Text -- 1 Thessalonians 5:1-10 (NET)

The Day of the Lord

5:1 Now on the topic of times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. 5:2 For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night. 5:3 Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape. 5:4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would. 5:5 For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. 5:6 So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. 5:7 For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 5:8 But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation. 5:9 For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 5:10 He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep we will come to life together with him.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: 1Th 5:1

But concerning the times and the seasons ( peri de tōn chronōn kai tōn kairōn ).

See both words used also in Tit 1:2. Chronos is rather an extended period and kairos a definite space of time.

Robertson: 1Th 5:2

Know perfectly ( akribōs oidate ).

Accurately know, not "the times and the seasons,"but their own ignorance.

Robertson: 1Th 5:2

As a thief in the night ( hōs kleptēs en nukti ).

As a thief at night, suddenly and unexpectedly. Reminiscence of the word of Jesus (Mat 24:43; Luk 12:39), used also in 2Pe 3:10; Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15.

Robertson: 1Th 5:2

Cometh ( erchetai ).

Prophetic or futuristic present tense.

Robertson: 1Th 5:3

When they are saying ( hotan legōsin ).

Present active subjunctive picturing these false prophets of peace and safety like Eze 13:10 (Peace, and there is no peace). Asphaleia only in N.T. in Luk 1:4 (which see); Act 5:23 and here.

Robertson: 1Th 5:3

Sudden destruction ( aiphnidios olethros ).

Olethros old word from ollumi , to destroy. See also 2Th 1:9. Aiphnidios , old adjective akin to aphnō and in N.T. only here and Luk 21:34 where Westcott and Hort spell it ephnidios .

Robertson: 1Th 5:3

Cometh upon them ( autois epistatai ).

Unaspirated form instead of the usual ephistatai (present middle indicative) from ephistēmi perhaps due to confusion with epistamai .

Robertson: 1Th 5:3

As travail upon a woman with child ( hōsper hē ōdin tēi en gastri echousēi ).

Earlier form ōdis for birth-pang used also by Jesus (Mar 13:8; Mat 24:8). Technical phrase for pregnancy, to the one who has it in belly (cf. Mat 1:18 of Mary).

Robertson: 1Th 5:3

They shall in no wise escape ( ou mē ekphugōsin ).

Strong negative like that in 1Th 4:15 ou mē (double negative) and the second aorist active subjunctive.

Robertson: 1Th 5:4

As a thief ( hōs kleptēs ).

As in 1Th 5:2, but A B Bohairic have kleptas (thieves), turning the metaphor round.

Robertson: 1Th 5:5

Sons of light ( huioi phōtos )

, sons of day (huioi hēmeras ). Chiefly a translation Hebraism (Deissmann, Bible Studies , pp. 161ff.). Cf. words of Jesus in Luk 16:8 and Paul in Eph 5:9. He repeats the same idea in turning from "ye"to "we"and using nuktos (night) and skotous (darkness), predicate genitives.

Robertson: 1Th 5:6

So then ( ara oun ).

Two inferential particles, accordingly therefore, as in 2Th 2:15 and only in Paul in N.T.

Robertson: 1Th 5:6

Let us not sleep ( mē katheudōmen ).

Present active subjunctive (volitive), let us not go on sleeping.

Robertson: 1Th 5:6

Let us watch ( grēgorōmen ).

Present active subj. (volitive) again, let us keep awake (late verb grēgoreō from perfect egrēgora ).

Robertson: 1Th 5:6

Be sober ( nēphōmen ).

Present active subjunctive (volitive). Old verb not to be drunk. In N.T. only in figurative sense, to be calm, sober-minded. Also in 1Th 5:8 with the metaphor of drunkenness in contrast.

Robertson: 1Th 5:7

They that be drunken are drunken in the night ( hoi methuskomenoi nuktos methuousin ).

No need of "be"here, they that are drunken. No real difference in meaning between methuskō and methuō , to be drunk, except that methuskō (inceptive verb in ̇skō ) means to get drunk.

Robertson: 1Th 5:7

Night ( nuktos , genitive by night)

is the favourite time for drunken revelries.

Robertson: 1Th 5:8

Putting on the breastplate of faith and love ( endusamenoi thōraka pisteōs kai agapēs ).

First aorist (ingressive) middle participle of enduō . The same figure of breastplate in Eph 6:14, only there "of righteousness."The idea of watchfulness brings the figure of a sentry on guard and armed to Paul’ s mind as in Rom 13:12 "the weapons of light."The word thōrax (breastplate) is common in the lxx.

Robertson: 1Th 5:8

For a helmet, the hope of salvation ( perikephalaian elpida sōtērias ).

Same figure in Eph 6:17 and both like Isa 59:17. Late word meaning around (peri ) the head (kephalē ) and in Polybius, lxx, and in the papyri. Sōtērias is objective genitive.

Robertson: 1Th 5:9

But unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ ( alla eis peripoiēsin sōtērias dia tou Kuriou hēmōn Iēsou Christou ).

The difficult word here is peripoiēsin which may be passive, God’ s possession as in 1Pe 2:9, or active, obtaining, as in 2Th 2:14. The latter is probably the idea here. We are to keep awake so as to fulfil God’ s purpose (etheto , appointed, second aorist middle indicative of tithēmi ) in calling us. That is our hope of final victory (salvation in this sense).

Robertson: 1Th 5:10

For us ( peri hēmōn ).

Robertson: 1Th 5:10

Around us.

So Westcott and Hort, but huper (over, in behalf of) as in many MSS. These prepositions often interchanged in N.T. MSS.

Robertson: 1Th 5:10

Whether we wake or sleep ( eite grēgorōmen eite katheudōmen ).

Alternative condition of third class with present subjunctive, though eantė̇eante more usual conjunction (Robertson, Grammar , P. 1017). Used here of life and death, not as metaphor.

Robertson: 1Th 5:10

That we should live together with him ( hina hama sun autōi zēsōmen ).

First aorist active subjunctive constative aorist covering all life (now and hereafter) together with (hama sun as in 1Th 5:17) Jesus.

Vincent: 1Th 5:1

Times - seasons ( χρόνων - καιρῶν )

See on Act 1:7. With special reference to the Lord's coming. The plural is used because Paul is thinking of a number of incidents attending the preparation and accomplishment of the second advent, and occurring at different times. The collocation times and seasons only here and Act 1:7. Καιρός is the suitable time, χρόνος the time measured by duration . Hence καιρός a juncture , an occasion , as Mat 16:3. The distinction is so well marked that have the phrases χρόνου καιρός the right moment of the time , and εὔκαιρος χρόνος the opportune moment . See Soph. Elec . 1292.

Vincent: 1Th 5:2

Perfectly ( ἀκριβῶς )

See on Luk 1:3.

Vincent: 1Th 5:2

The day of the Lord ( ἡμέρα κυρίου )

The day of Christ's second coming. In Paul's Epistles this is expressed by ἡ ἡμέρα the day , absolutely, 1Th 5:4; 1Co 3:13; Rom 13:12 : ἡ ἡμέρα ἐκείνη that day , 2Th 1:10 : ἡμέρα χριστοῦ the day of Christ , Phi 1:10; Phi 2:16 : ἡμέρα κυρίου or τοῦ κυρίου day of the Lord , 1Co 5:5; 1Th 5:2; 2Th 2:2 : ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἱησοῦ (Χριστοῦ ), 1Co 1:8; 2Co 1:14. These expressions refer to a definite time when the Lord is expected to appear, and Paul expects this appearance soon. Attempts to evade this by referring such expressions to the day of death, or to the advance toward perfection after death until the final judgment, are forced, and are shaped by dogmatic conceptions of the nature of Biblical inspiration. In the O.T. the phrase day of the Lord denotes a time in which God will conspicuously manifest his power and goodness or his penal justice. See Isa 2:12; Eze 13:5; Joe 1:15; Joe 2:11; and comp. Rom 2:5. The whole class of phrases is rare in N.T. outside of Paul's Epistles.

Vincent: 1Th 5:2

As a thief ( ὡς κλέπτης )

Comp. Mat 24:43; Luk 12:39; 2Pe 3:10; Rev 16:15, and see on Rev 3:3.

Vincent: 1Th 5:2

In the night ( ἐν νυκιτί )

The ancient church held that the advent was to be expected at night, on an Easter eve. This gave rise to the custom of vigils. Jerome, on Mat 25:6, says: " It is a tradition of the Jews that Messiah will come at midnight, after the likeness of that season in Egypt when the Passover was celebrated, and the Destroyer came, and the Lord passed over the dwellings. I think that this idea was perpetuated in the apostolic custom, that, on the day of vigils, at the Pascha, it was not allowed to dismiss the people before midnight, since they expected the advent of Christ." It is noteworthy how many of the gospel lessons on watchfulness are associated with the night and a visit by night. See Mat 24:43; Mat 25:1-13; Mar 13:35; Luk 12:35, Luk 12:38; Luk 17:34; Luk 12:20.

Vincent: 1Th 5:3

When they shall say

The prediction is thrown into dramatic form.

Vincent: 1Th 5:3

Cometh upon ( ἐπίσταται )

See Luk 21:34, Luk 21:36. Often in N.T. of a person coming suddenly upon another; as Luk 2:9; Luk 24:4; Act 4:1; Act 12:7.

Vincent: 1Th 5:3

Travail ( ὠδὶν )

Birth-throe. Only here in its literal sense. Elsewhere as a strong figure of sorrow or pain. See Mat 24:8; Mar 13:8; Act 2:24. For the figure in O.T. see Isa 13:6-8; Isa 37:3; Mic 4:9; Hos 13:3; Jer 13:21.

Vincent: 1Th 5:3

Shall not escape ( οὐ μὴ ἐκφύγωσιν )

A.V. misses the force of the double negative. They shall in no wise escape.

Vincent: 1Th 5:4

Overtake ( καταλάβῃ )

See on comprehended , Joh 1:5.

Vincent: 1Th 5:4

A thief ( κλέπτης )

Tischendorf, Weiss, and Rev. T. retain this reading. Westcott and Hort read κλέπτας thieves , but with κλέπτης in margin. The weight of textual evidence is in favor of the singular.

Vincent: 1Th 5:5

Ye are all

In the text γὰρ for should be inserted after πάντες all . Ye are not in darkness for ye are sons of light.

Vincent: 1Th 5:5

Children of light ( υἱοὶ φωτός )

More correctly, sons of light. See on Mar 3:17, and comp. Luk 16:8; Joh 12:36; Eph 5:8; Col 1:12. The Christian condition is habitually associated in N.T. with light: see Mat 5:14, Mat 5:16; Joh 3:21; Joh 8:12; Act 26:18; 1Pe 2:9; 1Jo 1:7. The contrary condition with darkness: see Joh 3:19, Joh 3:20; Eph 5:8; 1Pe 2:9; Mat 4:16; Mat 6:23, etc.

Vincent: 1Th 5:5

Of the night - of darkness ( νυκτὸς - σκότους )

The genitive marks an advance of thought from ἐν σκότει in darkness, 1Th 5:4. Ἑν indicates the element in which one is. The genitive, of darkness , points to nature and origin. To belong to darkness is more than to be in darkness.

Vincent: 1Th 5:6

Others ( οἱ λοιποί )

The rest , as 1Th 4:13.

Vincent: 1Th 5:6

Let us watch ( γρηγορῶμεν )

See on Mar 13:35, and comp. Eph 5:14.

Vincent: 1Th 5:6

Be sober ( νήφωμεν )

Primarily in a physical sense, as opposed to excess in drink, but passing into the ethical sense of calm , collected , circumspect . Alert wakefulness and calm assurance will prevent their being surprised and confused by the Lord's coming, as by a thief in the night.

Vincent: 1Th 5:7

Be drunken ( μεθυσκόμενοι )

Lit. who are made drunk or get drunk . See on Joh 2:10. In N.T. always of intoxication. In lxx, the Hebrews shekar strong drink is several times rendered by μέθυσμα ; Jdg 13:4, Jdg 13:7; 1Sa 1:11, 1Sa 1:15.

Vincent: 1Th 5:8

Putting on ( ἐνδυσάμενοι )

The son of day clothes himself for the day's work or battle. The same association of ideas as in 1Th 5:6, 1Th 5:8, is found in Rom 13:12-14; Rev 16:15; 1Pe 1:13. Comp. lxx, Bar. 5:2.

Vincent: 1Th 5:8

Breastplate - helmet

Comp. Eph 6:14. The figures are not original with Paul. See Isa 59:17; Wisd. 5:18, 19. Notice that only defensive armor is mentioned, in accordance with the darkness and uncertainty of the last time; and that the fundamental elements of Christian character, faith, hope, and love, are brought forward again as in 1Th 1:3; 1Co 13:13. For the figure of the armed soldier, comp. also Rom 13:12; 2Co 10:4.

Vincent: 1Th 5:9

For ( ὅτι )

Special emphasis is laid on the hope of salvation. The exhortation to put it on is enforced by the fact that God's appointment is to salvation and not to wrath.

Vincent: 1Th 5:9

To obtain ( εἰς περιποίησιν )

More literally, unto the obtaining . See on Eph 1:14. In three out of five instances in N.T. the word clearly means acquiring or obtaining . In Eph 1:14 and 1Pe 2:9, it is sometimes rendered possession (so Rev.). But in Ephesians the meaning is redemption or acquisition , or redemption which will give possession; and in 1st Peter a people for acquisition . The meaning here is that we might obtain . Comp. lxx, Mal 3:17.

Vincent: 1Th 5:10

Who died

Frequently the resurrection is coupled with the death of Christ by Paul, as 1Th 4:14; Phi 3:10; Col 2:12; Col 3:1-4. Not so here; but the thought of resurrection is supplied in live together with him .

Vincent: 1Th 5:10

Wake or sleep

Whether we are alive or dead at Christ's appearing. Comp. Rom 14:9. Καθεύδειν in N.T. always literally of sleep, except here, and possibly Eph 5:14. In Mar 5:39; Luk 8:52, it is contrasted with death. In lxx in the sense of death, Psa 87:5; Dan 12:2; 2Sa 7:12.

Wesley: 1Th 5:1

But of the precise times when this shall be.

Wesley: 1Th 5:2

For this in general ye do know; and ye can and need know no more.

Wesley: 1Th 5:3

The men of the world say.

Wesley: 1Th 5:4

Sleeping secure in sin.

Wesley: 1Th 5:6

Being awakened, let us have all our spiritual senses about us.

Wesley: 1Th 5:7

These things do not love the light.

Wesley: 1Th 5:9

As he hath the obstinately impenitent.

Wesley: 1Th 5:10

Be alive or dead at his coming.

JFB: 1Th 5:1

The general and indefinite term for chronological periods.

JFB: 1Th 5:1

The opportune times (Dan 7:12; Act 1:7). Time denotes quantity; season, quality. Seasons are parts of times.

JFB: 1Th 5:1

Those who watch do not need to be told when the hour will come, for they are always ready [BENGEL].

JFB: 1Th 5:1

Present: expressing its speedy and awful certainty.

JFB: 1Th 5:2

The apostles in this image follow the parable of their Lord, expressing how the Lord's coming shall take men by surprise (Mat 24:43; 2Pe 3:10). "The night is wherever there is quiet unconcern" [BENGEL]. "At midnight" (perhaps figurative: to some parts of the earth it will be literal night), Mat 25:6. The thief not only gives no notice of his approach but takes all precaution to prevent the household knowing of it. So the Lord (Rev 16:15). Signs will precede the coming, to confirm the patient hope of the watchful believer; but the coming itself shall be sudden at last (Mat 24:32-36; Luk 21:25-32, Luk 21:35).

JFB: 1Th 5:3

The men of the world. 1Th 5:5-6; 1Th 4:13, "others," all the rest of the world save Christians.

JFB: 1Th 5:3

(Jdg 18:7, Jdg 18:9, Jdg 18:27-28; Jer 6:14; Eze 13:10).

JFB: 1Th 5:3

At the very moment when they least expect it. Compare the case of Belshazzar, Dan 5:1-6, Dan 5:9, Dan 5:26-28; Herod, Act 12:21-23.

JFB: 1Th 5:3

"unawares" (Luk 21:34).

JFB: 1Th 5:3

"As the labor pang" comes in an instant on the woman when otherwise engaged (Psa 48:6; Isa 13:8).

JFB: 1Th 5:3

Greek, "shall not at all escape." Another awful feature of their ruin: there shall be then no possibility of shunning it however they desire it (Amo 9:2-3; Rev 6:15-16).

JFB: 1Th 5:4

Not in darkness of understanding (that is, spiritual ignorance) or of the moral nature (that is, a state of sin), Eph 4:18.

JFB: 1Th 5:4

Greek, "in order that"; with God results are all purposed.

JFB: 1Th 5:4

Greek, "THE day"; the day of the Lord (Heb 10:25, "the day"), in contrast to "darkness."

JFB: 1Th 5:4

Unexpectedly (compare Joh 12:35).

JFB: 1Th 5:4

The two oldest manuscripts read, "as (the daylight overtakes) thieves" (Job 24:17). Old manuscripts and Vulgate read as English Version.

JFB: 1Th 5:5

The oldest manuscripts read, "FOR ye are all," &c. Ye have no reason for fear, or for being taken by surprise, by the coming of the day of the Lord: "For ye are all sons (so the Greek) of light and sons of day"; a Hebrew idiom, implying that as sons resemble their fathers, so you are in character light (intellectually and morally illuminated in a spiritual point of view), Luk 16:8; Joh 12:36.

JFB: 1Th 5:5

That is, belong not to night nor darkness. The change of person from "ye" to "we" implies this: Ye are sons of light because ye are Christians; and we, Christians, are not of night nor darkness.

JFB: 1Th 5:6

Greek, "the rest" of the world: the unconverted (1Th 4:13). "Sleep" here is worldly apathy to spiritual things (Rom 13:11; Eph 5:14); in 1Th 5:7, ordinary sleep; in 1Th 5:10, death.

JFB: 1Th 5:6

For Christ's coming; literally, "be wakeful." The same Greek occurs in 1Co 15:34; 2Ti 2:26.

JFB: 1Th 5:6

Refraining from carnal indulgence, mental or sensual (1Pe 5:8).

JFB: 1Th 5:7

This verse is to be taken in the literal sense. Night is the time when sleepers sleep, and drinking men are drunk. To sleep by day would imply great indolence; to be drunken by day, great shamelessness. Now, in a spiritual sense, "we Christians profess to be day people, not night people; therefore our work ought to be day work, not night work; our conduct such as will bear the eye of day, and such has no need of the veil of night" [EDMUNDS], (1Th 5:8).

JFB: 1Th 5:8

Faith, hope, and love, are the three pre-eminent graces (1Th 1:3; 1Co 13:13). We must not only be awake and sober, but also armed; not only watchful, but also guarded. The armor here is only defensive; in Eph 6:13-17, also offensive. Here, therefore, the reference is to the Christian means of being guarded against being surprised by the day of the Lord as a thief in the night. The helmet and breastplate defend the two vital parts, the head and the heart respectively. "With head and heart right, the whole man is right" [EDMUNDS]. The head needs to be kept from error, the heart from sin. For "the breastplate of righteousness," Eph 6:14, we have here "the breastplate of faith and love"; for the righteousness which is imputed to man for justification, is "faith working by love" (Rom 4:3, Rom 4:22-24; Gal 5:6). "Faith," as the motive within, and "love," exhibited in outward acts, constitute the perfection of righteousness. In Eph 6:17 the helmet is "salvation"; here, "the hope of salvation." In one aspect "salvation" is a present possession (Joh 3:36; Joh 5:24; 1Jo 5:13); in another, it is a matter of "hope" (Rom 8:24-25). Our Head primarily wore the "breastplate of righteousness" and "helmet of salvation," that we might, by union with Him, receive both.

JFB: 1Th 5:9

Assigning the ground of our "hopes" (1Th 5:8).

JFB: 1Th 5:9

Translate, "set" (Act 13:47), in His everlasting purpose of love (1Th 3:3; 2Ti 1:9). Contrast Rom 9:22; Jud 1:4.

JFB: 1Th 5:9

That is, unto wrath.

JFB: 1Th 5:9

Greek, "to the acquisition of salvation"; said, according to BENGEL, Of One saved out of a general wreck, when all things else have been lost: so of the elect saved out of the multitude of the lost (2Th 2:13-14). The fact of God's "appointment" of His grace "through Jesus Christ" (Eph 1:5), takes away the notion of our being able to "acquire" salvation of ourselves. Christ "acquired (so the Greek for 'purchased') the Church (and its salvation) with His own blood" (Act 20:28); each member is said to be appointed by God to the "acquiring of salvation." In the primary sense, God does the work; in the secondary sense, man does it.

JFB: 1Th 5:10

Greek, "in our behalf."

JFB: 1Th 5:10

Whether we be found at Christ's coming awake, that is, alive, or asleep, that is, in our graves.

JFB: 1Th 5:10

All of us together; the living not preceding the dead in their glorification "with Him" at His coming (1Th 4:13).

Clarke: 1Th 5:1

But of the times and the seasons - It is natural to suppose, after what he had said in the conclusion of the preceding chapter concerning the coming of Christ, the raising of the dead, and rendering those immortal who should then be found alive, without obliging them to pass through the empire of death, that the Thessalonians would feel an innocent curiosity to know, as the disciples did concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, when those things should take place, and what should be the signs of those times, and of the coming of the Son of man. And it is remarkable that the apostle answers, here, to these anticipated questions as our Lord did, in the above case, to the direct question of his disciples; and he seems to refer in these words, Of the times and the seasons ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night, to what our Lord said, Mat 24:44; Mat 25:13; and the apostle takes it for granted that they were acquainted with our Lord’ s prediction on the subject: For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. It is very likely therefore, that the apostle, like our Lord, couples these two grand events-the destruction of Jerusalem and the final judgment. And it appears most probable that it is of the former event chiefly that he speaks here, as it was certainly of the latter that he treated in the conclusion of the preceding chapter. In the notes on Act 1:6, Act 1:7, it has already been shown that the χρονους η καιρους, times or seasons, (the very same terms which are used here), refer to the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth; and we may fairly presume that they have the same meaning in this place.

Clarke: 1Th 5:3

For when they shall say, Peace and safety - This points out, very particularly, the state of the Jewish people when the Romans came against them; and so fully persuaded were they that God would not deliver the city and temple to their enemies, that they refused every overture that was made to them

Clarke: 1Th 5:3

Sudden destruction - In the storming of their city and the burning of their temple, and the massacre of several hundreds of thousands of themselves; the rest being sold for slaves, and the whole of them dispersed over the face of the earth

Clarke: 1Th 5:3

As travail upon a woman - This figure is perfectly consistent with what the apostle had said before, viz.: that the times and seasons were not known: though the thing itself was expected, our Lord having predicted it in the most positive manner. So, a woman with child knows that, if she be spared, she will have a bearing time; but the week, the day, the hour, she cannot tell. In a great majority of cases the time is accelerated or retarded much before or beyond the time that the woman expected; so, with respect to the Jews, neither the day, week, month, nor year was known. All that was specifically known was this: their destruction was coming, and it should be sudden, and they should not escape.

Clarke: 1Th 5:4

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness - Probably St. Paul refers to a notion that was very prevalent among the Jews, viz.: that God would judge the Gentiles in the night time, when utterly secure and careless; but he would judge the Jews in the day time, when employed in reading and performing the words of the law. The words in Midrash Tehillim, on Psa 9:8, are the following: When the holy blessed God shall judge the Gentiles, it shall be in the night season, in which they shall be asleep in their transgressions; but when he shall judge the Israelites, it shall be in the day time, when they are occupied in the study of the law. This maxim the apostle appears to have in view in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th verses. (1Th 5:4-8)

Clarke: 1Th 5:5

Ye are all the children of light - Ye are children of God, and enjoy both his light and life. Ye are Christians - ye belong to him who has brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel. This dispensation, under which ye are, has illustrated all the preceding dispensations; in its light all is become luminous; and ye, who walked formerly in heathen ignorance, or in the darkness of Jewish prejudices, are now light in the Lord, because ye have believed in him who is the light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory and splendor of his people Israel

Clarke: 1Th 5:5

We are not of the night, nor of darkness - Our actions are such as we are not afraid to expose to the fullest and clearest light. Sinners hate the light; they are enemies to knowledge; they love darkness; they will not receive instructions; and their deeds are such as cannot bear the light.

Clarke: 1Th 5:6

Let us not sleep, as do others - Let us who are of the day - who believe the Gospel and belong to Christ, not give way to a careless, unconcerned state of mind, like to the Gentiles and sinners in general, who are stupefied and blinded by sin, so that they neither think nor feel; but live in time as if it were eternity; or rather, live as if there were no eternity, no future state of existence, rewards, or punishments

Clarke: 1Th 5:6

Let us watch - Be always on the alert; and be sober, making a moderate use of all things.

Clarke: 1Th 5:7

For they that sleep - Sleepers and drunkards seek the night season; so the careless and the profligate persons indulge their evil propensities, and avoid all means of instruction; they prefer their ignorance to the word of God’ s grace, and to the light of life. There seems to be here an allusion to the opinion mentioned under 1Th 5:4 (note), to which the reader is requested to refer. It may be remarked, also, that it was accounted doubly scandalous, even among the heathen, to be drunk in the day time. They who were drunken were drunken in the night.

Clarke: 1Th 5:8

Putting on the breastplate - We are not only called to Work, but we are called also to fight; and that we may not be surprised, we must watch; and that we may be in a condition to defend ourselves, we must be sober; and that we may be enabled to conquer, we must be armed: and what the breastplate and helmet are to a soldier’ s heart and head, such are faith, love, and hope to us. Faith enables us to endure, as seeing him who is invisible; love excites us to diligence and activity, and makes us bear our troubles and difficulties pleasantly; hope helps us to anticipate the great end, the glory that shall be revealed, and which we know we shall in due time obtain, if we faint not. For an explanation of the different parts of the Grecian armor, as illustrating that of the Christian, see the notes on Ephesians 6 (note), where the subject is largely explained.

Clarke: 1Th 5:9

For God hath not appointed us to wrath - So then it appears that some were appointed to wrath, εις οργην, to punishment; on this subject there can be no dispute. But who are they? When did this appointment take place? And for what cause? These are supposed to be "very difficult questions, and such as cannot receive a satisfactory answer; and the whole must be referred to the sovereignty of God."If we look carefully at the apostle’ s words, we shall find all these difficulties vanish. It is very obvious that, in the preceding verses, the apostle refers simply to the destruction of the Jewish polity, and to the terrible judgments which were about to fall on the Jews as a nation; therefore, they are the people who were appointed to wrath; and they were thus appointed, not from eternity, nor from any indefinite or remote time, but from that time in which they utterly rejected the offers of salvation made to them by Jesus Christ and his apostles; the privileges of their election were still continued to them, even after they had crucified the Lord of glory; for, when he gave commandment to his disciples to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, he bade them begin at Jerusalem. They did so, and continued to offer salvation to them, till at last, being everywhere persecuted, and the whole nation appearing with one consent to reject the Gospel, the kingdom of God was wholly taken away from them, and the apostles turned to the Gentiles. Then God appointed them to wrath; and the cause of that appointment was their final and determined rejection of Christ and his Gospel. But even this appointment to wrath does not signify eternal damnation; nothing of the kind is intended in the word. Though we are sure that those who die in their sins can never see God, yet it is possible that many of those wretched Jews, during their calamities, and especially during the siege of their city, did turn unto the Lord who smote them, and found that salvation which he never denies to the sincere penitent

When the Jews were rejected, and appointed to wrath, then the Gentiles were elected, and appointed to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, whose Gospel they gladly received, and continue to prize; while the remnant of the Jews continue, in all places of their dispersion, the same irreconcilable and blasphemous opponents of the Gospel of Christ. On these accounts the election of the Gentiles and the reprobation of the Jews still continue.

Clarke: 1Th 5:10

Who died for us - His death was an atoning sacrifice for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews

Clarke: 1Th 5:10

Whether we wake or sleep - Whether we live or die, whether we are in this state or in the other world, we shall live together with him-shall enjoy his life, and the consolations of his Spirit, while here; and shall be glorified together with him in the eternal world. The words show that every where and in all circumstances genuine believers, who walk after God, have life and communion with him, and are continually happy, and constantly safe

The apostle, however, may refer to the doctrine he has delivered, 1Th 4:15, concerning the dead in Christ rising first; and the last generation of men not dying, but undergoing such a change as shall render them immortal. On that great day, all the followers of God, both those who had long slept in the dust of the earth, and all those who shall be found living, shall be acknowledged by Christ as his own, and live together for ever with him.

Calvin: 1Th 5:1

1.But as to times. He now, in the third place, calls them back from a curious and unprofitable inquiry as to times, but in the mean time admonishes them to be constantly in a state of preparation for receiving Christ. ⁵⁸⁹ He speaks, however, by way of anticipation, saying, that they have no need that he should write as to those things which the curious desire to know. For it is an evidence of excessive incredulity not to believe what the Lord foretells, unless he marks out the day by certain circumstances, and as it were points it out with the finger. As, therefore, those waver between doubtful opinions who require that moments of time should be marked out for them, as if they would draw a conjecture ⁵⁹⁰ from some plausible demonstration, he accordingly says that discussions of this nature are not necessary for the pious. There is also another reason — that believers do not desire to know more than they are permitted to learn in God’s school. Now Christ designed that the day of his coming should be hid from us, that, being in suspense, we might be as it were upon watch.

Calvin: 1Th 5:2

2.Ye know perfectly. He places exact knowledge in contrast with an anxious desire of investigation. But what is it that he says the Thessalonians know accurately? ⁵⁹¹ It is, that the day of Christ will come suddenly and unexpectedly, so as to take unbelievers by surprise, as a thief does those that are asleep. This, however, is opposed to evident tokens, which might portend afar off his coming to the world. Hence it were foolish to wish to determine the time precisely from presages or prodigies.

Calvin: 1Th 5:3

3.For when they shall say. Here we have an explanation of the similitude, the day of the Lord will be like a thief in the night. Why so? because it will come suddenly to unbelievers, when not looked for, so that it will take them by surprise, as though they were asleep. But whence comes that sleep? Assuredly from deep contempt of God. The prophets frequently reprove the wicked on account of this supine negligence, and assuredly they await in a spirit of carelessness not merely that last judgment, but also such as are of daily occurrence. Though the Lord threatens destruction, ⁵⁹² they do not hesitate to promise themselves peace and every kind of prosperity. And the reason why they fall into this destructive indolence ⁵⁹³ is, because they do not see those things immediately accomplished, which the Lord declares will take place, for they reckon that to be fabulous that does not immediately present itself before their eyes. For this reason the Lord, in order that he may avenge this carelessness, which is full of obstinacy, comes all on a sudden, and contrary to the expectation of all, precipitates the wicked from the summit of felicity. He sometimes furnishes tokens of this nature of a sudden advent, but that will be the principal one, when Christ will come down to judge the world, as he himself testifies, (Mat 24:37) comparing that time to the age of Noe, inasmuch as all will give way to excess, as if in the profoundest repose.

As the pains of child-bearing Here we have a most apt similitude, inasmuch as there is no evil that seizes more suddenly, and that presses more keenly and more violently on the very first attack; besides this, a woman that is with child carries in her womb occasion of grief without feeling it, until she is seized amidst feasting and laughter, or in the midst of sleep.

Calvin: 1Th 5:4

4.But ye, brethren. He now admonishes them as to what is the duty of believers, that they look forward in hope to that day, though it be remote. And this is what is intended in the metaphor of day and light. The coming of Christ will take by surprise those that are carelessly giving way to indulgence, because, being enveloped in darkness, they see nothing, for no darkness is more dense than ignorance of God. We, on the other hand, on whom Christ has shone by the faith of his gospel, differ much from them, for that saying of Isaiah is truly accomplished in us, that

while darkness covers the earth, the Lord arises upon us, and his glory is seen in us. (Isa 60:2)

He admonishes us, therefore, that it were an unseemly thing that we should be caught by Christ asleep, as it were, or seeing nothing, while the full blaze of light is shining forth upon us. He calls them children of light, in accordance with the Hebrew idiom, as meaning — furnished with light; as also children of the day, meaning — those who enjoy the light of day. ⁵⁹⁴ And this he again confirms, when he says that we are not of the night nor of darkness, because the Lord has rescued us from it. For it is as though he had said, that we have not been enlightened by the Lord with a view to our walking in darkness.

Calvin: 1Th 5:6

6.Therefore let us not sleep. He adds other metaphors closely allied to the preceding one. For as he lately shewed that it were by no means seemly that they should be blind in the midst of light, so he now admonishes that it were dishonorable and disgraceful to sleep or be drunk in the middle of the day. Now, as he gives the name of day to the doctrine of the gospel, by which the Christ, the Sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2) is manifested to us, so when he speaks of sleep and drunkenness, he does not mean natural sleep, or drunkenness from wine, but stupor of mind, when, forgetting God and ourselves, we regardlessly indulge our vices. Let us not sleep, says he; that is, let us not, sunk in indolence, become senseless in the world. As others, that is, unbelievers, ⁵⁹⁵ from whom ignorance of God, like a dark night, takes away understanding and reason. But let us watch, that is, let us look to the Lord with an attentive mind. And be sober, that is, casting away the cares of the world, which weigh us down by their pressure, and throwing off base lusts, mount to heaven with freedom and alacrity. For this is spiritual sobriety, when we use this world so sparingly and temperately that we are not entangled with its allurements.

Calvin: 1Th 5:8

8.Having put on the breastplate. He adds this, that he may the more effectually shake us out of our stupidity, for he calls us as it were to arms, that he may shew that it is not a time to sleep. It is true that he does not make use of the term war; but when he arms us with a breastplate and a helmet, he admonishes us that we must maintain a warfare. Whoever, therefore, is afraid of being surprised by the enemy, must keep awake, that he may be constantly on watch. As, therefore, he has exhorted to vigilance, on the ground that the doctrine of the gospel is like the light of day, so he now stirs us up by another argument — that we must wage war with our enemy. From this it follows, that idleness is too hazardous a thing. For we see that soldiers, though in other situations they may be intemperate, do nevertheless, when the enemy is near, from fear of destruction, refrain from gluttony ⁵⁹⁶ and all bodily delights, and are diligently on watch so as to be upon their guard. As, therefore, Satan is on the alert against us, and tries a thousand schemes, we ought at least to be not less diligent and watchful. ⁵⁹⁷

It is, however, in vain, that some seek a more refined exposition of the names of the kinds of armor, for Paul speaks here in a different way from what he does in Eph 6:14 for there he makes righteousness the breastplate. This, therefore, will suffice for understanding his meaning, that he designs to teach, that the life of Christians is like a perpetual warfare, inasmuch as Satan does not cease to trouble and molest them. He would have us, therefore, be diligently prepared and on the alert for resistance: farther, he admonishes us that we have need of arms, because unless we be well armed we cannot withstand so powerful ⁵⁹⁸ an enemy. He does not, however, enumerate all the parts of armor, (πανοπλίαν,) but simply makes mention of two, the breastplate and the helmet. In the mean time, he omits nothing of what belongs to spiritual armor, for the man that is provided with faith, love, and hope, will be found in no department unarmed.

Calvin: 1Th 5:9

9.For God hath not appointed us. As he has spoken of the hope of salvation, he follows out that department, and says that God has appointed us to this — that we may obtain salvation through Christ. The passage, however, might be explained in a simple way in this manner — that we must put on the helmet of salvation, because God wills not that we should perish, but rather that we should be saved. And this, indeed, Paul means, but, in my opinion, he has in view something farther. For as the day of Christ is for the most part regarded with alarm, ⁵⁹⁹ having it in view to close with the mention of it, he says that we are appointed to salvation

The Greek term περιποίησις means enjoyment, (as they speak,) as well as acquisition. Paul, undoubtedly, does not mean that God has called us, that we may procure salvation for ourselves, but that we may obtain it, as it has been acquired for us by Christ. Paul, however, encourages believers to fight strenuously, setting before them the certainty of victory; for the man who fights timidly and hesitatingly is half-conquered. In these words, therefore, he had it in view to take away the dread which arises from distrust. There cannot, however, be a better assurance of salvation gathered, than from the decree ⁶⁰⁰ of God. The term wrath, in this passage, as in other instances, is taken to mean the judgment or vengeance of God against the reprobate.

Calvin: 1Th 5:10

10.Who died. From the design of Christ’s death he confirms what he has said, for if he died with this view — that he might make us partakers of his life, there is no reason why we should be in doubt as to our salvation. It is doubtful, however, what he means now by sleeping and waking, for it might seem as if he meant life and death, and this meaning would be more complete. At the same time, we might not unsuitably interpret it as meaning ordinary sleep. The sum is this — that Christ died with this view, that he might bestow upon us his life, which is perpetual and has no end. It is not to be wondered, however, that he affirms that we now live with Christ, inasmuch as we have, by entering through faith into the kingdom of Christ, passed from death into life. (Joh 5:24) Christ himself, into whose body we are ingrafted, quickens us by his power, and the Spirit that dwelleth in us is life, because of justification ⁶⁰¹

Defender: 1Th 5:1

The phrase "times and the seasons" occurs elsewhere only in Act 1:7. The "times" have to do with the chronology of future periods, the "seasons," with the characteristics of those periods.

Defender: 1Th 5:1

There was no need for Paul to write of these matters, for he had already conveyed all this information concerning the future to them: the teachings of Christ, those of the apostles, and also what he, himself, had received by revelation."

Defender: 1Th 5:2

This is the first written mention of "the day of the Lord" in the New Testament, although Peter had quoted the phrase from the Old Testament (Joe 2:31) in his sermon on the day of Pentecost (Act 2:20). This phrase is used over thirty times in the Old Testament. In context here, it refers to the coming of the final period of God's judgment on the earth.

Defender: 1Th 5:2

Although the day of the Lord would be a period of great judgment on God's enemies, it would begin unexpectedly and quietly. The Lord Jesus had also used the figure of the thief coming secretly, and the Thessalonians already knew this from Paul's teachings (Mat 24:42-44; 2Pe 3:10; Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15). Therefore, we should be constantly watchful for the Lord, not just for various signs preceding His coming. Paul was watching throughout his life (2Ti 4:8), and here he urges, "let us watch and be sober" (1Th 5:6)."

Defender: 1Th 5:3

"Safety" means "security." The day of the Lord will burst suddenly on an unsuspecting world at a time when there is great worldwide concern with peace and security, possibly when such a condition is finally achieved by a great charismatic world leader. This is the development being planned and vigorously promoted today by the many New Age cults and movements seeking a new world order. If this is a sign, however, it applies to the day of the Lord and not to the rapture, which could occur at any time and, in principle, could have occurred at any time in the past, even during the apostolic period. Otherwise, there would be no point to Paul's exhortation to watch for Christ's return. Note the contrast between "they" and "we."

Defender: 1Th 5:3

The day of the Lord is as unexpected as a thief, but once it begins, its destructive consummation is as inevitable as birth after travail."

Defender: 1Th 5:5

Even "children of the light" may become careless in this world and be sleeping when they should be watching. Hence, the exhortation to "watch and be sober" (1Th 5:6). We should constantly abide in Him that we not be "ashamed before him at his coming" (1Jo 2:28)."

Defender: 1Th 5:8

Here again is a juxtaposition of faith, hope and love. (see note on Col 1:4, Col 1:5).

Defender: 1Th 5:8

This introductory suggestion of spiritual armor in the Christian warfare was later amplified in Eph 6:11-17 (Rom 13:12; 2Co 6:7)."

Defender: 1Th 5:9

In the context, Paul is discussing the coming day of the Lord, which will be "the great day of his wrath" (Rev 6:17) on an ungodly world that has rejected both His law and His work of redemption and forgiveness. It is not intended to be a time of chastisement and purification of believers, but of judgment and tribulation on the ungodly. The world, long under the dominion of Satan, "the god of this world" (2Co 4:4), must be reclaimed by God and the rebels purged out of it. Thus, before these purgings begin, those who have believed on the Lord and received His salvation must be taken out of the way by Christ's rapture of His people.

Defender: 1Th 5:9

"Salvation" can refer to any "deliverance" (same Greek word). In this case, it refers to deliverance from the world before the wrath of God is visited on it. If any should object that the last generation of Christians does not really deserve to be delivered out of the tribulation, they should remember that this salvation, like that of individual soul salvation, is a matter of grace through faith, not works. Previous generations of Christians also were delivered from the coming day of wrath, so that "whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him" (1Th 5:10) when He comes again (1Th 1:10)."

Defender: 1Th 5:10

Since this may be the first epistle written by Paul, it is possible that this is the first clear statement in writing of the substitutionary death of Christ."

TSK: 1Th 5:1

the times : Mat 24:3, Mat 24:36; Mar 13:30-32; Act 1:7

ye : 1Th 4:9; 2Co 9:1; Jud 1:3

TSK: 1Th 5:2

know : Jer 23:20

the day : Mat 24:42-44, Mat 25:13; Mar 13:34, Mar 13:35; Luk 12:39, Luk 12:40; 2Pe 3:10; Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15

TSK: 1Th 5:3

Peace : Deu 29:19; Jdg 18:27, Jdg 18:28; Psa 10:11-13; Isa 21:4, Isa 56:12; Dan 5:3-6; Nah 1:10; Mat 24:37-39; Luk 17:26-30, Luk 21:34, Luk 21:35

then : Exo 15:9, Exo 15:10; Jos 8:20-22; Jdg 20:41, Jdg 20:42; 2Ch 32:19-21; Psa 73:18-20; Pro 29:1; Isa 30:13; Luk 17:27-29, Luk 21:34, Luk 21:35; Act 12:22, Act 12:23, Act 13:41; 2Th 1:9; 2Pe 2:4; Rev 18:7, Rev 18:8

as : Psa 48:6; Isa 43:6-9, Isa 21:3; Jer 4:31, Jer 6:24, Jer 13:21, Jer 22:23; Hos 13:13; Mic 4:9, Mic 4:10

and they : Mat 23:33; Heb 2:3, Heb 12:23

TSK: 1Th 5:4

are : Rom 13:11-13; Col 1:13; 1Pe 2:9, 1Pe 2:10; 1Jo 2:8

overtake : Deu 19:6, Deu 28:15, Deu 28:45; Jer 42:16; Hos 10:9; Zec 1:6

TSK: 1Th 5:5

Luk 16:8; Joh 12:36; Act 26:18; Eph 5:8

TSK: 1Th 5:6

let us not : Pro 19:15; Isa 56:10; Jon 1:6; Mat 13:25, Mat 25:5; Mar 14:37; Luk 22:46; Rom 13:11-14; 1Co 15:34; Eph 5:14

watch : Mat 24:42, Mat 25:13, Mat 26:38, Mat 26:40,Mat 26:41; Mar 13:34, Mar 13:35, Mar 13:37, Mar 14:38; Luk 12:37, Luk 12:39; Luk 21:36, Luk 22:46; Act 20:31; 1Co 16:13; Eph 6:18; Col 4:2; 2Ti 4:5; 1Pe 4:7; Rev 3:2, Rev 16:15

sober : 1Th 5:8; Phi 4:5; 1Ti 2:9, 1Ti 2:15, 1Ti 3:2, 1Ti 3:11; Tit 2:6, Tit 2:12; 1Pe 1:13, 1Pe 5:8

TSK: 1Th 5:7

they that sleep : Job 4:13, Job 33:15; Luk 21:34, Luk 21:35; Rom 13:13; 1Co 15:34; Eph 5:14

and they : 1Sa 25:36, 1Sa 25:37; Pro 23:29-35; Isa 21:4, Isa 21:5; Dan 5:4, Dan 5:5; Act 2:15; 2Pe 2:13

TSK: 1Th 5:8

who : 1Th 5:5; Rom 13:13; Eph 5:8, Eph 5:9; 1Pe 2:9; 1Jo 1:7

the breastplate : Isa 59:17; Rom 13:12; 2Co 6:7; Eph 6:11, Eph 6:13-18

the hope : Job 19:23-27; Psa 42:5, Psa 42:11, Psa 43:5; Lam 3:26; Rom 5:2-5, Rom 8:24, Rom 8:25; 1Co 13:13; Gal 5:5; 2Th 2:16; Heb 6:19, Heb 10:35, Heb 10:36; 1Pe 1:3-5, 1Pe 1:13; 1Jo 3:1-3

TSK: 1Th 5:9

not : 1Th 1:10, 1Th 3:3; Exo 9:16; Pro 16:4; Eze 38:10-17; Mat 26:24; Act 1:20,Act 1:25; Act 13:48; Rom 9:11-23; 2Ti 2:19, 2Ti 2:20; 1Pe 2:8; 2Pe 2:3; Jud 1:4

obtain : Rom 11:7, Rom 11:30; 2Th 2:13, 2Th 2:14; 1Ti 1:13, 1Ti 1:16; 2Ti 2:10; 1Pe 2:10; 2Pe 1:1

TSK: 1Th 5:10

died : Mat 20:28; Joh 10:11, Joh 10:15, Joh 10:17, Joh 15:13; Rom 5:6-8, Rom 8:34, Rom 14:8, Rom 14:9; 1Co 15:3; 2Co 5:15, 2Co 5:21; Eph 5:2; 1Ti 2:6; Tit 2:14; 1Pe 2:24, 1Pe 3:18

whether : 1Th 4:13, 1Th 4:17

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: 1Th 5:1

But of the times and the seasons - See the notes, Act 1:7. The reference here is to the coming of the Lord Jesus, and to the various events connected with his advent; see the close of 1 Thes. 4.

Ye have no need that I write unto you - That is, they had received all the information on the particular point to which he refers, which it was necessary they should have. He seems to refer particularly to the suddenness of his coming. It is evident from this, as well as from other parts of this Epistle, that this had been, from some cause, a prominent topic which he had dwelt on when he was with them; see the notes on 1Th 1:10.

Barnes: 1Th 5:2

For yourselves know perfectly - That is, they had been fully taught this. There could be no doubt in their minds respecting it.

The day of the Lord so cometh - Of the Lord Jesus - for so the word "Lord"in the New Testament commonly means; see the notes, Act 1:24. The "day of the Lord"means that day in which he will be manifested, or in which he will be the prominent object in view of the assembled universe.

As a thief in the night - Suddenly and unexpectedly, as a robber breaks into a dwelling. A thief comes without giving any warning, or any indications of his approach. He not only gives none, but he is careful that none shall be given. It is a point with him that, if possible, the man whose house he is about to rob shall have no means of ascertaining his approach until he comes suddenly upon him; compare Mat 24:37-43 notes; Luk 12:39-40 notes. In this way the Lord Jesus will return to judgment; and this proves that all the attempts to determine the day, the year, or the century when he will come, must be fallacious. He intends that his coming to this world shall be sudden and unexpected, "like that of a thief in the night;"that there shall be no such indications of his approach that it shall not be sudden and unexpected; and that no warning of it shall be given so that people may know the time of his appearing. If this be not the point of the comparison in expressions like this, what is it? Is there anything else in which his coming will resemble that of a thief? And if this be the true point of comparison, how can it be true that people can ascertain when that is to occur? Assuredly, if they can, his coming will not be like that of a thief; comp. notes on Act 1:7.

Barnes: 1Th 5:3

For when they shall say, Peace and safety - That is, when the wicked shall say this, for the apostle here refers only to those on whom "sudden destruction"will come; compare Mat 24:36-42 notes; 2Pe 3:3-4 notes. It is clear from this:

\caps1 (1) t\caps0 hat when the Lord Jesus shall come the world will not all be converted. There will be some to be "destroyed."How large this proportion will be, it is impossible now to ascertain. This supposition, however, is not inconsistent with the belief that there will be a general prevalence of the gospel before that period.

\caps1 (2) t\caps0 he impenitent and wicked world will be sunk in carnal security when he comes. They will regard themselves as safe. They will see no danger. They will give no heed to warning. They will be unprepared for his advent. So it has always been. it seems to be a universal truth in regard to all the visitations of God to wicked people for punishment, that he comes upon them at a time when they are not expecting him, and that they have no faith in the predictions of his advent. So it was in the time of the flood; in the destruction of Sodom Gomorrah, and Jerusalem; in the overthrow of Babylon: so it is when the sinner dies, and so it will be when the Lord Jesus shall return to judge the world. One of the most remarkable facts about the history of man is, that he takes no warning from his Maker; he never changes his plans, or feels any emotion, because his Creator "thunders damnation along his path,"and threatens to destroy him in hell.

Sudden destruction - Destruction that was unforeseen ( αἰφνίδιος aiphnidios ) or unexpected. The word here rendered "sudden,"occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, except in Luk 21:34, "Lest that day come upon you unawares."The word rendered "destruction"- ὄλεθρος olethros - occurs in the New Testament only here and in 1Co 5:5; 2Th 1:9; 1Ti 6:9, in all of which places it is correctly translated destruction. The word destruction is familiar to us. It means, properly, demolition; pulling down; the annihilation of the form of anything, or that form of parts which constitutes it what it is; as the destruction of grass by eating; of a forest by cutting down the trees; of life by murder; of the soul by consigning it to misery. It does not necessarily mean annihilation - for a house or city is not annihilated which is pulled down or burnt; a forest is not annihilated which is cut down; and a man is not annihilated whose character and happiness are destroyed. In regard to the destruction here referred to, we may remark:

(1)\caps1     i\caps0 t will be after the return of the Lord Jesus to judgment; and hence it is not true that the wicked experience all the punishment which they ever will in the present life;

(2)\caps1     t\caps0 hat it seems fairly implied that the destruction which they will then suffer will not be annihilation, but will be connected with conscious existence; and,

(3)\caps1     t\caps0 hat they will then be cut off from life and hope and salvation.

How can the solemn affirmation that they will be "destroyed suddenly,"be consistent with the belief that all people will be saved? Is it the same thing to be destroyed and to be saved? Does the Lord Jesus, when he speaks of the salvation of his people, say that he comes to destroy them?

As travail upon a woman with child - This expression is sometimes used to denote great consternation, as in Psa 48:6; Jer 6:24; Mic 4:9-10; great pain, as Isa 53:11; Jer 4:31; Joh 16:21; or the suddenness with which anything occurs; Jer 13:21. It seems here to be used to denote two things; first, that the coming of the Lord to a wicked world will be sudden; and, secondly, that it will be an event of the most distressing and overwhelming nature.

And they shall not escape - That is, the destruction, or punishment. They calculated on impunity, but now the time will have come when none of these refuges will avail them, and no rocks will cover them from the "wrath to come."

Barnes: 1Th 5:4

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief - The allusion here is to the manner in which a thief or robber accomplishes his purpose. He comes in the night, when people are asleep. So, says the apostle, the Lord will come to the wicked. They are like those who are asleep when the thief comes upon them. But it is not so with Christians. They are, in relation to the coming of the day of the Lord, as people are who are awake when the robber comes. They could see his approach, and could prepare for it, so that it would not take them by surprise.

Barnes: 1Th 5:5

Ye are all the children of light - All who are Christians. The phrase"children of light"is a Hebraism, meaning that they were the enlightened children of God.

And the children of the day - Who live as if light always shone round about them. The meaning is, that in reference to the coming of the Lord they are as people would be in reference to the coming of a thief, if there were no night and no necessity of slumber. They would always be wakeful and active, and it would be impossible to come upon them by surprise. Christians are always to be wakeful and vigilant; they are so to expect the coming of the Redeemer, that he will not find them off their guard, and will not come upon them by surprise.

Barnes: 1Th 5:6

Therefore let us no sleep, as do others - As the wicked world does; compare notes, Mat 25:5.

But let us watch - That is, for the coming of the Lord. Let us regard it as an event which is certainly to occur, and which may occur at any moment; notes, Mat 25:13.

And be sober - The word here used ( νήφω nēphō ) is rendered sober in 1Th 5:6, 1Th 5:8; 1Pe 1:13; 1Pe 5:8; and watch in 2Ti 4:5, and 1Pe 4:7. It does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. It properly means, to be temperate or abstinent, especially in respect to wine. Joseph. Jewish Wars , 5. 5, 7; Xenophon, Cyr. 7. 5, 20; and then it is used in a more general sense, as meaning to be sober-minded, watchful, circumspect. In this passage there is an allusion to the fact that persons not only sleep in the night, but that they are frequently drunken in the night also. The idea is, that the Lord Jesus, when he comes, will find the wicked sunk not only in carnal security, but in sinful indulgences, and that those who are Christians ought not only to be awake and to watch as in the day-time, but to be temperate. They ought to be like persons engaged in the sober, honest, and appropriate employments of the day, and not like those who waste their days in sleep, and their nights in revelry.

A man who expects soon to see the Son of God coming to judgment, ought to be a sober man. No one would wish to be summoned from a scene of dissipation to his bar. And who would wish to be called there from the ball-room; from the theater; from the scene of brilliant worldly amusemet? The most frivolous votary of the world; the most accomplished and flattered and joyous patron of the ball-room; the most richly-dressed and admired daughter of vanity, would tremble at the thought of being summoned from those brilliant halls, where pleasure is now found, to the judgment bar. They would wish to have at least a little time that they might prepare for so solemn a scene. But if so, as this event may at any moment occur, why should they not be habitually sober-minded? Why should they not aim to be always in that state of mind which they know would be appropriate to meet him? Especially should Christians live with such vigilance and soberness as to be always prepared to meet the Son of God. What Christian can think it appropriate for him to go up to meet his Saviour from the theater, the ballroom, or the brilliant worldly party? A Christian ought always so to live that the coming of the Son of God in the clouds of heaven would not excite the least alarm.

Barnes: 1Th 5:7

For they that sleep, sleep in the night - Night is the time for sleep. The day is the time for action, and in the light of day people should be employed. Night and sleep are made for each other, and so are the day and active employment. The meaning here is, that it is in accordance with the character of those who are of the night, that is, sinners, to be sunk in stupidity and carnal security, as if they were asleep; but for the children of the day, that is, for Christians, it is no more appropriate to be inactive than it is for people to sleep in the daytime. "It is not to be wondered at that wicked people are negligent and are given to vice, for they are ignorant of the will of God. Negligence in doing right, and corrupt morals, usually accompany ignorance."Rosenmuller.

And they that be drunken, are drunken in the night - The night is devoted by them to revelry and dissipation. It is in accordance with the usual custom in all lands and times, that the night is the usual season for riot and revelry. The leisure, the darkness, the security from observation, and the freedom from the usual toils and cares of life, have caused those hours usually to be selected for indulgence in intemperate eating and drinking. This was probably more particularly the case among the ancients than with us, and much as drunkenness abounded, it was much more rare to see a man intoxicated in the day-time than it is now. To be drunk then in the day-time was regarded as the greatest disgrace. See Polyb. Exc. Leg. 8, and Apul. viii., as quoted by Wetstein; compare Act 2:15 note; Isa 5:11 note. The object of the apostle here is, to exhort Christians to be sober and temperate, and the meaning is, that it is as disgraceful for them to indulge in habits of revelry, as for a man to be drunk in the day-time. The propriety of this exhortation, addressed to Christians, is based on the fact that intoxication was hardly regarded as a crime, and, surrounded as they were with those who freely indulged in drinking to excess, they were then, as they are now, exposed to the danger of disgracing their religion. The actions of Christians ought always to be such that they may be performed in open day and in the view of all the world. Other people seek the cover of the night to perform their deeds; the Christian should do nothing which may not be done under the full blaze of day.

Barnes: 1Th 5:8

But let us, who are of the day, be sober - Temperate, as people usually are in the daytime.

Putting on the breast-plate of faith and love - This is a favorite comparison of the apostle Paul; see it explained at length in the notes on Eph 6:14.

And for an helmet, the hope of salvation - See the notes at Eph 6:17.

Barnes: 1Th 5:9

For God hath not appointed us to wrath - This is designed as an encouragement to effort to secure our salvation. The wish of God is to save us, and therefore we should watch and be sober; we should take to ourselves the whole of the Christian armor, and strive for victory. If he had appointed us to wrath, effort would have been in vain, for we could do nothing but yield to our inevitable destiny. The hope of a final triumph should animate us in our efforts, and cheer us in our struggles with our foes. How much does the hope of victory animate the soldier in battle! When morally certain of success, how his arm is nerved! When everything conspires to favor him, and when he seems to feel that God fights for him, and intends to give him the victory, how his heart exults, and how strong is he in battle! Hence, it was a great point among the ancients, when about entering into battle, to secure evidence that the gods favored them, and meant to give them the victory.

For this purpose they offered sacrifices, and consulted the flight of birds and the entrails of animals; and for this armies were accompanied by soothsayers and priests, that they might interpret any signs which might occur that would be favorable, or to propitiate the favor of the gods by sacrifice. See Homer, passim; Arrian’ s Expedition of Alexander, and the classic writers generally. The apostle alludes to something of this kind here. He would excite us to maintain the Christian warfare manfully, by the assurance that God intends that we shall be triumphant. This we are to learn by no conjectures of soothsayers; by no observation of the flight of birds; by no sacrifice which we can make to propitiate his favor, but by the unerring assurance of his holy word. If we are Christians, we know that he intends our salvation, and that victory will be ours; if we are willing to become Christians, we know that the Almighty arm will be stretched out to aid us, and that the "gates of hell"cannot prevent it.

Barnes: 1Th 5:10

Who died for us - That is, to redeem us. He designed by his death that we should ultimately live with him; and this effect of his death could be secured only as it was an atoning sacrifice.

Whether we wake or sleep - Whether we are found among the living or the dead when he comes. The object here is to show that the one class would have no advantage over the other. This was designed to calm their minds in their trials, and to correct an error which seems to have prevailed in the belief that those who were found alive when he should return would have some priority over those who were dead; see the notes on 1Th 4:13-18.

Should live together with him - See the notes at Joh 14:3. The word rendered "together"( ἁμα hama ) is not to be regarded as connected with the phrase "with him"- as meaning that he and they would be "together,"but it refers to those who "wake and those who sleep"- those who are alive and those who are dead - meaning that they would be "together"or would be with the Lord "at the same time;"there would be no priority or precedence. Rosenmuller.

Poole: 1Th 5:1

1Th 5:1-11 The apostle proceedeth to show that Christ’ s coming

will be sudden, exhorting Christians to watch and be

sober, so as not to be taken by surprise.

1Th 5:12,13 He beseecheth them to respect their spiritual guides,

1Th 5:14-22 and giveth, divers other precepts,

1Th 5:23-28 concluding with a prayer and salutations.

But when shall these things be? Might some say, as the disciples asked Christ, Mat 24:3,36 Ac 1:6 . He tells them:

It is not for you to know the times or the seasons not that they knew them in particular already, but there was no need they should know them. It may be some among them were too curious to inquire. He doth not say they could not be known, as being put into God’ s own power, as Act 1:7 ; but,

ye have no need that I write of them. The apostle, as in his preaching, so in his writing, had respect to what was most needful and profitable for the people: as when the disciples asked: Are there few that be saved? Christ answered them in that which was most needful to them, Luk 13:24 : and so doth the apostle here; instead of acquainting them with the times and seasons, he puts them upon watchfulness, that they might not be surprised, as in the following verses; and to improve the knowledge they had already, which was this, that Christ’ s coming would be sudden.

Poole: 1Th 5:2

By times and seasons then, before mentioned, he meant the time: of the Lord’ s coming, or he applies what he spoke in general to this particular, which he here calls

the day of the Lord And though they knew not the particular time, yet they did know this, it would be sudden and unexpected, coming

as a thief in the night Rev 16:15 : the comparison is to be restrained only to the suddenness of it; for his coming will be welcome, and so not as a thief, to all that believe. And it is called

the day of the Lord here and elsewhere, 1Co 3:13 Phi 1:6,10 , and that day, 2Ti 1:18 , not to be taken for a natural day, but a certain period of time. Any eminent manifestation of God, either in works of mercy or judgment, is called his day in Scripture, Isa 2:12 Jer 46:10 . And so because Christ will be more eminently manifested now than ever before, therefore his coming is called his day; and that it would be sudden they did not only know, but

know perfectly or accurately; Eph 5:15 , circumspectly: there could be only conjectures about the particular time: the influence hereof was powerful upon their hearts, and so they may be said to know it perfectly. In religion, knowledge is not perfect which is not operative.

Poole: 1Th 5:3

For when they shall say, Peace and safety: by these words the apostle proves that the day of the Lord will come unexpected, by the security that will be then found in the world. They say it in their hearts and practice, if not with their tongues. And he useth two words the better to express the greatness of this security, present peace, and no danger of sliding, as the words import. And as the effect of Christ’ s coming will be

destruction to such, which will be salvation to others, Heb 9:28 ; so through their security it will be

sudden destruction which he describes under the similitude of travail upon a woman with child, which doth for the most part come of a sudden, and is the most exquisite pains in nature, and is often made use of in Scripture to set forth extremity of misery, Isa 13:8 Jer 13:21 . And these pains come upon her unavoidably; so saith the apostle of these men’ s destruction,

and they shall not escape or in no wise escape, expressed in the Greek by two negatives, which do strongly affirm.

Poole: 1Th 5:4

Lest these believing Thessalonians should be terrified in their minds by this discourse, he adds this by way of comfort to them, that they shall not be surprised as others; though they did not know the particular time of Christ’ s coming, yet it would not find them unprepared for it as the world would be; and the reason he gives is, because they are not in darkness.

Darkness is to be taken metaphorically; and so in Scripture it is taken either for sin, ignorance, or misery. The two former are here meant, especially ignorance. These Thessalonians were brought into the light of the gospel; they had the knowledge of Christ, and the way of salvation by him; particularly they knew of his coming, and the manner and ends of his coming, which the infidel world did not; and though Christ’ s coming would be to others as a thief in the night, yet not to them.

Poole: 1Th 5:5

And because the night is the time of darkness, and the day of light, he therefore hereby describes their present state:

1. Positively: Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day which is a Hebraism: Ye are partakers of a spiritual light, and this light is not the darker light of nature, or the light of prophecy, which the Jews had, compared to a lamp, 2Pe 1:19 ; but ye are children of the day, as the time of the gospel is called day, Rom 13:12 2Co 6:2 .

2. Negatively: We are not of the night, nor of darkness your state is exceedingly different from other Gentiles, and from what it once was, as the light is from darkness, and day from night: not as if there was no ignorance remaining in them, for the best men see but through a glass, darkly, 1Co 13:12 ; but the apostle compares them with their former estate when they were Gentiles, and with the Jews under the law; and with respect to their state in Christ, they were not children of the night, or, as to their state, of the night, but children of light, and of the day.

Poole: 1Th 5:6

The apostle draws this inference from the foregoing verses in a twofold duty:

1. Negative; Let us not sleep, as do others sleep is not proper for the children of the day, but of the night. And as the night and darkness are to be taken metaphorically, so the sleep. And though it hath several acceptations in Scripture, yet it is here taken for security. As the natural sleep binds up the senses, and men are not aware of approaching danger, so doth the sleep of the soul: it darkens the mind, stupifies the spiritual sense, that men prepare not for the coming of Christ, nor to avoid the destruction that will then come suddenly upon them. Rom 13:11,12 , is a place parallel to this: It is high time to awake out of sleep, & c. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. &c.

2. Positive; Let us watch: watching stands contrary to sleep; the senses are then in exercise, which were bound up by sleep. When the soul is watching, the faculties are in a spiritual exercise to apprehend both our interest and our duty, to take hold of that which is good, and to avoid the evil, the evil of sin and the evil of suffering. But watching here in the text especially refers to the coming of Christ, to prepare for it, that we may not be surprised as others will, and to be in a readiness to be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless, 2Pe 3:14 .

And be sober: sobriety is reckoned to be one branch of temperance, and one of the frnits of the Spirit, Gal 5:23 , and one link of the chain of grace, 2Pe 1:6 . It hath its name in the Greek, signifying either soundness of mind, or continency of mind; a mind kept or held within its due bounds. It is usually taken for moderation in meats and drinks, setting bounds to the appetite; but it extends to all earthly things, as honour, riches, pleasures, to have our affections to them, our cares about them, our endeavours after them, kept within due bounds; and all this upon the account of Christ’ s coming, as a necessary preparation for it: see 1Co 7:29-31 1Pe 4:7 . Sobriety and watching are here joined together, and so 1Pe 4:7 5:8 . For as intemperance in meats and drinks makes the body dull and sleepy, so without temperance and sobriety the soul will be disenabled to watch.

Poole: 1Th 5:7

The apostle enforceth the former duties of watchfulness and sobriety from the consideration of their present state. They that sleep choose the night to sleep in, and they that would be drunk choose the night for it: drunkenness being so shameful a vice, especially in the apostles’ time, that men were ashamed to be seen drunk in the day-time; see Act 2:15 Eph 5:12,13 : and in ancient times they had their feasts in the night. Ye therefore that are not in the night of your former ignorance, ought neither to be found in the sleep of security nor in the sin of drunkenness, whereby may be meant also any kind of intemperance; for a man may be drunk, and not with wine, Isa 29:9 ; drunk with pleasure, with cares, with sensual love and desires, with passion, and by spiritual judgments upon the soul, Isa 29:10 .

Poole: 1Th 5:8

The apostle here commands two spiritual duties, and the former is sobriety; which he mentioned before, 1Th 5:6 , as a preparation for Christ’ s coming; but here, as that which was suitable to their present state, and as standing opposite to that drunkenness in the foregoing verse. It is not sufficient to abstain from vice, without practising the contrary virtue. The other duty is, putting on their spiritual armour. The former was to secure them against the good things of the world, the latter against the evil of it, that they be not overcome of either. The armour he mentions is spiritual. Soldiers have their breastplate and helmet for their bodies, so hath the Christian these for his soul. As the breastplate and helmet secure the principal seats of the natural life, the head and the heart, so doth the Christian’ s armour secure the life of the soul, and therefore these two pieces are only mentioned, as being most necessary. His breastplate is faith and love

First, faith; in Eph 6:16 , it is called a shield; here, a breastplate. Great things are ascribed to faith in Scripture; it is that whereby we are justified, adopted, united to Christ, have our hearts purified, &c.; but here it is to be considered as a defensive grace; and it doth defend as it assents to the doctrine of the gospel as true, particularly the doctrine of the resurrection, and the coming of Christ, with the effects and attendants thereof, before mentioned. And as it doth depend upon God’ s faithfulness and all-sufficiency to perform his promises, and applying them to ourselves for our support and comfort, so faith is a breastplate or defence; and as it is a defence against temptations, so particularly against that sudden destruction that will come upon the secure world, before mentioned.

Secondly, love and love is joined with faith to show it to be a true and lively faith, when it worketh by love, Gal 5:6 ; and love, when it worketh, produceth many blessed effects, and particularly, as faith it will be a breastplate of defence. It will defend against the persecutions and afflictions of the world: Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it, Son 8:7 . Slavish fear will overcome us if we want love to defend against it, when true religion is under disgrace and persecuted in the world: love will defend against apostacy, and so help us to persevere to the coming of Christ, which the apostle had been speaking of; and love being seated in the heart, is well compared to a breastplate that encompasseth the heart.

Thirdly, the other piece of armour is the helmet so called in the Greek from encompassing the head; and this helmet is here said to be the hope of salvation. In Eph 6:17 , we read of the helmet of salvation, but the hope of it is there to be understood, for salvation is no grace of the Spirit, and so, of itself, no part of a Christian’ s armour. Hope of salvation is of great use to a Christian many ways: it is a cordial to comfort him, a spur to quicken him, a staff to support him, a bridle to restrain him, and so also a helmet to defend him: and therefore no wonder that the apostle calls true hope a lively hope, 1Pe 1:3 . And as itself is lively, so it is a defence to the life of the soul, as a helmet is to the life of the body.

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, saith Solomon; but if quite disappointed and lost, the heart sinks and dies. Let afflictions and distresses break in like a flood, yet hope will keep the head above water; and if Satan assault the soul to drive it into despair, this hope of salvation will be a defence to it. So that the Christian’ s armour mentioned in this verse are faith, love, and hope, which divines call the three theological graces, and placed together by the apostle, 1Co 13:13 . And these the saints, who are children of the day, are to put on, whereby they shall be armed for the coming of Christ with this armour of light, Rom 13:12 , and against the destruction which will then surprise the children of the night.

Poole: 1Th 5:9

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation: some expositors make these words an argument to all the duties of holiness mentioned both in this and the foregoing chapters; and it is true, that the knowledge of our being elected, or appointed to salvation, doth not in the elect encourage to sin or sloth, as some affirm, but engage to all holiness: but I had rather restrain the words, and that either to the hope of salvation, mentioned immediately before, and then the sense to be this, we may well hope for salvation seeing God hath appointed us to it; or, to his whole discourse about the coming of Christ, and so they may give the reason why the dead in Christ must rise, and must, with the living saints, meet the Lord in the air, and be for ever with him; yea, and why they need not fear the destruction that will come upon others at that day, and why they should be watchful for its coming, because, saith the apostle: God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation, & c. Having spoken of two sorts of persons, the children of the day, and children of the night, and the sudden destruction of the one and salvation of the other at the coming of Christ, he here ascends to the first original of both, which is God’ s appointment, which is an act of God’ s sovereign will, determining men’ s final estates; which seems to be more than mere prescience or foreknowledge, an act of God’ s mind, as appears by Rom 8:29 1Pe 1:2 , or more than appointing of the means and way of salvation; but not of persons to be saved, or of persons only materially, as to the number how many, but not formally, or individually, who they are that shall be saved; whereas the apostle writes of some whose names are in the book of life, Phi 4:3 , and that from the foundation of the world, Rev 17:8 , and chosen before the foundation of the world, Eph 1:4 : otherwise, every man’ s salvation would depend more upon the uncertainty of man’ s will, than the eternal and immutable will of God; whereas whatever God works in man’ s salvation, is according to the counsel of his will, Eph 1:11 ; and God’ s counsel is certain, immutable, and eternal, extending not only to actions and means, but persons, Rom 8:29,30 . Neither is this appointment of God grounded upon the foresight of man’ s faith; for if faith be the gift of God, this gift proceeds from God’ s counsel and fore-appointment; else men may say: That I may be saved I must thank God, but that I am saved I must thank myself: and hence there is a possibility for no man to be saved, and all the counsels of God in Christ to be made frustrate. But this is no place for controversy; only where God appoints to salvation, he appoints also to means, and without the means there is no attainment of the end, Eph 1:4 1Pe 1:2 . And the apostle here makes salvation stand opposite to wrath; what before he called destruction, 1Th 5:3 , he here calleth wrath, because God’ s wrath produceth it, and is manifested in it. And those that are saved are delivered from it; and the supreme reason is, because they were not appointed to it, but to salvation, and none that are appointed to the one are appointed to the other. The vessels of wrath and of mercy are set in an opposite distinction, Rom 9:22,23 , and so in the text, to illustrate the mercy of God the more in them that are saved. And whereas the apostle calls it the obtaining of salvation, it implies man’ s endeavours for it, though he be appointed of God to it; and speaking positively, not only of himself, but these believing Thessalonians also, he hath appointed us to obtain salvation, doth not this also imply that some good assurance of salvation may be obtained in this world.

By our Lord Jesus Christ the decrees of salvation are executed in him, and by him; and there is no salvation in any other, Act 4:12 . And he saveth not only by his doctrine and example, as some have affirmed, but by his blood as the meritorious, and his Spirit as the efficient, cause of salvation. Whether the infinite wisdom of God could have found out another way I shall not inquire, but this it hath pitched upon, wherein mercy and justice are admirably glorified together, and the highest engagement imaginable laid upon men to love, serve, and honour their Creator. And as the freeness of God’ s grace is manifested in his appointing men to salvation, so the exceeding riches of it, in saving them by Jesus Christ. And whereas two things are necessary to it, the reconciling us unto God, and restoring his image in us, the former we have by the merit of his blood, and the latter by the operation of his Spirit; so that we have no ground for that fond opinion, that if men walk honestly and uprightly, they may be saved in any religion.

Poole: 1Th 5:10

Some refer these words to the latter end of the foregoing chapter, where the apostle had spoken of the saints’ death and resurrection, which is their sleeping and waking, as they are here called. And their being for ever with the Lord, is here called their living together with him. And lest it might be thought that none should be with Christ until they awaked at the resurrection, he therefore speaks of living with Christ even when we sleep. He had spoken of sleep in another sense, 1Th 5:6 , as meant of security; but here meant of death, as it is taken 1Th 4:14 . And as watching is set opposite to the former sleep, so here waking to the latter, which is a resurrection from death. And we hence gather that the soul doth not sleep with the body, but lives with the Lord when that sleeps in the grave; as the apostle expected to be with the Lord upon the dissolution of his body, Phi 1:23 , and he mentions it as the privilege of other saints as well as his own, 2Co 5:1 . When we sleep we are with him only in our souls; when we wake we shall be with him both in body and soul. And both these we have from Christ’ s death. If he had not died, heaven had been shut against our souls, for our entrance into the holiest of all is by his blood, and the veil of his flesh rent for us, Heb 10:19,20 ; and the grave would have shut up our bodies, and there would have been no resurrection; so that our living with Christ, both when we sleep and when we wake, springs out of his death. Others carry these words no further than the foregoing verse, showing how we are saved by Christ; saith the apostle, he died for us. As God appointed persons to be saved, and Christ to be the person to be saved by, so also to be saved by his death; with respect to his Father he is said to be put to death, 1Pe 3:18 ; with respect to his own freedom and willingness, he is said here to die for us. And his dying for us implieth the greatness of our guilt, and expresseth the greatness of his own love, Joh 15:13 . He loved us, and thereupon would have us live with him; and he died that we and he may live together. And so he may be said to die for our salvation, the substance whereof consisteth in our living with him. To live with so glorious a Person, and a Person that is full of love to us, and shall then be perfectly beloved of us, and that stands in many near relations to us, and whose presence will have such a blessed influence upon us, and in such a place as heaven is, and that for ever, surely carries the substance of our salvation in it. And if this was the end of his death, surely it was more than to be an example of faith, patience, and submission to God, or to confirm to us the doctrine he preached; it was to satisfy Divine justice, and obtain the pardon of our sin, and merit for us the privilege of living with him.

Haydock: 1Th 5:1

Of the times and moments. That is, of the day of judgment, of the end of the world, of the destruction of Jerusalem. It is enough to know the time is uncertain, and that death cometh as a thief in the night. (Witham) ---

When the judgment shall take place the Angels themselves do not know. Perhaps St. Paul, when wrapt up to the third heaven, may have learnt something on this subject; for he was told many things which he could not announce to man; therefore, he says, I need not write to you: it is unnecessary for us to know it. (Calmet)

Haydock: 1Th 5:4

Overtake you. It is a subject of astonishment, that some people are so childishly afraid of the last day, that they cannot think of it without consternation, lest it should happen in their time. Weak souls! Do they not recollect that death will certainly overtake them, and that will be to them individually the end of the world, and the last day. The whole world then does perish as far as regards them. (Haydock)

Haydock: 1Th 5:5

You are the children of light. That is, there is little danger of thieves in the day time, when it is light. Also watch and have arms to defend you, the coat of mail of faith; the helmet of hope: you are under the protection of Christ, who died for you, and for your salvation. See St. John Chrysostom, p. 293, &c. (Witham)

Haydock: 1Th 5:8

The Christian's panoply is not faith alone, but faith, hope and charity, as we see here.

Haydock: 1Th 5:10

Whether we wake or sleep. That is, whether we be of the number of those whom Jesus Christ shall find still upon earth, when he shall come to judgment, or among those who have slept and returned to dust, it is his will that we should be his. (Theodoret)

Gill: 1Th 5:1

But of the times and the seasons, brethren,.... Of the coming of Christ, his "appointed time" and "his day", as the Ethiopic version renders it; of the resurrection of the dead in Christ first, and of the rapture of all the saints in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, things treated of in the preceding chapter: and which might excite a curiosity to know the times and seasons of them; as in what year they would come to pass; in what season of the year, whether winter or summer; in what month, and on what day of the month; and whether in the night season, or in the daytime; and in what hour, whether at midnight, cockcrowing, morning, or noonday: to repress which the apostle observes,

ye have no need that I write unto you; to write to them concerning the things themselves was necessary and useful, to stir up and encourage their faith, hope, and expectation of them; to allay their grief for departed friends, and to comfort one another under the various trials and exercises of life; but to write to them about the time of these things would be trifling and unnecessary, would be an idle speculation, and an indulging a vain curiosity; and, besides, was impracticable: for of that day and hour knows no man; the times and seasons the Father hath put in his own power; for these things are equally true of Christ's second coming, as of the kingdom of Christ coming with power and glory, and of the destruction of Jerusalem, Mat 24:36. The Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions read, "ye have no need that we write unto you"; the reason follows;

Gill: 1Th 5:2

For yourselves know perfectly,.... With great exactness and accuracy, with great clearness and perspicuity, as a certain truth, which was made plain and evident to them, and about which there could be no question; and which perfect knowledge they had, either from the words of Christ, Mat 24:42, or from the ministration of the apostle and his fellow labourers, when among them:

that the day of the Lord; of the Lord Jesus, when he will show himself to be King of kings, and Lord of lords, and the Judge of the whole earth; and which is sometimes styled the day of the Son of man, and the day of God, for Christ will appear then most gloriously, both in his divine and human nature; the day of redemption, that is, of the body from the grave, and from corruption and mortality; and the last day in which will be the resurrection of the dead, and the day of judgment, in which Christ will come to judge the quick and dead: and which

so cometh as a thief in the night; at an unawares, and the Lord himself in that day will so come, Rev 3:3 respect is had not to the character of the thief, nor to the end of his coming; but to the manner of it, in the dark, indiscernibly, suddenly, and when not thought of and looked for; and such will be the coming of Christ, it will be sudden, and unknown before hand, and when least thought of and expected: and since the Thessalonians knew this full well, it was needless for the apostle to write about the time and season of it; which they were sensible of, could no more be known and fixed, than the coming of a thief into anyone of their houses.

Gill: 1Th 5:3

For when they shall say,.... Or men shall say, that is, wicked and ungodly men, persons in a state of unregeneracy:

peace and safety; when they shall sing a requiem, to themselves, promise themselves much ease and peace for years to come, and imagine their persons and property to be very secure from enemies and oppressors, and shall flatter themselves with much and long temporal happiness:

then sudden destruction cometh upon them; as on the men of the old world in the times of Noah, and on the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot; for as these, will be the days of the Son of man, as at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, so at the last day; see Luk 17:26 and as was the destruction of literal Babylon, so of Babylon in a mystical sense, or antichrist and his followers: and which will be

as travail upon a woman with child; whose anguish and pains are very sharp, the cause of which is within herself, and which come suddenly upon her, and are unavoidable; and so the metaphor expresses the sharpness and severity of the destruction of the wicked, thus the calamities on the Jewish nation are expressed by a word which signifies the sorrows, pangs, and birth throes of a woman in travail, Mat 24:8, and likewise that the cause of it is from themselves, their own sins and transgressions; and also the suddenness of it, which will come upon them in the midst of all their mirth, jollity, and security; and moreover, the inevitableness of it, it will certainly come at the full and appointed time, though that is not known:

and they shall not escape; the righteous judgment of God, the wrath of the Lamb, or falling into his hands; to escape is impossible, rocks, hills, and mountains will not cover and hide them; before the judgment seat of Christ they must stand, and into everlasting punishment must they go.

Gill: 1Th 5:4

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness,.... In a state of unregeneracy, which is a state of darkness, blindness, and ignorance, and which is the condition of all men by nature; they are born in darkness, and are brought up in it, and willingly, walk in it; they are covered with it, as the earth was covered with darkness in its first creation; and dwell in it, as the Egyptians did for some days, in thick darkness, darkness which might be felt; their understandings are darkened with respect to the true knowledge of God, the nature of sin, the way of salvation by Christ, the work of the spirit of God upon the soul, and the necessity of it, the Scriptures of truth, and the mysteries of the Gospel; and which is the case of God's elect themselves, while unregenerate: but now these persons were called out of darkness, turned from it, and delivered from the power of it; and therefore knew that the day of the Lord comes as above described, by the metaphors of a thief in the night, and a woman with child, and needed not to be informed about that matter: or

that that day should overtake you as a thief; or seize and lay hold upon you as a thief who comes in the dark, and lays hold upon a person suddenly; but these saints were not in the dark, but in the light, and so could see when the day of the Lord came; and would not be surprised with it, as a man is seized with terror and fright, when laid hold on by a thief; since they would be, or at least should be on their watch, and be looking out for, and hasting to the coming of the day of God.

Gill: 1Th 5:5

Ye are all children of light,.... Or enlightened persons, whose understandings were enlightened by the spirit of God, to see their lost state by nature, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the insufficiency of their righteousness to justify them before God, the fulness, suitableness, and excellency of Christ's righteousness, the way of salvation by Christ, and that it is all of grace from first to last; to understand in some measure the Scriptures of truth, and the mysteries of the Gospel; to have knowledge of some things that are yet to be done on earth, as the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles, the conversion of the Jews, the destruction of antichrist, the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the change of living saints, and the rapture of both up into the air to meet Christ, the burning of the world, and the new heavens and new earth, where Christ and his saints will dwell; as also to have some glimpse of the heavenly glory, of the unseen joys, and invisible realities of the other world: and this the apostle says of them all, in a judgment of charity, as being under a profession of the grace of God, and in a church state, and nothing appearing against them why such a character did not belong to them:

and the children of the day; of the Gospel day, in distinction from the night of Jewish darkness; and of the day of grace which was come upon their souls, in opposition to the night of ignorance and infidelity, which was past; and of the everlasting day of glory, being heirs of, and having a right unto, and a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light:

we are not of the night, nor of darkness; that is not the children of darkness, as the Syriac and Arabic versions read; and the former changes the person, and reads, "ye are not the children of the night", &c. of the night of the legal dispensation, or of Gentile ignorance; or of a state of natural darkness, in unregeneracy and was no need to write unto them concerning the time and season of Christ's coming, and lays a foundation for the following exhortations.

Gill: 1Th 5:6

Therefore let us not sleep as do others.... As the rest of the Gentiles, as unconverted persons, who are in a state of darkness, and are children of the night; let us not act that part they do, or be like them; which professors of religion too much are, when they indulge themselves in carnal lusts and pleasures, and are careless and thoughtless about the coming of the day of the Lord; and get into a stupid, drowsy, and slumbering frame of spirit; when grace lies dormant as if it was not, and they grow backward to, and slothful in the discharge of duty, and content themselves with the bare externals of religion; and become lukewarm and indifferent with respect to the truths and ordinance of the Gospel, the cause of God, the interest of religion, and glory of Christ; and are unconcerned about sins of omission or commission: and are willing to continue in such a position, being displeased at every admonition and exhortation given them to awake; but this is very unbecoming children of the light, and of the day:

but let us watch; over ourselves, our hearts, thoughts, affections, words and actions; and over others, our fellow Christians, that they give not into bad principles and evil practices; and against sin, and all appearance of it; against the temptations of Satan, the snares of the world, and the errors of wicked men, who lie in wait to deceive; and in the word and ordinances, and particularly in prayer, both unto it, in it, and after it; and for the second coming of Christ, with faith, affection, and patience; and the rather, because of the uncertainty of the time of it;

and be sober; not only in body, abstaining from excessive eating and drinking, using this world, and the good things of it, so as not to abuse them, or ourselves with them; but also in mind, that the heart be overcharged with the cares of this world; for men may be inebriated with the world, as well as with wine; and the one is as prejudicial to the soul as the other is to the body; for an immoderate care for, and pursuit after the world, chokes the word, makes it unfruitful, and runs persons into divers snares and temptations, and hurtful lusts. The Arabic version renders it, "let us repent"; and the Ethiopic version, "let us understand"; as intending the sobriety of the mind, repentance being an after thought of the mind, a serious reflection on past actions with sorrow and concern; and thinking soberly, and not more highly than a man ought to think of himself, his gifts, his attainments and abilities, in opposition to pride, vanity, and self-conceit, is very becoming; and shows a true and well informed understanding and judgment, and that a man is really sober and himself.

Gill: 1Th 5:7

For they that sleep, sleep in the night,.... The night is the usual season for sleep, and sleep is only for such who are in darkness, and are children of the night; and not proper to be indulged by such who are children of the day, and of the light:

and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night; drunkenness is a work of darkness, and therefore men given to excessive drinking love darkness rather than light, and choose the night for their purpose. To be drunk at noon is so shameful and scandalous, that men who love the sin, and indulge themselves in it, take the night season for it; and equally shameful it is, that enlightened persons should be inebriated, either with the cares of this life, or with an over weening opinion of themselves.

Gill: 1Th 5:8

But let us, who are of the day, be sober,.... As in body, so in mind; let us cast off the works of darkness, and have no fellowship with them; since the day of grace has passed upon us, the darkness is gone, and the true light shines, let us walk as children of the light, living soberly, righteously, and godly:

putting on the breastplate of faith and love; this is the coat of mail, 1Sa 17:5 which was made of iron or brass; and the Ethiopic version here calls it, "the iron coat." The allusion seems to be to the high priest's breastplate of judgment, in which were put the Thummim and Urim, which signify perfections and lights; faith may answer to the former, and love to the latter: these two graces go together, faith works by love, and love always accompanies faith; as there can be no true faith where there is no love, so there is no true love where faith is wanting: "faith" is a considerable part of the Christian soldier's breastplate, and answers the end of a breastplate, it being that grace which preserves the vitals of religion, and keeps all warm and comfortable within; and secures the peace and joy of the saints, as it has to do with Christ and his righteousness; wherefore this breastplate is called "the breastplate of righteousness", Eph 6:14, it fortifies the soul, and preserves it from Satan's temptations, from his fiery darts entering, and doing the mischief they would; it defends the heart against the errors of the wicked, for a man that believes has a witness in himself to the truths of the Gospel, and therefore cannot be easily moved from them; and strengthens a man against the carnal reasonings of the mind, for faith in the promises of God surmounts all the difficulties that reason objects to the fulfilling of them; and secures from the fears of death, the terrors of the law, and dread of the wrath of God: and love is the other part of the breast plate; love to God and Christ is a means of keeping the believer sound both in faith and practice; for a soul that truly loves God and Christ cannot give in to principles that depreciate the grace of God, and derogate from the glory and dignity of the person and office of Christ, or the work of the Spirit; and such love the ordinances and commands of Christ, and hate every false way of worship, or invention of men; and love to the saints is the bond of perfectness, knits them together, preserves unity and peace, and fortifies against the common enemy:

and for an helmet, the hope of salvation; the helmet is that part of armour which covers the head, and was made of brass, 1Sa 17:5 and used to be anointed with oil, that it might shine the brighter, last the longer, and more easily repel blows; to which this grace of the Spirit, hope of salvation by Christ, is fitly compared: for by "salvation" is meant salvation by Christ, spiritual salvation, and that as complete in heaven; and hope is a grace wrought in the soul by the spirit of God, which has for its foundation Christ and his righteousness, and for its object the heavenly glory; it covers the head in the day of battle, and preserves from being overcome by sin and Satan, when one that is destitute of it says there is no hope, and we will walk every man after the imagination of his own evil heart; it erects the head in time of difficulty, amidst tribulation and afflictions; it defends it from fears of divine wrath which is revealed from heaven, and sometimes in appearance seems to hang over it; and it preserves from Satan's temptations, and being carried away with the error of the wicked, from the hope of the Gospel: and thus a Christian clothed and armed with these graces, faith, hope, and love, should be so far from indulging himself in sin and sloth, that he ought always to be sober and watchful, and prepared to meet the enemy in the gate; and be ready, always waiting for his Lord's coming.

Gill: 1Th 5:9

For God hath not appointed us to wrath,.... To destruction and ruin, the effect of wrath; though there are some that are vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, of old ordained to condemnation, and who are reserved for the day of evil; but there are others who are equally children of wrath, as deserving of the wrath of God in themselves as others, who are not appointed to it; which is an instance of wonderful and distinguishing grace to them:

but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ; salvation is alone by Christ, he alone has wrought it out; it is in him, and in no other; he was appointed to this work, was called and sent, and came to do it, and has done it; and God's elect, who were chosen in him, are appointed in the counsel and purpose of God, to obtain, possess, and enjoy this salvation; and which, as this appointment may be known, as it was by these Thessalonians; the Gospel having come to them, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as it is an encouragement to faith and hope, so it excites to sobriety and watchfulness, and the discharge of every duty. The doctrine of predestination does not lead to despair, but encourages the hope of salvation; and it is no licentious doctrine, for election to salvation by Christ is through sanctification of the Spirit, and unto holiness; and good works are the fruits of it, and are what God has foreordained his people should walk in.

Gill: 1Th 5:10

Who died for us,.... The elect of God, who are not appointed to wrath, but to salvation by Christ, on which account he died for them; not merely as a martyr to confirm his doctrine, or only by way of example, but as a surety, in the room and stead of his people; as a sacrifice for their sins, to make atonement for them, and save them from them; so that his death lays a solid foundation for hope of salvation by him:

that whether we wake or sleep: which phrases are to be understood, not in the same sense in which they are used in the context; as if the sense was, whether a man indulges himself in sin, and gives way to sleep and sloth, and carnal security, or whether he is awake and on his watch and guard, he shall through the death of Christ have eternal life secured to him; not but that there is a truth in this, that eternal life and salvation by Christ, as it does not depend on our watchfulness, so it shall not be hindered by the sleepy, drowsy frame of spirit, the children of God sometimes fall into: but rather natural sleep and waking are intended; and the meaning is, that those for whom Christ died are always safe, sleeping or waking, whatever they are about and employed in, and in whatsoever situation and condition they are in this world; though it may be best of all to interpret the words, of life and death; and they may have a particular regard to the state of the saints at Christ's second coming, when some will be awake, or alive, and others will be asleep in Christ, or dead; and it matters not which they are, whether living or dead; see Rom 14:7 for the end of Christ's dying for them, and which will be answered in one as well as in another, is, that

we should live together with him: Christ died for his people, who were dead in trespasses and sins, that they might live spiritually a life of sanctification from him, and a life of justification on him, and by him; and that they might live a life of communion with him; and that they might live eternally with him, in soul and body, in heaven, and reign with him there, and partake of his glory; and this all the saints will, whether they be found dead or alive at his coming; for the dead will immediately arise, those that sleep in the dust will awake at once, and they that are alive will be changed, and both will be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and be for ever with him: now the consideration of the death of Christ, and this end of it, which will certainly be answered, serves greatly to encourage hope of salvation by him, and faith in him, and an earnest expectation of his second coming.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 1Th 5:1

¹ tn Grk “concerning the times and the seasons,” a reference to future periods of eschatological fulfillment (cf. Acts 1:7).

² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:4.

NET Notes: 1Th 5:2

¹ sn The day of the Lord is the period of time in the future when the Lord will intervene in the events of this earth to consummate his redemption and his judgment (Isa 2:11-12; 13:6-13; Ezek 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:32; 3:18; Amos 5:18-20; Obad 15-17; Zeph 1:7-18; 2:2-3; Zech 14:1, 13, 20-21; Mal 4:1, 5; 1 Cor 1:8; 5:5; 2 Cor 1:14; 2 Thess 2:2; 2 Pet 3:10). It includes both blessings and curses, though the latter is emphasized here.

² sn Jesus used a thief coming at night as an illustration of the unexpected and hostile nature of the coming of God’s judgment in the future. This is repeated in various ways in v. 4; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 3:3; 16:15.

NET Notes: 1Th 5:3

¹ tc ‡ δέ (de, “now”) is found in א² B D 0226 6 1505 1739 1881 al, but lacking in א* A F G 33 it. γάρ (gar, “for”) is the reading of the Byzantine text and a few other witnesses (Ψ 0278 Ï). Although normally the shorter reading is to be preferred, the external evidence is superior for δέ (being found in the somewhat better Alexandrian and Western witnesses). What, then, is to explain the γάρ? Scribes were prone to replace δέ with γάρ, especially in sentences suggesting a causal or explanatory idea, thus making the point more explicit. Internally, the omission of δέ looks unintentional, a case of homoioarcton (otandelegwsin). Although a decision is difficult, in this instance δέ has the best credentials for authenticity.

² tn Grk “peace and security,” with “there is” understood in the Greek construction.

³ tn Grk a singular “birth pain.”

NET Notes: 1Th 5:4

¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:4.

NET Notes: 1Th 5:8

¹ sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.

² tn Grk “hope of salvation” (“a helmet…for salvation” is an allusion to Isa 59:17).

NET Notes: 1Th 5:9

¹ sn God did not destine us for wrath. In context this refers to the outpouring of God’s wrath on the earth in the day of the Lord (1 Thess 5:2-4).

NET Notes: 1Th 5:10

¹ tn Grk “the one who died,” describing Jesus Christ (1 Thess 5:9). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 10 in the translation.

² sn The phrases alert or asleep may be understood (1) of moral alertness (living in faith, love, and hope as vv. 6, 8 call for, versus being unresponsive to God) or (2) of physical life and death (whether alive or dead). The first fits better with the context of 5:1-9, while the second returns to the point Paul started with in 4:13-18 (no disadvantage for the believing dead).

Geneva Bible: 1Th 5:1

But ^{( 1 )} of the times and the ^{( a )} seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.

^{( 1 )} The day that God has appointed for this judgment we do not know. But this is sure, that it will come upon men when they are not expecting it.

^{( a )} See (Act 1:7).

Geneva Bible: 1Th 5:4

^{( 2 )} But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

^{( 2 )} Returning to exhortations, he warns us who are enlightened with the knowledge of God, that it is our duty not to live securely in pleasures, lest we be suddenly taken in a dead sleep in pleasures. But contrary to this we are to have an eye to the Lord, and not allow ourselves to be oppressed with the cares of this world, for pleasures are fitting for the darkness of the night, and having an eye to the Lord is fitting for the light.

Geneva Bible: 1Th 5:8

^{( 3 )} But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

^{( 3 )} We must fight with faith and hope, and therefore we should certainly not lie snoring.

Geneva Bible: 1Th 5:9

^{( 4 )} For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

^{( 4 )} He urges us forward by setting a most certain hope of victory before us.

Geneva Bible: 1Th 5:10

^{( 5 )} Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

^{( 5 )} The death of Christ is a pledge of our victory, for he died so that we might be partakers of his life of power, indeed even while we live here.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: 1Th 5:1-28

1 He proceeds in the former description of Christ's coming to judgment;

16 and gives divers precepts;

23 and so concludes the epistle.

Maclaren: 1Th 5:8

The Work And Armour Of The Children Of The Day

Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet the hope of salvation.'--1 Thess. 5:8.

THIS letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest book of the New Testament. It was probably written within something like twenty years of the Crucifixion; long, therefore, before any of the Gospels were in existence. It is, therefore, exceedingly interesting and instructive to notice how this whole context is saturated with allusions to our Lord's teaching, as it is preserved in these Gospels; and how it takes for granted that the Thessalonian Christians were familiar with the very words.

For instance: Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night' (1 Thess. 5:2). How did these people in Thessalonica know that? They had been Christians for a year or so only; they had been taught by Paul for a few weeks only, or a month or two at the most. How did they know it? Because they had been told what the Master had said: If the good man of the house had known at what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.'

And there are other allusions in the context almost as obvious: The children of the light.' Who said that? Christ, in His words: The children of this world are wiser than the children of light.' They that sleep, sleep in the night, and if they be drunken, are drunken in the night.' Where does that metaphor come from? Take heed lest at any time ye be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.' Watch, lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping!'

So you see all the context reposes upon, and presupposes the very words, which you find in our present existing Gospels, as the words of the Lord Jesus. And this is all but contemporaneous, and quite independent, evidence of the existence in the Church, from the beginning, of a traditional teaching which is now preserved for us in that fourfold record of His life.

Take that remark for what it is worth; and now turn to the text itself with which I have to deal in this sermon. The whole of the context may be said to be a little dissertation upon the moral and religious uses of the doctrine of our Lord's second coming. In my text these are summed up in one central injunction which has preceding it a motive that enforces it, and following it a method that ensures it. Let us be sober'; that is the centre thought; and it is buttressed upon either side by a motive and a means. Let us who are of the day,' or since we are of the day,--be sober.' And let us be it by putting on the breastplate and helmet of faith, love, and hope.' These, then, are the three points which we have to consider.

I. First, This Central Injunction, Into Which All The Moral Teaching Drawn From The Second Coming Of Christ Is Gathered--Let Us Be Sober.

Now, I do not suppose we are altogether to omit any reference to the literal meaning of this word. The context seems to show that, by its reference to night as the season for drunken orgies. Temperance is moderation in regard not only to the evil and swinish sin of drunkenness, which is so manifestly contrary to all Christian integrity and nobility of character, but in regard to the far more subtle temptation of another form of sensual indulgence --gluttony. The Christian Church needed to be warned of that, and if these people in Thessalonica needed the warning I am quite sure that we need it. There is not a nation on earth which needs it more than Englishmen. I am no ascetic, I do not want to glorify any outward observance, but any doctor in England will tell you that the average Englishman eats and drinks a great deal more than is good for him. It is melancholy to think how many professing Christians have the edge and keenness of their intellectual and spiritual life blunted by the luxurious and senseless table-abundance in which they habitually indulge. I am quite sure that water from the spring and barley-bread would be a great deal better for their souls, and for their bodies too, in the case of many people who call themselves Christians. Suffer a word of exhortation, and do not let it be neglected because it is brief and general. Sparta, after all, is the best place for a man to live in, next to Jerusalem.

But, passing from that, let us turn to the higher subject with which the Apostle is here evidently mainly concerned. What is the meaning of the exhortation Be sober'? Well, first let me tell you what I think is not the meaning of it. It does not mean an unemotional absence of fervour in your Christian character.

There is a kind of religious teachers who are always preaching down enthusiasm, and preaching up what they call a sober standard of feeling' in matters of religion. By which, in nine cases out of ten, they mean precisely such a tepid condition as is described in much less polite language, when the voice from heaven says, Because thou art neither cold nor hot I will spue thee out of My mouth.' That is the real meaning of the sobriety' that some people are always desiring you to cultivate. I should have thought that the last piece of furniture which any Christian Church in the twentieth century needed was a refrigerator! A poker and a pair of bellows would be very much more needful for them. For, dear brethren, the truths that you and I profess to believe are of such a nature, so tremendous either in their joyfulness and beauty, or in their solemnity and awfulness, that one would think that if they once got into a man's head and heart, nothing but the most fervid and continuous glow of a radiant enthusiasm would correspond to their majesty and overwhelming importance. I venture to say that the only consistent Christian is the enthusiastic Christian; and that the only man who will ever do anything in this world for God or man worth doing is the man who is not sober, according to that cold blooded definition which I have been speaking about, but who is all ablaze with an enkindled earnestness that knows no diminution and no cessation.

Paul, the very man that is exhorting here to sobriety, was the very type of an enthusiast all his life. So Festus thought him mad, and even in the Church at Corinth there were some to whom in his fervour, he seemed to be beside himself' (2 Cor. 5:13).

Oh! for more of that insanity! You may make up your minds to this; that any men or women that are in thorough earnest, either about Christianity or about any other great, noble, lofty, self-forgetting purpose, will have to be content to have the old Pentecostal charge flung at them:--These men are full of new wine!' Well for the Church, and well for the men who deserve the taunt; for it means that they have learned something of the emotion that corresponds to such magnificent and awful verities as Christian faith converses with.

I did not intend to say so much about that; I turn now for a moment to the consideration of what this exhortation really means. It means, as I take it, mainly this: the prime Christian duty of self-restraint in the use and the love of all earthly treasures and pleasures.

I need not do more than remind you how, in the very make of a man's soul, it is clear that unless there be exercised rigid self-control he will go all to pieces. The make of human nature, if I may say so, shows that it is not meant for a democracy but a monarchy.

Here are within us many passions, tastes, desires, most of them rooted in the flesh, which are as blind as hunger and thirst are. If a man is hungry, the bread will satisfy him all the same whether he steals it or not; and it will not necessarily be distasteful even if it be poisoned. And there are other blind impulses and appetites in our nature which ask nothing except this:--Give me my appropriate gratification, though all the laws of God and man be broken in order to get it!'

And so there has to be something like an eye given to these blind beasts, and something like a directing hand laid upon these instinctive impulses. The true temple of the human spirit must be built in stages' the broad base laid in these animal instincts; above them, and controlling them, the directing and restraining will; above it the understanding which enlightens it and them; and supreme over all the conscience with nothing between it and heaven. Where that is not the order of the inner man you get wild work. You have set beggars on horseback,' and we all know where they go! The man who lets passion and inclination guide is like a steam-boat with all the furnaces banked up, with the engines going full speed, and nobody at the wheel. It will drive on to the rocks, or wherever the bow happens to point, no matter though death and destruction lie beyond the next turn of the screw. That is what you will come to unless you live in the habitual exercise of rigid self-control.

And that self-control is to be exercised mainly, or at least as one very important form of it, in regard to our use and estimate of the pleasures of this present life. Yes! it is not only from the study of a man's make that the necessity for a very rigid self-government appears, but the observation of the conditions and circumstances in which he is placed points the same lesson. All round about him are hands reaching out to him drugged cups. The world with all its fading sweet comes tempting him, and the old fable fulfils itself--Whoever takes that Circe's cup and puts it to his lips and quaffs deep, turns into a swine, and sits there imprisoned at the feet of the sorceress for evermore!

There is only one thing that will deliver you from that fate, my brother. Be sober,' and in regard to the world and all that it offers to us--all joy, possession, gratification--set a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite.' There is no noble life possible on any other terms--not to say there is no Christian life possible on any other terms--but suppression and mortification of the desires of the flesh and of the spirit. You cannot look upwards and downwards at the same moment. Your heart is only a tiny room after all, and if you cram it full of the world, you relegate your Master to the stable outside. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' Be sober,' says Paul, then, and cultivate the habit of rigid self-control in regard to this present. Oh! what a melancholy, solemn thought it is that hundreds of professing Christians in England, like vultures after a full meal, have so gorged themselves with the garbage of this present life that they cannot fly, and have to be content with moving along the ground, heavy and languid. Christian men and women, are you keeping yourselves in spiritual health by a very sparing use of the dainties and delights of earth? Answer the question to your own souls and to your Judge.

II. And Now Let Me Turn To The Other Thoughts That Lie Here.

There is, secondly, a motive which backs up and buttresses this exhortation. Let us who are of the day'--or as the Revised Version has it a little more emphatically and correctly, Let us, since we are of the day, be sober.' The day'; what day? The temptation is to answer the question by saying--of course the specific day which was spoken about in the beginning of the section, "the day of the Lord," that coming judgment by the coming Christ.' But I think that although, perhaps, there may be some allusion here to that specific day, still, if you will look at the verses which immediately precede my text, you will see that in them the Apostle has passed from the thought of the day of the Lord' to that of day in general. That is obvious, I think, from the contrast he draws between the day' and the night,' the darkness and the light. If so, then, when he says' the children of the day' he does not so much mean--though that is quite true--that we are, as it were, akin to that day of judgment, and may therefore look forward to it without fear, and in quiet confidence, lifting up our heads because our redemption draws nigh; but rather he means that Christians are the children of that which expresses knowledge, and joy, and activity. Of these things the day is the emblem, in every language and in every poetry. The day is the time when men see and hear, the symbol of gladness and cheer all the world over.

And so, says Paul, you Christian men and women belong to a joyous realm, a realm of light and knowledge, a realm of purity and righteousness. You are children of the light; a glad condition which involves many glad and noble issues. Children of the light should be brave, children of the light should not be afraid of the light, children of the light should be cheerful, children of the light should be buoyant, children of the light should he transparent, children of the light should be hopeful, children of the light should be pure, and children of the light should walk in this darkened world, bearing their radiance with them; and making things, else unseen, visible to many a dim eye.

But while these emblems of cheerfulness, hope, purity, and illumination are gathered together in that grand name--Ye are the children of the day,' there is one direction especially in which the Apostle thinks that that consideration ought to tell, and that is the direction of self-restraint. Noblesse oblige!--the aristocracy are bound to do nothing low or dishonourable. The children of the light are not to stain their hands with anything foul. Chambering and wantonness, slumber and drunkenness, the indulgence in the appetites of the flesh,--all that may be fitting for the night, it is clean incongruous with the day.

Well, if you want that turned into pedestrian prose --which is no more clear, but a little less emotional--it is just this: You Christian men and women belong--if you are Christians--to another state of things from that which is lying round about you; and, therefore, you ought to live in rigid abstinence from these things that are round about you.

That is plain enough surely, nor do I suppose that I need to dwell on that thought at any length. We belong to another order of things, says Paul; we carry a day with us in the midst of the night. What follows from that? Do not let us pursue the wandering lights and treacherous will-o'-the-wisps that lure men into bottomless bogs where they are lost. If we have light in our dwellings whilst Egypt lies in darkness, let it teach us to eat our meat with our loins girded,

and our staves in our hands, not without bitter herbs, and ready to go forth into the wilderness. You do not belong to the world in which you live, if you are Christian men and women; you are only camped here. Your purposes, thoughts, hopes, aspirations, treasures, desires, delights, go up higher. And so, if you are children of the day, be self-restrained in your dealings with the darkness.

III. And, Last Of All, My Text Points Out For Us A Method By Which This Great Precept May Be Fulfilled:

Putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.'

That, of course, is the first rough draft occurring in Paul's earliest Epistle, of an image which recurs at intervals, and in more or less expanded form in other of his letters, and is so splendidly worked out in detail in the grand picture of the Christian armour in the Epistle to the Ephesians.

I need not do more than just remind you of the difference between that finished picture and this outline sketch. Here we have only defensive and not offensive armour, here the Christian graces are somewhat differently allocated to the different parts of the armour. Here we have only the great triad of Christian graces, so familiar on our lips--faith, hope, charity. Here we have faith and love in the closest possible juxtaposition, and hope somewhat more apart. The breastplate, like some of the ancient hauberks, made of steel and gold, is framed and forged out of faith and love blended together, and faith and love are more closely identified in fact than faith and hope, or than love and hope. For faith and love have the same object--and are all but contemporaneous. Wherever a man lays hold of Jesus Christ by faith, there cannot but spring up in his heart love to Christ; and there is no love without faith. So that we may almost say that faith and love are but the two throws of the shuttle, the one in the one direction and the other in the other; whereas hope comes somewhat later in a somewhat remoter connection with faith, and has a somewhat different object from these other two. Therefore it is here slightly separated from its sister graces. Faith, love, hope--these three form the defensive armour that guard the soul; and these three make self-control possible. Like a diver in his dress, who is let down to the bottom of the wild, far-weltering ocean, a man whose heart is girt by faith and charity, and whose head is covered with the helmet of hope, may be dropped down into the wildest sea of temptation and of worldliness, and yet will walk dry and unharmed through the midst of its depths, and breathe air that comes from a world above the restless surges.

And in like manner the cultivation of faith, charity, and hope is the best means for securing the exercise of sober self-control.

It is an easy thing to say to a man, Govern yourself!' It is a very hard thing with the powers that any man has at his disposal to do it. As somebody said about an army joining the rebels, It's a bad job when the extinguisher catches fire!' And that is exactly the condition of things in regard to our power of self-government. The powers that should control are largely gone over to the enemy, and become traitors.

Who shall keep the very keepers?' is the old question, and here is the answer:--You cannot execute the gymnastic feat of erecting yourself above yourself' any more than a man can take himself by his own coat collar and lift himself up from the ground with his own arms. But you can cultivate faith, hope, and charity, and these three, well cultivated and brought to bear upon your daily life, will do the governing for you. Faith will bring you into communication with all the power of God. Love will lead you into a region where all the temptations round you will be touched as by an Ithuriel spear, and will show their foulness. And hope will turn away your eyes from looking at the tempting splendours around, and fix them upon the glories that are above.

And so the reins will come into your hands in an altogether new manner, and you will be able to be king over your own nature in a fashion that you did not dream of before, if only you will trust in Christi and love Him, and fix your desires on the things above.

Then you will be able to govern yourself when you let Christ govern you. The glories that are to be done away, that gleam round you like foul, flaring tallow-candles, will lose all their fascination and brightness, by reason of the glory that excelleth, the pure starlike splendour of the white inextinguishable lights of heaven.

And when by faith, charity, and hope you have drunk of the new wine of the kingdom, the drugged and opiate cup which a sorceress world presents, jewelled though it be, will lose its charms, and it will not be hard to turn from it and dash it to the ground.

God help you, brother, to be sober,' for unless you are you cannot see the kingdom of God!'

Maclaren: 1Th 5:10

Waking And Sleeping

Jesus Christ, who died for us. that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.'--1 Thess. 5:10.

IN these Words the Apostle concludes a section of this, his earliest letter, in which he has been dealing with the aspect of death in reference to the Christian. There are two very significant usages of language in the context which serve to elucidate the meaning of the words of our text, and to which I refer for a moment by way of introduction.

The one is that throughout this portion of his letter the Apostle emphatically reserves the word died' for Jesus Christ, and applies to Christ's followers only the word sleep.' Christ's death makes the deaths of those who trust Him a quiet slumber. The other is that the antithesis of waking and sleep is employed in two different directions in this section, being first used to express, by the one term, simply physical life, and by the other, physical death; and secondly, to designate respectively the moral attitude of Christian watchfulness and that of worldly apathy to things unseen and drowsy engrossment with the present.

So in the words immediately preceding my text, we read, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober.' The use of the antithesis in our text is chiefly the former, but there cannot be discharged from one of the expressions, wake,' the ideas which have just been associated with it, especially as the word which is translated wake' is the same as that just translated in 1 Thess. 5:6, let us watch.' So that here there is meant by it, not merely the condition of life but that of Christian life--sober-minded vigilance and wide-awakeness to the realities of being. With this explanation of the meanings of the words before us, we may now proceed to consider them a little more minutely.

I. Note The Death Which Is The Foundation Of Life.

Recalling what I have said as to the precision and carefulness with which the Apostle varies his expressions in this context; speaking of Christ's death only by that grim name, and of the death of His servants as being merely a slumber, we have for the first thought suggested in reference to Christ's death, that it exhausted all the bitterness of death. Physically, the sufferings of our Lord were not greater, they were even less, than that of many a man. His voluntary acceptance of them was peculiar to Himself. But His death stands alone in this, that on His head was concentrated the whole awfulness of the thing. So far as the mere external facts go, there is nothing special about it. But I know not how the shrinking of Jesus Christ from the Cross can be explained without impugning His character, unless we see in His death something far more terrible than is the common lot of men. To me Gethsemane is altogether mysterious, and that scene beneath the olives shatters to pieces the perfectness of His character, unless we recognise that there it was the burden of the world's sin, beneath which, though His will never faltered, His human power tottered. Except we understand that, it seems to me that many who derived from Jesus Christ all their courage, bore their martyrdom better than He did; and that the servant has many a time been greater than his Lord. But if we take the Scripture point of view, and say, The Lord has made to meet upon Him the iniquity of us all,' then we can understand the agony beneath the olives, and the cry from the Cross, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?'

Further, I would notice that this death is by the Apostle set forth as being the main factor in man's redemption. This is the first of Paul's letters, dating long before the others with which we are familiar. Whatever may have been the spiritual development of St. Paul in certain directions after his conversion--and I do not for a moment deny that there was such--it is very important to notice that the fundamentals of his Christology and doctrine of salvation were the same from the beginning to the end, and that in this, his first utterance, he lays down, as emphatically and clearly as ever afterwards he did, the great truth that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died on the Cross, thereby secured man's redemption. Here he isolates the death from the rest of the history of Christ, and concentrates the whole light of his thought upon the Cross, and says, There that is the power by which men have been redeemed. I beseech you to ask yourselves whether these representations of Christian truth adhere to the perspective of Scripture, which do not in like manner set forth in the foreground of the whole the atoning death of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then note, further, that this death, the fountain of life, is a death for us. Now I know, of course, that the language here does not necessarily involve the idea of one dying instead of, but only of one dying on behalf of, another. But then I come to this question, In what conceivable sense, except the sense of bearing the world's sins, and, therefore, mine, is the death of Jesus Christ of advantage to me? Take the Scripture narratives. He died by the condemnation of the Jewish courts as a blasphemer; by the condemnation of the supercilious Roman court--cowardly in the midst of its superciliousness--as a possible rebel, though the sentencer did not believe in the reality of the charges. I want to know what good that is to me? He died, say some people, as the victim of a clearer insight and a more loving heart than the men around Him could understand. What advantage is that to me?

Oh, brethren! there is no meaning in the words He died for us' unless we understand that the benefit of His death lies in the fact that it was the sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; and that, therefore, He died for us.

But then remember, too, that in this expression is set forth, not only the objective fact of Christ's death for us, but much in reference to the subjective emotions and purposes of Him who died. Paul was writing to these Thessalonians, of whom none, I suppose, except possibly a few Jews who might be amongst them, had ever seen Jesus Christ in the flesh, or known anything about Him. And yet he says to them, Away across the ocean there, Jesus Christ died for you men, not one of whom had ever appealed to His heart through His eyes.'

The principle involved is capable of the widest possible expansion. When Christ went to the Cross there was in His heart, in His purposes, in His desires, a separate place for every soul of man whom He embraced, not with the dim vision of some philanthropist, who looks upon the masses of unborn generations as possibly beneficially affected by some of his far-reaching plans, but with the individualising and separating knowledge of a divine eye, and the love of a divine heart. Jesus Christ bore the sins of the world, because He bore in His sympathies and His purposes the sins of each single soul. Yours and mine and all our fellows' were there. Guilt and fear and loneliness, and all the other evils that beset men because they have departed from the living God, are floated away By the water and the blood From Thy wounded side which flowed' and as the context teaches us, it is because He died for us that He is our Lord, and because He died for every man that He is every man's Master and King.

II. Note, Secondly, The Transformation Of Our Lives And Deaths Affected Thereby.

You may remember that, in my introductory remarks, I pointed out the double application of that antithesis of waking or sleeping in the context as referring in one case to the fact of physical life or death, and in the other to the fact of moral engrossment with the slumbering influences of the present, or of Christian vigilance. I carry some allusion to both of these ideas in the remarks that I have to make.

Through Jesus Christ life may be quickened into watchfulness. It is not enough to take waking as meaning living, for you may turn the metaphor round and say about a great many men that living means dreamy sleeping. Paul speaks in the preceding verses of others' than Christians as being asleep, and their lives as one long debauch and slumber in the night. Whilst, in contrast with physical death, physical life may be called' waking'; the condition of thousands of men, in regard to all the higher faculties, activities, and realities of being, is that of somnambulists--they are walking indeed, but they are walking in their sleep. Just as a man fast asleep knows nothing of the realities round him; just as he is swallowed up in his own dreams, so many walk in a vain show. Their highest faculties are dormant; the only real things do not touch them, and their eyes are closed to these. They live in a region of illusions which will pass away at cock-crowing, and leave them desolate. For some of us here living is only a distempered sleep, troubled by dreams which, whether they be pleasant or bitter, equally lack roots in the permanent realities to which we shall wake some day. But if we hold by Jesus Christ, who died for us, and let His love constrain us, His Cross quicken us, and the might of His great sacrifice touch us, and the blood of sprinkling be applied to our eye-balls as an eye-salve, that we may see, we shall wake from our opiate sleep--though it may be as deep as if the sky rained soporifics upon us --and be conscious of the things that are, and have our dormant faculties roused, and be quickened into intense vigilance against our enemies, and brace ourselves for our tasks, and be ever looking forward to that joyful hope, to that coming which shall bring the fulness of waking and of life. So, you professing Christians, do you take the lessons of this text? A sleeping Christian is on the high road to cease to be a Christian at all If there be one thing more comprehensively imperative upon us than another, it is this, that, belonging, as we do by our very profession, to the day, and being the children of the light, we shall neither sleep nor be drunken, but be sober, watching as they who expect their Lord. You walk amidst realities that will hide themselves unless you gaze for them; therefore, watch. You walk amidst enemies that will steal subtly upon you, like some gliding serpent through the grass, or some painted savage in the forest; therefore, watch. You expect a Lord to come from heaven with a relieving army that is to raise the siege and free the hard-beset garrison from its fears and its toilsome work; therefore, watch. They that sleep, sleep in the night.' They who are Christ's should be like the living creatures in the Revelation, all eyes round about, and every eye gazing on things unseen and looking for the Master when He comes.

On the other hand, the death of Christ will soften our deaths into slumber. The Apostle will not call what the senses call death, by that dread name, which was warranted when applied to the facts of Christ's death. The physical fact remaining the same, all that is included under the complex whole called death, which makes its terrors, goes, for a man who keeps fast hold of Christ who died and lives. For what makes the sting of death? Two or three things. It is like some poisonous insect's sting, it is a complex weapon. One side of it is the fear of retribution. Another side of it is the shrinking from loneliness. Another side of it is the dread of the dim darkness of an unknown future. And all these are taken clean away. Is it guilt, dread of retribution? Thou shalt answer, Lord, for me.' Is it loneliness? In the valley of darkness I will be with thee. My rod and My staff will comfort thee.' Is it a shrinking from the dim unknown and all the familiar habitudes and occupations of the warm corner where we have lived? Jesus Christ has brought immortality to light by the Gospel.' We do not, according to the sad words of one of the victims of modern advanced thought, pass by the common road into the great darkness, but by the Christ-made living Way into the everlasting light. And so it is a misnomer to apply the same term to the physical fact plus the accompaniment of dread and shrinking and fear of retribution and solitude and darkness, and to the physical fact invested with the direct and bright opposites of all these.

Sleep is rest; sleep is consciousness; sleep is the prophecy of waking. We know not what the condition of those who sleep in Jesus may be, but we know that the child on its mother's breast, and conscious somehow, in its slumber, of the warm place where its head rests, is full of repose. And they that sleep in Jesus will be so. Then, whether we wake or sleep does not seem to matter so very much.

III. The United Life Of All Who Live With Christ.

Christ's gift to men is the gift of life in all senses of that word, from the lowest to the highest. That life, as our text tells us, is altogether unaffected by death. We cannot see round the sharp angle where the valley turns, but we know that the path runs straight on through the gorge up to the throat of the pass--and so on to the shining table-lands whereof our God Himself is Sun and Moon.' There are some rivers that run through stagnant lakes, keeping the tinge of their waters, and holding together the body of their stream undiverted from its course, and issuing undiminished and untarnished from the lower end of the lake. And so the stream of our lives may run through the Dead Sea, and come out below none the worse for the black waters through which it has forced its way. The life that Christ gives is unaffected by death. Our creed is a risen Saviour, and the corollary of that creed is, that death touches the circumference, but never gets near the man. It is hard to believe, in the face of the foolish senses; it is hard to believe, in the face of aching sorrow. It is hard to-day to believe, in the face of passionate and ingenious denial, but it is true all the same. Death is sleep, and sleep is life.

And so; further, my text tells us that this life is life with Christ. We know not details, we need not know them. Here we have the presence of Jesus Christ, if we love Him, as really as when He walked the earth. Ay! more really, for Jesus Christ is nearer to us who, having not seen Him, love Him, and somewhat know His divinity and His sacrifice, than He was to the men who companied with Him all the time that He went in and out amongst them, whilst they were ignorant of who dwelt with them, and entertained the Lord of angels and men unawares. He is with us, and it is the power and the privilege and the joy of our lives to realise His presence. That Lord who, whilst He was on earth, was the Son of Man which is in heaven, now that He is in heaven in His corporeal humanity is the Son of God who dwells with us. And as He dwells with us, if we love Him and trust Him, so, but in fashion incapable of being revealed to us, now does He dwell with those of whose condition this is the only and all-sufficing positive knowledge which we have, that they are absent from the body; present with the Lord.'

Further, that united life is a social life. The whole force of my text is often missed by English readers, who run into one idea the two words together with.' But if you would put a comma after together,' you would understand better what Paul meant. He refers to two forms of union. Whether we wake or sleep we shall live all aggregated together, and all aggregated together' because each is with Him.' That is to say, union with Jesus Christ makes all who partake of that union, whether they belong to the one side of the river or the other, into a mighty whole. They are together because they are with the Lord.

Suppose a great city, and a stream flowing through its centre. The palace and all pertaining to the court are on one side of the water; there is an outlying suburb on the other, of meaner houses, inhabited by poor and humble people. But yet it is one city. Ye are come unto the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.' We are knit together by one life, one love, one thought; and the more we fix our hearts on the things which those above live among and by, the more truly are we knit to them. As a quaint old English writer says, They are gone but into another pew in the same church.'

We are one in Him, and so there will be a perfecting of union in reunion; and the inference so craved for by our hearts seems to be warranted to our understandings, that that society above, which is the perfection of society, shall not be lacking in the elements of mutual recognition and companionship, without which we cannot conceive of society at all. And so we shall ever be with the Lord.'

Dear friends, I beseech you to trust your sinful souls to that dear Lord who bore you in His heart and mind when He bore His cross to Calvary and completed the work of your redemption. If you will accept Him as your sacrifice and Saviour, when He cried It is finished,' united to Him your lives will be quickened into intense activity and joyful vigilance and expectation, and death will be smoothed into a quiet falling asleep. The shadow feared of man,' that strikes threateningly across every path, will change as we approach it, if our hearts are anchored on Him who died for us, into the Angel of Light to whom God has given charge concerning us to bear up our feet upon His hands, and land us in the presence of the Lord and in the perfect society of those who love Him. And so shah we live together, and all together, with Him.

MHCC: 1Th 5:1-5

It is needless or useless to ask about the particular time of Christ's coming. Christ did not reveal this to the apostles. There are times and seasons for us to work in, and these are our duty and interest to know and observe; but as to the time when we must give up our account, we know it not, nor is it needful that we should. The coming of Christ will be a great surprise to men. Our Lord himself said so. As the hour of death is the same to each person that the judgment will be to mankind in general, so the same remarks answer for both. Christ's coming will be terrible to the ungodly. Their destruction will overtake them while they dream of happiness, and please themselves with vain amusements. There will be no means to escape the terror or the punishment of that day. This day will be a happy day to the righteous. They are not in darkness; they are the children of the light. It is the happy condition of all true Christians. But how many are speaking peace and safety to themselves, over whose heads utter destruction is hovering! Let us endeavour to awaken ourselves and each other, and guard against our spiritual enemies.

MHCC: 1Th 5:6-11

Most of mankind do not consider the things of another world at all, because they are asleep; or they do not consider them aright, because they sleep and dream. Our moderation as to all earthly things should be known to all men. Shall Christians, who have the light of the blessed gospel shining in their faces, be careless about their souls, and unmindful of another world? We need the spiritual armour, or the three Christian graces, faith, love, and hope. Faith; if we believe that the eye of God is always upon us, that there is another world to prepare for, we shall see reason to watch and be sober. True and fervent love to God, and the things of God, will keep us watchful and sober. If we have hope of salvation, let us take heed of any thing that would shake our trust in the Lord. We have ground on which to build unshaken hope, when we consider, that salvation is by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, to atone for our sins and to ransom our souls. We should join in prayer and praise one with another. We should set a good example one before another, and this is the best means to answer the end of society. Thus we shall learn how to live to Him, with whom we hope to live for ever.

Matthew Henry: 1Th 5:1-5

In these words observe,

I. The apostle tells the Thessalonians it was needless or useless to enquire about the particular time of Christ's coming: Of the times and seasons you need not that I write unto you, 1Th 5:1. The thing is certain that Christ will come, and there is a certain time appointed for his coming; but there was no need that the apostle should write about this, and therefore he had no revelation given him; nor should they or we enquire into this secret, which the Father has reserved in his own power. Of that day and hour knoweth no man. Christ himself did not reveal this while upon earth; it was not in his commission as the great prophet of the church: nor did he reveal this to his apostles; there was no need of this. There are times and seasons for us to do our work in: these it is our duty and interest to know and observe; but the time and season when we must give up our account we know not, nor is it needful that we should know them. Note, There are many things which our vain curiosity desires to know which there is no necessity at all of our knowing, nor would our knowledge of them do us good.

II. He tells them that the coming of Christ would be sudden, and a great surprise to most men, 1Th 5:2. And this is what they knew perfectly, or might know, because our Lord himself had so said: In such an hour as you think not, the Son of man cometh, Mat 24:44. So Mar 13:35, Mar 13:36, Watch you therefore, for you know not when the master of the house cometh; lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And no doubt the apostle had told them, as of the coming of Christ, so also of his coming suddenly, which is the meaning of his coming as a thief in the night, Rev 16:15. As the thief usually cometh in the dead time of the night, when he is least expected, such a surprise will the day of the Lord be; so sudden and surprising will be his appearance. The knowledge of this will be more useful than to know the exact time, because this should awaken us to stand upon our watch, that we may be ready whenever he cometh.

III. He tells them how terrible Christ's coming would be to the ungodly, 1Th 5:3. It will be to their destruction in that day of the Lord. The righteous God will bring ruin upon his and his people's enemies; and this their destruction, as it will be total and final, so, 1. It will be sudden. It will overtake them, and fall upon them, in the midst of their carnal security and jollity, when they say in their hearts, Peace and safety, when they dream of felicity and please themselves with vain amusements of their fancies or their senses, and think not of it, - as travail cometh upon a woman with child, at the set time indeed, but not perhaps just then expected, nor greatly feared. 2. It will be unavoidable destruction too: They shall not escape; they shall in no wise escape. There will be no means possible for them to avoid the terror nor the punishment of that day. There will be no place where the workers of iniquity shall be able to hide themselves, no shelter from the storm, nor shadow from the burning heat that shall consume the wicked.

IV. He tells them how comfortable this day will be to the righteous, 1Th 5:4, 1Th 5:5. Here observe, 1. Their character and privilege. They are not in darkness; they are the children of the light, etc. This was the happy condition of the Thessalonians as it is of all true Christians. They were not in a state of sin and ignorance as the heathen world. They were some time darkness, but were made light in the Lord. They were favoured with the divine revelation of things that are unseen and eternal, particularly concerning the coming of Christ, and the consequences thereof. They were the children of the day, for the day-star had risen upon them; yea, the Sun of righteousness had arisen on them with healing under his wings. They were no longer under the darkness of heathenism, nor under the shadows of the law, but under the gospel, which brings life and immortality to light. 2Ti 1:10. 2. Their great advantage on this account: that that day should not overtake them as a thief, 1Th 5:4. It was at least their own fault if they were surprised by that day. They had fair warning, and sufficient helps to provide against that day, and might hope to stand with comfort and confidence before the Son of man. This would be a time of refreshing to them from the presence of the Lord, who to those that look for him will appear without sin unto their salvation, and will come to them as a friend in the day, not as a thief in the night.

Matthew Henry: 1Th 5:6-10

On what had been said, the apostle grounds seasonable exhortations to several needful duties.

I. To watchfulness and sobriety, 1Th 5:6. These duties are distinct, yet they mutually befriend one another. For, while we are compassed about with so many temptations to intemperance and excess, we shall not keep sober, unless we be upon our guard, and, unless we keep sober, we shall not long watch. 1. Then let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch; we must not be secure and careless, nor indulge spiritual sloth and idleness. We must not be off our watch, but continually upon our guard against sin, and temptation to it. The generality of men are too careless of their duty and regardless of their spiritual enemies. They say, Peace and safety, when they are in the greatest danger, doze away their precious moments on which eternity depends, indulging idle dreams, and have no more thoughts nor cares about another world than men that are asleep have about this. Either they do not consider the things of another world at all, because they are asleep; or they do not consider them aright, because they dream. But let us watch, and act like men that are awake, and that stand upon their guard. 2. Let us also be sober, or temperate and moderate. Let us keep our natural desires and appetites after the things of this world within due bounds. Sobriety is usually opposed to excess in meats and drinks, and here particularly it is opposed to drunkenness; but it also extends to all other temporal things. Thus our Saviour warned his disciples to take heed lest their hearts should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come on them unawares, Luk 21:34. Our moderation then, as to all temporal things, should be known to all men, because the Lord is at hand. Besides this, watchfulness and sobriety are most suitable to the Christian's character and privilege, as being children of the day; because those that sleep sleep in the night, and those that are drunken are drunken in the night, 1Th 5:7. It is a most reproachful thing for men to sleep away the day-time, which is for work and not for sleep, to be drunken in the day, when so many eyes are upon them, to behold their shame. It was not so strange if those who had not the benefit of divine revelation suffered themselves to be lulled asleep by the devil in carnal security, and if they laid the reins upon the neck of their appetites, and indulged themselves in all manner of riot and excess; for it was night-time with them. They were not sensible of their danger, therefore they slept; they were not sensible of their duty, therefore they were drunk: but it ill becomes Christians to do thus. What! shall Christians, who have the light of the blessed gospel shining in their faces, be careless about their souls, and unmindful of another world? Those who have so many eyes upon them should conduct themselves with peculiar propriety.

II. To be well armed as well as watchful: to put on the whole armour of God. This is necessary in order to such sobriety as becomes us and will be a preparation for the day of the Lord, because our spiritual enemies are many, and mighty, and malicious. They draw many to their interest, and keep them in it, by making them careless, secure, and presumptuous, by making them drunk - drunk with pride, drunk with passion, drunk and giddy with self-conceit, drunk with the gratifications of sense: so that we have need to arm ourselves against their attempts, by putting on the spiritual breast-plate to keep the heart, and the spiritual helmet to secure the head; and this spiritual armour consists of three great graces of Christians, faith, love, and hope, 1Th 5:8. 1. We must live by faith, and this will keep us watchful and sober. If we believe that the eye of God (who is a spirit) is always upon us, that we have spiritual enemies to grapple with, that there is a world of spirits to prepare for, we shall see reason to watch and be sober. Faith will be our best defence against the assaults of our enemies. 2. We must get a heart inflamed with love; and this also will be our defence. True and fervent love to God, and the things of God, will keep us watchful and sober, and hinder our apostasy in times of trouble and temptation. 3. We must make salvation our hope, and should have a lively hope of it. This good hope, through grace, of eternal life, will be as a helmet to defend the head, and hinder our being intoxicated with the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season. If we have hope of salvation, let us take heed of doing any thing that shall shake our hopes, or render us unworthy of or unfit for the great salvation we hope for. Having mentioned salvation and the hope of it, the apostle shows what grounds and reasons Christians have to hope for this salvation, as to which observe, He says nothing of their meriting it. No, the doctrine of our merits is altogether unscriptural and antiscriptural; there is no foundation of any good hope upon that account. But our hopes are to be grounded, (1.) Upon God's appointment: because God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation, 1Th 5:9. If we would trace our salvation to the first cause, that is God's appointment. Those who live and die in darkness and ignorance, who sleep and are drunken as in the night, are, it is but too plain, appointed to wrath; but as for those who are of the day, if they watch and be sober, it is evident that they are appointed to obtain salvation. And the sureness and firmness of the divine appointment are the great support and encouragement of our hope. Were we to obtain salvation by our own merit or power, we could have but little or no hope of it; but seeing we are to obtain it by virtue of God's appointment, which we are sure cannot be shaken ( for his purpose, according to election, shall stand ), on this we build unshaken hope, especially when we consider, (2.) Christ's merit and grace, and that salvation is by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. Our salvation therefore is owing to, and our hopes of it are grounded on, Christ's atonement as well as God's appointment: and, as we should think on God's gracious design and purpose, so also on Christ's death and sufferings, for this end, that whether we wake or sleep (whether we live or die, for death is but a sleep to believers, as the apostles had before intimated) we should live together with Christ live in union and in glory with him for ever. And, as it is the salvation that Christians hope for to be for ever with the Lord, so one foundation of their hope is their union with him. And if they are united with Christ, and live in him, and live to him, here, the sleep of death will be no prejudice to the spiritual life, much less to the life of glory hereafter. On the contrary, Christ died for us, that, living and dying, we might be his; that we might live to him while we are here, and live with him when we go hence.

Barclay: 1Th 5:1-11

We shall not fully understand the New Testament pictures of the Second Coming unless we remember that they have an Old Testament background. In the Old Testament the conception of the Day of the Lord is very common; and all the pictures and apparatus which belong to the Day of the Lord have been attached to the Second Coming. To the Jew all time was divided into two ages. There was this present age which was wholly and incurably bad. There was the age to come which would be the golden age of God. In between there was the Day of the Lord which would be a terrible day. It would be a day in which one world was shattered and another was born.

Many of the most terrible pictures in the Old Testament are of the Day of the Lord (Isa 22:5; Isa 13:9; Zep 1:14-16; Amo 5:18; Jer 30:7; Mal 4:1; Joe 2:31). Its main characteristics were as follows. (i) It would come suddenly and unexpectedly. (ii) It would involve a cosmic upheaval in which the universe was shaken to its very foundations. (iii) It would be a time of judgment.

Very naturally the New Testament writers to all intents and purposes identified the Day of the Lord with the day of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. We will do well to remember that these are what we might call stock pictures. They are not meant to be taken literally. They are pictorial visions of what would happen when God broke into time.

Naturally men were anxious to know when that day would come. Jesus himself had bluntly said that no man knew when that day or hour would be, that even he did not know and only God knew (Mar 13:32; compare Mat 24:36; Act 1:7). But that did not stop people speculating about it, as indeed they still do, although it is surely almost blasphemous that men should seek for knowledge which was denied even to Jesus. To these speculations Paul has two things to say.

He repeats that the coming of the day will be sudden. It will come like a thief in the night. But he also insists that that is no reason why a man should be caught unawares. It is only the man who lives in the dark and whose deeds are evil who will be caught unprepared. The Christian lives in the light and no matter when that day comes, if he is watchful and sober, it will find him ready. Waking or sleeping, the Christian is living already with Christ and is therefore always prepared.

No man knows when God's call will come for him and there are certain things that cannot be left until the last moment. It is too late to prepare for an examination when the examination paper is before you. It is too late to make the house secure when the storm has burst. When Queen Mary of Orange was dying, her chaplain wished to read to her. She answered, "I have not left this matter till this hour." It was similar with an old Scotsman to whom someone offered comforting sayings near the end. The old man's reply was, "Ah theekit (thatched) ma hoose when the weather was warm." If a call comes suddenly, it need not find us unprepared. The man who has lived all his life with Christ is never unprepared to enter his nearer presence.

Constable: 1Th 5:1-11

C. Personal watchfulness 5:1-11

In view of the imminency of Christ's return Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to be ready to prepare them to meet the Lord at any time.

"The former [paragraph, i.e., 4:13-18] offered instruction concerning the dead in Christ; this [paragraph] gives a word of needed exhortation to the living."¹⁰⁵

Other contrasts between these passages are the Rapture and the day of the Lord, and resurrection and judgment.

This pericope deals with the time of Christ's return and the consequent need for watchfulness.

5:1-2 Paul had previously taught this church about the day of the Lord (v. 2). Jesus had also taught His disciples about it (cf. Matt. 24:44; Mark 13; Luke 24). They had taught about the duration ("times, " Gr. chronos) and the major features of the times ("epochs," Gr. chairos) that lay ahead in the future. These words may describe the end times from these two perspectives (cf. Acts 1:7; 3:19-21)¹⁰⁶, but probably they mean virtually the same thing (cf. Dan. 2:21; 7:12; Acts 1:7).¹⁰⁷

". . . the phrase may have been a conventional doublet, like our own times and seasons,' with no particular emphasis on a difference between the two nouns."¹⁰⁸

The day of the Lord yet future usually refers to the period in history characterized by God's working in the world in direct, dramatic ways.¹⁰⁹ This period begins with the Tribulation and continues through the Millennium (cf. Isa. 13:9-11; Joel 2:28-32; Zeph. 1:14-18; 3:14-15; et al.). It contains both judgment (in the Tribulation) and blessing (in the Millennium). People living on the earth then (i.e., unbelievers, since Christians will be with the Lord in heaven immediately following the Rapture) will not expect it.

"By using day of the Lord' terminology to describe the great tribulation, Christ included the tribulation within the day of the Lord (cf. Matt 24:21 with Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1; Joel 2:2). This time of trial at the outset of the earthly day of the Lord will thus not be brief, but comparable to a woman's labor before giving birth to a child (Isa. 13:8; 26:17-19; 66:7ff.; Jer 30:7, 8; Micah 4:9, 10; Matt 24:8; 1 Thess 5:3)."¹¹⁰

The phrase "the day of the Lord" also refers to the Second Coming of Christ (cf. Joel 3:9-16; Zech. 14:1-5; Rev. 16:12-16; 19:11-21). Thus Scripture uses the term in a broad sense (the Tribulation and the Millennium) and a narrow sense (the return of Christ).

"Just as the word day' in Genesis 1:5 has both a broad sense (a 24-hour day--'And the evening and the morning were the first day') and a narrow sense (the light part of a 24-hour day in contrast with the darkness part--'And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night')--so the expression the Day of the Lord' has both a broad and a narrow sense in relationship to the future."¹¹¹

Some posttribulationists say the day of the Lord here refers specifically to the second coming of Christ.¹¹² However in the context this day will be a time when God will pour out His wrath on unbelievers (vv. 3-9). While this could refer to the judgments that will take place at Christ's second coming, it seems more likely to refer to the judgments of the Tribulation (cf. Matt. 24:5-28; Rev. 6:16-18).¹¹³ Gundry contended that the day of the Lord begins after the Tribulation but before Armageddon.¹¹⁴ However this means that none of the judgments before Armageddon are judgments of the day of the Lord, a conclusion that few interpreters, posttribulational as well as pretribulational, can accept.¹¹⁵

"The only way to hold that this meeting with Christ in the air is an imminent prospect is to see it as simultaneous with the beginning of the divine judgment against earth. Only if the rapture coincides with the beginning of the day of the Lord can both be imminent and the salvation of those in Christ coincide with the coming of wrath to the rest (v. 9) . . .

"Were either the rapture or the day of the Lord to precede the other, one or the other would cease to be an imminent prospect to which the thief in the night' and related expressions (1:10; 4:15, 17) are inappropriate. That both are any-moment possibilities is why Paul can talk about these two in successive paragraphs. This is how the Lord's personal coming as well as the day's' coming can be compared to a thief ([Matt. 24. 36-43; Luke 12:35-40; ] 2 Peter 3:4, 10; Rev 3:3, 11; 16:15)."¹¹⁶

5:3 Evidently the occasion for the false sense of security felt then will be the Antichrist's signing of a covenant with Israel (cf. Dan. 9:27).¹¹⁷ That signing will set the stage for a period of unprecedented destruction even though it will be the signing of a peace treaty. Bible students living on earth then will be able to anticipate this period of persecution since God has revealed it in Scripture. It will be much like a pregnant woman's delivery which observers can anticipate by her appearance (cf. Matt. 24:8). No one living on the earth then will in any way (double negative for emphasis in the Greek text) escape the turmoil to follow. They cannot escape it any more than a pregnant woman can escape delivering her child. This seems to argue against midtribulationism. No one on earth who is living in peace and safety during the first half of the Tribulation will escape the destruction coming in the second half, except those who die.

5:4-6 The Thessalonians were not ignorant of these events since Jesus and Paul had revealed them (cf. 4:13-17). They were not walking in wickedness either. God had removed the Thessalonians from Satan's kingdom of darkness and placed them into God's kingdom of light (cf. Col. 1:13).¹¹⁸ Paul exhorted them therefore to remain alert (watchful) and sober (self-possessed), not asleep (insensible) to things that God has revealed.

If the church must pass through the Tribulation (Daniel's seventieth week) before the Rapture, it is useless to watch for Christ daily.¹¹⁹

5:7-8 Behavior consistent with their position in Christ required watchful preparation in view of the future. As soldiers engaged in spiritual warfare they needed to protect their vital parts with trust in God and love for others (cf. 1:3, 3:5; Isa. 59:17; Eph. 6:14-17). They also needed to protect their thinking from attack by keeping their sure hope of deliverance at Christ's appearing in mind (i.e., the Rapture).

5:9-10 Deliverance from the judgments of the day of the Lord (i.e., the outpouring of God's wrath in the Tribulation) is certain for Christians. It is certain because God has not appointed His children to wrath in any form or at any time (cf. 1:10). In the context, the wrath of the day of the Lord is in view specifically. Rather He has appointed us to full salvation (4:15-17).

"First Thessalonians 5:9 is not a both/and' statement. The believer is not appointed to wrath and to salvation--to the Day of the Lord and the Rapture (the posttribulational view). The verse states not one, but the other.' The believer is appointed not to wrath, but to salvation; not to the Day of the Lord, but to the Rapture (pretribulationalism). The believer's hope is the Rapture. We are not watching for wrath, but for the Lord."¹²⁰

"When God vents his anger against earth dwellers (Rev. 6:16, 17), the body of Christ will be in heaven as the result of the series of happenings outlined in 4:14-17 (cf. 3:13). This is God's purpose."¹²¹

This deliverance is certain because Jesus Christ died as our substitute. He took all of God's wrath against us on Himself (cf. Rom. 8:1). Consequently we can have confidence that we will live together with Christ after the Rapture whether we are watchful or unwatchful at the time of His coming.

The Greek word translated "asleep" in verse 10 is from the same root as the one translated "sleep" in verse 6 where the reference is to spiritual lethargy. It is a different one from the word translated "asleep" in 4:13, 14, and 15 where the reference is to physical death.¹²² God will snatch away all Christians whether watchful or unwatchful at the Rapture.¹²³ This statement refutes the partial rapture theory, the view that God will rapture only watchful Christians. Moreover it is another indication that the Rapture will occur before the Tribulation since the Tribulation is a time when God will pour out His wrath on those dwelling on the earth (cf. 1:10).

5:11 This sure hope is a sound basis for mutual encouragement and edification among believers. Not only can we comfort one another when believers die (4:18), but we can also strengthen one another while we live.

"For the truth that the church is destined for rescue from the woes of the Tribulation, no passage has more to offer to exegetical scrutiny than does 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11."¹²⁴

College: 1Th 5:1-28

1 THESSALONIANS 5

2. The Suddenness of the Lord's Return (5:1-11)

¹ Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ² for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁴ But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵ You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶ So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. ⁹ For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Paul's discussion of Christ's return now shifts from correcting their specific point of misunderstanding to a more general reminder and exhortation about its significance. Two key concepts stand in dynamic tension throughout New Testament teaching on the parousia: the possibility that Christ could return at any time and the prospect that his return will take longer than his people might expect or hope. Though modern scholars have attempted to reconstruct early Christian thinking as having begun with the first idea, later abandoning it for the second when the expectation of Christ's immediate return was disappointed, such a reconstruction fails to do justice to any part of the New Testament as it addresses these topics.

It is precisely because of both sides of this teaching that Paul makes the exhortation here, based on Jesus' own instruction (cf. Matt 24:1-25:46; Mark 13:1-37; Luke 12:35-46; 17:22-37; 19:11-27; 21:1-38), for enduring watchfulness. The Lord will indeed come back, and he could do so at any moment. His followers must therefore live with that expectation and reflect it in their sober behavior. But because he may not come back immediately, they must strengthen each other to remain faithful.

As in the preceding section, the eschatological teaching here is given for its practical value, not for speculation. In particular, Paul has nothing to do with conjecture or hints about the precise time of the Lord's return or signs which may precede it. In fact, the entire course of his argument depends on the time of Christ's coming being uncertain. Instead, he offers this teaching to throw into sharp contrast the attitude, lifestyle and destiny of the Christians in comparison with their pagan neighbors. Understanding how their identity with Christ will affect eternity will in turn define for them how their lives are to be different in the present.

As the emphasis of the preceding section was on the salvation that comes with the Lord's return, so here the emphasis lies on the judgment that comes with that event. Like the tension between imminence and delay, this tension is consistently presented in biblical eschatology. Paul's assurance to the readers is that judgment for them is no threat: Christ's return means condemnation only for those who have rejected him, the very people who now oppose and persecute the Christians.

5:1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you,

Paul indicates with this statement that he continues the previous subject while altering the specific focus. Having shown how Christ's return provides comfort for the readers' grief, he now shifts to a reminder of the broader impact that their expectation should have on their behavior. "Times" translates the Greek crovno" ( chronos ); "dates" represents kairov" ( kairos ). Both are expressions for time with broad ranges of possible meanings. Though they can be used with distinct emphases, no possible differentiation between them has relevance in context. Likewise, the fact that Paul uses the plural does not suggest that he assumes here a specific series of "times and dates" which will be fulfilled in the future. The point lies rather with the combination of both plural terms, underscoring the readers' comprehensive grasp of the nature of the age in which they live. The combination may, in fact, be a common way of referring to the time of final judgment (cf. Acts 1:7).

The reason that Paul has no need to instruct the Thessalonians concerning these "times and dates" is clarified by the verses that follow. Paul does not assert here that they know the time or date of the Lord's return. The discussion that follows clearly depends on the time of his return being indefinite. The statement of Matt 24:26 is entirely consistent with Paul's point here. Instead, Paul emphasizes with this introductory reminder that the Thessalonians understand the character of the era in which they live. Because Christ has come and inaugurated the fulfillment of God's end-time promises, they recognize that they already live in the "last days," the age of fulfillment which is also characterized by deception, unbelief, suffering and persecution. They can therefore understand that such things are indications of the imminence of the judgment that will come for those unprepared for Christ's return (cf. 1:10; Matt 24:4-14, 32-35).

5:2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

The comparison of the Lord's return to a thief in the night is found in a wide variety of texts in the New Testament (Matt 24:43; Luke 12:39; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 3:3; 16:15). The distribution of these references through all parts of the New Testament indicates that this aspect of Jesus' teaching was widely circulated among early Christians. In this text and others the comparison stresses that for those who are not his followers, the Lord's return will be unexpected and disastrous. The thief's coming is secretive; those who are unprepared have no idea that he is coming at all. But the context does not permit the inference that he both comes and departs without being noticed, as in the eschatological view that argues for a "secret rapture." The image rather indicates that his coming is not expected prior to the event, but when the thief arrives, catastrophe comes suddenly and decisively on the unprepared.

Continuing the sentence begun in v. 1, Paul stresses that the readers already know what he offers here by way of reminder. Undoubtedly they had received this teaching as part of their larger instruction about Jesus. At a number of points, Paul's language in the following verses resembles passages of the Gospels dealing with Jesus' return.

Paul here uses the expression "day of the Lord" to refer to Christ's return. The phrase has its background in the Old Testament (e.g., Isa 13:6-16; Joel 1:15; Amos 5:18-20; Obad 15-21; Zech 14). There it can signify any great action of God bringing blessing or judgment, but especially God's final and decisive act of judgment and redemption. Only Paul in the New Testament uses this specific phrase to refer directly to the return of Christ (1 Cor 1:8; 5:5; 2 Cor 1:14; 2 Thess 2:2). However, the basis for his associating Christ's return with the ultimate fulfillment of God's purpose is clearly set forth in Jesus' own teaching, and the concept of a coming "day" is found throughout the New Testament. So the phrase would be familiar to the readers, as would its association with judgment for unbelievers but blessing for believers. No wonder, then, that Paul writes that the Thessalonians know this point "very well," ajkribw'" (akribôs), a word used commonly to stress that something is known accurately or thoroughly.

5:3 While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly,

Paul's point here is similar to the one made in Matt 24:36-39: Christ will return in a time that appears to be ordinary and comfortable to unbelievers. Paul here describes the unbeliever's general, repeated characterization of life. For such people the situation is "peace and safety." The first term is especially ironic, since from Paul's perspective real "peace" is available only through the Christ whom these have rejected (1:1; 5:23; Rom 5:1; cf. Jer 6:14-15; Ezek 13:10-16). "Safety" underscores the significance of the first term: there appears to be no threat to the peace that the unbeliever perceives. But such is emphatically not the case, for in place of this false security, indeed in the very midst of it, will come "destruction," signifying the complete ruin of their confidence and comfort (see comments on 2 Thess 1:9 below). Underlining the unexpectedness is the modifier "suddenly." This term, aijfnivdio" ( aiphnidios ) is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in Luke 21:34, where the same verb, ejfivsthmi (ephistçmi, "comes"), not a common verb for this concept, is used also. The echo of Jesus' teaching is unmistakable. The verb here is in the Greek present tense, stressing the common, repeated experience of all those unprepared.

as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

The comparison of the Lord's return to labor pains has two apparent points of comparison in context. The first looks back to the first part of the verse: like labor pains, the Lord's return will come suddenly. The second is found in the close of the verse: as with labor, there will be no escape. The verb translated "escape," ejkfeuvgw (ekpheugô), appears also in Luke 21:35, again connecting this passage to Jesus' teaching. Paul does use the figure of labor pains in a different sense than is found in Matt 24:8. There Jesus warns the disciples not to view the hardships which they will experience as indications that the end has already come but as the "beginnings of birth pangs," only the most preliminary of events that precede the end. Though Paul obviously uses the same image here to make a different point, he may still be consciously drawing upon Jesus' teachings by way of reminder for the readers.

5:4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.

Paul begins this verse with an emphatic pronoun, uJmei'" ( hymeis , "you"), which draws a sharp contrast between those not prepared for Christ's return and the readers of the letter. These, again, are "brothers," those drawn into the fellowship of God's people and so prepared for his final judgment. Such people are not in darkness but light, associated with God and his truth. The dawning of the "day" is therefore for them not a catastrophe but a blessing. "Surprise" renders katalambavnw (katalambanô), literally signifying to overtake or seize, especially with hostile intent. Paul's point is not that the day of the Lord is no surprise because the readers know when it will come but that when it does come, they can welcome it rather than fear it.

5:5 You are all sons of the light and sons of the day.

From the contrast between light and darkness, Paul will now draw out the exhortation that forms the main thrust of this discussion. As God's people, the readers belong to the light, a common metaphor for God's truth (cf. Ps 27:1; 112:4; Prov 4:18-19; Isa 9:2; 5:20; Matt 5:14; Luke 2:32; John 1:4-9; 1 John 2:8). According to the common turn of phrase in Semitic languages, Paul here calls those characterized by an object as "sons of" that object (cf. Luke 16:8; Eph 5:8). The second expression, "sons of the day" probably connects both backward to the "day of the Lord" (v. 2), indicating that the believers can anticipate that day in confidence, and forward to the contrast with the evil behavior that characterizes the night (v. 7).

We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

The whole image is reinforced and developed with the negative statement about the night and darkness that follows. As those characterized by light, the people of God have nothing to fear from something that comes as a thief for those in the darkness. As a corollary, their behavior should fit the light to which they belong. And so Paul next sets forth two behavioral implications of belonging to God's light.

5:6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.

This verse begins with two Greek particles (a[ra ou , ara oun , "so then") combined for emphasis, indicating that the statement which follows is a direct consequence of what precedes. This Paul states as an exhortation, identifying himself along with the readers as under the obligation to act in the way he describes. Because Christians belong to the light, to be "asleep" for them is inappropriate. The comparison here is with the self-sufficient insensibility that characterizes those who do not expect Christ to return.

By contrast Christians are to "be alert." This phrase translates grhgorevw (grçgoreô), which has the literal meaning "to be awake" but often takes the sense of being watchful. This verb is again found in Jesus' teaching on his return (Matt 24:42-43; 25:13; Mark 13:34-35, 37; Luke 12:36-38; cf. Rev 3:2-3; 16:15), stressing the necessity of the disciple to be faithful in the Lord's absence, expecting the Lord's return at any time and so busy in faithful service at all times. The specific way in which Paul urges faithfulness here first is implied by the contrast with those who sleep: the readers are to resist the pressure from their pagan society to conform to its immoral and self-indulgent habits.

That point is further underlined with the addition of "self-controlled," the Greek nhvfw (nçphô), which literally means to be sober as opposed to drunk. Though Paul's point partly relates to literal soberness, his point is much broader, as the following verses show: he has in mind the keen grasp of spiritual reality that comes from knowing God truly through Christ. Both verbs are in the present tense, stressing that the actions are to be continuing.

5:7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.

At the very least, this verse continues and amplifies the comparisons of vv. 5-6. Both sleep and drunkenness were associated with the night (the latter is less confined to the night in our culture than in Paul's). But clearly, as in v. 6, the expressions here are figurative, suggesting the spiritual insensitivity and absence of clear thinking which result from unbelief. Paul's point may also go further, however. Since drunkenness was associated with revels honoring the Greek god Dionysus, and sometimes in that setting seen as a medium of receiving enlightenment from the god, Paul may here set the Christian's position in sharp contrast with those practices. The implication of the revelation of God received by the Christians is different from such pagan practices, as the following verse emphasizes. There also may be another echo here of Jesus' teaching, since drunkenness is one vice of the unfaithful servants in Luke 12:45.

5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled,

Paul now amplifies the meaning of "self-controlled" or "sober" with the figure of a soldier or sentry, perhaps suggested by the idea of watchfulness. Reiterating the foundational point, that Christians belong to God and his truth, Paul stresses that they must put that identity and truth into practice, using the blessings which they have received in Christ as a means of protection against the ungodly influences that surround them. Grammatically "putting on" supports "be self-controlled," setting forth the means by which that self-control is accomplished.

putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

As in Rom 13:12 and Eph 6:10-18, Paul compares God's provision for the Christian to armor, and in common with the latter passage, he elaborates by discussing specific pieces of armor. But his point is less on the identification of specific parts of armor with specific ideas than on the concept that God has equipped the Christian with all that is needed for the battle with evil. In this text, even the idea of battle itself is not directly stated. In light of the preceding context, however, it is clear that Paul implies that the readers must continue to struggle against the dominant pagan culture.

In this text Paul highlights God's provision in the three cardinal virtues of 1:3, climaxing with hope as the helmet at the apex of the image. Paul's comparison of the breastplate to faith and love is different from Eph 6:14, which alludes more precisely to Isa 59:17 in connecting righteousness to the breastplate. "Hope of salvation" is an ambiguous phrase here: it may mean either "the hope that comes from salvation" or "the hope that looks forward to salvation." Since the following verse refers to salvation as something yet to be received, the second alternative is probably Paul's specific sense. However, in light of the common misuse of this phrase among some modern Christians, it must be stressed that "hope of salvation" means not just "a chance of being saved" but "a confident expectation of being saved." Paul's point, then, is that by practicing faith, love and hope the readers can overcome the pressures of their environment to conform to pagan standards, thereby proving faithful to the Lord who returns for their salvation.

5:9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul now makes explicit the basis for the confidence in salvation expressed in the preceding phrase. He has noted already that Jesus delivers his people from God's wrath (1:10). The contrast here further stresses that point as a source of confidence in the readers' ongoing struggle with their surroundings. "Wrath," God's holy anger against sin, belongs not to the Christians but to those who continue to live in deliberate ignorance of God. God's purpose in extending his call to the readers is to receive (peripoivhsi", peripoie-sis ) salvation (cf. 2 Thess 2:14), made possible through the work of Jesus. If the behavior of the unbelievers reflects their ignorance of God and ultimately brings God's wrath, those who know God and have been delivered from wrath will want to have nothing to do with such conduct. Confidence in salvation, then, should not lead to indifference about how one lives but should motivate the watchful, sober, faithful obedience which Paul encourages here.

The use of "appoint" here raises the question of God's activity in salvation in relation to human response. Reformed exegetes have traditionally taken such expressions to mean that God has appointed some to salvation apart from their fulfilling any condition of salvation. God then causes those people to have faith and practice obedience, including the watchful faithfulness discussed in this section. However, Marshall rightly points out that this concept is nowhere articulated in this passage; Paul does not say that a failure to be watchful indicates that one was never a Christian in the first place. Rather, as Marshall expresses it:

At this point in the letter Paul is dealing with the fear of his readers that the day of the Lord may overtake them unprepared for it. He is assuring them that they do not need to know the date and specially prepare for it, because if they are Christians they will be in such a state of preparedness that the day will not come as a day of judgment on their sin. There is certainly a danger that Christians could fall asleep and the final day will surprise them like it will the non-believers; let them beware lest that happens. But God intends for them to be saved, and he has given them many guarantees for this. Let them therefore trust in him, remain faithful and watchful.

5:10 He died for us

The discussion of the previous verse continues, still in support of the admonition of v. 8, but specifically developing the concept of the end of v. 9. Salvation has been made possible specifically through Jesus' death. Paul's understanding of the means by which the cross brings salvation, his "theory of the atonement," is probably expressed most clearly in Rom 3:25: Christ died as a "propitiation," a substitutionary sacrifice satisfying the wrath of God which, according to his justice, must exact a penalty for sin. Hence, "for us" here probably expresses that idea in brief: Jesus died in place of us, as our substitute, taking our penalty. By his death, deliverance from God's wrath is effected.

so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

But the positive side of salvation is effected as well, as is expressed at the end of the verse. Salvation means not only escaping the penalty of sin but also union with Christ in his resurrection and consequent fellowship with him in the present and the future (Rom 6; 2 Cor 4-5; Gal 2:20). Paul combines terms to make this point emphatically: "together with" translates a{ma suvn ( hama syn ; cf. 4:17), which in combination stress that the believers are with Christ under all circumstances.

The images of wakefulness and sleep are now compared to different objects than in vv. 6-8. Clearly, in light of the earlier discussion, Paul does not here equivocate about whether Christians should remain alert. Instead, he shifts these images back to the comparison found in 4:13-15, where sleep refers to death. This comparison makes Paul's point here all the more clear and serves to tie the larger discussion of 4:13-5:11 together. Nothing can separate the believer from Christ's love and fellowship, not even death itself. Whether alive or dead, Christians can be assured that they belong to God through Christ in every respect. As they look forward to the culmination of that relationship when Christ returns, they live out an alert and faithful life by demonstrating their union with Christ through Christlike behavior.

5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

As in 4:18, so here Paul concludes his eschatological discussion by reminding the readers to recognize the value of the message as a source of encouragement. In both verses Paul uses parakalevw (parakaleô, "encouragement") as the verb, though with a slightly different emphasis. In 4:18 the emphasis was on the encouragement that ameliorates grief. Here it is encouragement to positive Christian behavior and resistance to temptation. That point is made clear by the addition of "build up," (oijkodomevw, oikodomeô). Paul often uses this term and related ones, picturing the church and its members as a building under construction by God, a building which will ultimately conform to God's design.

To "build up" one another, then, implies that by practicing and encouraging watchfulness, the Thessalonian Christians will move into closer conformity with God's intention for them. Again, if the particular concern of the context is that the readers not succumb to the pressures of pagan society, the need for encouragement and edification is clear. These responsibilities are to be discharged by each member of the church for the other, as Paul expresses that idea with distinct objects for each verb. And they are to be done continually, as indicated by the Greek present tense with both verbs. Closing the discussion on a note of confidence, Paul indicates that the readers are already following these instructions, as they have received them before (cf. v. 2).

C. GENERAL EXHORTATIONS (5:12-22)

Paul's letters commonly include a loosely organized series of general exhortations near the conclusion, as is found here. Unlike the contents of the previous section, these instructions are not so much aimed at specific issues or problems in the church as at the broader life of the believers. Because of the similarities between this passage and Rom 12:11-18, it has been suggested that Paul has inserted a traditional Jewish-Christian exhortation. However, in the topics addressed, one can still see Paul's concern for the Thessalonian church's particular situation. Even these general instructions are especially fitting for a church in its early stages of development, still acutely vulnerable to confusion about the content of its faith, to internal strife and to pressure from a hostile environment.

1. Behavior in the Christian Community (5:12-15)

¹² Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. ¹³ Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

The first section of general exhortations deals with responsibilities of Christians toward others in the church. The section divides itself into two subsections, each introduced with a first-person, plural verb: "we ask" (ejrwtw'men, erôtômen, v. 12) and "we urge" (parakalou'men, parakaloumen , v. 14). The first of these is the instruction to respect and submit to leaders (vv. 12-13a), a reminder which may have been especially important for a church still so young in the faith. This concludes with a general command to peace (v. 13b), leading in turn to another series of exhortations about mutual responsibilities in serving one another (vv. 14-15). Prominent here are instructions which seem to address issues indicated elsewhere in the letter, especially the responsibility to support oneself by working (4:11-12), to remain firm in persecution (1:6; 2:13-14; 3:3-5, 8) and to exercise love for each other (1:3; 4:9-10).

Respect for Christian Leaders (5:12-13)

5:12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you.

Paul's instructions here clearly focus attention on those who function as leaders in the Thessalonian church. In critical study of the New Testament for the last two centuries, it has become a commonplace to assert that leadership in the early church evolved from an informal, dynamic, "charismatic" approach, in which those gifted for leadership simply exercised their function, to a formal, static, "hierarchical" approach in which leaders were more deliberately appointed to specific offices, powers and responsibilities. In large measure this model is supported by a comparison of Paul's earlier letters, where terms such as "elders," "overseers" or "deacons" are absent but discussion of gifts and functions are prominent, with 1 Timothy and Titus, widely regarded as post-Pauline pseudepigraphs, or Acts, again taken as a late-first-century work, where titles appear prominently.

While the whole of this issue cannot be addressed here, several observations are in order. First, the fact that Paul's letters are written for specific circumstances strongly argues against reading too much into their silences. The fact that he describes leadership by function instead of title here, for example, does not mean that terms like "elder" or "overseer" were not used in the Thessalonian church. Likewise, the focus on gifts as opposed to titles in 1 Corinthians arises very specifically out of the problems which Paul addresses in ch. 12-14, as the more prominent place of titles in 1 Timothy and Titus arises out of the threat of false teaching addressed in those letters.

Secondly, one cannot assume that the use of a title indicates a shift from functional dynamism to static hierarchy in leadership. "Elder" (presbuvtero", presbyteros ) and "overseer" (ejpivskopo", episkopos ) were both widely used in the first century outside the church; adoption of those terms early in the early years of the church to refer to those who exercised leadership would hardly be surprising.

Thirdly, whatever the value of the evidence of Acts or the Pastoral Epistles, other uses of titles for leaders cannot be easily dismissed as late developments. Specifically Phil 1:1 and 1 Pet 5:1-4 argue strongly for the early use of such titles.

Finally, the distinction between functional and official leadership appears to be more a consequence of the hypothesis that church leadership evolved along the lines described by the theory than of what the text actually says. Is the command to respect leaders here genuinely less "official" than the instructions of 1 Tim 3, or are those instructions any less "functional" than these?

Still it must be recognized that Paul's emphasis on leadership, in 1 Tim 3:1, 5, 10, 13 and Titus 1:9 no less than other passages, is on the function of leadership rather than titles, offices or powers. That function can broadly be termed pastoral, centering on the protection and nurture of fellow Christians in their faith and leading to their maturity. Paul describes that function with three participles here, all governed by one definite article to indicate that he speaks of one group of persons who do all three activities, and all in the present tense to stress continuing action. "Work hard" translates literally and accurately the Greek kopiavw (kopiaô), which indicates laboring to the point of weariness. "Are over you" renders proi?sthmi (proistçmi). This term is ambiguous in this context: it could suggest either the exercise of leadership and direction (cf. 1 Tim 3:4, 5, 12; 5:17) or of care and assistance (cf. Rom 12:8). However, there is little distinction between those two senses in Paul's lexicon, since according to Christ's model authority is always exercised in self-sacrificial service which seeks others' benefit (cf. 1 Cor 9:1-23; Phil 2:1-11; Mark 10:35-45; John 13:1-20). No wonder, then, that Paul describes this function as being "in the Lord": leaders function in this way because of the union with Christ shared by the entire church. The third term, nouqetevw (noutheteô, "admonish") indicates instruction in correct belief and behavior, especially as it addresses some problem or deficiency (cf. v. 14; 2 Thess 3:15).

The readers are told first of all to "respect" these leaders. Literally the Greek term oida ( oida ) here means "to know," but in context it implies a recognition of the vital function for which these leaders have been gifted and, consequently, cooperation with and submission to their nurturing work. Possible but less likely are the meanings "take an interest in" or "care for," particularly in light of the complementary instruction of the next verse.

5:13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.

This sentence in the NIV is actually a continuation of the sentence in the previous verse, naming an action coordinated with "respect." The action is expressed in the Greek present tense, indicating a continuing action. Paul uses an emphatic adverb, uJperekperissw'" (hyperekperissôs) to describe the regard that the church should have for its leaders. This regard is based, however, not on submission to power but self-giving love (ajgavph, agapç) and respect for the vital nature of the work which these leaders perform.

What specific purpose did Paul have for these instructions? It may be that a particular faction of the Thessalonian church, perhaps the "idle" of v. 14, was not in submission to the leaders. But the broad terms in which the instructions are given may indicate less a problem in respect for leaders than the importance that it had for the situation. As an infant church whose nurture had been cut short by Paul's hasty departure and which faced ongoing persecution, the congregation's stability and growth depended largely on its loving submission to those with the gifts and maturity to lead it. The work of leadership, always important, carried a special premium under these circumstances.

Live in peace with each other.

Coming at the end of the instructions about the relationship to church leaders and before the "we urge you" that marks off the next section, these words probably are intended by Paul to address further the leadership issue. "Peace" is, of course, a primary consequence of being a Christian (1:1) and belonging to "the God of peace" (5:23). It must be put into practice continually (the verb is again in the Greek present tense) in all aspects of the church's life. But Paul's placing the instruction here may reflect his recognition that maintaining genuine harmony and cooperation is especially crucial in relationships between spiritual leaders and those in their care.

Service and Forgiveness (5:14-15)

5:14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle,

"We urge you, brothers" parallels the beginning of v. 12 and signals a new set of instructions for life in the church. Here the focus is on mutual responsibilities of all Christians toward each other. Four brief commands, all in the present tense to emphasize continuing action, follow in quick succession. Paul has structured this statement as a sharp and memorable reminder of how responsible Christian brotherhood will be lived out in the circumstances faced by the Thessalonian church.

The first command raises an interpretive problem. "Warn" here translates nouqetevw (noutheteô), rendered as "admonish" in v. 12, but here with the same sense of offering correction, a mutual responsibility here given to all the Thessalonian Christians, not just the leaders. The difficulty comes with the term translated "idle," a[takto" ( ataktos ). Literally the term means "disorderly," but its specific sense, as is the case with all words, varies with its context. The immediately surrounding discourse gives little reason to take the word in anything other than its broadest sense.

However, the cognate words ajtaktevw (atakteô) and ajtavktw" (ataktôs) appear in 2 Thess 3:7 and 2 Thess 3:6, 11 respectively, where they clearly refer to those in the church who do not support themselves. On that basis, the word here should almost certainly be taken with the sense reflected in the NIV (cf. 4:11-12), a meaning attested in some uses of the word outside the New Testament also. This idleness should be understood as not so much laziness but rebellious irresponsibility or willful idleness: those who do not work are abandoning the charge that is theirs as Christians.

encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

The following commands are straightforward in meaning, though still related to the circumstances of the Thessalonian church. The "timid" are ojligovyuco" ( oligopsychos ), a word which probably points to a state of discouragement. They are to be "encouraged"; paramuqevomai ( paramytheomai ) indicates especially the comfort or encouragement given to those in grief or pain. In the next command "weak" could refer to those suffering physical illness, but in light of the preceding almost certainly indicates those who are weak in faith. Taken together, these two commands suggest the kind of response especially necessary in the face of persecution.

The fourth command rounds out the series. "Be patient" translates makroqumevw (makrothymeô), which indicates particularly the restraint of anger, in the New Testament especially enjoined on believers because God has offered forgiveness in place of wrath. The readers must extend such patience to all because God has extended his patience to all. This instruction is, of course, applicable under all circumstances, but it may have had special relevance for Christians facing the pressures of persecution.

5:15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

The same pressures and the same compelling truths underlying the command for patience also support this command. Seeking retribution is excluded here as elsewhere in the New Testament (e.g., Matt 5:38-48) both because of God's offer of forgiveness noted above and because of his promise of judgment on the unrepentant (cf. 2 Thess 1:6-10). So in imitation of God's forgiveness and with consideration for his role as ultimate judge, Christians are to shun retribution under all circumstances.

Several features of this verse underline this point. Both imperatives, "make sure" and "try," are in the present tense, implying continuing action. The first is from oJravw (horaô), "watch," suggesting a constant vigilance against this temptation. "Pay back" quite literally translates ajpodivdwmi (apodidômi), which is used to indicate repayment of an obligation. Though it might be seen as such from other vantages, from the perspective of the gospel vengeance is never an obligation. "Try" translates diwvkw (diôkô), a strong expression often meaning "pursue" and so implying here an active, ardent effort to do good in place of evil. This responsibility belongs first to the community of faith, but because God has forgiven those hostile to him, Christians must extend this attitude to those outside their fellowship as well - even, by implication, to persecutors.

2. Constants of Christian Behavior (5:16-18)

¹⁶ Be joyful always; ¹⁷ pray continually; ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

This brief section sets forth in terse and memorable fashion three imperatives which are to characterize the Christian's life at all times. The short, parallel imperatives here are similar to other Pauline exhortations (cf. Rom 12:9-13). In tone, and in some respects in content, these brief instructions reflect what Paul has shown of his own behavior in 1:2-3:10.

The three commands in these verses are expressed in parallel form: each begins with a different adverb or adverbial prepositional phrase emphasizing that the action is to be constant, and in each the command is expressed with a single verb in the present tense, indicating a continuing action. "Be joyful" is literally "rejoice" (caivrw, chairô), the consequence of having received God's salvation and therefore an attitude unaffected by outward circumstances (cf. 2 Cor 4:16-18; Phil 3:1; 4:4; Col 1:24). Constant prayer is likewise a feature of Christian life as it expresses confident dependence on God's provision (cf. Phil 4:13). The reality of salvation as both a present and a future experience yields the constant thanksgiving enjoined here; in all things the person of faith can have assurance that God's purpose is being achieved (cf. Rom 8:28-39).

3. Responding to Christian Prophecy (5:19-22)

¹⁹ Do not put out the Spirit's fire; ²⁰ do not treat prophecies with contempt. ²¹ Test everything. Hold on to the good. ²² Avoid every kind of evil.

The exercise of the gift of prophecy is a distinguishing feature of the early church. Acts identifies prophecy as the consequence of the pouring out of the Spirit promised in Joel (Acts 2:17-18) and draws attention to the exercise of the prophetic gift at critical points in the church's development (Acts 11:27-30; 13:1-3; 15:32; 21:8-14). Paul indicates that prophecy is the most crucial gift to be exercised for the edification of the Corinthian church (1 Cor 14:1-4, 39), though this gift is partial and temporary (1 Cor 13:8-12). In Ephesians Paul links prophets to apostles as the "foundation" of the church (Eph 2:20; 3:5; 4:11).

For Paul and other New Testament writers "prophecy" refers to speech which has been directly inspired by God. Though it could involve prediction of the future, any divinely-inspired message could be called prophecy. The explicit examples of prophecy in Acts all involve specific, practical instructions or warnings to the church at a particular place and time (see references above). Paul's discussion of prophecy probably includes such "occasional" oracles, but his statements that prophets stand at the church's foundation and that the mystery of Christ has been revealed to them (Eph 2:20; 3:5) indicate that Christian prophets delivered doctrinal as well as practical messages.

At this point controversy arises as to the modern relevance of Christian prophecy. Should Christians expect to prophesy today as did the first-century prophets? If so, should they expect to receive additional doctrinal revelation? Despite the attempts of some exegetes to limit early Christian prophecy to non-doctrinal, occasional matters only, the use of "prophet" in Ephesians almost certainly indicates that the gift involved some doctrinal revelation. But if doctrinal revelation is seen as continuing in every generation of the church, Paul's statement about the foundation is clearly compromised. The central concept of the gospel, that in Jesus Christ the purpose of God in history has been uniquely and fully accomplished, carries with it the implication that the message of Christ, revealed to those first "apostles and prophets" closely associated with Christ's appearance in history, is likewise unique and full.

It therefore appears that Paul's statement that prophecy would "cease" (1 Cor 13:8-10) has in fact been fulfilled with the close of the apostolic age. Pentecostals and Charismatics may argue this point with "cessationists," but the foundational, apostolic and prophetic deposit of doctrine must in no way be obscured by any exercise of modern-day "prophecy," whether genuine or otherwise.

This section briefly reminds the Thessalonian Christians of the imperatives for the proper exercise of this gift. It stresses, on the one hand, that prophecy be exercised fully and accepted readily. Certainly this gift would have been important for a young church still digesting the basics of the gospel message. But at the same time Paul cautions against merely accepting any utterance claiming to be prophetic as a genuine message of God. Donfried has suggested that the Thessalonian Christians may have easily confused genuine Spirit-inspired utterances with the claims to divine enlightenment in the Dionysian revels. Whether this is the case or not, a credulous church could easily have been deceived by a false claim to prophetic inspiration. In fact, such a thing appears to underlie Paul's discussion in 2 Thess 2:1-12.

In place of naive acceptance of everything claiming to be prophecy, Paul calls for the testing of prophecy. In this respect his words are no less applicable today, even among Christians who do not believe that the gift of prophecy still operates in the church as it did then. The need to test all kinds of ideas from all kinds of sources - including claims to modern-day miraculous gifts of the Spirit - is just as necessary now as it was then, and the stakes are just as serious. And the standard by which the test is made, now as then, can be nothing other than the apostolic gospel, delivered to us through the New Testament itself.

Yielding to the Spirit's Work (5:19-20)

5:19 Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 5:20 do not treat prophecies with contempt.

These twin imperatives express Paul's encouragement to heed the prophecies received by the church. The first focuses particularly on the Spirit's role in inspiring the prophet. Paul's expression is literally, "Do not quench the Spirit," by implication comparing the Spirit's work to a fire that could be doused with water. That Paul has the Spirit's work in prophecy in mind is made clear with the next command. "Treat with contempt" translates ejcouqenevw (exoutheneô), which implies disdain and utter rejection. To ignore or disobey God's inspired instruction would be most perilous for this young congregation. Both commands are expressed in the Greek present tense, indicating continuing action.

Testing Prophecy (5:21-22)

5:21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 5:22 Avoid every kind of evil.

These words, like v. 19, could be taken in a general sense, but combined with v. 20 they appear to address again the specific issue of prophecy. "Test" here translates dokimavzw (dokimazô), which implies in particular a test to prove genuineness. How prophecies are to be tested is something that Paul does not articulate here; he apparently assumes that the readers have already been instructed in this matter. But we can infer that the test would involve at least a comparison of the prophecy's content to what the readers had already received in the gospel (cf. Matt 24:4-5, 11, 23-27; Mark 13:5-6, 21-23; Luke 17:23; 21:8-11; 1 Cor 12:1-3, 10; 14:29; 1 John 4:1-3). Paul's own "test" in 2 Thess 2:1-12 of a supposed prophecy about the Lord's return having already occurred is of this kind, based on the gospel's affirmation that Christ's return will mean the end of every manifestation of evil (see discussion below).

The results of the test are expressed in the two commands that follow. These are expressed in parallel fashion. "Hold on" translates katevcw (katechô), literally "hold fast to"; "avoid" renders ajpevcw (apechô), literally "hold away." As if to underline the importance of the negative command, Paul adds the phrase "every kind," subtly suggesting the broad range of threats to the believers' faith.

V. CONCLUSION (5:23-28)

²³ May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

²⁵ Brothers, pray for us. ²⁶ Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. ²⁷ I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

²⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Paul's letters generally end with a combination of the elements seen here: a benediction or prayer for God's blessing (a "wish-prayer"; cf. discussion of 3:11-13 above), a request for prayer for himself, a word of greeting, instructions about the reading of the letter, and a pronouncement of blessing. Though such conclusions are loosely structured and contain stock elements, they nevertheless express the close relationship which Paul has with the churches and his confidence in God's protection and blessing for them and for him while they are separated.

A. BENEDICTION (5:23-24)

5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

Paul's prayer highlights the connection between God's peace and his work in making his people holy. For Paul this was apparently a significant connection: to be at peace with God and others could come only through holiness. Holiness is, of course, already an attribute of the readers, as they have been made God's people through Christ (3:13). It is also their ongoing responsibility to live in holiness (4:3-4, 7). Here, then, is the final assurance that God will indeed bring to completion the work which he began at their conversion and continues as they live their lives as Christians. Paul stresses this idea with the adverb oJlotelhv" (holotelçs, "through and through"), a compound word which emphasizes the utter completion of the process.

A controversial theological issue hinges on the interpretation of this statement, namely the idea of "entire sanctification," that God gives to some a second act of grace by which they are made incapable of sinning. Exegetically this conclusion is drawn from the use of the aorist tense here, which, it is argued, indicates a single, momentary action. Even if this were the case, Paul could be referring to the moment of the Lord's return, as the end of the verse shows. However, it is simply not true that the aorist tense alone indicates a one-time action, as many counter-examples demonstrate. The aorist tense leaves the specific manner of action to the context; Paul elsewhere envisages an ongoing process of God's work in the believer's life, climaxing at the return of Jesus (e.g., Phil 1:6, 9-11).

May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The connection of this prayer with the last one (the two clauses are joined with a coordinating conjunction kai in the Greek text, untranslated in the NIV) clarifies that Paul sees both these actions as belonging to Christ's coming. The final result of the "entire sanctification" of the preceding clause is something to be anticipated by all Christians when the Lord returns, not an experience received by a few Christians in this life.

The assurance that God will complete his sanctifying purpose is coupled to the assurance that he will protect and preserve believers comprehensively through the trials of this age, bringing them safe and whole to the goal which the Lord has for them. Paul's language here emphasizes that God protects and preserves believers in every aspect of their being. "Whole" translates oJlovklhro" (holoklçros), used here as an adverb at the beginning of the clause to stress that God's protective work is absolutely thorough. This word obviously is a compound sharing the same initial root word found in oJlotelhv" (holotelçs, "through and through"), further strengthening the emphasis in both clauses.

That idea is further underlined with the combination "spirit, soul and body." Much discussion of this phrase has concerned whether it indicates that human beings are trichotomous, consisting of three distinct aspects described by these terms, or dichotomous, really consisting of two aspects, body and spirit. In favor of the former interpretation is the fact that all three terms are used here; in favor of the latter is the difficulty in distinguishing clearly between the meaning of "spirit" (pneu'ma, pneuma ) and "soul" (yuchv, psychç). However, it must be conceded that Paul is not discussing the precise nature of humanity but is offering assurance of God's protection. The combination of three terms here is probably only intended as a means of underlining the comprehensive nature of that protection; it is no more a systematic presentation of human nature than is the combination "heart, soul, mind and strength" in Matt 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27. Paul, like the other New Testament writers, repeatedly indicates that God's purpose is to save the whole person, not just some part.

The nature of that salvation and preservation is expressed with "blameless" (ajmevmptw", amemptôs), connected earlier in this letter to the concept of holiness or sanctification (2:10; 3:13). God's work in both removing the penalty of sin, complete at conversion, and its power in the Christian's life, an ongoing process of growth, will ultimately lead to the fulfillment of his purpose, the elimination of every aspect of sin and its effects from his people. Regardless of the circumstances faced by the readers, they can be assured that God's love and power will not fail them in this regard.

5:24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

Reiterating the focus on God's preserving work, Paul points to the nature of God as the final source of assurance. God's faithfulness is a basic assumption of everything that the gospel teaches; he is true to his promises and utterly able to fulfill them. By focusing on the believers' call from God, Paul reminds them of their ongoing relationship with God and established by his power. "Calls" translates a present participle and so stresses that God continually calls Christians as his people. And so that ongoing process he will certainly complete for eternity (cf. Phil 1:6). Therefore, the readers' confidence in difficulty is based supremely on the utterly certain faithfulness of God.

B. FINAL WORDS (5:25-28)

5:25 Brothers, pray for us.

Paul asks for prayers on his behalf at the end of other letters, sometimes expressing concerns that arise out of the specific circumstances of his ministry (2 Thess 3:1; Rom 15:30-32; Eph 6:19-20; Col 4:3). Just as Paul prays for the readers (cf. 1:2-3; 3:11-13; 5:23), so he asks them to pray for him. To do so is a necessary consequence of the brotherhood expressed with the familiar noun of direct address here. And it voices the faith expressed in the previous verse: the assurance of God's faithfulness carries with it the responsibility to depend on God in all things and to confess that dependence through prayer.

5:26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

Brotherhood expressed to God in prayer for others is also to be expressed to one another directly. The significance of the kiss in the Greco-Roman world is not entirely clear; it appears to have been practiced more widely and openly in some circles than in others. What is clear is that outside the New Testament, we have no examples of ethical teachers who specifically commanded or encouraged the people of a community to greet one another with a kiss. It may well be, then, that this repeated New Testament command (Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Pet 5:14) attests to an innovative and striking practice among early Christians, one that expressed a bond that stretches beyond the usual social boundaries. There is evidence to suggest that the kiss was a regular part of Christian worship, incorporated into the observance of the Lord's Supper, at least as early as the second century and perhaps before. Since "brothers" (generically including "sisters" also) are particularly those to be so greeted, it appears that Paul uses the modifier "holy" to indicate that the kiss expresses the mutual relationship of believers as those who belong to God.

In modern western culture the kiss may not be an appropriate means of expressing Christian fellowship as it is generally confined to family or sexual relationships. Marshall's remark about the application of this verse is trenchant:

What is important is that the members of the church should have some way of expressing visibly and concretely the love which they have for one another as fellow-members of the body of Christ. The manner of expression may vary in different cultures; but it is doubtful whether doing nothing at all, as modern western Christians tend to do, really fulfills the spirit of the injunction.

5:27 I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

Paul's self-consciousness of his apostolic authority is very much in evidence with this instruction. As one who speaks under the inspiration of God, his words carry an import and authority which makes them relevant to the entire Thessalonian church and, by implication, to other churches as well. Because his teachings as an apostle carry the authority of the Lord himself, they are to be heard and followed by Christians generally, not only those who first received the letter. Similar authority is reflected in, among other things, the remark which Paul makes about the circulation of his letters in Col 4:16 (cf. 2 Pet 3:15-16), the wide scope of the address in 1 Cor 1:2 ("with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ") and the apparent counterfeiting of his letters by opponents (2 Thess 2:2; 3:17).

The issue of the "canonization" of the New Testament, the delineation of what constituted Scripture for the church, is complex, involving a series of historical developments in the early centuries of Christianity. But the core of the later developments is to be found here in Paul's consciousness that his words carried divine authority. Certainly he may have had in mind a specific issue in the Thessalonian church that made the reading of this letter important for all; the suggestion that he wanted the "idle" (v. 14) to hear it has some merit. But whatever its proximate cause, the dramatic expression here points to Paul's consciousness of authority for the document: "charge" literally indicates a call for the recipients of the letter to swear by the Lord's own authority to read the letter to all. Such reading would, of course, be aloud, so directing that it be read "to all" would point to a reading in the Lord's Day assembly of the entire church, another formative factor in the early foundation of the canon. It is especially notable that these points are articulated in what may be Paul's earliest extant letter.

The shift from first-person plural to singular here is noteworthy. It may indicate that at this point Paul took up the pen from his amanuensis and wrote the words himself (cf. 2 Thess 3:17).

5:28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

As Paul begins with a word about grace (1:1), so he concludes with it here (cf. 2 Thess 3:16; Rom 15:33; 16:20; 2 Cor 13:11; Phil 4:9). While it would be wrong to put too much weight on what was for Paul a standard closing formula, the fact that he begins and ends with this theme no doubt reflects the supreme importance of grace to Paul's experience and doctrine.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

McGarvey: 1Th 5:1

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that aught be written unto you . [When Christian hopes are thus vividly pictured forth, our human nature naturally asks, "When?" (Luk 21:7). The Thessalonians had been fully taught by Paul that the time of the Lord's coming was unrevealed (Mat 24:36 ; Act 1:7), and that therefore Paul could not enlighten them on this point. The term "times" indicates long eras, and "seasons" the briefer epochs into which they are divided.]

McGarvey: 1Th 5:2

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night . [Here is an echo from the lips of Jesus (Mat 24:36-51 ; Luk 12:39-40). See also 2Pe 3:10 ; Rev 3:3 . The coming of the thief implies our loss, if he catches his asleep and unprepared. How fearful our loss if we are not prepared for the coming of the Lord -- Heb 10:31]

McGarvey: 1Th 5:3

When they [the thoughtless and careless] are saying, Peace and safety [i. e., there is no ground for apprehension], then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape .

McGarvey: 1Th 5:4

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake [surprise] you as a thief :

McGarvey: 1Th 5:5

for ye are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness ;

McGarvey: 1Th 5:6

so then let us not sleep, as do the rest [the pagans] , but let us watch and be sober .

McGarvey: 1Th 5:7

For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunken are drunken in the night .

McGarvey: 1Th 5:8

But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation . [The idea that the thief comes in the night as set forth in verse 2 suggests the thought that those that live in the night must find it hard to guard against him. But those who live in a perpetual day are not easily surprised by a thief. Now, the Christians, being enlightened as to the Lord's coming, lived in such a perpetual day; in fact, to use a Hebraism, they were "sons" of the light and of the day; i. e., they belonged to the day. There was no need, therefore, that their spiritual faculties should be asleep. Day is no time for such sleep, and those that dwelt in it should find it easy to watch and be sober and wear their armor as good soldiers, while those who dwelt in the night would find it hard to keep awake, to keep sober, or to wear armor. It was common in the East for people to be drunken in the night-time, as they were ashamed to be seen intoxicated in the daylight (Act 2:15). The nights of the Greeks and Romans were given to revelry, and it was counted an especial mark of profligacy to be drunken in the daytime (2Pe 2:13). Polybius emphasized the abandoned condition of a drunkard by saying, "Even by day he was often conspicuous to his friends, drunk."]

McGarvey: 1Th 5:9

For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ ,

McGarvey: 1Th 5:10

who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep [live or die before his coming] , we should live together with him . [This verse is suggested by the word "salvation" which precedes it. The hope of salvation may well defend us in the hour of temptation, and it should be strong enough to do so, for God has not appointed us to be lost, but to be saved, and has given his Son to die that we might be saved; and so, whether we remain alive unto his coming, or pass to our rest before that day, we may be assured that we shall live in one company with him.]

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: 1Th 5:2

Second coming of Jesus : See Heb 9:28 .

Introduction / Outline

Robertson: 1 Thessalonians (Book Introduction)

First Thessalonians

From Corinth a.d. 50-51

By Way of Introduction

We cannot say that this is Paul’s first letter to a church, for in 2Th_2:2 he speaks of some as palming off letters as his and in 2Th_3:17 he says that he appends his own signature to every letter after dictating it to an amanuensis (Rom_16:22). We know of one lost letter (1Co_5:11) and perhaps another (2Co_2:3). But this is the earliest one that has come down to us and it may even be the earliest New Testament book, unless the Epistle of James antedates it or even Mark’s Gospel. We know, as already shown, that Paul was in Corinth and that Timothy and Silas had just arrived from Thessalonica (1Th_3:6; Act_18:5). They had brought supplies from the Macedonian churches to supply Paul’s need (2Co_11:9), as the church in Philippi did once and again while Paul was in Thessalonica (Phi_4:15.). Before Timothy and Silas came to Corinth Paul had to work steadily at his trade as tent-maker with Aquila and Priscilla (Act_18:3) and could only preach in the synagogue on sabbaths, but the rich stores from Macedonia released his hands and " Paul devoted himself to the word" ( suneicheto tōi logōi Paulos ). He gave himself wholly to preaching now. But Timothy and Silas brought news of serious trouble in the church in Thessalonica. Some of the disciples there had misunderstood Paul’s preaching about the second coming of Christ and had quit work and were making a decided disturbance on the subject. Undoubtedly Paul had touched upon eschatological matters while in Thessalonica. The Jewish leaders at Thessalonica charged it against Paul and Silas to the politarchs that they had preached another king, Jesus, in place of Caesar. Paul had preached Jesus as King of the spiritual kingdom which the Jews misrepresented to the politarchs as treason against Caesar as the Sanhedrin had done to Pilate about Jesus. Clearly Paul had said also that Jesus was going to come again according to his own promise before his ascension. Some asserted that Paul said Jesus was going to come right away and drew their own inferences for idleness and fanaticism as some do today. Strange as it may seem, there are scholars today who say that Paul did believe and say that Jesus was going to come back right away. They say this in spite of 2Th_2:1. where Paul denies having ever said it. Undoubtedly Paul hoped for the early return of Jesus as most of the early Christians did, but that is a very different thing from setting a time for his coming. It is open to us all to hope for the speedy return of Christ, but times and seasons are with God and not with us. It is not open to us to excuse our negligence and idleness as Christians because of such a hope. That hope should serve as a spur to increased activity for Christ in order to hasten his coming. So Paul writes this group of Epistles to correct gross misapprehension and misrepresentation of his preaching about last things (eschatology). It is a rare preacher who has never been misunderstood or misrepresented.

JFB: 1 Thessalonians (Book Introduction)

The AUTHENTICITY of this Epistle is attested by IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 5.6.1], quoting 1Th 5:23; CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [The Instructor, 1.88], quoting 1Th 2:7; TERTULLIAN [On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 24], quoting 1Th 5:1; CAIUS in EUSEBIUS' Ecclesiastical History [6.20]; ORIGEN [Against Celsus, 3].

The OBJECT OF THE EPISTLE.--Thessalonica was at this time capital of the Roman second district of Macedonia [LIVY, Histories, 45.29]. It lay on the bay of Therme, and has always been, and still is, under its modern name Saloniki, a place of considerable commerce. After his imprisonment and scourging at Philippi, Paul (1Th 2:2) passed on to Thessalonica; and in company with Silas (Act 17:1-9) and Timotheus (Act 16:3; Act 17:14, compare with 1Th 1:1; 1Th 3:1-6; 2Th 1:1) founded the Church there. The Jews, as a body, rejected the Gospel when preached for three successive sabbaths (Act 17:2); but some few "believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout (that is, proselytes to Judaism) Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few." The believers received the word joyfully, notwithstanding trials and persecutions (1Th 1:6; 1Th 2:13) from their own countrymen and from the Jews (1Th 2:14-16). His stay at Thessalonica was doubtless not limited to the three weeks in which were the three sabbaths specified in Act 17:2; for his laboring there with his hands for his support (1Th 2:9; 2Th 3:8), his receiving supplies there more than once from Philippi (Phi 4:16), his making many converts from the Gentiles (1Th 1:9; and as two oldest manuscripts read, Act 17:4, "of the devout and of the Greeks a great multitude," Act 17:4), and his appointing ministers--all imply a longer residence. Probably as at Pisidian Antioch (Act 13:46), at Corinth (Act 18:6-7), and at Ephesus (Act 19:8-9), having preached the Gospel to the Jews, when they rejected it, he turned to the Gentiles. He probably thenceforth held the Christian meetings in the house of Jason (Act 17:5), perhaps "the kinsman" of Paul mentioned in Rom 16:21. His great subject of teaching to them seems to have been the coming and kingdom of Christ, as we may infer from 1Th 1:10; 1Th 2:12, 1Th 2:19; 1Th 3:13; 1Th 4:13-18; 1Th 5:1-11, 1Th 5:23-24; and that they should walk worthy of it (1Th 2:12; 1Th 4:1). And it is an undesigned coincidence between the two Epistles and Act 17:5, Act 17:9, that the very charge which the assailants of Jason's house brought against him and other brethren was, "These do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus." As in the case of the Lord Jesus Himself (Joh 18:33-37; Joh 19:12; compare Mat 26:64), they perverted the doctrine of the coming kingdom of Christ into a ground for the charge of treason against Cæsar. The result was, Paul and Silas were obliged to flee under the cover of night to Berea; Timothy had probably preceded him (Act 17:10, Act 17:14). But the Church had been planted, and ministers appointed; nay, more, they virtually became missionaries themselves for which they possessed facilities in the extensive commerce of their city, and both by word and example were extending the Gospel in Macedonia, Achaia, and elsewhere (1Th 1:7-8). From Berea, also. Paul, after having planted a Scripture-loving Church, was obliged to flee by the Thessalonian Jews who followed him thither. Timothy (who seems to have come to Berea separately from Paul and Silas, compare Act 17:10, with Act 17:14) and Silas remained there still, when Paul proceeded by sea to Athens. While there he more than once longed to visit the Thessalonians again, and see personally their spiritual state, and "perfect that which was lacking in their faith" (1Th 3:10); but (probably using the Thessalonian Jews as his instruments, Joh 13:27) "Satan hindered" him (1Th 2:18; compare Act 17:13). He therefore sent Timotheus, who seems to have followed him to Athens from Berea (Act 17:15), immediately on his arrival to Thessalonica (1Th 3:1); glad as he would have been of Timothy's help in the midst of the cavils of Athenian opponents, he felt he must forego that help for the sake of the Thessalonian Church. Silas does not seem to have come to Paul at Athens at all, though Paul had desired him and Timothy to "come to him with all speed" (Act 17:15); but seems with Timothy (who from Thessalonica called for him at Berea) to have joined Paul at Corinth first; compare Act 18:1, Act 18:5, "When Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia." The Epistle makes no mention of Silas at Athens, as it does of Timothy (1Th 3:1).

Timothy's account of the Thessalonian Church was highly favorable. They abounded in faith and charity and reciprocated his desire to see them (1Th 3:6-10). Still, as nothing human on earth is perfect, there were some defects. Some had too exclusively dwelt on the doctrine of Christ's coming kingdom, so as to neglect the sober-minded discharge of present duties (1Th 4:11-12). Some who had lost relatives by death, needed comfort and instruction in their doubts as to whether they who died before Christ's coming would have a share with those found alive in His kingdom then to be revealed. Moreover, also, there had been committed among them sins against chastity and sobriety (1Th 5:5-7), as also against charity (1Th 4:3-10; 1Th 5:13, 1Th 5:15). There were, too, symptoms in some of want of respectful love and subordination to their ministers; others treated slightingly the manifestations of the Spirit in those possessing His gifts (1Th 5:19). To give spiritual admonition on these subjects, and at the same time commend what deserved commendation, and to testify his love to them, was the object of the Epistle.

The PLACE OF WRITING IT was doubtless Corinth, where Timothy and Silas rejoined him (Act 18:5) soon after he arrived there (compare 1Th 2:17) in the autumn of A.D. 52.

The TIME OF WRITING was evidently immediately after having received from Timothy the tidings of their state (1Th 3:6) in the winter of A.D. 52, or early in 53. For it was written not long after the conversion of the Thessalonians (1Th 1:8-9), while Paul could speak of himself as only taken from them for a short season (1Th 2:17). Thus this Epistle was first in date of all Paul's extant Epistles. The Epistle is written in the joint names of Paul, Silas, and Timothy, the three founders of the Thessalonian Church. The plural first person "we," is used everywhere, except in 1Th 2:18; 1Th 3:5; 1Th 5:27. "We" is the true reading, 1Th 4:13. The English Version "I," in 1Th 4:9 1Th 5:1, 1Th 5:23, is not supported by the original [EDMUNDS].

The STYLE is calm and equable, in accordance with the subject matter, which deals only with Christian duties in general, taking for granted the great doctrinal truths which were not as yet disputed. There was no deadly error as yet to call forth his more vehement bursts of feeling and impassioned argument. The earlier Epistles, as we should expect, are moral and practical. It was not until Judaistic and legalizing errors arose at a later period that he wrote those Epistles (for example, Romans and Galatians) which unfold the cardinal doctrines of grace and justification by faith. Still, later the Epistles from his Roman prison confirm the same truths. And last of all, the Pastoral Epistles are suited to the more developed ecclesiastical constitution of the Church, and give directions as to bishops and deacons, and correct abuses and errors of later growth.

The prevalence of the Gentile element in this Church is shown by the fact that these two Epistles are among the very few of Paul's writings in which no quotation occurs from the Old Testament.

JFB: 1 Thessalonians (Outline)

• ADDRESS: SALUTATION: HIS PRAYERFUL THANKSGIVING FOR THEIR FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. THEIR FIRST RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL, AND THEIR GOOD INFLUENCE ON ALL AROUND. (1Th 1:1-10)
• HIS MANNER OF PREACHING, AND THEIRS OF RECEIVING, THE GOSPEL; HIS DESIRE TO HAVE REVISITED THEM FRUSTRATED BY SATAN. (1Th. 2:1-20)
• PROOF OF HIS DESIRE AFTER THEM IN HIS HAVING SENT TIMOTHY: HIS JOY AT THE TIDINGS BROUGHT BACK CONCERNING THEIR FAITH AND CHARITY: PRAYERS FOR THEM. (1Th 3:1-13)
• EXHORTATIONS TO CHASTITY; BROTHERLY LOVE; QUIET INDUSTRY; ABSTINENCE FROM UNDUE SORROW FOR DEPARTED FRIENDS, FOR AT CHRIST'S COMING ALL HIS SAINTS SHALL BE GLORIFIED. (1Th. 4:1-18)
• THE SUDDENNESS OF CHRIST'S COMING A MOTIVE FOR WATCHFULNESS; VARIOUS PRECEPTS: PRAYER FOR THEIR BEING FOUND BLAMELESS, BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT, AT CHRIST'S COMING: CONCLUSION. (1Th. 5:1-28)

TSK: 1 Thessalonians 5 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

1Th 5:1, He proceeds in the former description of Christ’s coming to judgment; 1Th 5:16, and gives divers precepts; 1Th 5:23, and so concludes the epistle.

Poole: 1 Thessalonians 5 (Chapter Introduction)

THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 5

MHCC: 1 Thessalonians (Book Introduction)

This epistle is generally considered to have been the first of those written by St. Paul. The occasion seems to have been the good report of the stedfastness of the church at Thessalonica in the faith of the gospel. It is full of affection and confidence, and more consolatory and practical, and less doctrinal, than some of the other epistles.

MHCC: 1 Thessalonians 5 (Chapter Introduction)

(1Th 5:1-11) The apostle exhorts to be always ready for the coming of Christ to judgment, which will be with suddenness and surprise.

(1Th 5:12-22) He directs to several particular duties.

(1Th 5:23-28) And concludes with prayer, greetings, and a blessing.

Matthew Henry: 1 Thessalonians (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The First Epistle of st. Paul to the Thessalonians

Thessalonica was formerly the metropolis of Macedonia; it is now called Salonichi, and is the best peopled, and one of the best towns for commerce, in the Levant. The apostle Paul, being diverted from his design of going into the provinces of Asia, properly so called, and directed after an extraordinary manner to preach the gospel in Macedonia (Act 16:9, Act 16:10), in obedience to the call of God went from Troas to Samothracia, thence to Neapolis, and thence to Philippi, where he had good success in his ministry, but met with hard usage, being cast into prison with Silas his companion in travel and labour, from which being wonderfully delivered, they comforted the brethren there, and departed. Passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where the apostle planted a church that consisted of some believing Jews and many converted Gentiles, Act 17:1-4. But a tumult being raised in the city by the unbelieving Jews, and the lewd and baser sort of the inhabitants, Paul and Silas, for their safety, were sent away by night unto Berea, and afterwards Paul was conducted to Athens, leaving Silas and Timotheus behind him, but sent directions that they should come to him with all speed. When they came, Timotheus was sent to Thessalonica, to enquire after their welfare and to establish them in the faith (1Th 3:2), and, returning to Paul while he tarried at Athens, was sent again, together with Silas, to visit the churches in Macedonia. So that Paul, being left at Athens alone (1Th 3:1), departed thence to Corinth, where he continued a year and a half, in which time Silas and Timotheus returned to him from Macedonia (Act 18:5), and then he wrote this epistle to the church of Christ at Thessalonica, which, though it is placed after the other epistles of this apostle, is supposed to be first in time of all Paul's epistles, and to be written about a.d. 51. The main scope of it is to express the thankfulness of this apostle for the good success his preaching had among them, to establish them in the faith, and persuade them to a holy conversation.

Matthew Henry: 1 Thessalonians 5 (Chapter Introduction)

The apostle, having spoken in the end of the foregoing chapter concerning the resurrection, and the second coming of Christ, proceeds to speak concerning the uselessness of enquiring after the particular time of Christ's coming, which would be sudden and terrible to the wicked, but comfortable to the saints (1Th 5:1-5). He then exhorts them to the duties of watchfulness, sobriety, and the exercise of faith, love, and hope, as being suitable to their state (1Th 5:6-10). In the next words he exhorts them to several duties they owed to others, or to one another (1Th 5:11-15), afterwards to several other Christian duties of great importance (1Th 5:16-22), and then concludes this epistle (1Th 5:23-28).

Barclay: 1 Thessalonians (Book Introduction)

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL

The Letters Of Paul

There is no more interesting body of documents in the New Testament than the letters of Paul. That is because of all forms of literature a letter is most personal. Demetrius, one of the old Greek literary critics, once wrote, "Every one reveals his own soul in his letters. In every other form of composition it is possible to discern the writercharacter, but in none so clearly as the epistolary." (Demetrius, On Style, 227). It is just because he left us so many letters that we feel we know Paul so well. In them he opened his mind and heart to the folk he loved so much; and in them, to this day, we can see that great mind grappling with the problems of the early church, and feel that great heart throbbing with love for men, even when they were misguided and mistaken.

The Difficulty Of Letters

At the same time, there is often nothing so difficult to understand as a letter. Demetrius (On Style, 223) quotes a saying of Artemon, who edited the letters of Aristotle. Artemon said that a letter ought to be written in the same manner as a dialogue, because it was one of the two sides of a dialogue. In other words, to read a letter is like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. So when we read the letters of Paul we are often in a difficulty. We do not possess the letter which he was answering; we do not fully know the circumstances with which he was dealing; it is only from the letter itself that we can deduce the situation which prompted it. Before we can hope to understand fully any letter Paul wrote, we must try to reconstruct the situation which produced it.

The Ancient Letters

It is a great pity that Paulletters were ever called epistles. They are in the most literal sense letters. One of the great lights shed on the interpretation of the New Testament has been the discovery and the publication of the papyri. In the ancient world, papyrus was the substance on which most documents were written. It was composed of strips of the pith of a certain bulrush that grew on the banks of the Nile. These strips were laid one on top of the other to form a substance very like brown paper. The sands of the Egyptian desert were ideal for preservation, for papyrus, although very brittle, will last forever so long as moisture does not get at it. As a result, from the Egyptian rubbish heaps, archaeologists have rescued hundreds of documents, marriage contracts, legal agreements, government forms, and, most interesting of all, private letters. When we read these private letters we find that there was a pattern to which nearly all conformed; and we find that Paulletters reproduce exactly that pattern. Here is one of these ancient letters. It is from a soldier, called Apion, to his father Epimachus. He is writing from Misenum to tell his father that he has arrived safely after a stormy passage.

"Apion sends heartiest greetings to his father and lord Epimachus.

I pray above all that you are well and fit; and that things are

going well with you and my sister and her daughter and my brother.

I thank my Lord Serapis [his god] that he kept me safe when I was

in peril on the sea. As soon as I got to Misenum I got my journey

money from Caesar--three gold pieces. And things are going fine

with me. So I beg you, my dear father, send me a line, first to let

me know how you are, and then about my brothers, and thirdly, that

I may kiss your hand, because you brought me up well, and because

of that I hope, God willing, soon to be promoted. Give Capito my

heartiest greetings, and my brothers and Serenilla and my friends.

I sent you a little picture of myself painted by Euctemon. My

military name is Antonius Maximus. I pray for your good health.

Serenus sends good wishes, Agathos Daimonboy, and Turbo,

Galloniuson." (G. Milligan, Selections from the Greek Papyri,

36.)

Little did Apion think that we would be reading his letter to his father 1800 years after he had written it. It shows how little human nature changes. The lad is hoping for promotion quickly. Who would Serenilla be but the girl he left behind him? He sends the ancient equivalent of a photograph to the folk at home. Now that letter falls into certain sections. (i) There is a greeting. (ii) There is a prayer for the health of the recipients. (iii) There is a thanksgiving to the gods. (iv) There are the special contents. (v) Finally, there are the special salutations and the personal greetings. Practically every one of Paulletters shows exactly the same sections, as we now demonstrate.

(i) The Greeting: Rom_1:1 ; 1Co_1:1 ; 2Co_1:1 ; Gal_1:1 ; Eph_1:1 ; Phi_1:1 ; Col_1:1-2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:1 .

(ii) The Prayer: in every case Paul prays for the grace of God on the people to whom he writes: Rom_1:7 ; 1Co_1:3 ; 2Co_1:2 ; Gal_1:3 ; Eph_1:2 ; Phi_1:3 ; Col_1:2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:2 .

(iii) The Thanksgiving: Rom_1:8 ; 1Co_1:4 ; 2Co_1:3 ; Eph_1:3 ; Phi_1:3 ; 1Th_1:3 ; 2Th_1:3 .

(iv) The Special Contents: the main body of the letters.

(v) Special Salutations and Personal Greetings: Rom 16 ; 1Co_16:19 ; 2Co_13:13 ; Phi_4:21-22 ; Col_4:12-15 ; 1Th_5:26 .

When Paul wrote letters, he wrote them on the pattern which everyone used. Deissmann says of them, "They differ from the messages of the homely papyrus leaves of Egypt, not as letters but only as the letters of Paul." When we read Paulletters we are not reading things which were meant to be academic exercises and theological treatises, but human documents written by a friend to his friends.

The Immediate Situation

With a very few exceptions, all Paulletters were written to meet an immediate situation and not treatises which he sat down to write in the peace and silence of his study. There was some threatening situation in Corinth, or Galatia, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, and he wrote a letter to meet it. He was not in the least thinking of us when he wrote, but solely of the people to whom he was writing. Deissmann writes, "Paul had no thought of adding a few fresh compositions to the already extant Jewish epistles; still less of enriching the sacred literature of his nation.... He had no presentiment of the place his words would occupy in universal history; not so much that they would be in existence in the next generation, far less that one day people would look at them as Holy Scripture." We must always remember that a thing need not be transient because it was written to meet an immediate situation. All the great love songs of the world were written for one person, but they live on for the whole of mankind. It is just because Paulletters were written to meet a threatening danger or a clamant need that they still throb with life. And it is because human need and the human situation do not change that God speaks to us through them today.

The Spoken Word

One other thing we must note about these letters. Paul did what most people did in his day. He did not normally pen his own letters but dictated them to a secretary, and then added Ws own authenticating signature. (We actually know the name of one of the people who did the writing for him. In Rom_16:22 Tertius, the secretary, slips in his own greeting before the letter draws to an end). In 1Co_16:21 Paul says, "This is my own signature, my autograph, so that you can be sure this letter comes from me." (compare Col_4:18 ; 2Th_3:17 .)

This explains a great deal. Sometimes Paul is hard to understand, because his sentences begin and never finish; his grammar breaks down and the construction becomes involved. We must not think of him sitting quietly at a desk, carefully polishing each sentence as he writes. We must think of him striding up and down some little room, pouring out a torrent of words, while his secretary races to get them down. When Paul composed his letters, he had in his mindeye a vision of the folk to whom he was writing, and he was pouring out his heart to them in words that fell over each other in his eagerness to help.

INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS TO THE THESSALONIANS

Paul Comes To Macedonia

For anyone who can read between the lines the story of Paulcoming to Macedonia is one of the most dramatic in the book of Acts. Luke, with supreme economy of words, tells it in Act_16:6-10 . Short as that narrative is, it gives the impression of a chain of circumstances inescapably culminating in one supreme event. Paul had passed through Phrygia and Galatia and ahead of him lay the Hellespont. To the left lay the teeming province of Asia, to the right stretched the great province of Bithynia; but the Spirit would allow him to enter neither. There was something driving him relentlessly on to the Aegean Sea. So he came to Alexandrian Troas, still uncertain where he ought to go; and then there came to him a vision in the night of a man who cried, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." Paul set sail, and for the first time the gospel came to Europe.

One World

At that moment Paul must have seen much more than a continent for Christ. It was in Macedonia that he landed; and Macedonia was the kingdom of Alexander the Great, who had conquered the world and wept because there were no more worlds left to conquer. But Alexander was much more than a military conqueror. He was almost the first universalist. He was more a missionary than a soldier; and he dreamed of one world dominated and enlightened by the culture of Greece. Even so great a thinker as Aristotle had said that it was a plain duty to treat Greeks as free men and orientals as slaves; but Alexander declared that he had been sent by God "to unite, to pacify and to reconcile the whole world." Deliberately he had said that it was his aim "to marry the East to the West." He had dreamed of an Empire in which there was neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian or Scythian, bond or free (Col_3:11 ). It is hard to see how Alexander could have failed to be in Paulthoughts. Paul left from Alexandrian Troas which was called after Alexander; he came to Macedonia which was Alexanderoriginal kingdom; he worked at Philippi which was called after Philip, Alexanderfather; he went on to Thessalonica which was called after Alexanderhalf-sister. The whole territory was saturated with memories of Alexander; and Paul must surely have thought, not of a country nor of a continent, but of a world for Christ.

Paul Comes To Thessalonica

This sense of the wide-stretching arms of Christianity must have been accentuated when Paul came to Thessalonica. It was a great city. Its original name was Thermal, which means The Hot Springs, and it gave its name to the Thermaic Gulf on which it stood. Six hundred years ago Herodotus had described it as a great city. It has always been a famous harbour. It was there that Xerxes the Persian had his naval base when he invaded Europe; and even in Roman times it was one of the worldgreat dockyards. In 315 B.C. Cassander had rebuilt the city and renamed it Thessalonica, the name of his wife, who was a daughter of Philip of Macedon and a half-sister of Alexander the Great. It was a free city; that is to say it had never suffered the indignity of having Roman troops quartered within it. It had its own popular assembly and its own magistrates. Its population rose to 200,000 and for a time it was a question whether it or Constantinople would be recognized as the capital of the world. Even today, under the name Salonika, it has 70,000 inhabitants.

But the supreme importance of Thessalonica lay in this--it straddled the Via Egnatia, the Egnatian Road, which stretched from Dyrrachium on the Adriatic to Constantinople on the Bosphorus and thence away to Asia Minor and the East. Its main street was part of the very road which linked Rome with the East. East and West converged on Thessalonica; it was said to be "in the lap of the Roman Empire." Trade poured into her from East and West, so that it was said, "So long as nature does not change, Thessalonica will remain wealthy and prosperous."

It is impossible to overstress the importance of the arrival of Christianity in Thessalonica. If Christianity was settled there, it was bound to spread East along the Egnatian Road until all Asia was conquered and West until it stormed even the city of Rome. The coming of Christianity to Thessalonica was crucial in the making of it into a world religion.

PaulStay At Thessalonica

The story of Paulstay at Thessalonica is in Act_17:1-10 . Now, for Paul, what happened at Thessalonica was of supreme importance. He preached in the synagogue for three Sabbaths (Act_17:2 ) which means that his stay there could not have been much more than three weeks in length. He had such tremendous success that the Jews were enraged and raised so much trouble that Paul had to be smuggled out, in peril of his life, to Beroea. The same thing happened in Beroea (Act_17:10-12 ) and Paul had to leave Timothy and Silas behind and make his escape to Athens. What exercised his mind was this. He had been in Thessalonica only three weeks. Was it possible to make such an impression on a place in three weeksime that Christianity was planted so deeply that it could never again be uprooted? If so, it was by no means an idle dream that the Roman Empire might yet be won for Christ. Or was it necessary to settle down and work for months, even years, before an impression could be made? In that event, no man could even dimly foresee when Christianity would penetrate all over the world. Thessalonica was a test case; and Paul was torn with anxiety to know how it would turn out.

News From Thessalonica

So anxious was Paul that, when Timothy joined him at Athens, he sent him back to Thessalonica to get the information without which he could not rest (1Th_3:1-2 , 1Th_3:5 ; 1Th_2:17 ). What news did Timothy bring back? There was good news. The affection of the Thessalonians for Paul was as strong as ever; and they were standing fast in the faith (1Th_2:14 ; 1Th_3:4-6 ; 1Th_4:9-10 ). They were indeed "his glory and Ws joy" (1Th_2:20 ). But there was worrying news.

(i) The preaching of the Second Coming had produced an unhealthy situation in which people had stopped working and had abandoned all ordinary pursuits to await the Second Coming with a kind of hysterical expectancy. So Paul tells them to be quiet and to get on with their work (1Th_4:11 ).

(ii) They were worried about what was to happen to those who died before the Second Coming arrived. Paul explains that those who fall asleep in Jesus will miss none of the glory (1Th_4:13-18 ).

(iii) There was a tendency to despise all lawful authority; the argumentative Greek was always in danger of producing a democracy run mad (1Th_5:12-14 ).

(iv) There was the ever-present danger that they would relapse into immorality. It was hard to unlearn the point of view of generations and to escape the contagion of the heathen world (1Th_4:3-8 ).

(v) There was at least a section who slandered Paul. They hinted that he preached the gospel for what he could get out of it (1Th_2:5 , 1Th_2:9 ); and that he was something of a dictator (1Th_2:6-7 , 1Th_2:11 ).

(vi) There was a certain amount of division in the Church (1Th_4:9 ; 1Th_5:13 ).

These were the problems with which Paul had to deal; and they show that human nature has not changed so very much.

Why Two Letters?

We must ask why there are two letters. They art, very much alike and they must have been written within weeks, perhaps days of each other. The second letter was written mainly to clear up a misconception about the Second Coming. The first letter insists that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and urges watchfulness (1Th_5:2 ; 1Th_5:6 ). But this produced the unhealthy situation where men did nothing but watch and wait; and in the second letter Paul explains what signs must come first before the Second Coming should come (2Th_2:3-12 ). The Thessalonians had got their ideas about the Second Coming out of proportion. As so often happens to a preacher, Paulpreaching had been misunderstood, and certain phrases had been taken out of context and over-emphasized; and the second letter seeks to put things back in their proper balance and to correct the thoughts of the excited Thessalonians regarding the Second Coming. Of course, Paul takes occasion in the second letter to repeat and to stress much of the good advice and rebuke he had given in the first, but its main aim is to tell them certain things which will calm their hysteria and make them wait, not in excited idleness, but in patient and diligent attendance to the daywork. In these two letters we see Paul solving the day to day problems which arose in the expanding Church.

FURTHER READINGS

Thessalonians

J. E. Frame, Thessalonians (ICC; G)

G. Milligan, St. PaulEpistles to the Thessalonians (MmC; G)

W. Neil, The Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians (MC; E)

Abbreviations

CGT: Cambridge Greek Testament

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC: Moffatt Commentary

MmC: Macmillan Commentary

TC: Tyndale Commentary

E: English Text

G: Greek Text

Barclay: 1 Thessalonians 5 (Chapter Introduction)

Like A Thief In The Night (1Th_5:1-11)

Advice To A Church (1Th_5:12-22)

The Grace Of Christ Be With You (1Th_5:23-28)

Constable: 1 Thessalonians (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Historical background

Thessalonica was an important city. Cassander, the Macedonian king, founded it in 315 B.C. and named it for his wife, who was a half-sister of Alexander the Great. It was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia, and it stood on the Via Egnatia, the Roman highway to the East. It was a self-governing community with enough Jews in residence to warrant a synagogue (Acts 17:1).

Paul first visited Thessalonica during his second missionary journey with Silas and Timothy. They had just left prison in Philippi and made their way southward to Thessalonica. For at least three Sabbath days Paul reasoned in the synagogue with those present, and many believed the gospel (Acts 17:2). However, he probably ministered in Thessalonica for a longer time than just three weeks in view of what he wrote that he had done there (e.g., 1 Thess. 2:9; cf. Phil. 4:15-16).¹ Those who responded to the message of Christ's sufferings and resurrection (Acts 17:3, 7) were Jews (Acts 17:4) and God-fearing proselytes to Judaism. There were also some leading women of the city and many idol-worshipping pagans (Acts 17:4-5).

"If Macedonia produced perhaps the most competent group of men the world had yet seen, the women were in all respects the men's counterparts; they played a large part in affairs, received envoys and obtained concessions from them for their husbands, built temples, founded cities, engaged mercenaries, commanded armies, held fortresses, and acted on occasion as regents or even co-rulers."²

When the unbelieving Jews heard of the conversion of the proselytes, whom they were discipling, they stirred up a gang of roughnecks who attacked the house of Jason. Paul had been staying with him. Unable to find the missionaries the mob dragged Jason before the magistrates who simply charged him to keep the peace. Convinced of the danger for Paul and Jason the Christians sent Paul and Silas away from the city by night to Berea (Acts 17:10).

Paul and his party began their evangelistic work in Berea in the synagogue, as was their custom. However when many Jews there believed, the Thessalonian Jews came down to Berea and stirred up more trouble (Acts 17:10-13). The Berean Christians sent Paul away to Athens, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea (Acts 17:14). Having been sent for by Paul, Silas and Timothy joined Paul in Athens, but he soon sent Silas back to Philippi and or Berea, and Timothy back to Thessalonica (1 Thess. 3:1-3; Acts 17:15). Later both men returned to Paul while he was practicing his trade in Corinth (Acts 18:3, 5) with a gift from the Christians in those Macedonian towns (2 Cor. 11:9; cf. Phil. 4:15).

Timothy's report of conditions in the Thessalonian church led Paul to write this epistle. Some of the Thessalonians apparently believed that Jesus Christ was about to return momentarily and had consequently given up their jobs and had become disorderly (cf. 1 Thess. 4:11; 5:14). Some worried about what had happened to their loved ones who had died before the Lord had returned (4:13, 18). Persecution from the Gentiles as well as the Jews still oppressed the believers (2:17-3:10) who were nevertheless holding fast to the truth and eager to see Paul again (3:6-8). Some outside the church, however, remained hostile to Paul (2:1-12). There appears to have been some misuse of spiritual gifts in the assembly as well as an unfortunate tendency on the part of some to return to their former habits involving sexual impurity (4:1-8; 5:19-21).

It seems clear that Paul wrote this epistle shortly after he arrived in Corinth (1:7-9; 2:17; 3:1, 6; Acts 18:5, 12), about 51 A.D. If one follows the early dating of Galatians, as I have suggested, this epistle would have been Paul's second inspired writing. If Paul penned Galatians after the second missionary journey, 1 Thessalonians could have been his first inspired epistle.³ However the first option seems more probable.⁴

A few scholars have suggested that Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians before he wrote 1 Thessalonians.⁵ This is not as improbable as may appear at first since the traditional sequence of Pauline letters to churches rests on length rather than date. Nonetheless this theory has not convinced most scholars.⁶

Purpose

In view of this epistle's contents, Paul had at least three purposes in mind when he wrote it. First, he wanted to encourage the Christians in Thessalonica who were making good progress in their new faith (1:2-10). Second, he desired to correct misinformation about himself and his fellow missionaries that some of his critics in Thessalonica were circulating (2:1-3:13). Third, he wrote to give additional instruction that would contribute to the Thessalonians' spiritual growth (4:1-5:24).

"Far and away the largest theological contribution of the Epistles [1 and 2 Thessalonians] lies in what they say about eschatology."⁷

". . . over a quarter of 1 Thessalonians and nearly half of 2 Thessalonians deal with problems and issues regarding the parousia or coming of Christ from heaven."⁸

"The Thessalonian letters present the first literary evidence for the use of parousia . . . in the sense of the future Advent of Christ: it occurs in this sense six times in the two letters. The event is depicted repeatedly in language borrowed from portrayals of OT theophanies. But it is the ethical implications that are chiefly stressed: the writers look forward to the Parousia especially as the time when their service will be reviewed and rewarded by the Lord who commissioned them, and they will be content, they say, to have it assessed by the quality of their converts."⁹

Message¹⁰

In this epistle there is evidence that Paul had conflicting emotions regarding the new church in Thessalonica. On the one hand he was joyful and satisfied with what God had accomplished. On the other hand he felt concern about the perils in which the new Christians lived.

This letter differs from most of Paul's others in that it does not deal primarily with a doctrinal issue or a departure in belief or behavior. While the teaching on the Rapture of the church is definitely a doctrinal contribution, Paul did not write primarily to expound that truth or to defend it. He simply clarified the events he had previously taught them. The new revelation is in a sense secondary to Paul's argument. Nevertheless it is obvious that the Lord's return was prominent in Paul's mind from beginning to end of this letter. He referred to it in every chapter.

Paul wrote this epistle primarily to comfort and to encourage those who were suffering for their Lord. Their hope was an essential emphasis in view of this purpose (cf. 1 Pet.).

The epistle deals with the hope of the Lord's return as this relates to Christian experience.

Paul took the fact of the Lord's return for granted. He did not feel compelled to try to prove it. His belief that Jesus would return for His own is obvious to anyone who reads this letter regardless of his or her eschatology. Paul believed in a real return of the same Jesus who had lived on the earth, died, was buried, arose from the dead, and ascended into heaven (cf. 4:16). First Thessalonians deals with when the Lord will return. The larger emphasis in 1 Thessalonians, however, is that He will return.

In relation to Christian experience the return of Christ is the final argument that produces faith. When Paul preached the gospel in Thessalonica, he proclaimed that the Christ who had come would come again (1:9-10). His converts were to wait for Him. They had turned from belief in visible idols to an invisible God. Paul urged them to wait with the assurance that they would see their God visibly soon. They turned from disorder to the hope of divine rule, from spiritual anarchy to the hope of an orderly kingdom. Christians trust in Christ's first coming and wait for His return. Without the hope of Christ's vindication the message of His death is incomplete. I do not mean that the return of Christ is part of the gospel message. However without the hope of Christ's return the gospel message is harder to accept. The return of Christ is the final argument that produces faith in this sense. It is an apologetic for Christianity.

In relation to Christian experience the return of Christ is, second, the abiding confidence that inspires labor (1:9). The Thessalonians turned from idols to serve the living God. Their reward for service would come at His return. That would be their payday. Paul referred to his readers as his own reward for service at Christ's return (2:19-20). A little of our reward comes to us here and now, but the great bulk of it awaits the judgment seat of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 15:58). When those we have led to Christ and discipled experience glorification, our reward will be full. This prospect is what so forcefully motivated Paul in his tireless missionary service.

Third, in relation to Christian experience the return of Christ is the ultimate victory that creates patience (3:13). The conviction that we will experience ultimate victory at the Rapture produces patience in the believer (cf. 5:14b). We can be patient about our own slow growth knowing that eventual glorification will take place. Furthermore we can be patient with God knowing that God will balance the scales of justice and vindicate Himself. One day Christ will return just as one day He was born. Both events are crises in history. They are high points not built up to gradually but introduced as cataclysms.

Thus the return of Christ is the final argument producing faith, the abiding confidence inspiring labor, and the ultimate victory creating patience. In the introduction to this epistle Paul said he remembered his readers' work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope (1:3). Faith, hope, and love are the three greatest attributes of the Christian life, and they are possible because Christ will return.

This epistle also helps us understand how we should respond to the truth that Christ will return.

First, in our own life we should respond with godly behavior: personal purity, love for the brethren, and honesty in the world. Christ's return should have a purifying effect in every one of these areas of our life (ch. 4).

Second, in the face of death there is a two-fold response. There is comfort for the bereaved in particular (4:14).

Also there is comfort for all the living (4:18).

Third, in view of judgment to come our response should be confidence. We will not experience God's wrath, but He will deliver us from it in all its manifestations.

Failure to accept the truth of the Lord's return results in unbelief and a return to idols.

It results in indolence that leads to strife.

Furthermore it results in impatience that leads to sin. These are the very opposite of the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope.

The light of this great doctrine underwent an eclipse during the history of the church. It only came out into prominence again in the nineteenth century. We at Dallas Seminary follow in the train of those dispensational writers and teachers who through careful study of the whole Word of God have brought this doctrine back out into public view. Satan would like to silence this emphasis because the hope of Christ's return is one of the greatest motivations for Christian service and sacrifice. The sanctification of the whole person (spirit, soul, and body) consists in active waiting for Jesus to return (5:23). I pray that as a result of this study of 1 Thessalonians we may all live with a greater conscious awareness of Christ's return.

Outline¹¹

I. Salutation and greeting 1:1

II. Personal commendations and explanations 1:2-3:13

A. Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians 1:2-10

1. Summary statement 1:2-3

2. Specific reasons 1:4-10

B. Reminders for the Thessalonians 2:1-16

1. How the gospel was delivered 2:1-12

2. How the gospel was received 2:13-16

C. Concerns for the Thessalonians 2:17-3:13

1. Desires to see them again 2:17-3:5

2. Joy on hearing about them 3:6-13

III. Practical instructions and exhortations 4:1-5:24

A. Christian living 4:1-12

1. Continued growth 4:1-2

2. Sexual purity 4:3-8

3. Brotherly love 4:9-12

B. The Rapture 4:13-18

C. Personal watchfulness 5:1-11

D. Church life 5:12-15

1. Attitudes toward leaders 5:12-13

2. Relationships among themselves 5:14-15

E. Individual behavior 5:16-24

1. Personal actions and attitudes 5:16-18

2. Actions and attitudes in corporate living 5:19-22

3. Divine enablement 5:23-24

IV. Conclusion 5:25-28

Constable: 1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians

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Malherbe, A. J. Moral Exhortation, A Greco-Roman Sourcebook. Library of Early Christianity series. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1986.

Manson, Thomas W. "St. Paul in Greece: The Letters to the Thessalonians." Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 35 (1952-53):428-47.

_____. Studies in the Gospels and Epistles. Manchester: University of Manchester, 1962.

Marshall, I. Howard. 1 and 2 Thessalonians. New Century Bible Commentary series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., and London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott Pub. Ltd., 1983.

Martin, D. Michael. 1, 2 Thessalonians. The New American Commentary series. N.c.: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995.

McClain, Alva J. The Greatness of the Kingdom. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959.

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Milligan, George. St. Paul's Epistles to the Thessalonians. Evangelical Masterworks series. Reprint ed. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, Co., n.d.

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Morison, Frank. Who Moved the Stone? 1930. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, Lamplighter Books, 1958.

Morris, Leon. The Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians. Tyndale New Testament Commentary series. London: Tyndale Press, 1966.

_____. The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians. New International Commentary on the New Testament series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979.

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_____. "The Imminent Return of the Lord." In Issues in Dispensationalism, pp. 247-67. Edited by Wesley R. Willis and John R. Master. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: 1 Thessalonians (Book Introduction)

THE FIRST

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE,

TO THE THESSALONIANS.

INTRODUCTION.

St. Paul having preached with success at Thessalonica, the chief city of Macedonia, wrote to the this letter, to confirm them in the Christian faith and in the practice of virtue. This, in order, is the first epistle of St. Paul. He wrote it about the year fifty-two, as it is thought, from Corinth. (Witham) --- St. Paul having preached the gospel in this place, converted some Jews and a great number of Gentiles; but the unbelieving Jews, envying his success, raised such a commotion against him, that he and his companion Silvanus were obliged to quit the city. Afterwards he went to Athens, where he had heard that the converts in Thessalonica were under severe persecution ever since his departure; and lest they should lose their fortitude, he sent Timothy to strengthen and comfort them in their sufferings. In the mean time St. Paul came to Corinth, where he wrote this first epistle and also the second to the Thessalonians, both in the same year, being the nineteenth after our Lord's ascension. (Challoner) --- St. Paul preached the faith in this city, assisted by Silas and Silvanus, whose name is joined with the apostle's in this letter. See Acts xvii. Being driven away from this city by the violence of the Jews, he left Timothy and Silas in Macedonia, to confirm the new converts in their faith. But having afterwards called them to him, and hearing of their constancy and perseverance, he writes this epistle to encourage them and praise them. It is the first in time of all St. Paul's epistles, and filled with the most affectionate expressions of love and tenderness for his spiritual children in Jesus Christ. In the latter part of the epistle, he gives some short instructions concerning the state of souls after death, and the coming of the last day; as his companions had informed him that strange reports concerning these two articles were in circulation at Thessalonica, to the disturbance of the faithful. (Calmet, Estius, and others.) --- The first three chapters are to confirm and comfort the Thessalonians against the temptations of persecution; the other two are to exhort them to live up to the precepts he delivers them.

====================

Gill: 1 Thessalonians (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 1 THESSALONIANS

Thessalonica was a very large, populous, and flourishing city, it was "liberae conditionis", as Pliny says ^a, a free city, and the metropolis of Macedonia; it was formerly called Halis ^b, and had the name of Thessalonica given it by Philip king of Macedon, on account of his conquest of Thessalia, which this name signifies; and some say he gave this name to a daughter of his on that occasion, who was afterwards the wife of Cassander; who, others say, called this place by his wife's name ^c, which before was Therme: its name with the Italians is Salonichi, and is now in the hands of the Turks, as all Greece is: here the Apostle Paul came after he had been at Philippi, and stayed about three weeks, and preached every sabbath day, and his ministry was blessed to the conversion of some Jews, a multitude of devout Greeks, and many of the chief women of the place, which laid the foundation of a Gospel church; to which the apostle wrote this epistle, and is the first of all the epistles he wrote: the occasion of it was this; the unbelieving Jews, vexed to see the apostle's success, raised a mob of the baser sort of people, and assaulted the house of Jason, where the apostle and his companions were; but Paul and Silas were sent away by night to Berea, which the rabble understanding, followed them thither; when Paul was sent as if he was going to the sea, but was conducted by the brethren to Athens, who gave orders that Silas and Timothy should come to him with all speed, as they did; and Timothy was sent back to Thessalonica to establish and comfort the young converts there; and returning with good news of their faith, and charity, to the apostle at Corinth, he sent them from thence this epistle, and not from Athens, as some have thought: the design of which is to encourage them under their afflictions and sufferings; to exhort them to stand fast in the Lord, to abide by his truths and ordinances, and to live an holy life and conversation, and to regard the several duties of religion, towards God and one another, and those that were set over them; and in it he instructs them concerning the resurrection of the dead, and the coming of Christ, articles of very great importance and concern: the writing of this epistle is placed by Dr. Lightfoot in the 51st year of Christ, and in the 11th of Claudius Caesar.

Gill: 1 Thessalonians 5 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 1 THESSALONIANS 5

In this chapter the apostle discourses concerning the suddenness of Christ's coming, and the necessity of sobriety and watchfulness, and being on our guard with respect unto it, and then proceeds to exhort to several duties of religion, and closes the epistle with prayers for the saints, salutations of them, advice unto them, and with his usual benediction. Having spoken of the coming of Christ in the preceding chapter, the apostle signifies he had no need to write of the time and season of it; since it was a well known thing that it would be sudden, and at an unawares, like the coming of a thief in the night, and the travail of a woman with child, though certain and inevitable; and would bring sure destruction on wicked men, unthought of by them, 1Th 5:1 but such was the state and condition of the saints, being not in the night of nature's darkness and unregeneracy, but enlightened by the spirit of God, that they were not ignorant of these things, nor liable to be surprised unawares hereby, 1Th 5:4, however, in consideration of their being in the light, and not in darkness, it became them to behave accordingly, and not indulge themselves in sleep and sloth, but be watchful and sober, and on their guard, having on their spiritual armour, 1Th 5:6 and the rather, since they were not appointed to the wrath they deserved, but to salvation by Christ; whose end in dying for them was, that they might live together with him, and therefore should exhort and comfort, and edify one another, 1Th 5:9 and then follow various exhortations, some, which respect their ministers, their knowledge of them, love to them, and esteem for them, on account of their dignity, office, work, and usefulness, 1Th 5:12 others, which concern themselves and one another, as church members, 1Th 5:13 others, which regard also them that are without, 1Th 5:14 and others which relate to joy and thanksgiving, to prayer and praise; to the gifts of the spirit, and the ministry of the word; and to a trial and examination of what is good, and an abiding by it, and an abstinence from all evil, and every appearance of it, 1Th 5:16 and the whole is concluded with prayers for them, for their perfect sanctification, and entire preservation to the coming of Christ; which were put up in faith, grounded upon the faithfulness of God who had called them to grace and glory, 1Th 5:23 and with a request to them to pray for him, and other ministers of the Gospel, and to salute all the brethren, 1Th 5:25 and with a charge to read this letter to them all, 1Th 5:27 and with his usual benediction, 1Th 5:28.

College: 1 Thessalonians (Book Introduction)

FOREWORD

This commentary has been produced through a full schedule of college and seminary teaching and church-based ministry. In the current climate of biblical studies, that schedule has necessitated some compromises. Journal articles, scholarly monographs and commentaries are today so numerous that the person who wants to keep current in the study of a biblical book must have the leisure to devote almost full time to the task. Therefore, I have not been able to consider all the issues as thoroughly as I might have liked. For most readers, however, this is probably a relief. I have tried to discuss only those matters which significantly affect our understanding of the text and have sufficient supporting evidence to warrant a hearing. So to those who find that an issue has been ignored, too briefly summarized, or too fully discussed, I offer my apologies. It is my hope that the setting in which I have written the book, having taught and preached on it in churches and a church-based college and seminary, will ensure a greater degree of relevance than might be found in some scholarly works and a greater degree of accuracy than in some popular ones.

Thanks for assistance with this project go to several people. I am grateful to the publishers and editors of the series for their invaluable help in bringing this work to publication. To my former professor and present colleague Dr. Jack Cottrell, who first offered the invitation, and to Mr. John Hunter of College Press, who graciously worked with me for its completion, I give special thanks. Another former professor and present colleague, Mr. Tom Friskney, first stimulated my study of the Thessalonian letters. His influence is felt on every page, but he should not be blamed for my mistakes. In particular I thank my family - my wife, Tammie, and our children, Cale and Allison - for their patience with me as I spent too many evenings, weekends and vacation times working on this project.

My parents, Chet and Millie Weatherly, more than anyone have provided the example for me of the integrity, love, discipline, hard work, generosity, endurance and expectancy which these letters teach. I dedicate this book to them with heartfelt gratitude.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

INTRODUCTION

Though it is a relatively brief letter, 1 Thessalonians provides the modern Christian with a challenging glimpse into the life and thought of the first generation of Christianity. Its presentation of the ministry of Paul, the trials of the persecuted church, the ethical demands of the new life in Christ, and especially of the vivid expectation of Christ's return provides some of the foundational elements for genuine Christian experience in every era.

Major critical problems with 1 Thessalonians are fewer than with some other Pauline letters; the bulk of modern scholarship is largely agreed about the general circumstances under which the letter was written. But knowing those circumstances provides a necessary touchstone for the interpretation of the letter, so they will be briefly summarized below.

THE CITY OF THESSALONICA

Founded by Cassander, a general of Alexander the Great, around 315 B.C., Thessalonica was a city of size and influence. Located at the head of the Thermatic Gulf, now called the Gulf of Salonika, a natural harbor on the Aegean coast of Macedonia, the northern part of the Greece, it was an important port city, providing a gateway to the Macedonian interior. Its prominence as a transportation center was augmented when the Romans constructed the Via Egnatia or Egnatian Way, a highway crossing the Greek peninsula from east to west and ultimately connecting Asia in the east with Italy and Rome in the west. Inland from Thessalonica lay a fertile plain, which provided abundant agricultural resources for the city and the region.

It is little wonder, then, that in 146 B.C. the Romans designated Thessalonica as the capital of the province of Macedonia. The city itself had an independent government with magistrates known as "politarchs" (Acts 17:6, 8), providing a degree of autonomy from the imperial government and its taxes. The religious climate was dominated by paganism; the cults of Dionysus and the Cabirus appear to have been especially prominent. According to Acts 17:1 there was also a colony of Jews large enough to constitute at least one synagogue.

Altogether, then, Thessalonica appears to us as a busy, prosperous, cosmopolitan city, a place where the gospel could readily take root but also meet significant resistance. That image is confirmed to us by the description of Paul's mission in Acts and the corresponding elements of 1 Thessalonians.

PAUL'S MINISTRY IN THESSALONICA

AND THE WRITING OF 1 THESSALONIANS

According to Acts, Paul visited Thessalonica with Timothy and Silas on what we call his second missionary journey (17:1). Having left Philippi after being jailed overnight, Paul traveled to the neighboring city on the Egnatian Way, perhaps pursuing a strategy of planting churches in cities on major transportation arteries so that the gospel could spread out from those centers. There, as was his custom, Paul preached in the synagogue as long as he was able (17:2-3). Acts indicates that his converts included Jews, God-fearers (Gentiles who acknowledged the God of Israel but had not converted fully to Judaism), and some of the principal women (17:4). According to Acts these conversions prompted a jealous response from non-Christian Jews, presumably synagogue leaders, who incited a mob against the Christians (17:5-7). The magistrates appear to have recognized that the mob's anger was not prompted by any offense against the civil order and required only that Jason, apparently a prominent Christian convert, post a bond pledging no further trouble (17:8-9). The violence did, however, prompt Paul to leave the city, perhaps sooner than he had planned (17:10).

From Thessalonica Paul went to Berea. But the fervor of his Thessalonian opponents was intense, for they followed him there and incited similar opposition (17:13). Paul then went on alone to Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy behind (17:14-15). After Paul had preached in Athens with mixed results (17:16-34), he went on to Corinth (18:1). There Silas and Timothy rejoined him (18:5).

The text of 1 Thessalonians confirms and supplements this outline. Though Paul focuses on the conversion of Gentiles in 1:9 (see comments below), says little about the conversion of Jews, and does not quote the Old Testament, themes from the Jewish Scriptures and Judaism appear throughout the letter (cf. 1:4, 6, 10; 2:4, 10, 12, 15-16, 18; 3:3, 5; 4:3, 5-8, 16; 5:3, 5, 8-9, 23-24), implying an audience familiar with them. The letter acknowledges the opposition to Paul (2:2) and the ongoing problem of persecution in Thessalonica (1:6; 2:14; 3:3-4), elements entirely consistent with the anti-Christian violence which Acts depicts. It indicates that Paul left the city prematurely and under duress (2:17) and was prevented from returning (2:18). In particular it makes clear that from Athens Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica as a substitute for his own presence (3:1-3; see comments below) to strengthen the church and report about its progress to Paul. Timothy's return and report are recounted also (3:6).

It appears, then, that Timothy's report prompts the writing of this first letter. We can infer from the letter's contents that the report was mostly positive but did note some areas of serious concern. The letter serves to reassure the readers about their status as Christians (1:3-10; 3:11-13) and about Paul's concern for them despite his absence (2:1-12; 2:17-3:10), to strengthen them in the persecution which they endure (2:13-16; 3:4-5), and to reiterate instruction which they had already received about the standards by which they are to live as people in Christ surrounded by an immoral pagan culture (4:1-12). In particular Paul is concerned about their misunderstanding of the significance of Christ's return, especially regarding the status of those who have died as Christians (4:13-18), but also more generally (5:1-11). He also expresses specific concern about the need for Christians to support themselves responsibly (4:11-12; 5:14; cf. 2:6b-9), and to have proper respect for leaders (5:12) and for the spiritual gift of prophecy (5:19-22). In essence, then, this letter is a substitute for Paul's actual presence, containing the teaching which he would have delivered had it been possible for him to return to Thessalonica immediately. While a couple of specific problems had arisen, Paul's primary concern is to strengthen the young church in its commitment and the consistency of its practice.

DATE

If the reconstruction above is correct, then 1 Thessalonians was written during Paul's stay in Corinth on his second missionary journey. It is conceivable that Paul could have written this letter on his third journey after his second visit to Thessalonica, but since the letter itself refers to only one visit, the obvious explanation is that Paul had made only one. Some have denied the accuracy of the sequence of events in Acts altogether, but the numerous points of confirmation between 1 Thessalonians and Acts as noted above make such a denial highly questionable.

Paul's stay in Corinth can be dated with an exceptional degree of precision. According to Acts 18:12-17, Gallio served as proconsul of Achaia during Paul's Corinthian mission. An inscription at Delphi puts Gallio as proconsul during the twelfth year of Claudius' imperial power, after the Roman senate's twenty-sixth proclamation of Claudius as emperor. Since the twenty-seventh proclamation was made in August of A.D. 52 and proconsuls took office usually in midsummer, Gallio can be assumed to have taken office in the summer of A.D. 50 or 51. The Acts account makes it appear that Paul was brought before Gallio not long after he took office and near the end of Paul's eighteen-month sojourn in the city. Therefore, a date of 50-51 is likely for this letter.

Relative to Paul's other letters, 1 Thessalonians is very early. Unless Galatians was written earlier, as is plausible, between the first and second missionary journeys, or 2 Thessalonians was written first (see the introduction to 2 Thessalonians below), this letter is Paul's earliest. If so, it is also likely to be the earliest book of the New Testament, unless, as we have no way to confirm, one of the Gospels or the letter of James was penned sometime in the forties of the first century. For students of Paul and of early Christianity generally, then, this letter has special import.

AUTHORSHIP

Few critical scholars have doubted that Paul composed this letter himself. The internal claim of the letter is clear and unequivocal, including not only the salutation (1:1), but the repeated personal references in the middle section of the letter (2:1-3:10). Likewise, the external evidence is clear. The letter was quoted in some of the earliest Christian literature outside the New Testament (Ign. Eph. 10:1; Ign. Rom. 2:1; Did. 16:6-7), attributed to Paul as early as Marcion (c. A.D. 140), and never questioned in the early centuries of Christianity.

Those who have contended that 1 Thessalonians is not an authentic letter of Paul have largely based their arguments on alleged discrepancies with Acts. As implied above, it has been argued that this letter indicates that Paul's Thessalonian converts were pagans (1:9; 4:1-5) while Acts asserts that they were Jews and God-fearers (17:4). However, as noted in the comments below, Paul may have a particular reason for emphasizing converts from paganism, and Acts certainly emphasizes Jewish converts in Thessalonica as a part of a larger theme in Paul's ministry. Neither book, however, should be understood to be deliberately specifying the precise composition of the Thessalonian church.

Likewise, it has been argued that the movements of Timothy and Silas in 1 Thessalonians do not match those in Acts. In particular, Acts 18:5 shows them rejoining Paul in Corinth, whereas 1 Thessalonians 3:1-6 may show Timothy rejoining Paul in Athens. Several reconstructions of their specific movements can be offered which account for the material in both books. Paul may have initially left Timothy and Silas behind in Macedonia, and they may have returned to him briefly in Athens only to be sent back to Macedonia a second time. Alternately, Paul may have sent his associates back to Thessalonica after arriving in Athens, and Acts may simply condense their movements, giving the result that they were "left behind" while focusing attention on Paul. But most important is the observation that the use of "Athens" instead of "here" in 1 Thess 3:1 indicates that Paul probably wrote from a place other than Athens and so was reunited with Timothy at that place. Corinth clearly fits the details here, precisely in accord with the description in Acts.

A third argument based on alleged tensions with Acts concerns the length of Paul's stay. It is argued that Acts 17:2 indicates a stay of three weeks, whereas this letter presumes a longer stay with its discussion of Paul's self-support and preaching. However, all that Acts 17:2 asserts is that Paul preached in the synagogue for three sabbaths, not that those three weeks comprised his entire stay. And if only three weeks were involved, Paul still could have preached, taught and worked with his hands.

Another challenge to authorship is found in hypotheses which argue that the letter is a compilation of several authentic or pseudepigraphical letters, edited together by a later follower of Paul. Elaborate arguments for compilation are entirely conjectural and have found little support. Some have argued that 5:1-11 is a later, non-Pauline interpolation based on its vocabulary and content. The differences with the rest of Paul's letters are in fact few, however, and so this hypothesis has little support either. More prominent has been the hypothesis that 2:13-16 are a later interpolation of non-Pauline material. Specific discussion of this issue can be found in the comments on the passage below.

ORGANIZATION

Most of Paul's letters follow a rather set pattern of salutation, thanksgiving, letter body, and closing greetings. This pattern is apparent in a wide variety of letters from the Greco-Roman world, indicating that Paul adapted the standard letter form for his own purposes.

1 Thessalonians follows this pattern approximately, as the outline below indicates. One variation comes at 2:13-16, where Paul appears to offer a second thanksgiving. Such formal irregularities are not surprising, however, if Paul felt free to adapt standard forms as the occasion demanded.

Recently Paul's letters have been analyzed according to the patterns of Greek rhetoric. Several recent works have employed this approach in understanding 1 Thessalonians, with the beneficial result of stressing that the letter is a unified composition with a specific purpose of communication. Opinions vary, however, on where the precise rhetorical divisions lie, probably because Paul did not compose his letters strictly according to the canons of rhetoric, though he was probably influenced by them. In this commentary, therefore, no direct attention will be given to specifying the precise rhetorical contours of the letter.

THEOLOGICAL VALUE

As a small, young church in big, pagan city, the Thessalonian Christians faced challenges to their faith at every turn. Persecution, social pressure, temptations of the old lifestyle, conflict with new brothers and sisters in Christ, and surrender to despair were constant threats. Whatever the confidence with which they began their Christian pilgrimage, these believers were now faced with the daily ordeals of life in Christ in hostile surroundings.

Paul's answers to these problems are varied and significant. He confirms the truth of the gospel in the face of the doubts and struggles which they face, reminding them of the change which the gospel has brought to their lives and of the warnings which they had already received about the difficulties to come. He reminds them of his own manner of life with them, itself a confirmation of the truth of his message and an example of the self-sacrificial love and Christ-glorifying integrity which comprise the core of the Christian lifestyle. That love expressed to one another will in turn draw the church together to stand up to the pressure of the hostile culture which surrounds it. Perhaps most importantly, Paul reminds the readers repeatedly that the work of God begun in them in Christ will not be complete until Christ returns. They can therefore look forward to his return with great expectancy, remembering that even death itself will then be utterly defeated, and living each moment in faithfulness as they await the fulfillment of their relationship with Christ.

The situation for Christians near the beginning of the third millennium is not much different from the one that Paul addressed. And so his reminders remain timely. The truth and power of the gospel, the love and integrity which characterize Christ's people, and the living hope of Christ's return are especially relevant to a people confronted with the contemporary diseases of relativism, hatred, selfishness, and despair. The conviction that this universe will end with God's eternal triumph is as foreign to modern thinking as is the idea that it began by God's command. But apart from such a conviction, which stands at the center of 1 Thessalonians, can humanity find meaning in what seems to be chaos? Without it, can humanity find a basis for moral decisions? Faced with such questions, today's reader will not have to read far in 1 Thessalonians to find both blessing and challenge.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1 & 2 THESSALONIANS

COMMENTARIES

Commentaries are cited in the notes by author's last name alone.

Bruce, F.F. 1 & 2 Thessalonians . WBC 45. Waco, TX: Word, 1982.

Best, Ernest. The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians . BNTC. 1972. Reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1986.

Frame, James Everett. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians . ICC. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1979 (reprint).

Marshall, I. Howard. 1 and 2 Thessalonians . NCB. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.

Morris, Leon. The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians . NICNT. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991.

Wanamaker, Charles A. The Epistles to the Thessalonians . NIGTC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.

OTHER WORKS

Allison, Dale C. "The Pauline Epistles and the Synoptic Gospels: the Pattern of the Parallels," NTS 28 (1982)1-31.

Aus, Roger D. "God's Plan and God's Power: Isaiah 66 and the Restraining Factors of 2 Thess 2:6-7," JBL 96 (1977) 537-553.

. "The Liturgical Background of the Necessity and Propriety of Giving Thanks According to 2 Thes 1:3," JBL 92 (1973) 432-438.

Bammel, Ernst. "Preparation for the Perils of the Last Days: 1 Thessalonians 3:3." In Suffering and Martyrdom in the New Testament: Studies Presented to G. M. Styler by the Cambridge New Testament Seminar . Ed. William Horbury and Brian McNeil. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Bassler, Jouette M. "The Enigmatic Sign: 2 Thessalonians 1:5," CBQ 46 (1984) 498-510.

Boers, Hendrikus. "The Form Critical Study of Paul's Letters. I Thessalonians as a Case Study," NTS 22 (1976) 140-158.

Collins, R.F. Studies on the First Letter to the Thessalonians . BETL 66. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1984.

Cottrell, Jack. What the Bible Says About God the Ruler . Joplin, MO: College Press, 1984.

Donfried, Karl P. The Theology of the Shorter Pauline Letters . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Ellis, E. Earle. Prophecy and Hermeneutic in Early Christianity . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978.

Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early Christianity . 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

Friskney, Tom. Thirteen Lessons on First and Second Thessalonians . Joplin, MO: College Press, 1982.

Funk, Robert W. Parables and Presence: Forms of the New Testament Tradition . Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982.

Guthrie, Donald. New Testament Introduction . 4th ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1990.

Harris, Murray J. Raised Immortal: Resurrection and Immortality in the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.

Hengel, Martin. The Pre-Christian Paul . Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1991.

Hewett, James A. "1 Thessalonians 3:11," ExpTim 87 (1975-76) 54-55.

Hock, Ronald F. The Social Context of Paul's Ministry: Tentmaking and Apostleship . Minneapolis: Fortress, 1980.

Holland, Glenn S. The Tradition that You Received from Us: 2 Thessalonians in the Pauline Tradition . HUT 24. Tübingen: Mohr, 1988.

Jewett, Robert. The Thessalonian Correspondence: Pauline Rhetoric and Millenarian Piety . FFNT. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986.

Johnson, Luke T. "The New Testament's Anti-Jewish Slander and the Conventions of Ancient Polemic," JBL 108 (1989) 419-441.

Klijn, A.F.J. "1 Thessalonians 4.13-18 and Its Background in Apocalyptic Literature." In Paul and Paulinism: Essays in Honour of C. K. Barrett . Ed. M.D. Hooker and S.G. Wilson. London: SPCK, 1982, pp. 67-73.

Ladd, G.E. A Theology of the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Lightfoot, J.B. Notes on Epistles of St. Paul . 1885. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980.

Malherbe, Abraham J. "Exhortations in First Thessalonians," NovT 25 (1983) 238-256.

. "'Gentle as a Nurse': The Stoic Background to 1 Thess. II," NovT 12 (1970) 203-217.

. Moral Exhortation, A Greco-Roman Sourcebook . Library of Early Christianity. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986.

. Paul and the Thessalonians: The Philosophic Tradition of Pastoral Care . Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987.

Marshall, I. Howard. "Pauline Theology in the Thessalonian Correspondence." In Paul and Paulinism: Essays in Honour of C.K. Barrett . Ed. M.D. Hooker and S.G. Wilson. London: SPCK, 1982, pp. 173-183.

Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983.

Morris, Leon. The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross . 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965.

Moule, C.F.D. The Origin of Christology . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Pauline Theology, Volume I: Thessalonians, Philippians, Galatians, Philemon . Ed. Jouette M. Bassler. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991.

Pate, C. Marvin. The End of the Age Has Come: The Theology of Paul . Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.

Pearson, Birger A. "I Thessalonians 2:13-16: A Deutero-Pauline Interpolation," HTR 64 (1971) 79-94.

Plevnik, Joseph. "1 Thess 5,1-11: Its Authenticity, Intention and Message," Bib 60 (1979) 71-90.

. "The Taking Up of the Faithful and the Resurrection of the Dead in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18," CBQ 46 (1984) 274-283.

Poythress, Vern S. "2 Thessalonians 1 Supports Amillennialism," JETS 37 (1994) 529-538.

Russell, R. "The Idle in 2 Thess 3.6-12: An Eschatological or a Social Problem," NTS 34 (1988) 105-119.

Schlueter, Carol J. Filling Up the Measure: Polemical Hyperbole in 1 Thessalonians 2.14-16 . JSNTSup 98. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.

Schmidt, Daryl. "1 Thess 2:13-16: Linguistic Evidence for an Interpolation," JBL 102 (1983) 269-279.

Schmithals, Walter. Paul and the Gnostics . Trans. J.E. Steely. Nashville: Abingdon, 1972.

Stowers, Stanley K. "Social Status, Public Speaking and Private Teaching: The Circumstances of Paul's Preaching Activity," NovT 26 (1984) 68-82.

The Thessalonian Correspondence . Raymond F. Collins, ed. BETL 87. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1990.

Walton, Steve "What Has Aristotle to Do with Paul? Rhetorical Criticism and 1 Thessalonians," TynBul 46 (1995) 229-249.

Warfield, B.B. "The Prophecies of St. Paul." In Biblical and Theological Studies . 1886. Ed. Samuel G. Craig. Reprint, Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1952, pp. 463-475.

Weatherly, Jon A. "The Authenticity of 1 Thessalonians 2.13-16: Additional Evidence," JSNT 42 (1991) 79-98.

. Jewish Responsibility for the Death of Jesus in Luke-Acts . JSNTSup 106. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.

Wenham, David. Gospel Perspectives 4: The Rediscovery of Jesus' Eschatological Discourse . Sheffield: JSOT, 1984.

. Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Winter, Bruce W. "The Entries and Ethics of Orators and Paul (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12)," TynBul 44 (1993) 55-74.

Witton, J. "A Neglected Meaning for Skeuos in 1 Thessalonians 4.4," NTS 28 (1982) 142-143.

Wright, N.T. The Climax of the Covenant . Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.

COMMENTARIES

Commentaries are cited in the notes by author's last name alone.

Bruce, F.F. 1 & 2 Thessalonians . WBC 45. Waco, TX: Word, 1982.

Best, Ernest. The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians . BNTC. 1972. Reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1986.

Frame, James Everett. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians . ICC. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1979 (reprint).

Marshall, I. Howard. 1 and 2 Thessalonians . NCB. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.

Morris, Leon. The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians . NICNT. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991.

Wanamaker, Charles A. The Epistles to the Thessalonians . NIGTC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.

OTHER WORKS

Allison, Dale C. "The Pauline Epistles and the Synoptic Gospels: the Pattern of the Parallels," NTS 28 (1982)1-31.

Aus, Roger D. "God's Plan and God's Power: Isaiah 66 and the Restraining Factors of 2 Thess 2:6-7," JBL 96 (1977) 537-553.

. "The Liturgical Background of the Necessity and Propriety of Giving Thanks According to 2 Thes 1:3," JBL 92 (1973) 432-438.

Bammel, Ernst. "Preparation for the Perils of the Last Days: 1 Thessalonians 3:3." In Suffering and Martyrdom in the New Testament: Studies Presented to G. M. Styler by the Cambridge New Testament Seminar . Ed. William Horbury and Brian McNeil. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Bassler, Jouette M. "The Enigmatic Sign: 2 Thessalonians 1:5," CBQ 46 (1984) 498-510.

Boers, Hendrikus. "The Form Critical Study of Paul's Letters. I Thessalonians as a Case Study," NTS 22 (1976) 140-158.

Collins, R.F. Studies on the First Letter to the Thessalonians . BETL 66. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1984.

Cottrell, Jack. What the Bible Says About God the Ruler . Joplin, MO: College Press, 1984.

Donfried, Karl P. The Theology of the Shorter Pauline Letters . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Ellis, E. Earle. Prophecy and Hermeneutic in Early Christianity . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978.

Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early Christianity . 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

Friskney, Tom. Thirteen Lessons on First and Second Thessalonians . Joplin, MO: College Press, 1982.

Funk, Robert W. Parables and Presence: Forms of the New Testament Tradition . Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982.

Guthrie, Donald. New Testament Introduction . 4th ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1990.

Harris, Murray J. Raised Immortal: Resurrection and Immortality in the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.

Hengel, Martin. The Pre-Christian Paul . Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1991.

Hewett, James A. "1 Thessalonians 3:11," ExpTim 87 (1975-76) 54-55.

Hock, Ronald F. The Social Context of Paul's Ministry: Tentmaking and Apostleship . Minneapolis: Fortress, 1980.

Holland, Glenn S. The Tradition that You Received from Us: 2 Thessalonians in the Pauline Tradition . HUT 24. Tübingen: Mohr, 1988.

Jewett, Robert. The Thessalonian Correspondence: Pauline Rhetoric and Millenarian Piety . FFNT. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986.

Johnson, Luke T. "The New Testament's Anti-Jewish Slander and the Conventions of Ancient Polemic," JBL 108 (1989) 419-441.

Klijn, A.F.J. "1 Thessalonians 4.13-18 and Its Background in Apocalyptic Literature." In Paul and Paulinism: Essays in Honour of C. K. Barrett . Ed. M.D. Hooker and S.G. Wilson. London: SPCK, 1982, pp. 67-73.

Ladd, G.E. A Theology of the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Lightfoot, J.B. Notes on Epistles of St. Paul . 1885. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980.

Malherbe, Abraham J. "Exhortations in First Thessalonians," NovT 25 (1983) 238-256.

. "'Gentle as a Nurse': The Stoic Background to 1 Thess. II," NovT 12 (1970) 203-217.

. Moral Exhortation, A Greco-Roman Sourcebook . Library of Early Christianity. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986.

. Paul and the Thessalonians: The Philosophic Tradition of Pastoral Care . Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987.

Marshall, I. Howard. "Pauline Theology in the Thessalonian Correspondence." In Paul and Paulinism: Essays in Honour of C.K. Barrett . Ed. M.D. Hooker and S.G. Wilson. London: SPCK, 1982, pp. 173-183.

Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983.

Morris, Leon. The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross . 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965.

Moule, C.F.D. The Origin of Christology . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Pauline Theology, Volume I: Thessalonians, Philippians, Galatians, Philemon . Ed. Jouette M. Bassler. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991.

Pate, C. Marvin. The End of the Age Has Come: The Theology of Paul . Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.

Pearson, Birger A. "I Thessalonians 2:13-16: A Deutero-Pauline Interpolation," HTR 64 (1971) 79-94.

Plevnik, Joseph. "1 Thess 5,1-11: Its Authenticity, Intention and Message," Bib 60 (1979) 71-90.

. "The Taking Up of the Faithful and the Resurrection of the Dead in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18," CBQ 46 (1984) 274-283.

Poythress, Vern S. "2 Thessalonians 1 Supports Amillennialism," JETS 37 (1994) 529-538.

Russell, R. "The Idle in 2 Thess 3.6-12: An Eschatological or a Social Problem," NTS 34 (1988) 105-119.

Schlueter, Carol J. Filling Up the Measure: Polemical Hyperbole in 1 Thessalonians 2.14-16 . JSNTSup 98. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.

Schmidt, Daryl. "1 Thess 2:13-16: Linguistic Evidence for an Interpolation," JBL 102 (1983) 269-279.

Schmithals, Walter. Paul and the Gnostics . Trans. J.E. Steely. Nashville: Abingdon, 1972.

Stowers, Stanley K. "Social Status, Public Speaking and Private Teaching: The Circumstances of Paul's Preaching Activity," NovT 26 (1984) 68-82.

The Thessalonian Correspondence . Raymond F. Collins, ed. BETL 87. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1990.

Walton, Steve "What Has Aristotle to Do with Paul? Rhetorical Criticism and 1 Thessalonians," TynBul 46 (1995) 229-249.

Warfield, B.B. "The Prophecies of St. Paul." In Biblical and Theological Studies . 1886. Ed. Samuel G. Craig. Reprint, Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1952, pp. 463-475.

Weatherly, Jon A. "The Authenticity of 1 Thessalonians 2.13-16: Additional Evidence," JSNT 42 (1991) 79-98.

. Jewish Responsibility for the Death of Jesus in Luke-Acts . JSNTSup 106. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.

Wenham, David. Gospel Perspectives 4: The Rediscovery of Jesus' Eschatological Discourse . Sheffield: JSOT, 1984.

. Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Winter, Bruce W. "The Entries and Ethics of Orators and Paul (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12)," TynBul 44 (1993) 55-74.

Witton, J. "A Neglected Meaning for Skeuos in 1 Thessalonians 4.4," NTS 28 (1982) 142-143.

Wright, N.T. The Climax of the Covenant . Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

ABBREVIATIONS

ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. by David Noel Freedman

ASNU Acta seminarii neotestamentici upsaliensis

ASV American Standard Version

AV Authorized (King James) Version

BAGD Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker Greek Lexicon, 1979

BDF Blass-Debrunner-Funk Greek Grammar

BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium

Bib Biblica

BNTC Black's New Testament Commentary

CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly

DPL Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. by Gerald F.

Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin and Daniel G. Reid

EDNT Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. by Horst

Balz and Gerhard Schneider

ET English Translation

ExpTim Expository Times

FFNT Foundations and Facets: New Testament

GELNTBSD Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on

Semantic Domains (2nd ed.), ed. by Johannes P. Louw,

Eugene A. Nida, Rondal B. Smith and Karen A. Munson

HCNT Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament, ed. by

M. Eugene Boring, Klaus Berger and Carsten Colpe

HTR Harvard Theological Review

HUT Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Theologie

ICC International Critical Commentary

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament

Supplement Series

LSJ Liddell-Scott-Jones-McKenzie Greek Lexicon (9th ed.)

MHT Moulton-Howard-Turner Grammar of

New Testament Greek

MM Moulton-Milligan Vocabulary of the Greek Testament

NASB New American Standard Bible

NCB New Century Bible Commentary

NIDNTT New International Dictionary of New Testament

Theology, ed. by Colin Brown

NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament

NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary

NIV New International Version

NovT Novum Testamentum

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

NTS New Testament Studies

RSV Revised Standard Version

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. by

Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich

TEV Today's English Version

TynBul Tyndale Bulletin

UBS United Bible Societies

UBSGNT United Bible Societies Greek New Testament

WBC Word Biblical Commentary

ZPEB Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. by

Merrill Tenney

ZTK Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

College: 1 Thessalonians (Outline)

OUTLINE

I. GREETING - 1:1

II. THANKSGIVING - 1:2-10

A. The Initial Thanksgiving - 1:2-5

1. Paul's Constant Prayers for the Readers - 1:2

2. Their Exercise of Faith, Love and Hope - 1:3

3. Their Election - 1:4

4. The Power of the Gospel in Thessalonica - 1:5

B. Reiteration and Further Specification - 1:6-10

1. The Readers' Imitation of Paul and His Associates - 1:6a

2. Their Endurance of Suffering - 1:6b

3. Their Example to Other Churches - 1:7-8

4. Reports of Their Conversion - 1:9-10

a. Forsaking Idols to Serve the Living God - 1:9

b. Awaiting the Return of Jesus - 1:10

III. PAUL'S RELATIONSHIP TO THE THESSALONIAN CHURCH - 2:1-3:13

A. Paul's Behavior in Thessalonica - 2:1-12

1. Paul's Motives - 2:1-6a

2. Paul's Activity - 2:6b-12

B. The Thessalonians' Endurance of Persecution - 2:13-16

1. Their Genuine Reception of the Word - 2:13

2. Their Imitation of the Judean Christians - 2:14

3. The Continuity of Persecution Age to Age - 2:15-16

C. Paul's Continuing Concern for the Church - 2:17-3:10

1. His Desire to See the Thessalonians - 2:17-20

2. Timothy's Visit on Paul's Behalf - 3:1-5

3. Timothy's Report and Paul's Response - 3:6-10

D. Paul's Prayer for the Thessalonians - 3:11-13

1. That He Might Return to Them - 3:11

2. That They Might Abound in Love, and Be Blameless at the Lord's Return - 3:12-13

IV. EXHORTATION - 4:1-5:22

A. Exhortation Concerning Christian Living - 4:1-12

1. To Continue in Current Behavior - 4:1-2

2. To Remain Sexually Pure - 4:3-8

3. To Exercise Brotherly Love - 4:9-10

4. To Lead a Quiet, Honest Life - 4:11-12

B. Exhortation Concerning the Lord's Return - 4:13-5:11

1. The Dead in Christ and the Lord's Return - 4:13-18

2. The Suddenness of the Lord's Return - 5:1-11

C. General Exhortations - 5:12-22

1. Behavior in the Christian Community - 5:12-15

a. Respect for Christian Leaders - 5:12-13

b. Service and Forgiveness - 5:14-15

2. Constants of Christian Behavior - 5:16-18

3. Responding to Christian Prophecy - 5:19-22

a. Yielding to the Spirit's Work - 5:19-20

b. Testing Prophecy - 5:21-22

V. CONCLUSION - 5:23-28

A. Benediction - 5:23-24

B. Final Words - 5:25-28

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV