1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

1 Thessalonians 5:1‑11  •  11 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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Edward Cross
1. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8. 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.
9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
10. Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
11. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
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Having already spoken of the coming of the Lord in connection with the saints, the apostle now speaks of it in that aspect which has to do with the world. This is known as “the day of the Lord.” The expression occurs for the first time in Isa. 2:1212For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: (Isaiah 2:12), and from thence onwards through the prophets it is frequently found. The idea involved in it may be gathered from 1 Corinthians 4:33But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. (1 Corinthians 4:3), (N.T.), where we read, “For me it is the very smallest matter that I be examined of you or of man’s day. Nor do I even examine myself... but He that examines me is the Lord... So that do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord shall come...” Man has his day today, as the Lord says: “This is your hour and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:5353When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness. (Luke 22:53)). But His day is coming, when they shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God (ver. 69; Matt. 26:6464Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:64)).
The events and the character of “the day of the Lord” are the burden of many Scriptures. A few passages from among them will set before us the principal features of it.
“For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low” (Isa. 2:1212For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: (Isaiah 2:12)).
“And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (ver. 17).
“In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel” (Isa. 4:22In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. (Isaiah 4:2)).
“Alas, for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come” (Joel 1:1515Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. (Joel 1:15)).
These passages suffice to show clearly what the character of “the day of the Lord” is in judgment on the ungodly: while also it brings the joy of salvation to the godly remnant of Israel.
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren,” the apostle writes, “ye have no need that ye should be written to, for ye know perfectly well yourselves, that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief by night” (JND). This is the one and only point in connection with it on which he insists; the certainty and sudden stealth of its coming. As to “the times and seasons” he says nothing.
Regarding the words themselves, “time” is the more general and indefinite period: “season” is a shorter time of the same, cut off. Plato calls time, “the movable image of eternity.” Season — kairos, from keiro, to cut — is a portion of time cut off; as we speak of “the four seasons of the year;” “a convenient season;” hence also the expression, “the nick of time.”
In Acts 1:77And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. (Acts 1:7) (JND), when the disciples inquired of the Lord, “Wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not yours to know times or seasons, which the Father hath placed in His own authority.”
This it was not given them to know. But the great prophetic fact of “the day of the Lord” was already revealed; and so much at least they knew, as their question shows. But further information as to the “times and seasons” was reserved from them.
This fact is still more emphasized in Mark 13:3232But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mark 13:32), where we read, “of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven; neither the Son, but the Father.” In Mark’s Gospel the Lord is before us in His mediatorial servant character; and the essence of this is to hold all in subjection to the Father. Accordingly He does not here assume the knowledge of these things, occupied as He is with the humbler role of obedient service. Compare also Revelation 1:11The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: (Revelation 1:1), where it is said of Him “The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him.” That He had all divine knowledge is equally true, in the sphere in which it belonged to Him by divine right, but everything in its proper place. To our feeble minds and narrow intelligence there are many things “hard to be understood;” but we must not seek to evade the consequences of His humanity because we believe in the reality of His Deity. What we understand, we believe because we understand it — what is written, we believe because it is the Word of God.
How unbecoming, then, is the presumption that would peer into those things, which for wise purposes, are kept secret: and how disturbing to the health of the soul and enervating for true service, the restless inquisitiveness that would misspend its energies in prying into hidden mysteries and trying to forecast the time, instead of “redeeming” it (Eph. 5:1616Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:16)) in seizing the opportunity to serve the Lord. There is great fascination for some minds in this kind of imaginative occupation; but Christianity is not a fascination, but a life of humble obedience and submission to the will of God. Besides, what judges could we be of “the times and seasons”? We are too short-lived and ignorant to know when, after the lapse of unknown ages from the first creation of the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:11In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)), the due time came for the Spirit of God to move in the chaos that succeeded and renew the face of the world (Gen. 1:22And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2)).
Neither was it for the wisest of men to fix the date, or judge from passing events, when “the fullness of the time” should come, when God would send forth His Son, incarnate, to work the great redeeming work of grace (Gal. 4:44But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (Galatians 4:4); Rom. 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)).
Neither can we today foretell from the trend of circumstances, according to our judgment, nor forecast from Scripture that does not reveal it, when the time is fixed for the Lord to gather His saints to Himself; nor when He is to return in the power and glory of the kingdom in which He will judge the world in righteousness. “The times and seasons” are not for us to know, and we cannot divine them. The Thessalonian saints knew that “the day of the Lord so comes as a thief by night” with the certainty of sudden destruction. That was the horizon of their knowledge with regard to it. This much they knew “perfectly”: but they knew no more, nor does the apostle furnish them with further knowledge as to it. Certain events were to take place, spoken of in the second epistle to the Thessalonians, prior to the revelation of the man of sin “in his own time” (2 Thess. 2:66And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. (2 Thessalonians 2:6)), but they are referred to, not to satisfy curiosity, but to encourage the saints to “stand firm, and hold fast, the instructions” which they had been already taught (2 Thess. 2:1515Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. (2 Thessalonians 2:15), N.T.).
Unlike the “secret rapture” which needed a special revelation (1 Thess. 4:13-1713But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:13‑17)), it was already a matter of open knowledge that “the day of the Lord” is coming swiftly, stealthily, and certainly as a thief by night, on the world of the ungodly. The expression itself we have in Joel 2:99They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. (Joel 2:9), and it is repeated in Matthew 24:4343But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. (Matthew 24:43), and so when they say ‘peace and safety,’ as they said of old in Ezekiel 13:1010Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar: (Ezekiel 13:10), then swift destruction shall surprise them, as the labor pang suddenly seizes a woman with child, and they shall by no means escape from it (ver. 3).
That is what the apostle insists on. It is the one and only point that he adduces; and in this he shows the contrast between the saints and the world, as he passes from “we” and “ye” to “they.” Our hope-figured by Enoch, who “was not, for God took him” (Gen. 5:2424And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Genesis 5:24)), before the flood of Noah’s day-is to be caught up to be with the Lord before the coming judgments are poured out on the world. The saints of this present period will be saved from that time of trial. “Because thou hast kept the word of My patience I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial which is about to come upon the whole habitable world to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev. 3:1010Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10) JND). The remnant of Israel will be saved through it. “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:77Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. (Jeremiah 30:7)).
“But ye brethren are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief: for all ye are sons of light and sons of day; we are not of night nor of darkness. So then do not let us sleep as the rest do [who are not Christians], but let us watch and be sober”; that is, not merely keep awake, but have all our faculties alive in service and in faith: with the organs of life and energy protected with the breastplate of faith and love, and the head covered with the sustaining hope of salvation, the full fruit of the grace of God, through the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this way the apostle reverts again to the trinity of Christian graces, faith, hope, and love, as before in Chapter 1:3, compare also 1 Corinthians 8. They were the witness of the effectual power of the Gospel in the saints at Thessalonica; and he here urges them to continue in the same spirit in which they were then moving; for wrath, the wrath of that coming day, is not our portion from God, but the obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether watching or sleeping, we may live together with Him. This is our hope: this is our eternal portion; and this paragraph may well end, as it does, thus: “wherefore encourage one another, and build up each one the other, even as also ye do.”
How interesting and instructive this is; but alas! how little carried out. Were it done so in the warmth of freshness and simplicity, what a brightening up of souls there would be all round, as each one encouraged the other in the hope of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of our living “together with Him.”
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“One of the greatest blessings that can come to God’s people is for them to see God’s saving grace and power in their midst. It softens the crotchety ones, sanctifies the worldly ones, and strengthens the weak ones, while it stimulates all to more prayerful and earnest fellowship in the word of the Lord.”