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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Th_5:4. Ὑμεῖς δέ ] but ye, in contrast to the unbelieving and worldly-minded described in 1Th_5:3.
ἐστέ ] indicative, not imperative; for otherwise μὴ ἔστε would require to be written instead of οὐκ ἐστέ (see Schmalfeld, Syntax des Griech. Verb. p. 143), not to mention that, according to the Pauline view, Christians as such, i.e. in their ideas and principles, are no more σκότος , but φῶς ἐν κυρίῳ ; comp. Eph_5:8; 2Co_6:14; Col_1:12. The expression σκότος , darkness, here occasioned by the comparison ὡς κλέπτης ἐν νυκτί , 1Th_5:2, is a designation of the ruined condition of the sinful and unredeemed world, which in its estrangement from God is neither enlightened concerning the divine will, nor possesses power to fulfil it.
ἵνα ὑμᾶς ἡ ἡμέρα κ . τ . λ .] By ὑμᾶς placed first the readers are fittingly and emphatically brought forward in opposition to those described in 1Th_5:3.
ἵνα is not ἐκβατικῶς in the sense of so that (Flatt, Pelt, Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, Bisping, and others), but τελικῶς : that, or in order that. But the design contained in ἵνα is to be referred to God. Paul intends to say: Ye are not among the unbelieving world alienated from God, and thus the design which God has in view in reference to that unbelieving and alienated world, namely, to surprise them by the day of the Lord, can have no application to you. Why this design of God can have no application to the readers, the apostle accordingly states—