1 Thessalonians 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul writes about the day the Lord returns: it comes without warning, like a thief at night, so believers should stay awake and clear-headed rather than caught off guard. He tells them God has not appointed them to wrath but to salvation through Jesus, who died so they would live with him. The chapter closes with a run of short instructions about respecting their leaders, caring for one another, praying, testing what is said, and holding to what is good, followed by a prayer and a final greeting.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • Concerning the times and the seasons, the writer says the brothers have no need that he write to them
2. 5:2
   • The recipients themselves know accurately that the day of the Lord comes as a thief comes in the night
3. 5:3
   • When people say, Peace and safety, sudden destruction comes upon them at that moment
   • The sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman
   • They will not escape
4. 5:4
   • The brothers are not in darkness
   • The result is that that day should not overtake them as a thief overtakes
5. 5:5
   • The recipients are all sons of light
   • The recipients are all sons of the day
   • We are not of the night
   • We are not of darkness
6. 5:6
   • Therefore we should not sleep as the rest do
   • We should stay awake
   • We should be sober
7. 5:7
   • Those who sleep sleep at night
   • Those who get drunk get drunk at night
8. 5:8
   • We belong to the day
   • We who belong to the day should be sober
   • We are to put on a breastplate of faith and love
   • We are to put on as a helmet the hope of salvation
9. 5:9
   • God has not appointed us to wrath
   • God has appointed us to obtain salvation
   • The salvation comes through our Lord Jesus Christ
10. 5:10
    • Jesus Christ died for us
    • He died so that we should live together with him
    • This holds whether we are awake or asleep
11. 5:11
    • Therefore the recipients are to comfort one another
    • The recipients are to build up one another
    • The recipients are already doing this
12. 5:12
    • The writers ask the brothers to recognize those who labor among them
    • Those same people are set over the recipients in the Lord
    • Those same people admonish the recipients
13. 5:13
    • The recipients are to esteem such people very highly in love
    • The esteem is because of their work
    • The recipients are to be at peace among themselves
14. 5:14
    • The writers exhort the brothers
    • The recipients are to warn the unruly
    • The recipients are to comfort the fainthearted
    • The recipients are to support the weak
    • The recipients are to be patient toward everyone
15. 5:15
    • The recipients are to see that no one repays evil for evil to anyone
    • The recipients are always to pursue what is good toward one another
    • The recipients are always to pursue what is good toward all people
16. 5:16
    • The recipients are to rejoice always
17. 5:17
    • The recipients are to pray without ceasing
18. 5:18
    • The recipients are to give thanks in everything
    • This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning them
19. 5:19
    • The recipients are not to quench the Spirit
20. 5:20
    • The recipients are not to despise prophecies
21. 5:21
    • The recipients are to test all things
    • The recipients are to hold fast what is good
22. 5:22
    • The recipients are to abstain from every form of evil
23. 5:23
    • The writer asks that the God of peace himself sanctify them completely
    • The writer asks that their whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
    • The keeping is unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
    • God is the God of peace
24. 5:24
    • The one who calls them is faithful
    • He will also do it
25. 5:25
    • The writer asks the brothers to pray for the writers
26. 5:26
    • The recipients are to greet all the brothers with a holy kiss
27. 5:27
    • The writer charges them by the Lord
    • The charge is that this letter be read to all the holy brothers
28. 5:28
    • The writer wishes the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be with them
    • Amen

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

"The times and the seasons" is a fixed pair of Greek words, one meaning a stretch of time and the other the decisive moment when something happens. Together they were a standard phrase for "when it will happen and how it will come about," not two separate topics.

5:2

"The day of the Lord" is a set phrase carried over from the Hebrew prophets, where it names the day God steps in publicly to judge and to put things right. Paul's readers heard it as a technical term, not as a vague reference to some day or other.

5:3

"Travail" in 1611 meant the pains of childbirth; it has nothing to do with travel or with hard work in general. Labor pains were a stock prophetic image for trouble that arrives without warning, cannot be called off, and has to be gone through. "Peace and safety" also pairs two words that were familiar slogans of Roman rule, advertising the security the empire claimed to provide.

5:5

Greek and Hebrew both used "son of" or "child of" to say what someone is made of or belongs to, rather than who their parents are. A "child of light" is a person whose whole character and loyalty belong to the light.

5:6

"Sober" in the KJV covers more than staying off drink. It means clear headed, alert, in command of yourself. Verse 7 then plays on the literal sense as well.

5:7

Getting drunk means drinking so much wine you cannot think clearly. Back then people mostly did this at night, after work was done.

5:8

The breastplate and the helmet were the two standard pieces of a soldier's defensive armor, one covering the chest and one the head. The picture is borrowed from Isaiah 59:17, where God himself puts on a breastplate and a helmet.

5:9

"Wrath" here is not a flash of temper. In Paul's letters it is a fixed term for the judgment that falls on the day of the Lord named in verse 2.

5:10

"Wake or sleep" does not repeat the careless sleep of verses 6 and 7. "Sleep" here is the same gentle word for death that Paul used in chapter 4, so the sense is "whether we are still alive or have already died."

5:11

"Comfort" in 1611 meant to strengthen someone or put heart into them, closer to encourage than to console. "Edify" comes from the Latin for building a house, so the two words together mean encourage each other and build each other up.

5:12

"Know them" translates a verb meaning recognize and acknowledge, giving people their proper standing, not simply being acquainted with them. The people described are the local leaders of a young congregation that as yet had no formal titles or offices.

5:14

"Unruly" translates a word from the drill field, used of a soldier out of rank or a line that has broken up. In this letter it points at people who had stopped doing their ordinary work and were living off others. "Feebleminded" in 1611 meant small souled, that is, discouraged or losing nerve. It did not mean stupid or mentally impaired.

5:19

"Quench" is the ordinary word for putting out a fire or snuffing a lamp.

5:20

"Prophesyings" in these gatherings meant speaking aloud a message believed to come from God to the people present. It usually did not mean predicting the future. "Despise" in the KJV means treat as worthless, which is stronger than simply disliking something.

5:21

"Prove" in 1611 meant to test or assay, the way metal is tested to see whether it is genuine. The old sense survives in the phrase "proving ground."

5:22

"Appearance" in 1611 meant outward form or kind, so the phrase means every sort of evil. It is not advice about avoiding things that merely look bad to onlookers, which is what the modern word suggests.

5:23

"Sanctify you wholly" means set you apart entirely for God. "Spirit and soul and body" piles up terms for the whole person; whether Paul means three distinct parts of a human being or is simply saying "all of you, every part," the Greek leaves open, and it has been argued over ever since. "The coming" translates parousia, the word used for the arrival of a king or emperor on an official visit to a city.

5:26

A kiss on the cheek was an ordinary greeting between family members and close friends throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Calling it "holy" marks it as the greeting used among members of the assembly, who treated one another as family.

5:27

"I charge you by the Lord" is oath language, placing the hearer under a solemn obligation. Reading aloud was simply how a letter reached a congregation: copies were expensive and many people could not read, so the whole group heard it at one sitting. "Epistle" means letter.

5:28

"Grace" means generosity that has not been earned, kindness given freely. Ordinary Greek letters closed with a word meaning "greetings"; Paul swaps in the similar sounding word for grace. "Amen" is Hebrew for something like "truly" or "let it be so," said by the group hearing the letter read.