2. But when He will come, we know not; let your walk, therefore, be at all times watchful and sober.
1But of [concerning,
ðåñß
] the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write [it be written]unto you: 2for yourselves know perfectly that 3the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when [When] they shall say [are saying] : Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon4 them, as [even as,
ὥóðåñ
] travail upon a woman [her that is,
ôῇ
] with child, and they shall not [in no wise] escape. 4But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that [the,
ἡ
] day should overtake you as a thief. [For]5ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day [all ye are sons of light, and sons of day]: we are not of the night [of night,
íõêôüò
], nor of darkness. 6Therefore [So then] let us not sleep, as do others [as do also the rest]; but let us watch and be sober. 7For they that sleep sleep in the night [by night,
íõêôüò
]; and they that be [are] drunken are drunken in the night [by night,
íõêôüò
], 8But let us, who are of the day [being of day], be sober, putting on [having put on] the breastplate of faith and love, and, for an helmet, the hope 9of salvation. For [Because,
ὅôé
] God hath not appointed [did not appoint,
ïὐê ἔèåôï
] us to wrath, but to obtain [to the obtaining of,
åἰò ðåñéðïßçóéí
] salvation by 10[through,
äéÜ
] our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep [are watching or sleeping], we should live together with Him. 11Wherefore comfort yourselves together [comfort one another,
ðáñáêáëåῖôå ἀëëÞëïõò
], and edify one another [one the other,
åἷò ôὸí ἕíá
], even as also ye do.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. (1Th_5:1-2.) But concerning the times and the seasons, &c.—Here Paul treats of the Advent from the other side, and exhorts us to be at all times composed and ready for the day of the Lord—equally remote from anxious calculation or impatient expectancy: Now He comes! and from the drowsy security which says: Not for a long time yet! How much of erroneous opinion, if any, existed in Thessalonica (but see 1Th_5:2); whether they had caused a question to be put to him, and so forth—on these points we know nothing very precisely. The Second Epistle gives evidence of greater excitement in the church, not as if the First Epistle were responsible for that, but at most the misunderstanding of it, and, in particular, the want of attention to our present section. As here, the two expressions
÷ñüíïé
and
êáéñïß
stand together at Act_1:7, and there too the Lord says:
ïὐ÷ ὑìῶí ἐóôὶí ãíῶíáé
. In like manner Act_3:19; Act_3:21 puts the
êáéñïß ἀíáøýîåùò
by the side of the
÷ñüíïé ἀðïêáôáóôÜóåùò
, &c. (Whereas Mat_24:36 and Mar_13:32 connect
ἡìÝñá
and
ὥñá
). According to the old lexicographers and general usage (see Wetstein), the difference is that
÷ñüíïé
denotes duration, spaces of time, periods;
êáéñïß
, points of time, crises, the times appropriate to a decision, the epochs of a catastrophe. The plural is especially worthy of notice, as pointing to the possibility of a repeated alternation of periods of development and crises of decision, and so to a possibly longer duration. On this subject ye have no need that it be written unto you (see on 1Th_4:9); at 1Th_4:13 the Apostle found it necessary to remedy an
ἀãíïåῖí
; here is a recurrence merely of the need of confirmation, as at 1Th_4:9. They have no need, not because there is no instruction to be given, not because they are already watchful (Bengel), but because, of what was sufficient for them to know, they themselves had already an exact, positive certainty; to wit, not of the when, that being altogether uncertain, but of something quite different, namely, the quality of the Coming, the suddenness of its arrival—the
ïὕôùò
, instead of the
ðüôå
. The
ἀêñéâῶò
would lead us rather to expect a fixing of the time; there is something surprising in this turn: ye know precisely—that the time cannot be known! Indeed, that lies in the nature of the case; the day is to be a surprise to the whole world. There is no determination of the time—only of the signs of the time. This is implied in the distinction: as a thief in the night; at a time, therefore, when the secure are asleep, resting without care. If, instead of wishing to calculate dates, regard is had (and inquiry directed, 1Pe_1:11) to the consideration of the signs (Mat_16:3), this is not forbidden, but required, by the uncertainty of the crisis. The day of the Lord is a synonym of the Advent, 1Th_4:15; but the former expression makes more prominent the idea of the judgment-day, and stands opposed to the time preceding, as of prevailing night. Then too it may be of longer duration than a day of earth, so that one can perceive that the Advent brings the dawn of that day. Already the prophets speak of the day of Jehovah, in which He manifests Himself in His Divine glory; Joe_1:15; Joe_2:11; Joe_3:19 [of the Hebrew arrangement; in the English Bible, 14]; Isa_2:12; Zep_1:15 (Vulg.: Dies iræ, dies illa); Eze_13:5; Mal. 3:2, 19, 23 [English Bible: Mal_4:1; Mal_4:5]. The reference is, indeed, partly to particular, preliminary judgments; but more and more to the conclusive final judgment. In the New Testament Christ is the Lord, who will appear in the day of the Lord, 1Co_1:8, and often. This day comes—oxymoron: as a thief in the night; so it is said of the day in 2Pe_3:10; of the Lord Himself, Mat_24:43 and the parallel passages; Rev_3:3; Rev_16:15;
ὡò êëÝðôçò
is quite strongly resumed by
ïὕôùò
:in such a manner it comes; Hofmann: such is the manner of its coming (not, as Bengel would have it: so as the following verse declares). It comes; the suddenness is not implied in the, present (Bengel); that might mean: surely and in the near future; it is better taken as a doctrinal present: such is the manner of it, without regard to the time, as 1Co_15:35. [Alford: “It is its attribute, to come.” Ellicott: “Its fixed nature and prophetic certainty.”—J. L.] The figure of the thief seems to be an ignoble one; but the Lord is not so nice. The comparison is striking, and describes the coming not merely as something sudden and unexpected, but also as unwelcome, terrifying for the worldly-minded, plundering them of that to which their heart clings, stripping them of their possessions (Hofmann). In the ancient Church there was connected with this comparison the notion, that the Advent would take place in the night, and still more precisely on Easter-night, like the Passover in Egypt; hence the Vigils (Lactantius and Jerome, in Lünemann). It deserves to be noted, how closely the Apostle in his preaching at Thessalonica must have conformed to the eschatological discourses of Christ in Matthew 24 and the parallel passages; though there is no evidence for Ewald’s opinion, that Paul had given the church a written document.
2. (1Th_5:3.) When they are saying: Peace and safety, amp;c.—“
Ὅôáí ãÜñ
would explain the
êëÝðôçò
;
ὅôáí äÝ
would be a transition from
êëÝðôçò
to the description of a false peace: But this will happen precisely then. It is best to regard the description as going forward by asyndeton, and as in its very form representing the swiftness of the occurrence. When they are saying—these for whom it comes as a thief, the ungodly-minded, the people who have no everlasting hope (1 Thessalonians 4); Christians are people of no such drowsy slumberings (1Th_5:4). The human heart longs for peace; but, where it is unreconciled to God, there it lulls itself in treacher ous hopes and semblances of peace, Jer_6:14; Eze_13:10. Peace, and a safety without danger, scil.
ἐóôßí
. In the passages just cited from the prophets
åָáֶèַç
is not added, but in the Sept. Deu_12:10, and frequently, this word is well translated by
ἀóöÜëåéá
. At that very time they are on the point of destruction, which comes on them as a sudden thing (comp. Luk_21:34); as travail (
ὠäßí
for
ὠäßò
, Winer, § 9. 2. note 1);
ïὐ ìÞ
, as in 1Th_4:15. Very suitable is the comparison to a woman with child, and in the prophets it recurs repeatedly, Isa_13:8; Isa_21:3; Isa_26:4; Jer_6:24, and often. The point of comparison is the sudden, inevitable occurrence of the rending pain, the mortal anguish; also perhaps (Calvin, Rieger): that they bear within themselves the cause of their sorrow; but not (as De Wette would have it) the imminence of the Advent, on the ground that a pregnant woman knows, not indeed the day and hour, but yet the nearness of the period. That is not what Paul would here emphasize, but, on the contrary, worldly men are to be represented as taken altogether at unawares; they might know that it is unavoidable, a little sooner or later; but they do not even think of the matter, it falls on them suddenly; moreover, the signs of warning are for them as if they were not, till of a sudden it becomes manifest that they were pregnant with their own ruin. (The view of the Greek interpreters also does not differ from this.) The figure is applied in another direction, when used to depict the pangs of the new birth with their favorable issue, Joh_16:21; Luk_17:33.
3. (1Th_5:4-5.) But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, &c.—Ye, in opposition to those who are saying Peace; brethren, blessed society!
ἐóôÝ
with
ïὐê
, not
ìÞ
, is necessarily indicative. He does not enjoin, but asserts. It is a comforting encouragement: Ye are in such a position, and that by a Divine right, that ye do not have to fear the day as a thief; ye are not in darkness, held fast, abiding. De Wette and others correctly: It is wrong to understand by darkness merely a want of intellectual insight, or simply moral corruption in practice ; both sides cohere throughout in the case of light and darkness. Ye are not therein,
ἵíá
—this is not equivalent to
ὥóôå
[Jowett, Webster and Wilkinson], not even in Gal_5:17; though in the Greek of the New Testament the idea of finality appears to be somewhat weakened (Winer, § 53. 6), it is yet everywhere present in some degree. Here it does not, as Lünemann supposes, indicate the purpose of the Divine punishment, but, as Hofmann expresses it, that the being in darkness would be required in order to such a surprise;—De Wette: in order to have you overtaken;—it would be the unintentional purpose of being in darkness; comp.
åἰò ôü
, 1Th_2:16. Therefore, even if the day does come suddenly, still it brings to you no terror or loss (there is somewhat of greater emphasis in
ὑìᾶò
, over against the secure ones of 1Th_5:3, when, as in a series of uncials, it appears prefixed; yet the Vatican and Sinai manuscripts are for the common position after
ἡìÝñá
). Only on such as are in darkness does the day come as a thief; it is no longer said: the day of the Lord; nor yet: as a thief in the night; because now the day (the day of the Lord, it is true) is put simply as the time of light breaking in on the darkness (Hofmann). The various reading
ὡò êëÝðôáÓ
(not confirmed by the Sinait.) goes farther. Grotius, Lachmann, De Wette, Ewald, favor it as the more difficult reading, the sense being (De Wette), that the time of light, triumphant truth and righteousness, overtakes thieves, who ply their trade in the night; Ewald: On you the day need not come, as on those who creep in the dark, as if ye yourselves were night-loving thieves, robbing God of His gifts and His glory. The variation, however, is too generally neglected by the other manuscripts, versions, and Fathers, and the change of the thought, likewise, is too abrupt, it being only at 1Th_5:5; 1Th_5:8 that we find the transition from the narrower to the wider conception of
ἡìÝñá
. The reading is, therefore, properly rejected also by Lünemann and Hofmann.—for (nearly all the uncials give
ãÜñ
), confirmatory of the previous negative by the opposite positive declaration: all ye are sons of light. He thus expresses his cheering confidence to a church converted with such wonderful quickness: Ye are so indeed on the assumed premises; saints, entered into a condition of salvation; though still deficient, and therefore not without need of fresh incitement (1Th_5:6 sqq.). Sons,
áðé
, is a Hebraism, signifying not merely the fact of belonging to, but descent, a specific nature: who from light have their life, Luk_16:8; Joh_12:36 (comp. Mat_8:12, sons of the kingdom, there indeed degenerate). Light is spoken of in another application in the parables of the virgins, and of the servants with their lamps (Matthew 25; Luk_12:35).—And sons of day; a strengthening synonym, connected with
öῶò
also at Joh_11:9-10; over against night and darkness (chiasmus). It is not generally asked how these synonyms differ. It will be correct to say that day is the time of prevailing light, night the hour of darkness; thus light and darkness denote the nature of the disposition, day and night the corresponding outward circumstances, the ruling power, and so either the kingdom of light (of spiritual discipline) or the dominion of darkness (of ungodliness). Accordingly, where the inner man is in the light, there also is a wakefulness suitable to the dominion of light in bright day; but where in darkness, there he seeks also the night, a dark environment. Here we have the transition from the day of the Lord (1Th_5:2) to day in general. Moreover, the day of the Lord is essentially light, before which no darkness endures (Lünemann); it puts an end, at last, to the darkness. The continuous state of day (
÷ñüíïò
) is by the day of the Lord (as
êáéñüò
) brought to its crowning consummation. Only the man, who is a son of day generally, can expect with comfort also the day of the Lord, which is helpful to that, in which consists the nature of the sons of day, in obtaining the victory.—We are not of night, &c.; we Christians generally; the Apostle includes himself with them (
ἐóôÝ
, C.1 F. G., is a conformation [to the
ἐóôÝ
of the first clause]); the genitive now expresses, according to the Greek idiom, belonging to night (the ruling darkness) or to darkness (in our inner nature); comp. Winer, § 30. 5; 1Co_6:19; Heb_10:39.
4. (1Th_5:6-8.) So then let us not sleep, &c.—On his good confidence: God has wrought His work in you, he now rests the powerful exhortation: Let us also, then, not sleep (Ewald: fall asleep). There is cordiality, and encouragement for the readers, in his including himself with them in this. Of the sleep of sin he speaks also in Eph_5:14; thereby denoting the sluggish, dull, confused nature, unsusceptible of what is Divine, indifferent to salvation; as it is found in the rest (1Th_4:13), those not Christians, the children of darkness.—But let us watch;
ãñçãïñåῖí
, a later word, formed from
ἐãñÞãïñá
, as (
óôÞêåéí
from
ἕóôçêá
. What is meant is clearness of spirit, the freshness of the sharpened sense, vigilant waiting for the Lord, circumspection over against the enemy.—And he sober, is frequently joined with watchfulness, 1Pe_5:8, and often. As intoxication in the literal sense disposes to sleep, so is it here understood in a comprehensive signification. The innate weakness and sluggishness of the flesh of itself inclines to drowsiness (Mat_26:41); therefore should we avoid what would involve us in the guilt of self-stupefaction, and of thus aggravating this tendency. Already Chrysostom remarks on the other side: Sobriety is the augmentation of watchfulness.—For—extends over 1Th_5:7-8, and confirms the summons of 1Th_5:6 : truly it becomes us not, to do as the children of night. In the night they sleep and are drunken; the latter referring to the custom of nocturnal symposia. It is too far-fetched, when Koch and Hofmann would from the first understand the night only figuratively: With those who sleep, and get drunk, it is night; no; when it is night, they do so; Bengel: a die abhorrent. But, of course, what is said in the first instance literally is meant as a simile: Where night surrounds them, there they haunt, and indulge their dull, sluggish tendency; nay more, they make the case still worse, by practices which subject them more and more to the power of darkness.—But let us, as belonging to the day, where light rules, walking in day toward the great day, be sober; here on the tide of the positive exhortation, this only is repeated, which it is incumbent on us to do, lest we deprive ourselves of watchfulness.—Having put on; they who watch are also clothed; they who are called to the conflict are equipped with armor. The inward, courageous preparation is the main thing; but that impels to the use of the right means. As those who have put on, &c., we should shun intoxication, which disables the combatant. The Christian, called to the fight of faith (1Ti_6:12), must be ready for assaults, and watch as a soldier at his post. To put on the new man (Eph_4:24)—the vesture which comes from above, and, remaining not on the outside, swallows up the old nature (1Co_15:54)—is the same thing as to put on Christ (Rom_13:14). That is his adornment, the covering of his nakedness, the robe of righteousness (Isa_61:3; Isa_61:10). But, with reference to the conflict, it is his armor (Isa_59:17; Rom_13:12; 2Co_10:4; and especially, for details, Eph_6:13 sqq.). In the last passage mention is made of the breastplate of righteousness, and, along with that, of the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. In our passage the figure has a somewhat different turn, such figures being developed freely and variously, while the fundamental thought is the same. Here the breastplate is called the breastplate of faith (on which, indeed, rests our righteousness) and love; the genitives are genitives of apposition: consisting in. And, for a helmet (this strictly in apposition), the hope of deliverance, salvation; genitive of the object, as in 1Th_1:3; Rom_5:2. Salvation is to be taken comprehensively, a complete redemption from sin and death. The equipment is here carried out only on the defensive side. Sobriety is of no avail, unless we are armed with faith, love, hope. Sobriety keeps us circumspect—shows us what we have to do; but it is only with faith, &c., that we can accomplish it.
5. (1Th_5:9-10.) Because God did not appoint us to wrath.—He confirms the
ἐëðßäá óùôçñßáò
: we have such a hope; that was the highest point of what was said before. Let us be stoutly prepared, for indeed God wills our salvation. This being God’s will, we may have hope. It is certainly, therefore, a confirmation of 1Th_5:8 (against Hofmann, who translates
ὅôé
by that, and finds in it the substance of the hope, as in Rom_8:21; but there
ἐëðßò
has not its substance, as here (
óùôçñßáò
), already defined). God did not appoint us, the Hebrew
ùׂåּí ìְ
(Jdg_1:28, Sept.), ordained, appointed to (Joh_15:16; 1Ti_1:12; 1Pe_2:8). (Hofmann: brought into being, in order to perish—an unimportant distinction.)—To wrath, that is, to the endurance of it (1Th_1:10; 1Th_2:16; 1Th_4:6). God wills not our destruction, but our salvation. In His entire purpose there is nothing to harm us, and so neither will there be at the appearing of His day.—But to the obtaining of salvation;
ðåñéðïéåῖí
, to make to remain over; in the middle: to save for one’s self (1Ti_3:13); hence the substantive: gain, acquisition (2Th_2:14; Heb_10:39). In a peculiar sense, 1Pe_2:9 : people of the Divine possession [comp. Eph_1:14], Here too Theophylact would understand it thus: that He should keep us as a possession for Himself. But this does not suit the addition of
óùçñßáò
.—Through Jesus Christ, might be connected with
ἔèåôï
, but more obviously with
ðåñéðïßçóéí óùôçñßáò
; Luther: to possess [besitzen] salvation through Jesus Christ. Hence no anxiety in the expectation of the last things.—Who died for us; that is the foundation of our
ðåñéðïß
.
óùô
. as in 1Th_4:14 of our hope; He died for us, for our benefit (
ὑðÝñ
), or on our account (
ðåñß
). Neither one nor the other is precisely equivalent to
ἀíôß
, in our stead. But there may be cases where the
ὑðÝñ
cannot otherwise be accomplished than by a doing
ἀíôß
, e. g.Phm_1:13; and it is really
ἀíôß
that stands in the discourse, Mat_20:28 (comp. 1Ti_2:6). As the object of Christ’s dying, the final aim of the redemptive work, Paul names a powerful consolation in death (thus closing the discussion begun at 1Th_4:13).—That, whether we are watching or sleeping, we should live together with Him. That
ἵíá
, though after a preterite, governs the subjunctive, is explained by Winer, § 41. b. 1. This reacts on
åἴôå
—
åἴôå
, so that here also, as with
ἐÜí ôå
—
ἐÜí ôå
(Rom_14:8), the subjunctive is used (see Winer, p. 263). It is impossible that the watching and sleeping can here be taken in the previous ethical sense, for in the case of sleeping the
ἵòá æÞóùìåí
would be forfeited. To understand it literally [Whitby, and others] would yield a poor result: whether at the Advent we are watching in the day-time or lying asleep in the night. It must therefore be equivalent to the
æῶíôåò ðåñéëåßðåóèáé
and
êïéìᾶóèáé
, 1 Thessalonians 4; in meaning, the same as Rom_14:8;
ãñçãïñåῖí
is in this sense without authority; for
êáèåýäåéí
, comp. Mat_9:24; Dan_12:2, Sept. De Wette finds in this change of senses a violation of the rule of perspicuity. But what the Apostle means has always been evident. Von Gerlach, in deed, remarks, not without reason, that the sleep of death, under which we still suffer, is itself a part of the curse of the sleep of sin. But provided only that we do not
êáèåýäïìåí
in the sense of 1Th_5:6, let us securely
êáèåýäåéí
=
êïéìᾶóèáé
(1Th_4:13). There is in this a certain joyous, triumphant pleasantry: Whether at that time we have our eyes still open, or must previously close them, we are (as the result of Christ’s death) to live together with Him. By
ἅìá
Bengel would understand: Simul, ut fit adventus; but the necessary supplement would be, not: together, when He comes, but: together, when He lives, and that does not suit. Others (Lünemann) take
ἅìá
by itself,=
éַçַã
, all together, one with another (Rom_3:12); and separate from it
óὺí áὐôῷ
; but Hofmann is right in connecting
ἅìá óὺí áὐôῷ
, as in 1Th_4:17; together with Him, united with Him. It may still be asked, whether the statement means: We are now already living in fellowship with Him, and they likewise who are asleep are joined to Him; or: In that day, when His life shall appear, we shall appear as living with Him, whether His coming finds us watching in life, or sleeping in death. But the latter view, it is obvious, brings the thought to a more completely satisfactory termination. Again, as compared with
ἐóüìåèá
(1Th_4:17), the expression
æÞóùìåí
shows a fine, truly Pauline, advance: To be with Him will be the true life out of death.
6. (1Th_5:11.) Wherefore encourage [comfort] one another; as in 1Th_4:18; only here, it would seem, the moral incitement to watchfulness is more prominent. Lünemann finds the idea of consolation, after 1Th_5:9-10, preponderant here also. In the Greek there is no such sundering of the two ideas.—And (as the consequence of the
ðáñáêáëåῖí
) edify one the other, promote one another’s establishment on the foundation laid. Grotius: Monete verbis, ædificate exemplo; but Judges 20 comprehends instruction and example. One another; he does not in the first instance urge official obligation, as if everything was to be turned over on that; rather, that follows first at 1Th_5:12.
Åἷò ôὸí ἕíá
, along with
ἀëëὴëïõò
, is good Greek. To read
åἰò ôὸí ἕíá
is unnecessary, and indeed improper (see, against it, Lünemann).—Even as also ye do, comp. 1Th_4:10. Noble young church, where such things can be said! Calvin: With this addition he avoids the appearance of reproving them for negligence; and yet he has exhorted them, because human nature at all times needs the spur. Go on so! A pithy energy, a morning freshness, a joyous hopefulness, are observable throughout the entire section.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. (1Th_5:1-3.) In exact accordance with Christ’s teaching, the Apostle declines all close definition or calculation of the times, and points instead to the signs, which the disciples of Christ are required to consider. For those secure in their ungodliness there are no signs; on them the thief comes suddenly, the pangs seize them all at once. But they themselves are for a sign to believers who watch and observe. It is the triumph of the cause of God, that even the despisers must render it the service of their testimony. Stupidity in Divine things, security and self-confidence, increase more and more; as it was, says Christ, in the days of Noah and Lot (Luk_17:26 sqq.). They ate, they drank, they married and were given in marriage; thus Jesus does not once upbraid them with the scandalous crimes which they committed, but with that very thing in their way of life which was commendable, but which becomes hideous, when nothing higher can be told of an age; when its whole life is a worldly life, in which God is no longer taken into the account. A great increase of outward power and culture, reliance on science, industry, the conquest of the external world, lead to an arrogance that no longer admits its dependence on God. Les questions de disette ne sont que des questions de transport, they sometimes say. And because the threatened judgment so long delays, people regard it as a fable; mundum statuent æternum (Bengel). But this is just a fulfilment of the prophecy, which gives previous indication of this very disposition.—Vietor: We will therefore carefully avoid saying: The Lord will come within such and such a time; He will come during our life on earth. But we will just as carefully avoid saying: He will not come during our life on earth.—How great is the injury done to the Christian hope by the first of these errors, in consequence of the rebuffs to which it is inevitably exposed, was made plain to many in the year 1836. It is, moreover, quite conceivable, that the course of historical revelation has somewhat changed the form of faith’s expectation, and accustomed many to think more of the day of the individual’s death than of the day of general judgment. The former, as well as the latter, comes on unavoidable, indeed, but unannounced. In this there is certainly a narrowing of the horizon, when regard to the universal consummation is too much lost. It were improper at each text to distinguish: Here the destruction of Jerusalem is meant; here the day of the individual’s death; &c. The prophetic view rather comprehends all judgment under the figure of one day, and yet itself shows us that the fulfilment is distributed over a series of acts. Thus at one time (Rom_2:16), the prospect of the day of judgment is (without discrimination) held out also to the heathen, who yet, according to the complete scheme in the Apocalypse, do not appear before the judgment-seat till the last resurrection; at another time, on the contrary (Joh_6:39-40; Joh_6:44; Joh_6:54), the
ἐó÷Üôç ἡìÝñá
(without the distinction of a first resurrection) is described as the day of resurrection for believers also. We say therefore, that with the Advent the last day appears; but how long and how far it shall reach, on that point there is nothing prejudged; and instead of unprofitable, if not pernicious, calculations, it is the observation of the signs that is helpful in the practical life.
2. (1Th_5:4-5.) The Scriptural ideas of light and darkness are quite different from those of the world. According to the latter, the thoughts become clear through enlightenment of the understanding, the life serene through art and culture; and very many revile the witnesses of the gospel dullards who binder the light, and the faith as a dark view of life. Now a truly evangelical sense will not shut itself in against any kind of knowledge. But (Heubner). The illumination, of which unbelief makes its boast, is darkness. The light of knowledge in Divine things is inseparably connected in reciprocal influence with the earnestness of sanctification; just as, vice versa, the corruption of the will and the blinding of the perception act reciprocally on each other.—Rieger: To be in darkness is to stick fast in ignorance, security, earthly-mindedness, indifference to the Lord Jesus, enmity against the light, repugnance to having one’s hidden things come to the light, and in this condition to be willing to remain (Joh_3:19 sqq.). But God is light, and begets us by the word of truth to be children of light, exciting in the hidden man a delight in the truth, which allows the evil there to be reproved by the light, and that which is wrought in God to be made manifest, thus withdrawing itself from the evil, and establishing itself on the good; and in this way is acquired a pure heart, and a single eye, to which the light is pleasant as its element, and so to a believer as a child of light, even the day, which makes all clear, becomes supportable and desirable (1Jn_1:5; Jam_1:17; Joh_1:4; Joh_8:12; Rom_13:11 sqq.; 1Co_3:13; 1Co_4:5; in the Old Testament, Isa_9:1 sqq.; Isa_60:1 sqq.).—For Christians the day has already dawned inwardly, though it does not yet prevail without. As children of light, they are now already doing that which shall be their everlasting employment, in the day which will make all things manifest. But there is implied an earnest work of renewing, if a man is to rejoice, and not be alarmed, at such a manifestation (Mat_10:26).—It is also too little thought of, how great is the dignity of our calling, that is expressed in the fact, that the highest splendor of earthly glory, even of that of the earthly intelligence, is described as dark night, when contrasted with the brightness that shall be revealed in us; ov’ è silenzio e tenebre la gloria che paasò (Manzoni).
3. (1Th_5:6-8.) The exhortation: Ye are so and so by a Divine right, and know that ye are so; let us, then, also act accordingly! is peculiarly powerful. Just so Rom_6:11-12; Col_3:3; Col_3:5. First: Reckon yourselves to be what the operation of God has made of you; the righteousness of faith, which He imputes to you, do ye also impute to yourselves; then: Walk also accordingly. By this resting on the work of God’s grace the Sisyphus-toil of self-righteousness is abolished, and man is cheered, while at the same time his zeal also is stimulated. Here the exhortation is directed towards watchfulness and sobriety. From the tendency of the new nature, which has come into being through the Divine operation, proceeds watchfulness; and the task proposed is, that we cherish it by vigilance over ourselves, and so strive after a symmetrical and stable character. Intoxication, on the other hand, is an aggravation of the bias of the old nature, for which we ourselves are responsible. It arises from giving one’s self up to worldly glory, to the honors and possessions, the enjoyments and cares, the doctrines and tendencies of those who ask not after God. In 1Co_15:34 the denial of the resurrection is described as a debauch. It is a judgment, when God pours out to a people the cup of trembling. We should seek for holy, Divine reality, not ideal mist and foam of words. Whoever gives himself up to sleep and stupefaction, seeks for the night; that is, he screens and hides himself in the ruling power of the ungodly nature, attaching himself to companions of his own dark character. Where circumstances are suitable, and it is the hour of darkness, he gives his disposition the reins. An apostolic description of sobriety, on the other hand, we read in 1Co_7:29 sqq.
4. (1Th_5:8.) Under the figure of armor, we have here a recommendation of faith, love, and hope, these three, as in 1 Corinthians 13; faith and love, as having a peculiar intimacy of mutual connection, as in 1Th_1:3; 1Th_3:6. Theophylact refers the love to Christ and our fellow-men; Theodoret only to our neighbors, and in such a relation this might be more in accordance with Paul’s usage (Gal_5:6; Gal_5:14; over against 1Jn_4:10; 1Jn_4:19 sqq.). Faith lays hold of the forgiveness of sins, and the strength of Him who is stronger than the world (1Jn_4:4); love overcomes the evil with good (Rom_12:21), and precludes the rise of selfishness, bitterness, wrath, and hatred. The one cannot be without the other. Genuine faith is not a harsh dogmatism; it dwells only in a heart touched by the love of God, so that of necessity love grows out of it. A faith that does not justify itself in the way of love is not the genuine; it is a reliance on notions, instead of a personal trust in the God of grace; and through the inflation of knowledge it lays itself open to the enemy. A love, moreover, that loves not the life that is born of God (1Jn_5:1-2), but spares the ungodly nature, is not genuine love. Only where faith and love are really and intimately one, is the Christian heart (the centre of all inward and outward life) secured within the shelter of this breastplate against all condemnation, against all thrusts of the accuser, against all devilish assaults. And that the blows shall not reach the head, that the Christian is able without fainting to carry it aloft in suffering and affliction, that he should have the power, in steadfast endurance and with clear thought, of looking the enemy boldly in the eye—this comes to pass only when he is helmeted with the hope of an eternal consummation of salvation and deliverance. Deliverance from perdition—such is the Christian’s salvation. Without the hope of it, faith and love also would be maimed. For a God that gave man no eternal hope were at the same time a God, that did not make Him the object of His eternal love, and would be no such God as man could personally trust in.
5. (1Th_5:9-11.) Here again the work of God and man’s doing are intimately conjoined, the former with the latter (see Note 3). By God’s appointment Christ died for us, that we might live with Him. Through Jesus Christ we may and ought to make salvation our own. He has accomplished it, and on this foundation alone can there be any mention of our obtaining it. We do not, however, realize its benefits as a matter of course, ex opere operato Jesu Christi, but only when we allow what he has done for us to work in us. To this end is mutual exhortation directed.
6. (1Th_5:11.) The Scriptural idea of edification is something different from the sickly, effeminate excitement of the feelings, that is spoken of here and there as edifying. The thing to be done is to build the temple of God, to establish it on the right foundation, to fashion and fit stone upon stone (1Co_3:16; 1Co_8:10;Eph_2:20 sqq.; 1Pe_2:4 sqq.; Judges 20). Comp. Zahn, Etwas über den biblischen Begriff der Erbauung, Bremen, 1864. The question concerns the dwelling of God in humanity, and the mutual adjustment, therefore, of living stones for a habitation of the Spirit. This is, on the one side, a work of God, which becomes ever more inward; on the other side, it is man’s labor, with an ever-growing fulness of earnestness, and with spiritual means throughout; both directed to the end that it may some day be said: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men! (Rev_21:3). By word and by walk should we further one another herein. But it is certain that many an occasion, when without being obtrusive we might exhort, comfort, edify our neighbors, is lost by us through shyness and sluggishness, for want of faith and love.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Th_5:1. Zwingli: The Lord hides from us His day, that we may continually watch, and never relax through ease and the immoderate desire of pleasure; Calvin: that we may stand ever on the watch; [Burkitt: upon our watch every hour.... No hour when we can promise ourselves that He will not come.—J. L.]—Roos: Men frequently indulge a prying spirit in regard to truth submitted to them, and would know more than is needful for them.—Heubner: An unreasonable curiosity about that, which God has concealed, always betrays a heart not yet occupied with the man’s concern.—Von Gerlach: Nowhere do the Apostles declare that the time is long.—Diedrich: There is here no use in fancies of all sorts, but much harm is easily done.
1Th_5:2. Te know perfectly, What? That the time cannot be known.—Quesnel: All knowledge respecting the day of judgment consists in believing, that we cannot know it. With this we must learn to be satisfied; it is really sufficient.—Stockmeyer: That the Lord cometh, let us hold all the more firmly in those very times, when there is the least appearance of such a thing ever happening.—To the careless it might be agreeable to know the hour when the thief comes, that they might sleep quietly till then, and have themselves wakened at the time. For such as love the Lord there is no need of knowing it; for He comes, indeed, unawares to them also, but not as a thief, but as a Friend and Saviour.—[If the approach of this day of the Lord is fitly compared to that of a thief in the night, stealing upon us we know not when, “at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning” (Mar_13:35), this seems to preclude the idea of a thousand years of millennial glory before its arrival.—J. L.]
1Th_5:3. Calvin: We regard as fabulous what does not at once meet our eyes.—Their thought is: It will not fare so ill with me; I shall be sure to look out for myself; am sharp enough.—Heubner: The treacherous peace of the unbeliever is founded on an absolute denial of the Divine judgment, or on the hope of its great remoteness. In this peace is involved the shocking consideration, that God is looked upon as an Enemy to be dreaded, with whom one is never happy but when let alone by Him.—Chrysostom: Seest thou how the devil has succeeded in making us our own enemies?—Livingstone found negro tribes who cried: Give us sleep! when they meant peace; and the explanation of it is their dread of nocturnal assaults. But the Christian’s peace must be a wakeful one.—Berlenburger Bibel: There is no surer snare of Satan, than when he is able to suggest mere thoughts of security. Of these is also that: God will not take matters so strictly; He is truly merciful.—Roos: The world would not be helped at all by an exact definition of the seasons and times; it would not believe them, and would sleep on in its darkness.—Stähelin: if, then, thou dost feel no disquiet, and dost perceive no danger, thy misery is so much the greater.—Disquiet the way to true quiet. [Barnes: One of the most remarkable facts about the history of man is, that he takes no warning from his Maker.—J. L.]
Starke: Here in the world the ungodly escape many a deserved punishment, since God looks on, and they who should have punished the wrong often fail to do so; but in that great judgment-day there will be no longer any forbearance.—Heubner: Here man has still the power of withdrawing himself from God, to wit, from God calling, warning, arousing; but whoever thus withdraws himself from Him, will fall into His hands as a Judge and an Avenger.—To flee from God, or to flee to Christ; such is the distinction between a wicked, worldly fear and the salutary fear of God.—Already the precursory judgments are frequently characterized by a sudden precipitation; so the flood, Sodom, Belshazzar.—Rieger: How much better and more advisable is it, to yield one’s self to the salutary pangs of travail, in which a man is born again to a living hope!
[A spirit of indifference to this subject of the Lord’s coming, no proof of piety or Christian wisdom. The topic was full of interest for the children of God in the apostolic age; and the grounds of that interest cannot have been impaired by the lapse of eighteen centuries.—J. L.]
1Th_5:4. It is a strong consolation, when one can truly be reminded of the standing of a believer, wherein by the grace of God he is set.—Calvin: Nulla densior caligo quam Dei ignorantia.—Stockmeyer: The Lord’s return breaks in on the horror of the darkness of sin, whether of a more refined or grosser form, like the clear, all-revealing day, when everything appears in the true light just as it is.—Christians, who can claim the Saviour as their own, are able to say: For us, He may come when He will; we are looking for Him all the time.—It is indeed a great thing to be in such a state of readiness, as is independent of all knowledge about the time and the hour.
1Th_5:5-6. Stockmeyer: Happy the church, to which it can be said: Ye are all of you children of light and children of day! Am I so likewise? How do we come to be so? no otherwise than by a judgment, when we allow ourselves to be judged by the light of God.—Zwingli: We are ashamed to act badly before men, and are not ashamed to sin before God. Such is our wickedness and folly. Where faith exists in force, we shall be more ashamed before the all-seeing God, who is the Eternal light, than if a man saw us.—He who seeks the darkness involuntarily betrays his inward feeling, that he is not yet hidden (Psa_139:11-12).—A special characteristic of the darkness is, that sins are no longer called by their own names.—Berlenburger Bibel: Wickedness must no longer be called wicked, but merely an infirmity.—Starke: The man who has not Christ, the Sun of righteousness, walketh in darkness.—But whoever inwardly walks in the light, for him the coming of the Lord serves to perfect his blessed condition with regard also to what is outward.—Stockmeyer: Blessed thought, that the perfect day is coining, when all darkness disappears, and we shall be altogether light.—[W. Jay: Three distinctions may be here made. Heathens are the children of night.… The Jews were all children of the dawn.… Christians are the children of the day.—Leighton: Base night-ways, such as cannot endure the light, do not become you.… O that comeliness which the saints should study, that decorum which they should keep in all their ways,
åὐó÷çìüíùò
, one action like another, and all like Christ, living in the light... in the company of angels, of God, and Jesus Christ.—J. L.]
1Th_5:6. [Watchfulness and sobriety; frequently thus joined together, and commonly also introduced in immediate reference to the coming of the Lord; comp. Mat_24:42 sqq.; Luk_21:34-36; Rom_13:11-13; Php_4:5; Tit_2:11-13; 1Pe_1:13.—Christian sobriety, not torpor or inactivity.—See John Howe’s sermon on this verse.—J. L.]
1Th_5:7. Eph. 1Th_5:11 : Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.—Luk_21:34; 1Co_5:11; 1Co_6:10; Rom_13:13 : Drunkenness too belongs there; not merely the figurative, but also the literal.—Zwingli: Wine in excess stirs up many a commotion and passion in the body; it is oil in the fire. Similar to it is the deliberate fostering of the passions generally.—Heubner: Drowsiness is contagious.—It drags down like a leaden weight; so likewise in what is spiritual. Criminal outbreaks are not the worst; insensibility for the things of God, forgetfulness of God, proud self-sufficiency are more wicked.
1Th_5:8. Roos: Art thou watching? Art thou sober? Is it day or night with thee? What is most required is, that we regard ourselves and all outward things with a spiritual eye, and avoid filling and loading body and soul with eating and drinking, impotent science, proud conceits, cares, &c.
The Christian’s position that of a soldier.—Rieger: With a warrior much depends on the inward courage and the confident self-possession; but, besides that, much also on the equipment assumed, and the use made of it.—Calvin: Against our powerful foe weapons are needed.—The same: Semivictus est qui timide ac dubitanter pugnat.—Chrysostom: Not even for one brief moment are we permitted to sleep; for at that very moment the enemy might come.—Stockmeyer: We are not at liberty to take our ease, to unclasp the breastplate, and lay aside the helmet; otherwise the enemy spies out the unguarded moment,—Zwingli: Munimentum pectoris adeoque vitæ fides est.—Roos: Art thou clothed with the armor of faith, if a trial or a doubt will disconcert thee? and with the armor of love, if an offence will exasperate thee?
Art thou impatient, when thou findest not thy satisfaction in the world? or hast thou put on the helmet of the hope of salvation?
[Faith and love:—An unloving faith, or a love that springs not from faith, no protection.—J. L.]
1Th_5:9. Roos: God has not made us Christians, servants of His, partners of His kingdom, that we should still after all experience His wrath.—Stock-meyer: The day of the Lord is one of two things, a day of wrath or a day of salvation. [Burkitt: It is the greatest piece of folly imaginable, from the appointment of the end to infer the refusal or neglect of the means.—W. Jay: He has not appointed us to wrath. He might have done it. We deserved it, &c. But to obtain salvation. Four things with regard to this appointment: the earliness of it—the freeness of it—its efficiency—its appropriation.—J.L.]
1Th_5:10. Chrysostom: The mention of Christ’s death shows us whence come our weapons, faith, love, hope.—[W. Jay: How well does the Apostle call the Redeemer “our life”! Three modes of expression: we are said to live by Him—to Him—with Him.—The same: Proof of Christ’s omnipresence and divinity;—the happiness of Christians.… Voltaire more than once says, in his letters to Madame du Deffand, “I hate life, and yet I am afraid to die.” A Christian fears neither of these. He is willing to abide; and he is ready to go. Life is his. Death is his. Whether we wake or sleep, we shall live together with Him.—J. L.]
1Th_5:11. Heubner: It is a rare thing to hear aught about people reminding one another of the last day. The warning voices are regarded as importunate disturbers and enthusiasts.—Theophylact: Dost thou object: “I am no teacher”? Teachers alone are not sufficient for the admonition of all.—Stähelin: Blessed therefore are the congregations, which in Christian order devoutly observe this rule. Blessed also the teacher, who is able on this point to commend his hearers.—That contempt for the teacher’s office is not the right thing is shown presently, 1Th_5:12.
1Th_5:9-11. [The source, the method, and the nature of the gospel salvation.—J. L.]
1Th_5:1-11. This section is one of the pericopes for the so rarely occurring 27th Sunday after Trinity.—Heubner: Christian deportment in view of the last day: 1Th_5:1-6, its nature; 1Th_5:7-8, grounds of obligation; 1Th_5:9-11, blessed results.—Kolb: Most men are pleased with themselves. He whose eyes are opened knows that by reason of the fall we are by nature children of darkness, and only through regeneration are to become children of the light. Our high destination is, to go forth from the darkness, and press forward into light. God already looks on that as in existence, which is only in process of growth.
Footnotes:
1Th_5:1.—[
ὑìῖí ãñÜöåóèáé
. Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson: ye have no need to be written unto. Vaughan better: that anything be written to you. The impersonal form of the Greek is preserved by most of the Latin, and by several German, versions. Comp. 1Th_4:9, Critical Note 1.—Sin.1 Thessalonians 1 :
ôïῦ ãñÜöåóèáé ὑìῖí
; but a correction omits
ôïῦ
.—J. L.]
1Th_5:2.—[Sin. and] most of the old authorities omit [and so Lachmann, Tischendof, Wordsworth, Ellicott. Alford brackets] the article
ἡ
, without change of the sense; comp. Winer, § 19, 1, 2; Php_1:6; Php_1:10; Php_2:16. (Hofmann correctly against Lünemann.)
1Th_5:3.—The
ὅôáí ãÜñ
of the Recepta has in its favor only a few of the older authorities; B. D. E. Sin.2 give
ὅôáí äÝ
but the preference is due to
ὅôáí
, A. F. G., Vv., also Sin.1, as the simplest reading, which afterwards received various glosses, [
ὅôáí
is the reading of Griesbach and the critical editors generally, except that Lachmann adds
äÝ
in brackets.—J. L.]
