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.
Who Is "They"?
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.
What the Cry Means
"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."
The Suddenness
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."
Why Labour Pains?
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).
No Escape — And the Contrast
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.
Summary
- 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.