Chapter 5:4-11—Paul assures the saints that “that day” of judgment would not “overtake” them. To indicate this, he changes the pronouns again. He has been using “they” and “them” in verse 3, but now he says, “But ye brethren...” and “we are not of the night...” and “let us...” etc. By changing from the third person plural back to the second person plural, it is evident that Paul is now returning to speak to the Christian company again. The reason why “that day” of judgment will not overtake Christians is that we will have been taken away from the earth approximately seven years before that time at the Rapture. He has just explained this in the parenthesis of chapter 4:15-18. As mentioned in our comments in chapter 1:10, each time that the Lord’s coming is spoken of as a “Thief in the night,” it is referring to the Appearing of Christ, not the Rapture (Matt. 24:43-44; Luke 12:39-40; 1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10; Rev. 3:5; 16:15). As mentioned already, at the Rapture the Lord will come to call away the Church, which is His bride. He comes at that time as “the Bridegroom” (Matt. 25:6-10), not as a “Thief.”
Moreover, the passages having to do with the Lord’s coming as a Thief are always in connection with Him executing judgment on the world. This will happen at the Appearing. There is no judgment executed upon the world at the Rapture; it is a silent snatching away of believers from the earth. The saints will hear the “shout,” the “voice,” and the “trump” (chap. 4:16), but the world will hear nothing. It’s true that the Rapture will seal the doom of those who have rejected the gospel of the grace of God, but their actual judgment of being cast into the lake of fire will not occur until later, when the Lord appears as a Thief.
Paul speaks of those of the world as being enveloped in moral and spiritual “darkness” (vs. 4). By way of contrast, he reminds the Thessalonian believers that they are “the children of light, and the children of the day” (vs. 5). Thus, he uses “darkness” and “light,” and “day” and “night” as figures to describe those who are believers and those who are not. This is not uncommon in Paul’s writings (Rom. 13:12-13; Eph. 5:8-14). Since judgment will fall only on those who are part and parcel of this world’s darkness, but not on those who are of the light, it is clear that believers on the Lord Jesus Christ are exempt from the judgments connected with the day of the Lord. In fact, they will come with the Lord when He returns to execute judgment in that day (1 Thess. 3:13; 4:14; Jude 14; Zech. 14:5, etc.).
Vss. 6-8—In the next series of verses, Paul gives some practical exhortations based on the fact that the Thessalonians were “of the light” and “of the day,” and not “of the night, nor of darkness.” These things apply to us today as much as they applied to the Thessalonians in their day. He says, “Therefore, let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (vs. 6). Here, Paul uses “sleep” as a figure to describe spiritual indifference. He says that there needs to be watchfulness and sobriety on our part so that we won’t fall into a similar state of carelessness. His point is that even though the world is spiritually asleep, we shouldn’t be. The watching that Paul refers to here is not exactly watching for the Lord to come—although we certainly should do that (Luke 12:36-38). It is watching against the spiritual dangers of the night which can have their negative effect upon us. The point in the exhortation is that if we are not careful, we could get dragged down by the elements of darkness in this world through which we pass. The Lord prayed that the saints would be preserved in this way (John 17:15-17). We maintain our spiritual alertness by self-judgment and in keeping close to the Lord through constant communion with Him. The only place of “safety” for us is being near the Lord (Deut. 33:12).
Paul says, “For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night” (vs. 7). He speaks of sleep here literally, but goes on to make a practical application from it. His point is that just as “sleep” in the natural realm is associated with “night,” it is the same in the spiritual realm. The spiritual sleep of indifference is associated with those who know not the Lord and who live in spiritual darkness. Being who we are, (“the children of light and the children of the day”), we need to be consistent with the realm to which we belong and be spiritually awake.
To guard against the state of spiritual slumber overtaking us, Paul mentions our resource. He says, “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” (vs. 8). Thus, while the world is characterized by sleeping in the darkness of the ignorance of God, we are to be living in view of “the hope” of our final “salvation.” This is to be with and like the Lord in the glorified state—which will occur at the Rapture. Until then, there are two pieces of armour that we must put on that will keep us from sinking into a state of carelessness:
• The “breastplate of faith” guards our hearts’ affections.
• The “helmet of salvation” guards our thoughts.
Our hearts and minds are two vulnerable areas where the enemy makes his points of attack. Note: we are responsible to put these pieces of armour on; it is not something that God does for us. Thus, He wants us to participate in this practical deliverance. That means that there needs to be spiritual exercise and energy involved in wearing this protection. Wearing “the breastplate of faith” is to be careful not to allow our affections to go after things that are earthly and worldly, because in the process we can get wrapped up in those things which will cause us to slumber in divine things (Prov. 4:23). Wearing the “helmet,” has to do not only with having our thoughts focused on right things that concern Christ and His interests (Phil. 4:7; 1 Peter 1:13), but by being occupied with the hope of salvation that will be brought to us at the Lord’s coming. The tendency is to allow our hearts and minds to run after extraneous things that dampen our spiritual alertness.
Vss. 9-11—And the reason why Paul encourages such a focus is because “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.” This final aspect of “salvation” that Paul refers to here (as in verse 8), occurs when the Lord comes—at the Rapture (Rom. 13:11; Phil. 3:20-21; Heb. 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5). He says that this salvation awaits us regardless of whether the believer is living (“wake”) at the time of the Lord’s coming, or has died (“sleep”). As he has explained in chapter 4, both will rise to meet the Lord in the air. Paul closes his remarks on this subject by again stating, “Comfort yourselves together and edify [build up] one another, even as also ye do.”
Paul has used the word “sleep” in verses 6-10 in three different ways:
• The sleep of indifference (vs. 6).
• Natural sleep for the rejuvenation of the body (vs. 7).
• Sleep in connection with the separate or intermediate state of a believer (vs. 10).