord and His saints... (Their pagan neighbours had no hope of meeting loved ones again after death. The classic Greek and Roman writers are full of bleak words about the hopelessness of death.) We must remember that the New Testament did not yet exist.
Their distress came from strong faith, not weak faith.
Some people today are quite surprised that anyone found this hard. But the sorrow of the Thessalonians came from the simplicity of their faith, and people feel no difficulty now partly because they have no real faith in it. If they had more faith, they might have their puzzles too — not at the end, but, as usual, at the start.
Older English Bibles say the living "shall not prevent" those who have died. Today that reads as the opposite of what Paul meant.
The meaning of a word is decided not by where it came from but by how it is used. Take the word prevent. Going by its origin, it would mean to come before, or to get there first. When the Authorized Version was made in 1604 A.D., that was still how people used it, so the translators put it in Matthew 17:25 and 1 Thessalonians 4:15. Today it is never used in that original sense, but always to mean hinder.
The promise removes the fear of being left behind, and then goes further.
So it is clear that if there is any moment of difference, it favours those who sleep, not those who remain alive. Those who are asleep are woken first. Remember, sleep is for the body. Scripture never says or assumes that the soul is asleep.
Paul counts himself among the living rather than the sleeping. Some have used that against him.
See how the apostle kept on expecting the coming of the Lord. Some people have dared to say that Paul made a mistake in expecting the Lord to come in his own day. They are the ones making an awful mistake. God never revealed when Christ would come, and Paul did not pretend to know it. But he knew the time had come when we should always be expecting Him... That is why Paul put himself in this group: "we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord." He lived like a man who expected Christ every day.
Commentators differ on how firmly Paul ties himself to that group. Kelly reads the wording more loosely:
The flexible use of the Greek present participles here does not force us to take the Apostle as saying that he would be one of those alive at the time; nor does the English wording of the common translation... The form of words may certainly mean "those of us who," and so on. ... It was from God, for the good of believers all through this age, that he left the "blessed hope" of that event in such general terms.
- Authority. The words "by a word from the Lord" mark a fresh revelation, not old ground restated.
- Occasion. Their grief came from simple faith: they feared their dead friends had lost their share in that hope.
- Correction. "Prevent" in older Bibles means go before, not hinder; the living will not get there first.
- Reversal. The sleepers are not left behind. They are raised first, and it is the body that sleeps, never the soul.
- Posture. Paul puts himself among "we who are alive." He expected Christ daily, and readers ever since are meant to wait the same way.
for the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel's voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;
Believers in Thessalonica had died, and their friends feared they had missed the Lord's return. Paul answers with three sounds — a shout, a voice, a trumpet — and with an order: the dead rise first.
The first phrase carries the weight of the whole verse. Angels, voices and trumpets all take second place to it.
That statement is emphatic: "The Lord Himself will descend." In that supreme hour He will not act through a deputy. He will come Himself! He will descend with an assembling shout. Countless angels will serve, for the archangel's voice will ring out. The hosts of God will be on the move, for the trumpets of God will sound. Yet all these are secondary to the mighty action of the Lord Himself. Verse 16 gives us His sudden descent from heaven into the air, and the exertion of His power — the voice that wakes the dead.
The ESV translates this shout as "a cry of command." Its background shows who the call is for.
The word used here is the technical word for an admiral's call to his seamen, or a general's to his soldiers. More widely, it is any special call of command to those in a special relationship with the one commanding them. It is not a call to the world — it is not a call to everybody. The gospel is that, and thank God for it; but this shout is only for those who know His voice, who have heard Him already... The word "shout" has nothing to do with loudness, and just as little to do with being for everyone — the very reverse.
The archangel has a name, and his links point beyond the church.
The archangel is Michael (Jude 9). He is Israel's prince (Daniel 10:21), the great spiritual power that stands for Israel. Every time Scripture names him, it is about events in the history of that nation... If this is the interpretation, we have here three widening circles. (1) The Church, (2) Israel, (3) All men... As I have said, the church will respond at once. The work will be slower for Israel, but from that moment the nation will begin to move...
Commentators differ on how far to press this.
Some have suggested that the archangel's voice may have some connection with the raising of Old Testament saints at the coming of the Lord. Without more solid grounds it would be unwise to decide whether this is so. But at least we can see that the occasion will be one of great angelic rejoicing.
Trumpets sound elsewhere in Scripture as warnings of judgment. This one is different.
We also hear "the trumpet of God," and this is a divine, declared testimony. For the church on earth it will be "the last trumpet" (1 Cor. 15:52). The seven trumpets of Revelation are of a different order. They are trumpets of judgment, sounding a clear testimony to a world in rebellion against God. Saints, however, will hear this "trumpet of God," and it gathers them together to the Lord. As others have pointed out, this seems to connect with Numbers 10:4. There the blowing of one trumpet was the signal for the princes of Israel to gather to Moses.
The word "first" was the point the grieving Thessalonians needed.
He assures their hearts about the order of events connected with His coming. The first thing that happens is the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. They lose nothing by having departed. They will be the first ready to go up and meet the Lord... This is grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus. At the same time we know that God will accomplish every event connected with His coming in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. No one can measure the interval.
The phrase "dead in Christ" marks out one particular group.
Old Testament saints will certainly share in the first resurrection. But Paul is writing here only about Christians, so Old Testament saints are not in his mind. Those who "sleep in Jesus" in verse 14 are the same group as "the dead in Christ" in verse 16. At His coming the Lord will wake them and call them out of their graves, and that is why Scripture describes them as sleeping. He has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1). So death for the believer is only a passing sleep... As far as this world is concerned, saints are dead just like sinners. But the added words — "in Christ" — mark them out as the Christian dead.
- Himself. No messenger, no deputy: every other sound in the verse serves the Lord's own descent.
- Shout. The word is a commander's call to his own troops — not loudness, not the world, but those who already know His voice.
- Voice. The archangel's voice widens the circle toward Israel. Writers caution against pressing the link too far.
- Trumpet. This trumpet gathers; it does not judge. It stands apart from the trumpets of judgment in Revelation.
- First. The order settles the grief. The Christian dead rise before the living move, so no one who has fallen asleep loses anything.
then *we*, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in [the] clouds, to meet the Lord in [the] air; and thus we shall be always with [the] Lord.
Paul wrote this to believers grieving over friends who had died. Four questions shape the verse: who is caught up, by what power, where the meeting happens, and what it is all for.
The verb is passive. Nobody climbs; everyone is taken. One writer ties the moment to the Lord's own resurrection power:
"Caught up." He is coming clothed in the glory of resurrection, in the way most fitted to display His own power. The bodies dead in the grave are all gathered up in a moment — an expression of the strength He applies. There is no power in us to rise. We are caught up in a moment, to meet the Lord in the air. He fills us up with life.
The objection that such a thing breaks the laws of nature has been raised, and answered:
The law of gravity did not prevent Enoch being taken; it did not hold Elijah when the time came for God to take him up; it did not prevent the ascension of our own blessed Lord. How could it? He is the Creator of every law, and the power by which He went up is the power that will catch us up when He descends from heaven with that wonderful shout of triumph and pent-up love for His church.
Some believers described here never die at all:
This event has nothing at all to do with death, though people have often confused the two. Far from it: when the Lord Jesus Christ appears, a believer who is alive will never see death. See 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:15, 17. It has so little to do with death that the apostle says plainly, "We shall not all sleep." Here it is contrasted with death.
The word "together" speaks straight to people who have buried a friend:
In verse 17 notice the word "together." The Thessalonians were grieving, and so often do we. Taught by God to love one another, their hearts were torn when death snatched some away from them. We too know what these wrenches are. We do not grieve as those who have no hope, and neither did they. The life-giving voice of the Son of God is going to reunite us. We shall meet Him, but not in ones or twos or in scattered groups. We shall be caught up TOGETHER.
The same word settles a common question about the next life:
People often ask, "Will we meet our loved ones and also recognise them?" Here is the answer: "together with them" implies both reunion and recognition. These words would mean nothing if they did not mean recognition.
"To meet" is a specific word, and its use elsewhere in the New Testament fixes its sense:
The word used here occurs only three times elsewhere in the New Testament, in Matthew 25:1 and 6, and Acts 28:15. In each case it means "going out and returning with." That is exactly what happened when the believers from Rome "met" Paul. They went out as far as the Forum of Appius, and having met him they joined his company and returned with him to Rome. So shall we all meet our Lord in the air. We join His company, never to part from Him. Later we shall return with Him, when He is revealed to the world in His glory.
The location is not incidental, since Scripture calls Satan the prince of the power of the air:
Suppose a great king at war with another sent a message to his army in a distant battlefield, saying he would meet them in the capital of the enemy's country. We would say he will need to crush the enemy's power before he can do that, and if he does it, it will be the clearest possible proof of his complete victory. It is just so here.
Going up to meet Him and His public appearing in judgment are two different things:
The saints were not to wait for the day of the Lord to come on the earth, but to go up to meet Him in the air, and be for ever with Him. If He appeared, we know they would appear with Him... The church's connection with the return of the Lord was to go up to meet Him in the air, to be gathered to Him. The day was an entirely different thing; it was vengeance from His presence.
Paul does not end with glory or rule, but with a Person:
Notice here that the apostle, when speaking of the Lord's coming, does not enter at all, as regards our portion, into the consequences in glory and rule. That has its place. God had revealed to him how He would call up the saints to their enjoyment. And for his own joy and delight, what satisfies and fills the apostle's heart is all contained in this: "and so we will always be with the Lord."
Being with Christ at death is already precious, yet this is more:
When a believer departs, the deepest joy of that state is to be with Christ... Yet that state was intermediate and imperfect, however blessed. The body was not glorified; nor were all the saints gathered. At His coming all will be complete and perfect for the heavenly family, "and so we will always be with the Lord."
- Caught — the power is all His. Nobody climbs. He gathers the bodies in the grave in a moment and fills us with life.
- Together — nobody goes up alone. "Together with them" promises both reunion and recognition of those we buried.
- To meet — the word means going out to greet someone and coming back with Him. The meeting in the air starts the journey; it does not end it.
- In the air — He claims His own in the seat of Satan's power. That proves the enemy is already beaten.
- Always with the Lord — Paul stops there. The prize is not the glory but the Person, and it never ends.
So encourage one another with these words.)
Paul has just told a grieving church how the Lord will return, raise the dead, and gather every believer to Himself. Now he tells them what to do with that news: say it to each other.
The word that opens the verse points backwards. The Thessalonians feared their dead friends would lose out. The answer came as a fresh message that sorted out the sequence.
But how so, since they sleep in death, and He comes from heaven in power and glory? What follows is a most enlightening and fresh message, "in the word of the Lord." It clears up the difficulty by unfolding the order of events, and so the way by which the sleeping saints are to come with Jesus. The Thessalonian believers had imagined the departed would miss the joyful reunion. They thought the dead would at least come behind the living who remain. But it is not so... Here we learn how it can be: He first descends for them, and afterwards brings them with Him.
Notice what Paul does not say to the grieving. He never tells them they will soon join their friends in heaven.
The Lord's coming was not a strange doctrine to them. Paul could not think of a Christian dying without his going to heaven. Yet the comfort he gives is not that, but their return with Jesus. Death did not deprive them of this; God would have them with Him... Christ's first coming so finished redemption and the putting away of sin that His second coming means glory and being with Him, for dead and living saints alike... If I were to comfort the friends of a departed saint by saying that God would bring him with Jesus when He came again, what would they think of me? That I was mad or wild. Yet such is the comfort Paul gives to the Thessalonians, and no other. Elsewhere he teaches plainly that the soul of the saint goes to be with Christ when he dies.
The comfort is tied to these words. That rules out some familiar sayings — even one David himself used.
The coming of the Lord is the one bright guiding star on faith's horizon... The one who is dying has no right to say, "You will meet me where I am going," for that may never happen. Instead, we shall meet in the clouds, and the Lord Himself will welcome us together in the air. The one left behind has no right to draw his comfort, as David rightly did in his day, from the thought, "I shall go to him, but he will not return to me." His comfort should be this instead: "since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep."
One clause holds the greatest comfort of all. Paul places it last, just before the command.
But there is another privilege marked out here, and in itself it is far more precious. "So we will always be with Him." This is the deepest joy of the state a saint enters at death — to be with Christ... Only that state was intermediate and imperfect, however blessed. For the body was not glorified; nor were all the saints gathered. At His coming all will be complete and perfect for the heavenly family, "and so we will always be with the Lord." What could be missing from such words of infinite and everlasting joy? What could be added?
The word can also be read as "encourage." This work belongs to every believer, not to teachers only, and it is needed in a world growing darker. The Rapture is the catching up of believers to meet the Lord in the air.
In that chapter the apostle had been expanding on the details of the Rapture. The very thought of that wonderful moment thrills the hearts of all who love the Lord. He ends by saying, "Therefore encourage one another with these words." What a ministry of comfort is open to each of us, as we take up this call. This world is moving faster and faster towards the day of judgment. The spirit of anti-Christ is already at work. Persecution is the lot of "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus"... but the end for the believer is sure and glorious.
The same letter sets comfort beside other duties believers owe each other.
The Apostle also urges us to build one another up in our most holy faith. So the Christian company according to God consists of believers who love one another, comfort one another, and build one another up (1 Thess. 3:12; 4:9, 18; 5:11).
- Grief — the Thessalonians feared their dead friends would lose out at the Lord's return. Paul writes to answer that fear.
- Words — the comfort rests on words given "in the word of the Lord," not on guesswork about the unseen world.
- Order — those words settle the sequence: the Lord first descends for His sleeping people, and afterwards brings them with Him.
- Reunion — no one is left behind. The Lord welcomes the living and the dead together in the clouds.
- Ministry — "one another" makes every believer a comforter, called to love, comfort and build up the rest.
But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that ye should be written to,
Paul has just told the Thessalonians something new about the Lord's coming for His own. On the times and seasons, though, he says they need no letter at all — and that leaves us asking why the two subjects stand so differently.
The opening words of chapter 5 are set deliberately against what came just before, where Paul writes so that his readers will not be uninformed.
The first and second verses of chapter 5 stand in very direct contrast to 1 Thess. 4:13, 15. About the coming of the Lord Jesus for His saints — what people usually call "the rapture" — they knew nothing. That left them in needless difficulty and sorrow, so the Apostle wrote to them "by the word of the Lord" to teach them. But about "the times and the seasons" they were not ignorant at all, and Paul had no need to write to them on that subject.
The phrase is not a general word for the future. Writers connect it with God's dealings with this world.
The times and seasons have to do with the earth and not heaven, as Genesis 1:14 shows us. In Thessalonians the term does not mean the divisions of earth's history that the sun and stars mark out. It means the larger divisions, each with its own special features, which God's moral government of the earth marks out. In the past, great events have opened a fresh season: the flood, the rescue of Israel from Egypt and the giving of the law, the fall of David's line of kings and the passing of rule into the hands of the nations. Another season is still to come. The Lord Jesus will open it when He takes up His great power to reign. That will be "the day of the Lord."
Paul does not argue the point. He treats the day of the Lord as something his readers already know.
So the apostle, when he speaks of the day of the Lord, refers to it as already too well known to need fresh words about it. The Thessalonians did not need teaching about that. But this makes very plain the difference between how God will deal with the saints and how He will deal with the rest of mankind. When Paul takes up the Lord's coming, they need teaching; when he speaks about the day of the Lord, they do not.
That gap in what they knew leads one writer to a firm conclusion.
The Thessalonians had no difficulty with these times and seasons. They knew all they needed to know about them. Yet no one had taught them properly about what will happen at the resurrection and rapture of the saints. It is obvious then that Paul — and therefore the Spirit — did not count the resurrection and rapture as part of the times and seasons. Those belong to the day of the Lord and the kingdom on earth.
Once Paul reaches this subject, the way he speaks of his readers changes.
In the previous chapters Paul had not pointed out any period of time in connection with the Lord's coming. Here he takes up the question of "times and seasons." But the moment he touches this point, he stops saying "we." He says "they" and "them" — those who are outside. He takes great care to mark the saints off from them. When he speaks to the saints again, he calls them "But you, brothers."
One writer turns to what this means for working out dates.
Times and seasons do not directly concern the Church. They look on to the times and conditions in which God will carry out His ways with the earth, as the prophetic Scriptures foretell. The Lord had said to His disciples, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority" (Acts 1:7). So it is useless to try to work out the date of the Lord's coming from Daniel's prophecies or any other Scripture. It is worse than useless. It tries to find out what the Lord says is not for us to know.
Yet ignorance of dates is not ignorance of sequence:
Scripture has foretold two events, and one must happen before the other: the rapture of the saints comes before the day of the Lord, when He returns with His saints. Christians are expected to know this order... Still, we are not to know when either will happen. We are to be ready for the rapture at all times.
- Contrast. Chapter 4 taught them what they did not know. Chapter 5 builds on what they already knew.
- Scope. "Times and seasons" belong to God's government of the earth, and lead up to the day of the Lord.
- Source. Paul wrote nothing new about the day of the Lord because it was already too well known to need fresh words.
- Proof. They knew the times and seasons well, but knew nothing of the rapture — so the two are not the same event.
- Posture. Believers may know the order of events, but not the dates — so the call is to be ready, not to calculate.
for ye know perfectly well yourselves, that the day of [the] Lord so comes as a thief by night.
In chapter 4 Paul described the Lord coming for His own. Now he turns to an event the world will never see coming: what is "the day of the Lord," and how could Paul say they already knew it perfectly?
The opening phrase of verse 1 sets the frame for verse 2. "Times and seasons" is not a vague expression for the future; it points to God's dealings with this world, and the same words appear elsewhere in Scripture.
'Times and seasons' as relating to the earth are first mentioned in Genesis 1:14. We have the exact words here, and we meet with them again in Acts 1:7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:1. It is clear that this expression refers to God's dispensations and dealings on the earth. In Acts 1, the disciples were not to know the time of God's dealings. Yet the Thessalonians did know the manner of God's predicted dealings, and the order in which they would happen: indeed they knew this perfectly, though they were ignorant of the coming of the Lord for His saints, as revealed in the previous chapter. But then, that coming has to do with a heavenly calling, while 'times and seasons' relate to the earth.
This has a sharp practical edge for anyone tempted to fix a date.
Times and seasons do not refer directly to the Church. They look on to the times and conditions in which God will carry out His ways with the earth, as the prophetic Scriptures foretell. The Lord had said to His disciples, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority" (Acts 1:7). So it is useless to work out and predict the date of the Lord's coming from Daniel's prophecies or other Scriptures. It is worse than useless. It means trying to find out what the Lord plainly says is not for us to know.
"You yourselves are fully aware" — but aware of what, exactly? Their certainty was not about a date.
There was no need to write anything now, for they knew perfectly that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. The apostle may not have gone into details. But they were sure of this great and solemn truth deep inside. What they knew perfectly was not, as some strangely say, that its time is uncertain. They knew that its coming is certain, and as terrible as it is unexpected.
So what does that day actually bring?
The prophets refer to the day of the Lord again and again. It always has in view the day when the Lord steps in to judge the earth. That judgment leads on to the restoration of Israel and the blessing of the nations.
Its force comes out best when set against the present age.
From these and similar passages, we learn that "the day of the Lord" carries a very solemn thought: judgment on the world. Judgment on Israel in its turning away from God, on man and his ways, on everything the human heart prizes and longs after. In short, the day of the Lord stands in striking contrast with man's day. Man has the upper hand now, the Lord will have the upper hand then.
The image says one thing above all: no announcement.
The Lord is not willing that you should perish. But remember this: "The day of the Lord will come like a thief" (2 Peter 3:10). I never heard of a thief blowing a trumpet before he broke into your house. This is how the Son of Man will come to deal with this godless world.
Commentators here draw a firm line between chapter 4 and chapter 5.
So 1 Thessalonians 5 opens by drawing a distinction. Chapter 4 has dealt with the coming of the Lord for His saints. Now comes "the day of the Lord." That comes, not as a bridegroom for his bride, but "like a thief in the night."
"The day of the Lord" is not a day of twenty-four hours, but a stretch of time like "the day of salvation." It is a period in the cycle of "times and seasons," marked out by the complete supremacy and authority of the Lord. It starts when He shows Himself publicly in the clouds of heaven — His appearing with His saints.
The same line runs on into verse 4. There the thief image no longer applies to believers.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:2, about the world it says, "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." But to the saints it says, "But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day." And when He comes who brings in the day, the children of the day will come with Him.
The thief language is not confined to open unbelievers.
The judgment of God will suddenly overtake the scoffers of these last days, for "the day of the Lord will come like a thief." In Matthew 24:43 the Lord had shown that He would come as a thief. Paul wrote the same thing to the Thessalonians. Now Peter tells us the same thing. From heaven, the Lord gives a similar warning to the professing church: "If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief" (Rev. 3:3). How very solemn that the same unexpected judgment will catch those who only profess to be Christians, just as it catches the scoffers of the last days.
- Earth, not heaven. "Times and seasons" belong to God's dealings with the world, not to the hope of the Church.
- Certain, not datable. They knew perfectly that the day comes, never when. Date-setting reaches for what the Father has kept in His own hands.
- Man's day ends. The day of the Lord is the day He steps in to judge. Man has the upper hand now; then the Lord will.
- A thief, not a trumpet. No announcement comes first. The day breaks in on the world without warning.
- Night for them, day for you. Believers are children of the day, so the thief image does not apply to them. The warning still stands over anyone who only claims the name.
When they may say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon her that is with child; and they shall in no wise escape.
The verse pictures the world at its most confident: a cry of peace and safety, and then a blow that no one can dodge. Paul writes it to mark the line between what waits for the world and what waits for believers.
Watch the pronouns. Paul does not slide from one audience to another by accident.
That is exactly where many make such utter confusion; they do not distinguish between the hope of the Christian and "the day" for the world... he says, "When they say, 'Peace and safety,' then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman." He does not say "you," but "they." Why the difference? When he speaks about the presence of the Lord, he says "you," "we"; but when he treats of the day of Jehovah, he says "they."
A note on wording: the ESV reads, "While people are saying, 'There is peace and security.'" Kelly quotes an older translation that keeps the pronoun "they," and his point turns on that word.
"Peace and safety" is not the same unbelief as open mockery. It is the settled calm of people who trust the world's arrangements — and even that calm is not quite steady.
Here it is more a matter of inward quiet and outward freedom from danger. It comes from confidence in the social and political state of mankind. Yet it is not without uneasy qualms. These betray the real unrest and the hidden dread of those who do not know God and His Christ. So it was with men when the flood came and swept away all who despised God's warning through Noah. So it was in the days of Lot: after a weaker and shorter warning, judgment fell on the corrupt cities of the plain. So it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Sudden destruction hangs over those who trust themselves and their own thoughts, rejecting the testimony of God. This is the judgment of the living... It is the end of the age, but not the end of the world materially... It is unspiritual ignorance, even folly, to apply this to the destruction of Jerusalem or to death, as some have done and do. It is the day of the Lord, still to fall on the world.
What will produce such confidence? One writer ties it to a coming world ruler, the figure called the beast.
The beast is the dragon's chief political agent. He will be a very powerful and impressive figure. Men will even worship him and see his power as unstoppable. Men will feel that here at last is the superman and the super-kingdom, which can impose its will and put down all opposition. This, we judge, is what will lead men to say, "Peace and safety," as foretold in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, but which leads to "sudden destruction."
Nothing builds up in view. The cry of safety is the last thing heard before the blow.
"Sudden destruction" will come. Swift will be the blow — a bolt out of the blue. How vivid is the picture of the old book — "as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman."
Commentators read the comparison in two ways. Some stress the speed of the pangs. Others look at what the pangs produce.
The comparison "labor pains come upon a pregnant woman" is meant to teach us this: out of all this anguish God will see fit to bring fruit for His own glory. During the tribulation crowds of people will turn in faith to the living God, people who never knew the gospel before. This will glorify God, as will His holy triumph over evil. Indeed, for Israel the tribulation will be the labor pains of a nation born all at once (Isaiah 66:8).
The last clause shuts every door. Yet the same verse that leaves the world no escape gives the believer certainty.
Things may look golden and peaceful, and so deceive. But the children of light have the privilege of knowing that there is no escape for the world. So, just as Daniel made known the rise and course of the world's power, the believer can declare its end. The One who executes judgment on the world is the same One who died for the believer. He removed all wrath and judgment, and He is risen for ever out of it.
Paul immediately turns from "they" to "you," and he does it deliberately.
He is not afraid that it would endanger the young believers in Thessalonica, or any others, to know how grace had marked them off from the rest of mankind. His very aim here, as elsewhere, is to press this distinction on them so it can never be erased. He says, first, that they were not in darkness, so that the day should surprise them like a thief; second, that they all were sons of light and sons of day.
- They, not you. The pronoun does the teaching: the day of the Lord falls on "them," while the Lord's coming for His own is always "you" and "we."
- The cry. "Peace and safety" is confidence in the state of society and politics — calm on the surface, uneasy underneath.
- The trigger. One reading links the cry to a coming ruler, the beast, whose power looks unstoppable. Men think peace has come at last.
- The blow. Destruction falls at once, as in the days of Noah and Lot. It is the day of the Lord on a living world, and the labor-pains figure points both to its speed and to the fruit God brings out of the anguish.
- The escape. There is none for the world. The believer needs none: he is a child of light, secured by the very One who will execute the judgment.
But *ye*, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief
Paul has just pictured the world talking about peace and safety when sudden ruin falls on it. Now he turns to the believers with one small word — "you."
The two pronouns mark off two different groups.
The words "they" and "you" make it still clearer that the day of the Lord is for the world. He does not say, "When you say, Peace and safety," but when "they say." So Paul leaves the believer entirely outside that day of sudden destruction.
Paul says one thing they are not, and then one thing they are. Young believers take no harm from knowing the difference.
He is not afraid that it would harm the young believers in Thessalonica, or anyone else, to know how grace had set them apart from the rest of mankind. His whole aim here, as elsewhere, is to stamp this difference on them so deeply that nothing can rub it out. He says two things. First, they were not in darkness, so the day could not surprise them like a thief. Second, they were all sons of light and sons of day. They were not only unlike the world, which sits in darkness under the Lord's judgment. They were real sharers in divine nature and blessedness.
Some argue that Paul only means believers will be partly surprised. One writer answers that from what Paul had taught them just before.
Some claim that Paul could not have said the day would not overtake them like a thief unless they were still liable to be overtaken by it in some way. But look at what Paul teaches, even right here, and there is no ground for this at all. But he had just taught them that they were to be caught up to meet Him in the air and be brought with Him. In other words, he had taught them what makes it impossible to say that the day could overtake them in any way at all.
The two titles in verse 5 are not repetition. One looks at what has already happened inside the believer; the other looks at where he is heading.
The believer is in no sense in darkness. He is in the light, even though all around him lies "darkness which may be felt," like the plague of darkness in Egypt. New birth has made an infinite difference. A great gulf now separates us from those who are "of the night" and "of darkness." The words "children of light" seem to mean that the truth has already taken hold of the heart, even though all around may be darkness. The words "children of day" tie us to the future day of glory. On that day we will be shown and blessed in the place that truly belongs to us. We are no part of the present state of things at all. Night and darkness do not belong to our nature. We look for the day, because the day is where we belong.
A thief only alarms a house that is asleep. So does the Lord come to His own that way?
His coming is never spoken of this way for His own. They wait for Him in bright hope, with no fear that He will surprise them like a thief. His coming is their joy; and they watch more than a watchman for the dawn. So the picture of the thief belongs to the sleeping world, and to people whose minds are set on the world.
Another writer sets this verse beside a warning the Lord sent to the church in Sardis.
To the Thessalonians Paul had written, "You are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief." It will come on the world that way. And then the Lord writes to Sardis, "Lest I come as a thief" — that is, treat you as the world.
Verse 4 states a fact. The next verse draws the conclusion.
The word of God never contains bare doctrine on its own. Truth always gives a certain character to the people it puts in a place of privilege.
If we are sons of light and of day, then sleep does not suit us. Sleep here means not caring about the will of the Lord. What suits us is watching and staying clear-headed, as people who draw their life from Him who is the one true light, and who will bring in the day.
- Pronoun. Paul's "they" and "you" divide the human race in one stroke: sudden destruction falls on them, not on you.
- Reason. The day cannot surprise a believer. He is not in darkness, and he will already have been caught up to meet the Lord.
- Nature. He is more than safe. He is a son of light and a son of day. Truth holds his heart now, and the coming day of glory is where he belongs.
- Thief. That image fits a sleeping world, and a church like Sardis that the Lord will treat as the world. It never fits those who watch for Him with joy.
- Character. Privilege never stays bare doctrine. Being of the day means refusing to sleep, and staying awake and clear-headed until it dawns.
for all *ye* are sons of light and sons of day; we are not of night nor of darkness.
Paul has just described the day of the Lord falling on a sleeping world like a thief in the night. Now he tells the believers why that day holds no dread for them, and the reason is not what they do but what they are.
Safety from that day comes down to who a person belongs to.
That day will not overtake the children of the day — the children of light — as a thief does. And that is exactly because they are children of the day. They have been taught in advance about the judgments of God. They belong to Him who is to be the Judge, not to the world those judgments will fall on. They wait for Him from heaven, who has saved them by His grace, who delivers them from the wrath to come.
"Sons of" is a way of speaking about nature rather than rank. Scripture uses it elsewhere in the same way.
The title 'son' implies 'likeness.' Scripture uses it this way to mark moral likeness, as of a son to a father — so 'a son of Belial' (a worthless man), 1 Sam. 25:17; 'you son of the devil,' Acts 13:10; 'sons of disobedience,' Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6; also 'sons of light' and 'sons of day.' 1 Thess. 5:5.
So the phrase points back to a beginning.
The believer is not in darkness, nor is he of the darkness. He is a child of light and of the day. He has been born, so to speak, of the light that reached him in the gospel, and he shares the character of what gave him birth. So he lives in a world of darkness, but he is not in darkness himself. Divine light surrounds his path. He is a child of the coming day, and so he knows where he is going and what is coming.
The two titles are not a repetition. Each one points in a different direction.
It seems that "children of light" means the truth has already taken hold of the heart, even though darkness may be all around. "Children of day" connects us with the future day of glory. In that day we will stand shown and blessed in the place that is truly ours. We are not part of the present state of things at all. The night and the darkness are foreign to our nature; we look for the day, because it is where we truly belong.
The opposite words have a meaning too. Night and darkness are not vague gloom — they mark something missing.
Believers are marked out by having the knowledge of God, and by being in the light of the day that is coming. The world is marked by "night" and "darkness". It is the absence of Christ that makes the night, and ignorance of God that makes up the darkness.
The word "all" matters. These were new believers, yet Paul makes the distinction plainly. Then he includes himself by switching to "we".
He sees no risk in letting the young believers in Thessalonica, or anyone else, know this. Grace had marked them off from the rest of the world. His whole aim here, as elsewhere, is to press this distinction on them so it can never be erased. He says two things. First, they were not in darkness, so the day would not surprise them like a thief. Second, they were all sons of light and sons of day. They were not only unlike the world, which lies in darkness and faces the Lord's judgment. They also had a real share in the divine nature and its blessing.
The verse hands the believer two things at once, and the second is not optional.
So we are given both a privilege and a character. The privilege is that the day will not overtake us, as it will overtake those who live in darkness. The character is that of children of light. There are no bare doctrines in the word. The truth always gives a character to the people it puts in a place of privilege.
That character is meant to be visible now, while the night still lasts.
On the outside it may be night, with darkness all around us. Yet our hearts are in the light of the coming day. So, as sons of the day, we show in the middle of the world's night "the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).
- Origin. The believer is born of the light that reached him in the gospel and carries the character of what gave him birth.
- Nature. "Son of" marks likeness, not rank — the same idiom that calls others sons of disobedience.
- Position. Sons of light have the truth in the heart now. Sons of day belong to the glory still coming, so night is foreign ground.
- Reach. It is all of them, young converts included, with Paul standing inside the "we" — no advanced class exists.
- Result. Privilege always brings character with it. The result is a life lit up in the world's night, and a day that can never arrive as a thief.
So then do not let us sleep as the rest do, but let us watch and be sober;
Paul has just called the Thessalonians children of light and children of the day. So what sleep is he warning against, and how does staying awake differ from staying sober? (Older translations say "let us watch" here, and the writers quoted below use that wording.)
The command rests on what the believer already has and enjoys.
Privilege that the believer knows and enjoys is the very hinge and motive of responsibility, and so the apostle goes on to urge them. If we are children of God, that is a deep spring of joy in Christ and of thanksgiving to our Father — but how immediate and unbreakable is the call to walk in keeping with that relationship! So here, if we are sons of light and of day, sleep — indifference to the will of the Lord — does not suit us. Watchfulness and sobriety do, as those who draw their life from Him Who is the one true light.
The first command is negative, and it turns on what sleep does to a man.
First, he says, "Let us not sleep, as others do." A sleeping man is untouched by everything around him, and unaware of it. The world has no idea where it is drifting, how useless all its efforts are, or that its doom is coming. Believers must beware of falling into a spiritual apathy that drifts on, like the world, indifferent to the day of the Lord.
Religious activity is no proof that a person is awake. Witherby warns of spiritual sleepwalking.
Sleeping and walking do not go together. Where divine things are real, the mechanical motion of sleepwalking is unknown. We are not saying that the children of God never sleepwalk. Sadly, there is a great deal of formalism and going through religious motions that fits that description, and any religious observance can turn into formalism. Let us make sure we are real. Because we do not belong to the night, let us not sleep as others do.
One word lies behind "watch" here and "wake" in verse 10, but the sense is not the same in both.
It is translated "watch" in verse 6 and "wake" in verse 10, but it is really the same word… In this passage what is commanded is watching in a moral sense. Verse 8 shows it clearly: conduct that suits the Christian as belonging to the day, and not to the night. They were to be marked morally by watching rather than sleeping, and by sobriety… In verse 10 "watching" and "sleeping" mean being alive at the Lord's return, or having fallen asleep before it.
Watching and sobriety are not the same duty said twice. Each answers something different.
Third, we are told to be sober. This stands in contrast to the state that drunkenness pictures, where a man comes under an evil influence. We are to beware of coming under the intoxicating influences of the world. In relation to Christ, and His day, we are to watch; in relation to the world we are to be sober.
A clear head is what makes watching possible. This writer also turns the verse back on the reader.
We are to watch, as in the parable, because we do not know the day or the hour. So we are always expecting the Bridegroom. While we watch — and in fact so that we can watch — we are to keep "that sober clearness of mind which comes from being free of false influences." We are not intoxicated with "wine," but governed and shaped by the truth in the power of the Holy Spirit. You may well ask whether these marks are found in many Christians. That is why it is such an advantage to judge ourselves in the light of this exhortation.
- Day — The command starts from a fact. Believers already belong to the day, and the call is to walk in keeping with it.
- Sleep — Sleep is indifference to the Lord's will. The sleeper is untouched by everything around him, drifting like a world that does not know where it is heading.
- Sleepwalking — Religious routine can be sleep in motion. The test is whether we are real.
- Watch — The watching commanded is moral. It shows in conduct that suits the day, and it looks for Christ.
- Sober — Sobriety faces the other way, toward a world that intoxicates. A clear head makes watching possible, and it is a fair test of where we stand.
for they that sleep sleep by night, and they that drink drink by night;
Paul has just urged the Thessalonians to stay awake and sober, unlike the rest of the world. Here he gives his reason — and it raises two questions: what is this "night," and can people who belong to the day still live as if they belonged to the dark?
One reference work defines this night in a single line:
The moral darkness of the world, in which people sleep and get drunk.
Paul is not making a rule. He is pointing at something everyone has already noticed about human behaviour.
Sleep suits the night, and so does excess: people naturally do in the dark what they would not like to do in the light. This verse sets before our minds the common and undeniable practice of people.
The believer lives in the same world as everyone else. But he belongs to a different time of day, and his life follows from that.
We belong to the day, and so that day cannot come upon us like a thief. The apostle applies this difference of position to the character and walk of the Christian. He is a child of the light, so he is to walk as one. He lives in the day, though all is night and darkness around him. Nobody sleeps in the day. Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. These are the works of darkness.
Drunkenness here goes wider than wine. One writer applies it to the ideas and influences an age pours into people's minds.
The world is in darkness. The world is asleep. The world is even drunk, intoxicated with influences that come from below. This has never been more obvious than it is today, when countless means of communication spread new ideas and influences at great speed.
Drunkenness pictures a person under an outside power. Sobriety is the freedom from it. That gives watching and sobriety two different directions.
Thirdly, we are exhorted to be sober, in contrast to a condition set forth by drunkenness which brings a man under an evil influence. We are to beware lest we come under the intoxicating influences of the world. In relation to Christ, and His day, we are to watch; in relation to the world we are to be sober.
Kelly spells out how far that sobriety reaches:
The picture is drawn, as everyone admits, from keeping clear of all drunkenness. For the Christian that means avoiding everything likely to excite the flesh or the spirit.
The warning is aimed at believers as well. One writer points to the parable of the virgins, where the wise slept just as the foolish did:
There we see the wise and the foolish alike forget the blessed hope that first filled their souls when they went out to meet the Bridegroom. They came under the influence of passing things, and they all slumbered and slept. That is, they lost the expectation of their returning Lord. They settled down among the things around them, carelessly forgetting the hope they once treasured, and forgetting their own character as virgins. And what about us? Are we asleep, even with the truth on our lips?
The whole argument rests on a coming morning. That is what makes the world's drinking so short-sighted.
In every age the enemy has managed to attract and intoxicate crowds with the perishing joys of a world that lies under the curse of God and waits for the fire of His judgement. "Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night." But the morning is at hand, and then the wine — a fitting symbol of this world's joy — will have completely evaporated.
One writer finds a picture of this in Daniel, who stayed away from a king's feast that stood under God's judgement:
Sudden destruction, like a thief in the night, does not come upon him... The judgement on the feast held no terror for them, because they were not at the feast. They had already judged it. Their separation was not sleep. But they were not indifferent to it, any more than they were enjoying it.
- Night. The darkness here is moral, not the hour on a clock. It is the world's condition: people do in the dark what they would not do in the light.
- Sleep. Night dulls people. The sleeper drifts, and believers can drift the same way, even with the truth on their lips.
- Drunkenness. The night also intoxicates. It brings people under an influence: wine, or the ideas an age pours into their minds.
- Day. The Christian belongs to a different time of day. He walks as a child of light while darkness is all around him.
- Sober. Sobriety is freedom from the night's influences. Watch for Christ, stay clear-headed toward the world — the morning is at hand, and the wine will have evaporated.
but *we* being of [the] day, let us be sober, putting on [the] breastplate of faith and love, and as helmet [the] hope of salvation;
Paul has just split people into two groups: those who belong to the night, and those who belong to the day. This verse tells the day group how to live now — awake, self-controlled, and wearing three things that work as armour.
The command rests on something that was already true of these readers.
As sons of day, they already belonged to the day of glory, and its light filled their hearts with radiant hope… They were told to be clear and open in motive and in movement, alert, and marked by self-control and wakeful activity.
Paul sets the call to be sober against the two things that belong to the night: sleep and drunkenness. One writer separates watching from sobriety by what each one looks at.
Third, we are urged to be sober. The opposite is the state pictured by drunkenness, which brings a man under an evil influence. We must take care that we never come under the intoxicating influences of the world. Toward Christ and His day, we are to watch. Toward the world, we are to be sober.
Paul does not just tell the believer to stay awake. He tells him to dress for danger. Notice what is missing from the list: there is no sword, no weapon for attack.
So the believer is called to be armed as well as watchful and sober. But the weapons here are not for attack. They are for defence only, since it was young Christians who were being addressed. They are the three marks of their life here below: faith, love, and hope.
Each piece covers a particular part of a soldier. The Greek word behind "helmet" says so in its very form.
The breastplate covered and protected the vital organs. It covered the heart, the centre of life and the seat of the affections. It also covered the breathing organs, which supply the breath the life of faith needs… The helmet, peri-kephale, means literally "round the head," not just "on" it. It is the hope of salvation. It covers and protects the mind from the wanderings of human wisdom and from the dark, subtle suggestions of Satan.
Faith, love and hope are not three interchangeable virtues here. Each answers a different pull of the world around us.
To escape the world of sight we need faith, for faith is not ruled by sight. It lives in the light of what is unseen. To escape the lust of the world, love must rule us. To escape the world's empty plans for the future, with their trapping prospects and empty hopes, we need "the hope of salvation".
Some readers take "hope" to mean an unsure wish to be saved in the end. One writer answers that head-on.
But have you thought it through, my soul? Our "helmet" is a salvation we know we have. It is much more than merely hoping to be saved at last. The enemy would soon knock a helmet like that off your head. Is it not right, then, to hope for salvation? True — but in 1 Thessalonians 5 the apostle is speaking of the hope of the Lord's coming, not of our forgiveness and acceptance.
So the salvation still ahead is salvation in its widest sense. And the armour goes on inside, not outside.
Two things can be seen here. The "putting on" means clothing ourselves inwardly, so faith, love, and hope are to be the marks of our spiritual life… Salvation is used here in its full and complete sense. It includes the resurrection of the body, and being for ever with the Lord… That assurance makes us fearless, whatever dangers we have to meet, for this is a helmet no weapon of the enemy can pierce.
Paul elsewhere describes a breastplate of righteousness and a helmet of salvation. The pieces carry the same names there, but they serve a different purpose. The two passages are not saying the same thing.
In Ephesians we are in conflict with enemies… So there the breastplate is practical righteousness, which we must have if we are to fight Satan successfully… In Thessalonians the armour is one part of our life with God, seen in its final result as a matter of hope. It is the active energy of that life with God in faith, love and hope, lived out in a sober walk among the dangers and enemies down here.
- Sober — watching looks toward Christ. Being sober looks at the world and refuses its intoxicating pull.
- Armed — the pieces named are defensive only: faith, love and hope, the three marks of Christian life now.
- Heart — the breastplate covers the affections, so the world's sights and desires cannot reach them.
- Head — the helmet wraps right around the mind. It guards it from human wisdom and the enemy's suggestions.
- Home — the hope is not doubt about forgiveness. It is the certainty of the Lord's coming, the body raised, and being for ever with Him.
because God has not set us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul has just told the Thessalonians to wear faith, love, and the hope of salvation. This verse tells them why that hope is safe: God has already settled what lies ahead, and for believers it is not wrath.
The verse sets two destinies side by side. Both rest on God's own appointment.
God has appointed the Christ-rejecting world to wrath, when He will pour out the bowls of His judgment on the earth. We find the details of that solemn time in the book of Revelation. He has appointed us, however, to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. God's appointments are always kept on time. They never fail. Wrath for the world and salvation for the saints are alike sure.
The writers quote an older translation, which says "appointed" where the ESV says "destined."
Many readers take this wrath to mean hell. One writer tests that against the letter itself.
Much depends on how we understand the words "the wrath to come." What is this? The popular explanation is hell, the lake of fire. That will be the doom of all whose names are not found in the book of life, when the great white throne is set (Rev. 20:15). But look closely at 1 Thessalonians 5. It is true that God will cast all who have rejected His testimony in any age into the lake of fire. Even so, "the wrath to come" does not have that final outcome in view. It means instead the judgments God will pour out on this world in a future day — the wrath connected with the coming of the day of the Lord.
The Thessalonians were suffering, and some treated their pain as proof that wrath had already fallen.
There is an immense difference between being appointed to afflictions and being appointed to wrath. The former is our lot, as we have seen; but, thank God, not the latter... There were then those who used the afflictions of the Thessalonians as an occasion to rob them of the Christian's hope, assuming that the afflictions were wrath poured out. That misrepresented the character of God's dealings with His children.
"Salvation" here is not looking backwards at conversion. It is something believers are still to receive.
To sustain "faith," "love," and "hope," we need to grasp God's purpose for us. God has not appointed the believer to wrath but "for obtaining salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." Here salvation means the future, final, and complete deliverance from the world and its coming judgment.
This future hope had a present purpose.
The Holy Spirit of God had a clear purpose: to separate "the children of light and the children of day" in daily life from the confusion and utter godlessness around them. So in these words He reminds them of their glorious future: "God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation" — that is, of the body, since they already had the salvation of the soul — "by our Lord Jesus Christ."
This salvation comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. The next verse tells what it cost Him, and what that means for believers who die before He comes.
"For God has not appointed us to wrath." Faith understands that love — what God wills, His mind concerning us. "But to obtain salvation." This is what we hope for. He speaks of salvation as the final deliverance "by our Lord Jesus Christ." He naturally adds, "who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep" — that is, we have died before His coming, or are alive then — "we should live together with Him." Death does not deprive us of this deliverance and glory, because Jesus died. Death became the means of obtaining them for us. He died for us, in our place, so that, whatever happens, we should live with Him.
In this letter the helmet is the hope of salvation. One writer sets that beside the wording in Ephesians.
In Thessalonians, salvation is from coming wrath. In the Son of God they had found a Deliverer; and God had not appointed them to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. For a helmet they were to have the hope of salvation — unlike the Ephesians, who were to put on the helmet of salvation, a salvation that was already theirs.
- Appointed. God has fixed two destinies — wrath for the Christ-rejecting world, salvation for His own — and neither appointment fails or runs late.
- Purchased. The appointment stands because Christ "died for us." Death can no longer keep a believer from living together with Him.
- Future. The salvation in view is still ahead: the full deliverance of the body, since God has already saved the soul.
- Distinguished. Affliction is the Christian's lot; wrath is not. Reading hardship as God's anger misreads how He deals with His children.
- Worn. The outcome is settled, so wear this hope like a helmet.
who has died for us, that whether we may be watching or sleep, we may live together with him.
This verse closes Paul's answer to the Thessalonians, who were upset about believers who had died. He points them back to the cross, and two questions shape what he says: what "awake or asleep" means here, and what life the words "with him" promise.
Everything in the verse rests on the short clause about Christ's death. That death clears away every obstacle:
He died for us, in our stead, so that whatever happens, we should live with Him. Everything that stood in the way is out of our path and has lost its power. More than that, it has become a guarantee: we will enjoy the full life of Christ in glory with nothing to hinder us.
Earlier in the chapter these same two words carry a moral sense. Here they shift:
Christ died for us, so that whether alive or dead, we should live together with Him. It is living along with Him where He is and as He is, glorified on high. This verse is the conclusion of the answer to the Thessalonian difficulty about the dead. In verses 6 and 7 the Holy Spirit seems to have boldly used the words for waking and sleeping in a moral sense. Here He uses them figuratively. He could do so because He took for granted the mind of Christ in the saints — a mind that could not mistake His different aims in the two cases.
Another writer ties the same two groups back to the death of Christ:
He reminds us here of the purpose of Christ's death for us. Whether we are watching or asleep — that is, whether we are down here when He returns, or whether we have departed to be with Him before His coming — "we should live together with Him." This is the full enjoyment of all our blessedness, as those who have been chosen for salvation, living together with Christ.
The verse begins with "so that," pointing back to the salvation named just before it. That salvation is still future:
Here "salvation" has its final, complete sense. The body will then share in the gracious power that has already dealt with the soul. The believer already has eternal life and redemption in the Son of God. So he receives the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul. He is therefore looking for the salvation of his body at Christ's coming as Saviour. These are plain words. They trace back to God the sovereign grace that marks off the saints from the world from first to last. That grace makes Christ and His death the turning point of all blessing for those who look to Him.
The older translation these writers use reads "live together with him," where the ESV has "live with him." That one word carries a promise:
He died that we might live. But it is not only life that is before us — it is life together with Christ. It was delightful to discover what the resurrection day will bring. We shall be united with all the saints, and reunited with those we knew on earth, to meet the Lord. It is more delightful still to know that as one united company we shall enjoy life together with Him for eternity. All that life means, its pursuits and its joys, we are to share with Him.
His death shapes life now, not only life after death:
His death is so effective that it fits us to be "with Him." If we fall asleep, we depart to be with Him, as He could say to a dying thief, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." If, however, we are left here for a time, He would still have us walk in separation from the world "with Him."
The verse comes with an instruction attached:
How precious indeed is the basis we have for encouraging ourselves together and building up one another. We are certainly supplied with every necessary incentive. Yet the apostle adds, "just as you are doing." It was already their practice, and still the reminder was needed. Is it not true that those who are most diligent are the most ready to admit they need reminding?
- Cause. The whole promise hangs on the words "who died for us." His death in our stead removes every obstacle and turns the promised life into a guarantee.
- Gift. The salvation in view is still future. At Christ's coming the body will share what the soul already has.
- Reach. "Whether we are awake or asleep" covers both groups: those alive at His return and those who have died. Neither loses anything.
- Result. "Together" means one united company. We shall be reunited with those we knew on earth and share Christ's life and joys forever.
- Now. His death already fits us to be "with Him." So those left here walk with Him, apart from the world, and use this hope to comfort and build up each other.
Wherefore encourage one another, and build up each one the other, even as also ye do.
The verse closes a passage about the Lord's return and the day of the Lord with two plain instructions: encourage each other, and build each other up. A truth about the future becomes a tool for daily use. Paul then ends by telling the Thessalonians they are already doing it.
The word "therefore" points back to what has just been said — that Christ died for us so that, whether alive or asleep, we live together with Him. Comfort and building up are not asked for on their own; they rest on something already settled.
How the Spirit of God loves to carry us back to the death of Christ as the foundation of all our blessing! He reminds us here why Christ died for us. It was so that we would live together with Him — whether we are awake (still here when He returns) or asleep (gone to be with Him before He comes). God chose us for salvation, and living together with Christ is the full enjoyment of all He has given us.
The first half of the instruction reaches straight into grief over believers who have died. The comfort offered is not that death is small, but that it is not the end of the story.
Many of the saints have passed away, and if we are tempted to mourn over them, the apostle gives us these words at the direction of the Lord for our comfort... Are they lost because they have died? Certainly not. No. As I have explained, their spirits are with Christ while their bodies decay in the grave. But we know that when the Lord comes He will call them out of their graves and give them bodies like His own. That will be the complete and final triumph of Christ in redemption.
The same comfort covers present trouble, not just grief over death:
God has appointed us for salvation. Our privilege is to live together with Christ now, and very soon to be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. So in all the troubles and sufferings along the road, let us comfort one another.
"Build one another up" is the second half, and it describes a whole pattern of life together rather than a single act.
The Apostle also urges us to edify one another — that is, to build one another up in our most holy faith. A Christian company as God means it to be is made up of believers who love one another, comfort one another, and build one another up (1 Thess. 3:12; 4:9, 18; 5:11).
Another writer sets out three aims in building up, and comfort is one of them:
The simple meaning of edification is building up. A person receives the Gospel, and that lays the foundation. But a great deal has to be built on that foundation, so edification can continue through a long Christian life... Comfort is a third continuing need in the church. There are always people facing sorrow, trouble and disappointment, and they need something that lifts them above it. We might summarise this threefold end as building up, stirring up, and lifting up.
Paul says "one another," so the work runs both ways. Another writer applies the same call to every believer, each according to what he has been given.
This is the responsibility of all true Christians: to keep together instead of splitting up and scattering. We are to help one another in love, according to the measure of grace given and the nature of the gift received. It is mutual — "building yourselves up." It does not mean leaving the work to a special class of leaders, or complaining that we lack gifts. It means each one doing what he can for the blessing and good of all.
Paul does not scold. He praises what they are already doing, and still repeats the charge.
What a precious basis we have for encouraging one another and building one another up. God gives us every reason we need. But the apostle adds, "just as you are doing." They were already doing it, yet they still needed the reminder. Is it not true that those who work hardest are the readiest to admit they need reminding?
The New Testament letters show a pattern. Where the Lord's return is in view, calls to care for each other follow.
It is worth noticing that the strongest calls to Christian fellowship always come right alongside the teaching about the second coming... The letters to the Thessalonians are full of calls to build one another up, and the same pattern is clear there.
- Foundation. The instruction starts with "therefore." Christ died so that believers, living or dead, live together with Him.
- Comfort. This certainty first meets grief. Those who have died are with Christ, and He will raise them with bodies like His.
- Building. The Gospel lays the foundation, and a lifetime of building follows — building up, stirring up, and lifting up.
- Mutual. It is "one another" work, not the task of a special class; each does what he can for the profit of all.
- Commended. Paul praises a habit already at work while still urging it — the most diligent are the readiest to accept the reminder.