You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness, so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night. But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
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1 Thessalonians 5:5-8 sits inside this longer paragraph.
But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape. But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness, so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night. But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do. But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
Parallel Translations
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You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness,
so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober.
For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night.
But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
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Ye are all the children of light and the children of the daye. We are not of the nyght nether of darcknes.
Therfore let vs not slepe as do other: but let vs watch and be sober.
For they that slepe slepe in the nyght: and they that be dronken are dronken in the nyght.
But let vs which are of the daye be sober armed with the brest plate of fayth and love and with hope of salvacion as an helmet.
Show all 3 translations
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Yee are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, neither of darkenesse.
Therefore let vs not sleepe as do other, but let vs watch and be sober.
For they that sleepe, sleepe in the night, and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night.
But let vs which are of the day, be sober, putting on the brest plate of faith and loue, and of the hope of saluation for an helmet.
Cross-references (77)
- Romans 13:12-13 (v8) The night is far gone, and the day is near. Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light. Let’s…
- 1 Peter 1:13 (vv6, 8) Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of…
- Ephesians 5:8 (v5) For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
- Matthew 24:42 (v6) Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes.
- Luke 22:46 (v6) and said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Show all 74 cross-references
- Ephesians 6:11 (v8) Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
- Acts 26:18 (v5) to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins…
- 1 Peter 5:8 (v6) Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
- Isaiah 59:17 (v8) He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad…
- John 12:36 (v5) While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light.” Jesus said these things, and he departed and hid…
- Romans 13:11-14 (v6) Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first…
- Hebrews 10:35-36 (v8) Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may…
- Revelation 16:15 (v6) “Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he doesn’t walk naked, and they see his shame.”
- Romans 13:13 (v7) Let’s walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and…
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 (v8) But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 16:13 (v6) Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!
- Hebrews 6:19 (v8) This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil;
- 1 Corinthians 15:34 (vv6–7) Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
- Romans 5:2-5 (v8) through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only this, but…
- 1 Thessalonians 5:5 (v8) You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness,
- 2 Peter 2:13 (v7) receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit…
- Ephesians 5:14 (vv6–7) Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Job 19:23-27 (v8) “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock…
- Ephesians 5:8-9 (v8) For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and…
- Ephesians 6:13-18 (v8) Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore,…
- 1 John 1:7 (v8) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses…
- Proverbs 19:15 (v6) Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.
- Mark 13:34-35 (v6) “It is like a man, traveling to another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and…
- Luke 16:8 (v5) “His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser…
- 2 Corinthians 6:7 (v8) in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
- Titus 2:12 (v6) instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age;
- 1 Peter 2:9 (v8) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
- Revelation 3:2 (v6) Wake up, and keep the things that remain, which you were about to throw away, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God.
- Lamentations 3:26 (v8) It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
- Acts 2:15 (v7) For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day.
- Romans 8:24-25 (v8) For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t…
- Galatians 5:5 (v8) For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.
- Ephesians 6:23 (v8) Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 1 Peter 1:3-5 (v8) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope…
- 1 Peter 4:7 (v6) But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.
- Isaiah 56:10 (v6) His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark— dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
- Daniel 5:4-5 (v7) They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour, the fingers of a…
- Jonah 1:6 (v6) So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so…
- Matthew 13:25 (v6) but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.
- Matthew 25:5 (v6) Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
- Matthew 25:13 (v6) Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
- Luke 12:37 (v6) Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most certainly I tell you that he will dress himself, make them…
- Luke 12:39 (v6) But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his…
- Luke 21:36 (v6) Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before…
- Ephesians 6:18 (v6) with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all…
- Colossians 4:2 (v6) Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving,
- Psalms 42:5 (v8) Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his…
- Psalms 42:11 (v8) Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my…
- Psalms 43:5 (v8) Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my…
- Proverbs 23:29-35 (v7) Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who stay long at…
- Isaiah 21:4-5 (v7) My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. They prepare the table.…
- Matthew 26:40-41 (v6) He came to the disciples, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What, couldn’t you watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray, that…
- Mark 13:37 (v6) What I tell you, I tell all: Watch.”
- Mark 14:37-38 (v6) He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you watch one hour? Watch and pray, that you may not…
- Luke 21:34-35 (v7) “So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you…
- 1 Timothy 2:9 (v6) In the same way, that women also adorn themselves in decent clothing, with modesty and propriety, not just with braided hair, gold, pearls,…
- 2 Timothy 4:5 (v6) But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.
- 1 John 3:1-3 (v8) See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us,…
- 1 Samuel 25:36-37 (v7) Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was…
- Job 4:13 (v7) In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
- Job 33:15 (v7) In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbering on the bed;
- Acts 20:31 (v6) Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.
- 1 Timothy 3:2 (v6) The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;
- Titus 2:6 (v6) Likewise, exhort the younger men to be sober minded.
- Matthew 26:38 (v6) Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.”
- Philippians 4:5 (v6) Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:8 (v6) But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:16 (v8) Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
- 1 Timothy 3:11 (v6) Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things.
74 distinct cross-references across this passage (77 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (24 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 6 Therefore let us not sleep. He adds other…
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 (Malachi 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, 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.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v8 We must fight with faith and hope, much less…
We must fight with faith and hope, much less ought we lie carelessly snorting.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv5–8 5 Ye are all the children of light, and…
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Ver. 5. We are not of the night, &c.] Alexander willed that the Grecians and barbarians should no longer be distinguished by their garments, but by their manners (Qu. Curtius); so should the children of light and of darkness.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv5–8 And because the night is the time of darkness,…
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.
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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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v6 The apostle having acquainted the Thessalonians with the privilege…
The apostle having acquainted the Thessalonians with the privilege of their converted state, that they were the children of the light, having received a light of knowlege, a light of grace and holiness, and a light of joy and comfort from the gospel, he comes next to infer the duties proper and suitable to persons in such a state:
First, negative, Let us not sleep, as do others; sleep is not proper for the day, but the night; the sleep here intended, is the sleep of sin, and of sinful security, whereby all the spiritual senses of a man are bound up, so that he is both unapprehensive of his duty, and regardless of his danger.
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Secondly, positive, Let us watch and be sober; that is, let us be always ready and prepared for Christ’s coming; and that we may be so, let us be found in the daily exercise of sobriety, at no time overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and that day overtake us unawares; the exercise of these two graces, watchfulness and sobriety, do best together, and can hardly be separated one from another; he that is not sober, cannot be watchful; and he that is not watchful, can never be ready for Christ’s coming: let us therefore (says the apostle) watch, and be sober.
Observe next, our apostle subjoins a reason to enforce his exhortation to watchfulness and sobriety, because sleep and drunkenness are works of darkness, performed in the night, and not suitable for the childeren of the day: They that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunk, are drunken in the night. The old heathens had their Bacchanalia, their drunken feast in the night; and in the apostles time, drunkenness was so shameful a vice, that men were ashamed to be seen drunken in the daytime: But, Lord, to what a height of impudence is the intemperance of our age arrived, when Christians blush not to do that at mid-day, which heathens were ashamed of at midnight!
Observe farther, another reason suggested why we should be thus sober and watchful, namely, because our life is a spiritual warfare: ’Tis now a time of fighting, therefore not of sleeping, and intemperate eating and drinking; soldiers must be upon their guard and well-armed; accordingly St. Paul directs to the two principal pieces of spiritual armour, to guard the most noble and vital parts, namely, the head and the heart; the helmet for the head, the breast-plate for the heart; for these two being the chief fountains of life and sensation, the preserving of them safe is, in effect, the preserving of the whole man; and accordingly, the soldiers that were upon their watch, and kept sentinel, never stood without their helmet and breast-plate. In allusion to which, our apostle here directs us, as Christian soldiers, to put on the breast-plate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation, without which we can never be rightly and duly prepared for our spiritual warfare.
Note here, of what admirable use, faith, love, and hope, are to a Christian; faith fortifies against destructive temptations, love will preserve from apostacy and revolting, and hope will be of universal use unto us in the exercises of our Christian course; it will be a cordial to comfort us, a spur to quicken us, a staff to support us, a bridle to restrain us, a helmet to defend us: Therefore let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v6 On what had been said, the apostle grounds seasonable…
On what had been said, the apostle grounds seasonable exhortations to several needful duties.
I. To watchfulness and sobriety, Th1 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, Th1 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.
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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, Th1 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, Th1 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv5–8 Ye are all children of light,.... Or enlightened persons,…
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:
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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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv6–7 Awake, and keep awake - Being awakened, let us…
Awake, and keep awake - Being awakened, let us have all our spiritual senses about us.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5–8 Verse 5. Ye are all the children of light]…
Verse 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 splendour of his people Israel.
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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v7 1Th 5:7-11. For they that sleep, sleep in the…
1Th 5:7-11. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, &c. — Night is the time for sleep, and they that are guilty of drunkenness, gluttony, and other vices of intemperance, generally choose to hide them under the cover of darkness; and if we were still in the night of heathenish ignorance, and in a state of spiritual blindness and unbelief, our insensibility of divine things, our unwatchfulness, sloth, and indolence would have some excuse: but being of the day — And brought out of darkness into Christian and marvellous light, we have none: let us, therefore, be sober — That is, temperate, chaste, holy, and wakeful, as νηφωμεν signifies; putting on the breast-plate of faith and love — As a defence of the heart, the seat of the passions; and for a helmet — Which will defend the head, the seat of reason; the hope of final, eternal salvation. The breast and head being particularly exposed in battle, and wounds in these parts being extremely dangerous, the ancients carefully defended them by armour, to which the apostle here compares the Christian virtues of faith, love, and hope. In the parallel passage, Eph 6:14, the expression, instead of the breast- plate of faith and love, is the breast-plate of righteousness; to show that the righteousness of a Christian consists in faith and love: a breast-plate which, being of a truly heavenly fabric, will, if put on, and not afterward put off, render the heart, the seat of the affections, invulnerable. The apostle’s meaning, stripped of the metaphor, is this: That, to defend our affections against the impressions of outward and sensible objects, nothing is so effectual as faith in Christ, and in the declarations and promises of his gospel, and love to God and man. The head being the seat of those thoughts and imaginations, on which the affections and passions in a great measure depend, it must be of great importance to defend it against the entrance of such thoughts and imaginations as have any tendency to excite bad affections or carnal desires. But for that purpose, nothing is better than to have the head so filled with the glorious hope of the salvation offered to us in the gospel, as to exclude all vain thoughts, imaginations, and expectations whatever. This hope therefore is most properly and elegantly termed the Christian’s helmet. This exhortation to the Thessalonian believers teaches us that the sons of light must not only watch but fight. See note on Eph 6:11-18.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath — As he hath the finally impenitent, unbelieving, and disobedient: for the design of God in sending his Son was not to condemn but to save the world; and therefore they who are appointed to wrath, are only such as through impenitence, unbelief, and disobedience, reject him and his gospel; but to obtain salvation — Present and eternal; by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ — Who hath procured it for all true persevering believers, whose faith worketh by love; and will assuredly at length bestow it upon them; of which he hath given us full proof, in that he not only became incarnate, and subjected himself to the infirmities of our flesh, and to the many burdens and sufferings of this mortal life, for our sakes, but even died in ignominy and torture on the cross for us; that whether we wake or sleep, live or die, we should live together with him — In other words, That while we live, and when we die, the life and happiness of our immortal souls should be secure in a union with him, which death itself shall not be able to dissolve. Some interpret the expression, whether we wake or sleep, as signifying, “whether Christ come in the night, when we are sleeping on our beds, or in the day, when we are awake and busy in the pursuit of our common affairs.” But, as Doddridge has properly observed, since sleeping had just before been put for death, it seems more natural to interpret this clause as speaking of the state of believers, whether alive or dead: and then it must be considered as containing a direct proof of the life of the soul while the body is sleeping in the grave. “God forbid,” adds that pious divine, “that any should understand these words as intimating that Christ’s death is intended to secure our salvation, whether we take a watchful care of it or not. Yet, alas! the generality of Christians (so called) live as if that were the genuine and only interpretation.” Wherefore comfort yourselves together — Παρακαλειτε αλληλους comfort, or exhort one another, under the various afflictions of life, and edify — Εις τον ενα, each the other; in Christian knowledge and holiness, or endeavour to promote the work of grace in one another; even as also I know ye do — How well would it be, if professing Christians in general would emulate the character which the apostle gives to these believers at Thessalonica, if, “entering into each other’s true interests, as Chandler observes, they would banish from their conversation that calumny, slander, folly, and flattery which engross so much of this short transitory life, and by discoursing of things of substantial worth, endeavour to fortify each other against the snares of life, and those innumerable temptations which lie in wait to ruin us. With what comfort should we meet each other at the great day, were we, on that occasion, able to recollect that in general we had managed our conversation to our mutual advantage? For we should then be sensible that in some measure we owe our glory to our concern for, and fidelity to, each other. Besides, the remembrance of this would enlarge the love of the saints to each other in the future state.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv5–8 Ye are all the children of light - All…
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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv5, 8 You are the children of light. That is, there…
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)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv5–8 The oldest manuscripts read, "FOR ye are all," &c.…
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.
are not of--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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv5–8 5. Children—Rather, sons of light… of the day—That is,…
5. Children—Rather, sons of light… of the day—That is, of a true spiritual light and day.
Night… darkness—The darkness of the advent night would be destructive to none were they not sons of a deeper darkness of soul. But of that deeper darkness you are not sons, and so will not be overtaken or destroyed.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–8 5. Ye are all the children of light, and…
5. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day] More correctly, For you are all sons of light and sons of day. This confirms positively what was stated by way of denial in 1Th_5:4. Those cannot be “in darkness” who are “sons of light.” Light is their native element and abode.
By a common Hebrew idiom, a man is said to be a son of any influence that determines or dominates his character. So there are “sons of Belial” (worthlessness) in the O. T.; and Christ speaks of “sons of thunder,” “sons of the Resurrection,” &c.
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Light is a favourite figure with St Paul: see Rom_13:11-14; Eph_5:8-14; Col_1:12. St John employs it still more frequently; in his Gospel, Christ applies it with emphasis to His Person as well as to His doctrine: “I am the light of the world” (Joh_1:49; Joh_8:12), &c. Both conceptions meet in the words of Psa_36:9, addressed to God: “In Thy light shall we see light.” This natural and beautiful metaphor describes the truth revealed by God to men (1) in its moral purity, as opposed to the darkness of sin (see 1Th_5:7-8; comp. Rom_13:12-13, Joh_3:19, 1Jn_1:5-7); but especially (2) in its saving effect, as the bringer of life, deliverance and joy (Psa_27:1, “The Lord is my light and my salvation;” Isa_40:1-3; Joh_8:12; 2Co_4:6; &c). These two meanings are united in St Paul’s conception. (3) The thought of mental enlightenment also accompanies the figure (see e.g. Eph_1:17-18).
“Day” is here not a mere synonym for “light” in general; it takes up again the “day of the Lord” of 1Th_5:2; 1Th_5:4. Now receiving the light of Christ’s truth and assimilated to it, the sons of light will be ready for “that day.” Christ’s advent will be to them like sunrise after long twilight. It is their birthday, the time of their full redemption and revelation. “The day of the Lord” claims them for its own,—“sons of day,” being “sons of God” and “the resurrection” (Luk_20:34-36). See 2Th_1:7; Rom_8:18-24; Col_3:4.
This the Apostle assumes of “all” his readers; for he counts upon them all maintaining the watchful hope that befits the sons of light.
we are not of the night, nor of darkness] The Apostle passes from the second person to the first (comp. ch. 1Th_3:3-4); he associates himself with his readers in this repudiation of night and darkness.
Night, as the opposite of “day,” is the period, or the state, of ignorance and estrangement from God, which for believers in Christ has passed away. And yet in contrast with the full light which will burst forth on “the day of the Lord,” the present hour is even for them one of comparative darkness and obscuration: see Rom_13:12; Col_3:1-4; 1Jn_3:2. Darkness is the element and empire of night; the condition in which “the rest” (1Th_5:6) live and have their being. Such darkness involves, along with ignorance of God, moral debasement (see 1Th_5:7, and ch. 1Th_4:5) and insensibility (2Th_2:11-12; Rom_1:30; Mat_24:38-40); hence exposure to surprise and ruin (1Th_5:2-3).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–8 (5) Ye are all.—St. Paul recognises no exceptions, no…
(5) Ye are all.—St. Paul recognises no exceptions, no inner distinctions, among the members of the Church: all stand alike so far as grace, privileges, and duties are concerned. The following exhortation shows that it was a matter of each man’s free will whether he would sustain his character as a “child of light” or not.
Children of light.—The expression is an enthusiastic Hebrew poetical turn for intimate vital connection with anything; thus, e.g., “children of this world” (Luk_16:8; Luk_20:34) = “mere products of this age,” with a family likeness for other worldly people; “the son of peace” (Luk_10:6)=a person with whom peace has a natural affinity, to whom the “peace” pronounced will cleave naturally. So “children of the light” are persons to whom darkness is an alien thing, whose natures have a kinship, an intuitive responsiveness for whatever may be called “light.” To such persons the “light,” the “day,” can never come as an unwelcome, startling apparition.
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We.—Notice St. Paul’s courtesy again: he suddenly includes himself in his exhortation.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv5–8 Ye are all the children of the light, and…
Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day. Hebraistic expressions denoting, Ye all belong to the light and to the day. An affirmation, strengthening the previous declaration. The light and the day are synonymous expressions the day being the period of light, as opposed to the night and darkness. We are not of the night, nor of darkness; rendering the positive assertion more emphatic.
Vers. 5-8.
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A warning against watchlessness.
The apostle says that, as children of light and of the day, believers ought to exercise vigilance and sobriety in view of the solemn prospects before them.
I THE SIN AND DANGER OF SPIRITUAL SLEEP. "Let us not sleep, as do others." There are three kinds of sleep spoken of in Scripture the sleep of nature, which restores the wasted energies of the body; the sleep of death; and the sleep of the text, which is always fraught with peril, its prevailing idea being insensibility. The sleeper is:
1. Not aware of his danger.
2. Forgetful of his duty.
3. Unconscious of the real world around him.
4. Immovable to all appeals.
5. May not even know that he is asleep.
II THE DUTY OF WATCHFULNESS AND SOBRIETY. "But let us watch and be sober," so as to be always prepared for the Lord"s coming. We are not to be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, so that that day should overtake us unawares. Let us watch that we may be sober.
1. The reason is that sleep and drunkenness are works of darkness done in the night. They that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night." Those spiritually asleep "sleep through all life"s agitations, beneath the thunders of Sinai, and the pleadings of mercy from the cross." Like drunken men, they are intoxicated with life"s delights, "minding earthly things," occupied supremely with "the unfruitful works of darkness." Believers are not so, into whose heart God has commanded the light to shine out of darkness, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus". (2Co_4:6)
2. Another reason for watchful sobriety is that our life is a spiritual warfare. The believer is to be a sentinel always on guard, or a soldier on the battle-field on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation." As a good soldier, bound to endure hardness, he goes forth into the conflict of life, equipped in Divine armor, not for aggression but for defense. The pieces of armor here enumerated are for the protection of vital parts, the heart and the head.
(1) Faith is the principal part of this spiritual armor. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith". (1Jn_5:4, 1Jn_5:5) It is by faith they resist the devil. (1Pe_5:9) It is by it all difficulties are overcome. (Mat_17:20) If it is by the "sword of the Spirit, the Word of God," we are to conquer, faith is the arm that wields the sword. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews illustrates the power of faith as a principle of action and as a principle of endurance.
(2) Love is joined with faith to form the breastplate, for "faith worketh by. (Gal_5:6) Love preserves from apostasy, and knits the saints together, because it is the bond of perfection, and thus enables us to bear all trial through love to the Redeemer.
(3) The hope of salvation is the helmet. In the corresponding passage in Ephesians, the helmet is salvation.itself; but the difference is not material, the salvation in the one case being partially enjoyed, in the other an object of future hope. Hope is a protection to the believer, as it nerves him to meet danger, and enables him to brave difficulties, by looking to the glorious objects in view. Therefore it is "the patience of hope." Thus the three Christian graces make the soul watchful and ready for the Lord"s coming. T.C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv5–8 Ye are all children of the light
1Th_5:5
Ye are all children of the light
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I.
What it is to be of the night and darkness. This is a fitting symbol of a soul away from God, blind in understanding and heart and will. There is implied in it--
1. Ignorance of God.
2. Wickedness. Men love darkness rather than light, etc.
3. Misery. Days of sorrow are days of darkness.
II. What it is to be children of light and of the day. Theirs is a state of--
1. Knowledge. They are enlightened, having turned the eye of their heart to Him who is the Light of the world.
2. Holiness. As God is clothed with light as with a garment, so are His people clothed even now with the white robe.
3. Happiness. Joy cometh in the morning.
4. Future glory. In Gods light they shall see light. Conclusion: This being the state of Christs people, it cannot be that the day should overtake them as a thief; that day loved and longed for can never come upon them as something unwelcome. (J. Hutchison, D. D.)
Children of the night and darkness
A colonial governor who was about to return to England offered to use his influence with the home government and procure any favour the colonists might desire. The unanimous reply was as startling as the demand for the head of John the Baptist. Tell them to tear down the lighthouses, they are ruining the colony. The people were wreckers. (W. C. Church.)
The children of the day
I. It is evident that all those on whom the true night shines are, in a very important sense, the children of the day. Christendom is the domain of light as contrasted with the early world or the regions beyond. Its very dimmest parts are luminous in comparison with any portion of the world to which the rays of the gospel have not penetrated. None can dwell where the gospel is known without deriving from it great accessions of knowledge on most important and essential questions. What elsewhere is conjecture, surmise, hope, there is certainty. What heathen sages, by the reflection and research of a life, laboured to make probable, the Christian child learns at its mothers knee, and grows up to know and believe with an implicit and unwavering confidence, yea, and many things besides, which the efforts of natural reason were never able so much as to excogitate even into the rudest sketch or outline.
II. But there is a higher sense in which we are the children of the day, as we are baptized into the body of Christ, and made to partake of the privileges of the church. And this also is happily true of most of us; sad to think, that in a land that calls itself Christian, it should be untrue of any. The ancient fathers often called baptism illumination; because it introduced and pledged to its recipients the enlightening influences of the Holy Spirit.
III. There is still another form and grade of illumination, by virtue of which the partakers of it are made in a still higher and more glorious sense the children of the light and of the day. This is that illumination which reaches the heart and the life, and brings them under the practical control of the truth which it communicates. This is the end and design of all inferior illumination. A spiritual illumination, one that takes hold upon the moral and active powers of our nature, quickens the conscience, controls the will, hallows the affections, gives truth supremacy and dominion, and stamps the visible impress of every revelation it makes upon the character and practice, is the illumination that makes us children of the day in the only sufficient sense, and thereupon heirs of salvation. (R. A. Hallam, D. D.)
Children of life and light
I looked from my window this morning across the fields. I noticed a dwelling house whose roof was exposed to the early and cheerful sun. There had been a storm in the night, and snow covered the roof. In an hour the warmth of the sun had melted it, save where the shadow of the chimney fell. That long, dark shade kept firm grasp of the iciness. It gave me a morning lesson, like a text from Scripture. The ice of our lives lingers only where the shadow is. If we have no Christly warmth, it is because we live in the dark. If our love is chilled and our nature sluggish, there is something between us and the light. What then? We must go forth from shadows. The sun shines and its beams are full of life. If we walk in this life the ice will melt, and instead of deathly conditions, we shall become rivers of living water. An army officer was called to the French and Indian war a century and a half ago. He left a wife and five children at home. A fearful throat ailment carried every child in a few weeks to the grave. The wife sat alone and desolate at home. What did she say? I must not stay indoors and weep; I will go into the sunshine. And her neighbours daily said, Madame Binge is in the sunlight again. And this legend of her is told till this day. Christ is the Sun. Shadows do not belong to us. They savour of death. The one aim of God is to make us children of life and light; then follows holy fellowship and hallowed communion. (A. Caldwell.)
Judged by the light we give
In Connecticut recently, the parents of a young lady in a school at Bridgeport sent to her a collection of beetles from Cuba. Among them were two or three specimens known as Elater Noctilucus, or fire beetle of the West Indies. They measure about an inch in length. On each side of the thorax is a large, oval, velvety black spot, like an eye, and some of them have in place of the oval spot two translucent, opal-like spots on the sides of the thorax, and from these at night the insect throws at will a strong light, resembling two tiny electric lamps in full glow. The light from one insect is sufficiently strong to enable one to read fine print with ease. When agitated the insect also gives out a similar light from the tissue between the segments on the under side of the body. The beetles were taken to a photographic artist in the city, who found that the light emitted from them, though of a greenish hue, contained abundant actinic rays by which, with a sensitive plate, he could obtain negatives. After a few experiments he succeeded in taking a picture of one of the beetles by no light but that emitted by the beetle itself. It is too often forgotten that pictures of human character are taken in the same way; every man is judged by the light he gives.
Children of light
We may learn a lesson on this subject from an article in common use--our coals. Long, long ages ago our earth was filled with immense forests of fern trees. It was sunlight that made them grow. Sunlight was bottled up in those ferns. After a while those ferns became our coal beds, and coals are really bottled up sunlight. We put the coals inside the grate, we apply a match, we release the bottled up sunlight, and the light and heat previously latent in the coals warm and cheer us during the dark, cold days of winter. These coals may be described as children of light. The light so played upon them thousand of ages ago that it got into their very nature, so that they only require a little stimulus to pour forth floods of radiance and warmth. And if we believe and walk in Gods light when it visits us, we shall become children of light; the light will get into our inmost natures, so that we shall become fountains of light. (Free Methodist Magazine.)
Light and liberty
Going to Helena I saw piles of boxes and goods on the landing, and I said to the superintendent, Do the slaves buy as much as their masters used to do for them? A great deal more. And what things do they buy? Looking glasses and candles. Looking glasses, of course; candles, however! said
I. What do they want with candles? In the old slave times, a slave was never allowed a light in his cabin unless it were a fire, and the candles became in their sight the signal of liberty, and the moment they were free they said, Give us light. (H. W. Beecher.)
Light within diffuses radiance without
1. In reducing chaos to the order of a well-constituted world the first work of God was the creation of light. And God saw the light that it was good, etc.
(1) Light is indeed an admirable production of the Creator. It imparts beauty to all that delights the eye of man; since, in the absence of light, beauty could have no existence. It brings to the eye all the knowledge and pleasure we derive from a survey of the Divine workmanship, the works of art and the face of man. Its properties are astonishing. It requires only a few minutes to come from the sun, whence, falling in parallel rays, it illumines the face of the earth in the twinkling of an eye. And how admirable its influence in conveying warmth and activity to all things.
(2) It is no wonder that it should be used as an emblem of all that is excellent in the spiritual world.
(a) As revealing the figure, position, and qualities of things light is an emblem of truth, which assigns to everything its real attributes.
(b) Of knowledge, which apprehends and forms a just estimate of things.
(c) Of moral purity, as preserving its own essence without being contaminated with the objects it approaches.
(d) Of true piety, as conveying life and health.
(e) Of the happiness attendant on true goodness, as imparting gladness.
(f) Of God Him self, who is the Father of lights, in whom is no darkness at all.
2. Darkness is the absence of light, and in an ordinary sense its opposite. Here it had precedence of light, and still retains a periodical influence, contributing to the well-being of the universe. But though useful in the physical world, morally darkness is emblematical of all that is evil.
(1) As concealing objects around us, and precluding the right apprehension of them, it is the emblem of ignorance and error.
(2) As favouring the machinations of the wicked and shrouding them from detection it is a metaphor for sin which hates the light.
(3) As associated with danger and terror it intimates the peril and punishment of guilt.
(4) The grand enemy of all goodness, as the deceiver, defiler and destroyer of men is the prince of darkness and his kingdom the kingdom of darkness. The children of light are distinguished--
I. By the knowledge of the truth.
1. As in the material world darkness preceded light and was only banished by Divine command, so ignorance precedes the light of saving knowledge. This was exemplified in the case of the Thessalonians and other Gentiles Having their understanding darkened as to God, duty, destiny. The Jews were better off; but theirs was only a light shining in a dark place. But when the Sun of Righteousness arose it scattered the gross darkness of heathenism and the shadowy emblems of Judaism.
2. But in order to enjoy the light we must have an eye to see, since if that organ be covered with a scale or be injured light will fail of its purpose. Pride and prejudice are a film to quench the intellectual eye in reference to Divine things. For the things of this world man retains the light of intelligence, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
3. The eyes of the children of light have been opened. That which was formerly rejected as fantastical or unimportant has become the one thing needful. Instructed by the Word and Spirit of God light shines within and around; they see the glory of God in the person and work of Christ. The path of life lies open, and perceiving both its difficulties and encouragements they walk on in safety. The love of the truth characterizes them as children of the light. He that doeth the truth cometh to the light, etc.
II. By holiness, in opposition to what is offensive to God.
1. Sins of the life are called works of darkness, and sins of the affection are similarly characterized (1Jn_2:9-11). The darkness of ignorance is naturally associated with vice, and the blindness of the understanding with that of the heart. If the eye be single, etc. If the guide be blind the other faculties placed under his direction will stumble continually; and the guide himself partaker in pravity is led astray by the perverseness of those whom it is his duty to govern. If the mind through prejudice, passion, the allurements of the world, embraces error for truth, good for evil, what can be expected but that, betrayed by its counsellors, it should advance on the road to ruin. And men manifestly walk in darkness. How else can they barter immortality for the shadows of time.
2. The children of the light, however, have the eyes of their understanding enlightened. Gods Word is a light to their feet, etc. The planets, irradiated by the sun, maybe called children of light; so should the believer, irradiated by Christ, let his light shine.
III. By usefulness in opposition to the influence of the workers of iniquity.
1. Error serves only to deceive--sin only to beguile and destroy; and every one who promotes the one or the other injures his fellows. Their influence is as the lengthened night of the Polar regions spreading sterility over the earth, and destroying life.
2. But the children of light diffuse a salutary influence. Not only are they blameless and harmless, they shine as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of life. Such come to be esteemed sure guides. They are as a pilot skilled in the perilous passes of his own rocky course, whose vessel breaks the way, leaving a luminous track, by which the fleet may steer its course in safety.
IV. By a blessedness peculiar to themselves. We all appreciate the advantages of light, and pity those who are deprived of them. But if to one born blind it were an inexpressible happiness to obtain sight should not a purer joy pervade him who is made to behold the imperishable beauties of the spiritual world. (H. Grey, D. D.)
Vigilance and sobriety
The text is for the Lords people; and as they have great privileges to enjoy, so they have great duties to perform, and that, too, distinct from others.
I. Two classes are spoken of in contrast.
1. The children of the night and of darkness. Of ignorance, unbelief, and wrath. They are in the regions of moral rebellion and imminent danger.
2. The children of day and of light. Illumed by the Word and the Spirit of God. Transformed; brought out of spiritual Egypt, and translated into the Divine kingdom. They are now of Gods family--sons and heirs. Hence they have heavenly light within them--knowledge, love, and holiness. Their path is light itself, and it leads to the inheritance of the saints in light. So that while they are on earth, they are the lights of the world.
II. The course of the children of the day. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others.
1. That which they are to avoid. Moral sleep, soul lethargy, conscience slumbering, spiritual drowsiness. This is a state of helplessness, vague and illusory dreams, wasted opportunities, real perils.
2. That which they are to attend to. Watchfulness against the snares of the world, the stratagems of Satan, and the deceitfulness of the heart. As the sentinel at his post; as the mariner on stormy ocean looking for day; as the wise virgins waiting with their lamps burning, so all Christians are exhorted to do.
3. That which they are to be, sober. Physical sobriety--avoiding revelling, banquetting, intemperance, and all tendencies to them, avoiding the very appearance of evil. Mental sobriety--walking in humility and self-abasement, not intoxicated with vanity, nor the praises of men. Social sobriety--avoiding foolish excitements and a vapid and silly conversation. Moral sobriety--seeking even lawful things with moderation, such as the increase of riches and innocent pleasures. Such sobriety includes a well-balanced mind, a serious spirit, and a becoming walk before God and men, and is real, entire, and constant.
III. The motives by which this course is urged.
1. The enemies and perils which surround us. An evil world; a malignant devil; a weak nature, liable to err, and leaning to sin.
2. The sad results which may ensue. Spiritual declension; open apostacy; personal degradation; unutterable misery. Application: The text to be prayerfully considered and solemnly pondered--
(1) In the light of our Christian profession;
(2) In connection with our peace and happiness;
(3) With our usefulness and honour;
(4) With our final acceptance and salvation. (J. Burns, D. D.)
The relation of Christianity to intellectual culture
The text is a declaration of the relation of Christianity to all enlightening agencies. Christians are born of light and day. They walk in the light and are in kinship with all illuminating agencies.
I. The nature and methods of religion necessitate mental culture. It does not and cannot rely upon force or fashion or gain or favour for its propagation in the world. The instances where a Church, secularized by an alliance with temporal power, has endeavoured to use these agencies, illustrate the apostacy of that Church rather than the character of Christianity.
1. Christianity is a spiritual light and force. It is a revelation. Like a newly discovered truth in science or a new invention, it must be tested. And so it appeals to the thought of the world. It is the light of the world. It ignores blind force. Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world, etc.
2. It does battle in the domain of thought, conscience and the affections. In no other way can it secure the conquest of the human will. It recognizes the integrity and dignity of each individual.
3. It believes in one God, the author both of nature and revelation. To its faith every truth of science, every fact of nature is a revelation. If they seem to disagree with the Bible it is stimulated to further research. It is, therefore, the friend of all science and all scientific investigation. Most great scientists have been Christians.
II. The presence of the Gospel a stimulus to mental activity. It is no accident, but in the nature of things that progress, discovery, civilization, wealth and power go hand in hand with a pure Christianity.
1. The great ideas of religion stimulate mental activity. The law of mental development is this: thrust a fact or great idea before a mind, and as the mind contemplates it, in many lights, new ideas are born and the mind expands, enlarges, strengthens. So you teach children in the schools. You give them a fact of physics or history, and as their minds contemplate it they grow. Given the thought, steam possesses an expansive force, and engines are constructed. Show Columbus a carved stick that drifted in from the Western ocean, and a new continent is discovered. A falling apple observed, leads to the discovery of gravitation. Now, by the same law, project upon the mind thought of God, immortality, sin, redemption, judgment, etc., and that mind will wake up to an activity of thought that will make it wiser. It will study conscience, law, evidences, life, responsibility, till it becomes educated.
2. Christianity lifts man into a position that justifies him in trying to become a thinker. If a man lives on the borders of a desert thought to be worthless, he will never explore it. But let him know its mineral wealth and he will soon know it. So with the future. Let the soul have no knowledge of God and righteousness, and it will not awake; but let it contemplate itself as an heir of glory, and how it will wake up. Ask a slave to study kingcraft, and he tells you he has no use for it; but you ask an heir apparent with different result. So the Christian studies Gods ways and Word.
III. Facts confirm these propositions. Christianity has ever been the friend of liberal thought and learning. It originated our educational institutions, and maintains a good many of them. What phenomena are presented in Sunday schools, the Christian press and pulpit! (C. N. Sims, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv5–8 5. Ye are all the children of light. They…
5. Ye are all the children of light. They are of the light, of the day, because they have come to Christ for light, and are taught of him. Hence on this subject they are fully informed. Those are of the night, who turn away from the light and refuse to accept it.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v8 1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians
THE WORK AND ARMOUR OF THE CHILDREN OF THE DAY
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1Th 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’ {ver. 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 goodman 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’ {2Co 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 be 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 Christ, 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!’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv5–8 for ye are all sons of light, and sons…
for ye are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness ;
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v8 (See Scofield "Rom 1:16").
salvation
(See Scofield "Rom 1:16").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v8 General Information:
General Information:
In verses 8-10 the word "we" refers to all believers. (See: Inclusive "We")
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we belong to the day
Paul speaks of knowing the truth about God as belonging to the day. AT: "we know the truth" or "we have received the light of truth" (See: Metaphor)
we must stay sober
Paul compares being sober to exercising self-control. AT: "let us exercise self-control" (See: Metaphor)
put on faith and love as a breastplate
As a soldier would put on a breastplate to protect his body, a believer who lives by faith and love will find protection. AT: "protect ourselves with faith and love" or "protect ourselves by trusting Christ and loving him" (See: Metaphor)
the hope of salvation for our helmet
As a helmet protects a soldier's head, assurance of salvation protects the believer. AT: "protect ourselves by being certain that Christ will save us" (See: Metaphor)
whether we are awake or asleep
These are polite ways of saying alive or dead. AT: "whether we are alive or dead" (See: Euphemism)
build each other up
Here "build" is a metaphor that means encourage. AT: "encourage each other" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
son
breastplate
faith
love
save
God
destine
wrath
lord
Jesus
comfort
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5–8 5:5 As children of the light, the Thessalonian believers…
5:5 As children of the light, the Thessalonian believers were saved from darkness (John 12:36; Acts 26:18; Eph 5:8; 1 Pet 2:9). • of the day: They belong to God’s new order (Rom 13:12). • darkness and night: These refer to an immoral life (see 1 Thes 5:6-8).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.