Chapter 5

1 Now on the topic of times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. 2 For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night. 3 Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,”⁠ then sudden destruction comes on them,⁠ like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape.⁠ 4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would. 5 For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness.⁠ 6 So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation.⁠ 9 For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep, we will come to life together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, just as you are in fact doing. 12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who labor among you and preside over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them most highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish the undisciplined, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient toward all. 15 See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.⁠ 16 Always rejoice,⁠ 17 constantly pray, 18 in everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not extinguish the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 But examine all things; hold fast to what is good. 22 Stay away from every form of evil.⁠ 23 Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is trustworthy, and he will in fact do this. 25 Brothers and sisters, pray for us too. 26 Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss. 27 I call on you solemnly in the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. 28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 59:17 and 1 Thessalonians 5:8

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

Summary

1 Thessalonians uses imagery from Isaiah where God arms himself with righteousness and salvation like armor. In Isaiah, this describes God acting to bring justice, while in 1 Thessalonians people now wear this armor as a sign of their faithfulness.

Passages

Isaiah 59:17

Hebrew Bible

15 Honesty has disappeared; the one who tries to avoid evil is robbed. The Lord watches and is displeased, for there is no justice. 16 He sees there is no advocate; he is shocked that no one intervenes. So he takes matters into his own hands; his desire for justice drives him on. 17 He wears his desire for justice like body armor, and his desire to deliver is like a helmet on his head. He puts on the garments of vengeance and wears zeal like a robe. 18 He repays them for what they have done, dispensing angry judgment to his adversaries and punishing his enemies. He repays the coastlands. 19 In the west, people respect the Lord’s reputation; in the east they recognize his splendor. For he comes like a rushing stream driven on by wind sent from the Lord.

740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

1 Thessalonians 5:8

New Testament

6 So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation. 9 For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep, we will come to life together with him.

41–51 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Thessalonians

References

"... It is interesting that Plutarch the moralist also urges his audience to be awake and sober and contrasts this with being asleep or drunk using these same terms (Prin. iner. 781D). 1 Thessalonians 5:7 is a sort of gloss on, or illustration from ordinary life of what has just been said, explaining that sleepers and those who get drunk generally do so at night. The implication is that Christians are not of the night, nor should they be given to these sorts of “night moves.” “What is true at the level of everyday human experience applies on the religious and ethical plane.” Christians are held to God’s twenty-four hours of daytime standard. Verse 8 states the consequences of being daytime people. We must be awake, sober, and put on the appropriate clothing to deal with the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” Notice the reference here to the famous triad—faith, hope, and love (compare 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Corinthians 13). Here we have the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet is said to be the hope of salvation, seen as something to be experienced in the future, an imagery further developed in Ephesians 6:14–17. In both texts there is an indebtedness to Isaiah 59:17 where God wears the helmet of salvation on his head ..."

Ben Witherington III, The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, and Wesleyanism (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2005), 128.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

1 Thessalonians5 chapters

Compare Isaiah 59:17 and 1 Thessalonians 5:8

Summary

Passages

Isaiah 59:17

1 Thessalonians 5:8

References

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