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1Th 5:1-28.

THE SUDDENNESS OF CHRIST'S COMING A MOTIVE FOR WATCHFULNESS; VARIOUS PRECEPTS: PRAYER FOR THEIR BEING FOUND BLAMELESS, BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT, AT CHRIST'S COMING: CONCLUSION.

1. times--the general and indefinite term for chronological periods.

seasons--the opportune times

(Da 7:12; Ac 1:7).

Time denotes quantity; season, quality. Seasons are parts of times.

ye have no need--those who watch do not need to be told when the hour will come, for they are always ready [BENGEL].

cometh--present: expressing its speedy and awful certainty.

2. as a thief in the night--The apostles in this image follow the parable of their Lord, expressing how the Lord's coming shall take men by surprise

(Mt 24:43; 2Pe 3:10).

"The night is wherever there is quiet unconcern" [BENGEL]. "At midnight" (perhaps figurative: to some parts of the earth it will be literal night),

Mt 25:6.

The thief not only gives no notice of his approach but takes all precaution to prevent the household knowing of it. So the Lord

(Re 16:15).

Signs will precede the coming, to confirm the patient hope of the watchful believer; but the coming itself shall be sudden at last

(Mt 24:32-36; Lu 21:25-32, 35).

3. they--the men of the world.

1Th 5:5, 6; 1Th 4:13,

"others," all the rest of the world save Christians.

Peace--

(Jud 18:7, 9, 27, 28; Jer 6:14; Eze 13:10).

then--at the very moment when they least expect it. Compare the case of Belshazzar,

Da 5:1-5, 6, 9, 26-28;

Herod,

Ac 12:21-23.

sudden--"unawares"

(Lu 21:34).

as travail--"As the labor pang" comes in an instant on the woman when otherwise engaged

(Ps 48:6; Isa 13:8).

shall not escape--Greek, "shall not at all escape." Another awful feature of their ruin: there shall be then no possibility of shunning it however they desire it

(Am 9:2, 3; Re 6:15, 16).

4. not in darkness--not in darkness of understanding (that is, spiritual ignorance) or of the moral nature (that is, a state of sin),

Eph 4:18.

that--Greek, "in order that"; with God results are all purposed.

that day--Greek, "THE day"; the day of the Lord

(Heb 10:25,

"the day"), in contrast to "darkness."

overtake--unexpectedly (compare

Joh 12:35).

as a thief--The two oldest manuscripts read, "as (the daylight overtakes) thieves"

(Job 24:17).

Old manuscripts and Vulgate read as English Version.

5. The oldest manuscripts read, "FOR ye are all," &c. Ye have no reason for fear, or for being taken by surprise, by the coming of the day of the Lord: "For ye are all sons (so the Greek) of light and sons of day"; a Hebrew idiom, implying that as sons resemble their fathers, so you are in character light (intellectually and morally illuminated in a spiritual point of view),

Lu 16:8; Joh 12:36.

are not of--that is, belong not to night nor darkness. The change of person from "ye" to "we" implies this: Ye are sons of light because ye are Christians; and we, Christians, are not of night nor darkness.

6. others--Greek, "the rest" of the world: the unconverted

(1Th 4:13).

"Sleep" here is worldly apathy to spiritual things

(Ro 13:11; Eph 5:14);

in

1Th 5:7,

ordinary sleep; in

1Th 5:10,

death.

watch--for Christ's coming; literally, "be wakeful." The same Greek occurs in

1Co 15:34; 2Ti 2:26.

be sober--refraining from carnal indulgence, mental or sensual

(1Pe 5:8).

7. This verse is to be taken in the literal sense. Night is the time when sleepers sleep, and drinking men are drunk. To sleep by day would imply great indolence; to be drunken by day, great shamelessness. Now, in a spiritual sense, "we Christians profess to be day people, not night people; therefore our work ought to be day work, not night work; our conduct such as will bear the eye of day, and such has no need of the veil of night" [EDMUNDS],

(1Th 5:8).

8. Faith, hope, and love, are the three pre-eminent graces

(1Th 1:3; 1Co 13:13).

We must not only be awake and sober, but also armed; not only watchful, but also guarded. The armor here is only defensive; in

Eph 6:13-17,

also offensive. Here, therefore, the reference is to the Christian means of being guarded against being surprised by the day of the Lord as a thief in the night. The helmet and breastplate defend the two vital parts, the head and the heart respectively. "With head and heart right, the whole man is right" [EDMUNDS]. The head needs to be kept from error, the heart from sin. For "the breastplate of righteousness,"

Eph 6:14,

we have here "the breastplate of faith and love"; for the righteousness which is imputed to man for justification, is "faith working by love"

(Ro 4:3, 22-24; Ga 5:6).

"Faith," as the motive within, and "love," exhibited in outward acts, constitute the perfection of righteousness. In

Eph 6:17

the helmet is "salvation"; here, "the hope of salvation." In one aspect "salvation" is a present possession

(Joh 3:36; 5:24; 1Jo 5:13);

in another, it is a matter of "hope"

(Ro 8:24, 25).

Our Head primarily wore the "breastplate of righteousness" and "helmet of salvation," that we might, by union with Him, receive both.