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1Th_5:10. That by which the acquisition of salvation is rendered objectively possible is the death of Christ for our redemption. However, this objective reason of περιποίησις σωτηρίας appears, according to the verbal expression, here not in causal connection with the preceding; for otherwise 1Th_5:10 would have been attached with the simple participle ἀποθανόντος without the article. Rather Paul adds in 1Th_5:10 simply the fact of the death of Christ for our redemption as an independent expression, in order, by the addition of the final end of His death, to return to the chief reason which led him to this whole explanation concerning the advent, namely, to the comforting assurance that Christians who have already fallen asleep at the entrance of the advent will, as well as those who are alive, be partakers in Christ’s glory.
ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ] for our benefit, not in our stead (Baumgarten-Crusius). See Meyer on Rom_5:6.
γρηγορεῖν and καθεύδειν cannot here, as formerly, be taken in an ethical sense; for in what precedes καθεύδειν was represented as a mark of the unbelieving, of the children of this world, something incompatible with Christians in their character as children of the light. But to understand the words in their literal sense, with Musculus, Aretius, and Whitby, that is, to interpret them of day and night: “whether the advent happens in the day-time or at night,” would be feeble and trifling. It only remains that waking and sleeping here is to be regarded as a figurative designation of life and death, whether we are yet alive at the advent, or whether we are already dead. Accordingly the same thought is expressed in the sentence with ἵνα , generally considered, which is contained in the concluding words of Rom_14:8 ( ἐάν τε οὖν ζῶμεν ἐάν τε ἀποθνήσκωμεν , τοῦ κυρίου ἐσμέν ).[63]
On καθεύδειν of death, comp. LXX. Dan_12:2; 2Sa_7:12; Psa_88:5.
On εἴτε … εἴτε , with the conjunctive, see Winer, p. 263 [E. T. 368].
ἅμα ] does not belong to σὺν αὐτῷ (Hofmann, Riggenbach), but to ζήσωμεν . It here corresponds to the Hebrew éÇäÇã , altogether (Rom_3:12), so that it emphatically brings forward the similar share in the ζῆν σὺν Χριστῷ for all Christians, whether living or dead.
ΖΉΣΩΜΕΝ ] more specific than ἘΣΌΜΕΘΑ , 1Th_4:17; for being united with the Lord is a partaking of His glory. According to Hofmann (comp. also Möller on de Wette), ΖΉΣΩΜΕΝ is designed to denote only a state of life-fellowship with Christ, so that there is indicated by it not something future, but the present condition of Christians. But this weakening of the verbal idea militates against the context of our passage, as it has for its contents questions respecting the advent, and we are reminded of the period of the advent by ΕἸς ὈΡΓΉΝ and ΕἸς ΠΕΡΙΠΟΊΗΣΙΝ ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑς directly preceding. Besides, Paul, if he would have expressed nothing more than “a fellowship of life with Christ, for which the distinction of corporeal life and death is indifferent,” would much more naturally have written ΑὐΤΟῦ ὮΜΕΝ (comp. Rom_14:8) instead of ΣῪΝ ΑὐΤῷ ΖΉΣΩΜΕΝ .
[63] By this parallel with Rom_14:8-9, the objections of Schrader against our passage are settled, who thinks that “the manner in which the death of Christ and His coming again are spoken of, is not similar to what is found elsewhere in Paul, but rather to what Mark and Luke say concerning it. We do not find here the words taught by the Holy Spirit as we are accustomed to hear from Paul, but the words from tradition, such as were at a later period prevalent among Christians!”