Chapter 5
1Thess 5:6
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
The first word in the verse, “Therefore” – what you always have to ask when you see a “therefore” is: what is it there for?
THEREFORE: For that; for that or this reason, referring to something previously stated.
‘And what was previously stated’, we ask ourselves?
“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1Thess 5:4-5)
That we are not of the night, nor of darkness; that we are children of the day, and children of the light; that we are not in darkness; that that day will not overtake us as a thief.
For that reason, don’t “sleep”. Other people are and will sleep, but don’t you.
Now in chapter 4 I went to some effort to show that “sleep” was referring to “dead in Christ”, believers who had died.
I will not make that case here, nor will I make the case for regular physical sleeping for the tired physical body. I will make the case that these are people who are spiritually asleep, in darkness – they have no light. Look at the descriptors surrounding and contrasting:
“watch”, “be sober”, “darkness”, and in the next verse, “drunken in the night”:
1Thess 5:7
For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
Someone is NOT PAYING ATTENTION nor possibly are capable of. They are oblivious, they choose to be oblivious, they just want peace and safety and are not concerned how it comes.
Here is a section of verses in Ephesians covering the same idea – pay attention to the contrasting words to the ‘sleeping’:
Eph 5:13-21
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
Being awake, not asleep, means you have light, you are careful watching where and how you walk, wise and not a fool, not gluttonous or drunk, understanding God’s will, absorbing and exuding his word, giving thanks, submissive to one another, having the fear of the Lord. The opposite is true for those that are asleep.
“they that be drunken are drunken in the night”, they have every wrong thing going for them, adding insult to injury by suppressing their darkened circumstance by numbing themselves to it.
Much like the warning given to the twelve tribes before they went into the promised land:
Deut 29:18-20
Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
This is serious stuff and these people are in a bad way. Someone is going to be on the short end of the wrong stick, and it will be too late, and there will be no escape.
So I say that these people in darkness, of the night, drunken in the night, sleeping, saying ‘peace and safety’ and will get caught unexpectedly are not the believing Thessalonians, is not you and me, is not the body of Christ; I believe these are the unbelieving Jews and false Christianity who will choose the wrong ‘messiah’ after the body of Christ is off of the earth “…a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2Th 2:3-4) They will be thinking they are doing the will of God much like they did in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and Acts, holding on to their religion and temple service, and twisting of the scripture, “For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men,…” Mark 7:8.
But remember, Paul said earlier: (1Thess 5:1) “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.”
Time to do something I think. And what we do, do for the Lord.
1Thess 5:6
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
The first word in the verse, “Therefore” – what you always have to ask when you see a “therefore” is: what is it there for?
THEREFORE: For that; for that or this reason, referring to something previously stated.
‘And what was previously stated’, we ask ourselves?
“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1Thess 5:4-5)
That we are not of the night, nor of darkness; that we are children of the day, and children of the light; that we are not in darkness; that that day will not overtake us as a thief.
For that reason, don’t “sleep”. Other people are and will sleep, but don’t you.
Now in chapter 4 I went to some effort to show that “sleep” was referring to “dead in Christ”, believers who had died.
I will not make that case here, nor will I make the case for regular physical sleeping for the tired physical body. I will make the case that these are people who are spiritually asleep, in darkness – they have no light. Look at the descriptors surrounding and contrasting:
“watch”, “be sober”, “darkness”, and in the next verse, “drunken in the night”:
1Thess 5:7
For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
Someone is NOT PAYING ATTENTION nor possibly are capable of. They are oblivious, they choose to be oblivious, they just want peace and safety and are not concerned how it comes.
Here is a section of verses in Ephesians covering the same idea – pay attention to the contrasting words to the ‘sleeping’:
Eph 5:13-21
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
Being awake, not asleep, means you have light, you are careful watching where and how you walk, wise and not a fool, not gluttonous or drunk, understanding God’s will, absorbing and exuding his word, giving thanks, submissive to one another, having the fear of the Lord. The opposite is true for those that are asleep.
“they that be drunken are drunken in the night”, they have every wrong thing going for them, adding insult to injury by suppressing their darkened circumstance by numbing themselves to it.
Much like the warning given to the twelve tribes before they went into the promised land:
Deut 29:18-20
Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
This is serious stuff and these people are in a bad way. Someone is going to be on the short end of the wrong stick, and it will be too late, and there will be no escape.
So I say that these people in darkness, of the night, drunken in the night, sleeping, saying ‘peace and safety’ and will get caught unexpectedly are not the believing Thessalonians, is not you and me, is not the body of Christ; I believe these are the unbelieving Jews and false Christianity who will choose the wrong ‘messiah’ after the body of Christ is off of the earth “…a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2Th 2:3-4) They will be thinking they are doing the will of God much like they did in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and Acts, holding on to their religion and temple service, and twisting of the scripture, “For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men,…” Mark 7:8.
But remember, Paul said earlier: (1Thess 5:1) “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.”
Time to do something I think. And what we do, do for the Lord.
Grace and Peace James.
No comments:
Post a Comment