Chapter 5
1Thess 5:8
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
We have the “But” return, we are contrasting something again:…“noting an addition to supply what is wanting to elucidate, or modify the sense of the preceding part of a sentence, or of a discourse, or to continue the discourse, or to exhibit a contrast.”
And this “But” is against what and supplying information to what? … (1Thess 5:7) “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.”
“Us”… “of the day”…notice this is the second time he has referenced us with “the day” in contrast to “the night”, but not part of “the day of the Lord” – so “the day” here and being “children of the day” is something mutually exclusive to “the day of the Lord”, and it appears that “they” “of the night” will be associated with “the day of the Lord”.
What should we do? Even though we are not part of that event (the time of Jacob’s trouble: tribulation and the day of the Lord)
“be sober”, (the second time he has said it in this cluster of verses,) sure do not be drunk, drunken, etc. but be “Regular; calm; not under the influence of passion; as sober judgment; a man in his sober senses. Serious; solemn; grave”; be under control of yourself, you are children of the day, of light…be sober.
Phl 4:5
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Keep a due mean between extremes. (it seems to me that the current environment in our culture today is working vary hard to keep people at one extreme or another; drama unfolds everywhere and is thrust down our throats and we are made to bathe in it; it is work to remain “grave”)
And now we run back into our three favorite friends that we ran into earlier in chapter 1: faith, hope and love.
1Thess 1:3
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
We see it in 1 Corinthians…
1Cor 13:13 (‘charity’ is the same as ‘love’)
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
We also see it in Romans…
Rom 5:1-5
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
And Colossians…
Col 1:3-5
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
Now in this verse setting it is “putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation”.
And we keep in mind what these elements are…
Faith is believing what God has said (not our feelings, or imagination, or twisting his words into something that fits our point of view), it keeps us seeing what we cannot see because God said it;
Love is the bond, the glue that holds things together, that produces our service, to give and keep giving by grace; it is like choice put into action.
Hope is the confident expectation of what God said would happen will happen, it keeps us thinking correctly and moving forward looking for the blessed hope.
Now the “breastplate”, as one can guess, covers and protects the chest, the heart, the vital organs – the stuff that keeps you moving. Paul said in chapter 3 he was going to complete something that was lacking in their faith:
1Thess 3:9-10
For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;
Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
It would appear that the two things we (mainly me) have been spending most of our time on:
(1) the catching up of living and dead members of the body of Christ, and
(2) the information about the body of Christ not being involved in the tribulation/darkness/night time/the day of the Lord, is the additional faith components that needed “perfection”. Perfecting that faith, joined with the action and glue of love, should protect the doctrine and walk and sound words of the body of Christ community.
The “hope” is put on as a helmet, protecting the head, the brain, the mind, the thinking – not losing the confident expectation of those two truths. The faith and love keep us motivated and on the correct path.
The “salvation” here is the salvation from that wrath that is going to be poured out on those that are going to be subject to it; reference 2 Thessalonians…
2Thess 1:7-10
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
(when, or if, we get to 2 Thessalonians we shall see that the Thessalonians appeared to let the helmet slip off their head)
Grace and Peace James
Watch, be sober, suit up as we wait.
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