1 Thessalonians 5:6 - Meaning and Application

On what has already been said, the apostle builds timely calls to several needed duties.

He first urges watchfulness and self-control, in 1 Thessalonians 5:6. These two duties are different, yet they support one another. Since we are surrounded by so many temptations to excess, we will not stay sober unless we stay alert. And if we do not stay sober, we will not keep watching for long.

So let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch. We must not be careless, secure, or lazy in spiritual things. We must stay on guard against sin and against every temptation to it. Most people are too casual about their duty and too unconcerned about their spiritual enemies. They say, “Peace and safety,” when they are in the greatest danger. They waste the time that matters for eternity, giving themselves up to empty thoughts and having no more concern for the world to come than sleeping people have for what is around them. Either they do not think about the life to come at all, because they are asleep, or they think about it wrongly, because they are dreaming. But we are to watch and act like people who are awake and standing guard.

We are also to be sober, meaning temperate and moderate. We should keep our natural desires and appetites for the things of this world within proper limits. Sober living is often set against excess in food and drink, and here it especially stands against drunkenness. But it also reaches to every earthly thing. Our Savior warned his disciples to watch themselves, lest their hearts be weighed down with too much food, drunkenness, and the worries of this life, so that the day of judgment would come on them suddenly (Luke 21:34). Our moderation in all earthly things should be clear to everyone, because the Lord is near.

Watchfulness and sobriety fit the Christian life well, because believers are children of the day. Those who sleep do so at night, and those who get drunk do so at night (1 Thessalonians 5:7). It is shameful for people to sleep through the daytime, which is for work, not sleep, or to get drunk in daylight, when so many can see their shame. It is less surprising if those who never had God’s light were lulled into carnal security by the devil, and if they gave themselves to wild living and excess, because it was still night for them. They were not aware of their danger, so they slept. They were not aware of their duty, so they were drunk. But it does not suit Christians to live that way. Shall Christians, who have the bright light of the gospel shining on them, be careless about their souls and forget the world to come? Those with so many eyes upon them should live with special care and good conduct.

The apostle also teaches that we must be armed as well as watchful. We are to put on the whole armor of God. This is necessary if we are to live with the kind of self-control that fits us and prepares us for the day of the Lord. Our spiritual enemies are many, strong, and cruel. They draw many people into their side, and keep them there, by making them careless, secure, and overly bold. They make people drunk, drunk with pride, drunk with anger, drunk and dizzy with self-importance, and drunk with the pleasures of the senses. So we need to defend ourselves against their attacks by putting on spiritual armor. The breastplate protects the heart, and the helmet protects the head. This spiritual armor consists of three great Christian graces: faith, love, and hope (1 Thessalonians 5:8).

We must live by faith, and faith will keep us watchful and sober. If we believe that God’s eye is always on us, that we must struggle with spiritual enemies, and that we are preparing for a world of spirits, we will see why we need to stay alert and self-controlled. Faith is our best defense against enemy attacks.

We must also have hearts warmed by love, and love will defend us too. A true, strong love for God and for the things of God will keep us watchful and sober, and it will keep us from falling away in times of trouble and temptation.

We must also make salvation our hope, and we should have a living hope of it. This good hope, given by grace, of eternal life will be like a helmet for the head. It will keep us from being drunk on the pleasures of sin, which last only for a time. If we have this hope of salvation, we must be careful not to do anything that weakens that hope or makes us unworthy or unfit for the great salvation we expect.

When the apostle speaks of salvation and the hope of it, he also shows what reasons Christians have to hope for it. Notice that he says nothing about earning it. The idea that we deserve salvation is not found in Scripture at all. There is no true basis for hope in that. Our hope rests, first, on God’s appointment: God has not chosen us for wrath, but to obtain salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:9). If we trace salvation back to its first cause, it is God’s appointment. Those who live and die in darkness and ignorance, sleeping and getting drunk as if it were night, are plainly appointed to wrath. But those who belong to the day, and who watch and stay sober, show that they are appointed to obtain salvation. The certainty of God’s appointment gives strong support to our hope. If we had to gain salvation by our own merit or power, we would have little or no hope. But since we receive it by God’s appointment, which cannot fail, for his purpose according to election will stand, we may build a firm hope on it.

Our hope also rests on Christ’s merit and grace, because salvation comes through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. So our salvation depends on Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and our hope depends on it too, just as it depends on God’s appointment. We should think not only about God’s gracious purpose, but also about Christ’s death and suffering. He died so that whether we are awake or asleep, whether we live or die, we may live together with him. For believers, death is only a sleep, as the apostles had already said. The aim is that we should live in union with Christ and in glory with him forever. The salvation Christians hope for is to be with the Lord forever, and one ground of that hope is their union with him. If we are joined to Christ and live in him and for him now, then the sleep of death will not harm our spiritual life, and it will do no harm at all to the life of glory that comes after. On the contrary, Christ died for us so that, in life and in death, we would belong to him, live for him while we are here, and live with him when we leave this world.