1 Thess 5:1-11, Protect Your Soul Against Every Wrong Thought.
length: 32:46 - taught on Apr, 20 2023
Class Outline:
Thursday April 20, 2023
It is vital to the health of our spiritual lives that we are reminded of our certain salvation. This means our destiny in heaven as well as the love and providence of God in time.
This means that as a born again believer I can live a purposeful and exciting life of goodness and faith, always with a happy outlook.
There is a dire need of more people in the world who are optimistic in this way. The outlook of our nation and our culture is not a hopeful one. But believers are revealing another kingdom, not made by man, reserved in heaven and coming to earth soon.
Can you and I really be good witnesses for Christ if we are not filled with faith, love, and always having a confident hope for the future?
Our context is 1 Thessalonians. Paul is encouraging them to continue in their love and application of the truth. He is encouraging them while they are facing difficult persecution, showing them that all who live godly must suffer for it. He exhorts them to live sanctified lives, which is God’s will and pleases God. He encourages them further by affirming that those who have died will not miss out on the resurrection, but in fact will rise first. In chapter 5, Paul then uses the imminent return of the Lord to correct any despair over the future [are our persecutors going to get away with it, is this suffering going to go on forever, etc.].
The Day of the Lord is coming and the believer is of the day. We have been saved from all wrath and judgment by God and will enter into the eternal state in resurrection, and thus we will always be with the Lord.
Theme: The Day of the Lord is Coming:
Live vigilantly in the day wearing the proper day armor.
Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; 5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; 6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. 7 For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. 8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
The inner conflict of day and night, light and darkness, awake and asleep, sober or drunk is further enhanced by the need of armor, i.e., the enemy has weapons.
The words “watch” and “pray” should be graven on the shield of every Christian warrior.
For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. 8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober,
Those who sleep and get drunk, do so at night.
“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47 Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The point is being unprepared. Literal drunkenness would make one unprepared, but the warning is broader. We are to walk in the light, doing our Master’s will, being alert, and wearing our armor every moment of every day.
“Let us who belong to the daylight be sober.”
This is also the main point of the parable of the ten virgins:
“Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.”
A lot is made of the identity of the 5 virgins who had no oil. The point of the parable is being alert.
“Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; 35 for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. 36 But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Light: Father, Son, believer, life, path, armor.
How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!
O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance.
Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. 8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
This triad of graces, the Thessalonians have already displayed.
We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father,
He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
As in Eph 6, so here in 1Th 5, the sons of light have to put on the armor of light. As in Eph 6 the armor is linked to the manner of our living and not only in our position as saved and forgiven people possessing the righteousness of God.
The sons of light wear their faith and love like a breastplate. It is as much a revelation to others of who you belong to as much as it is a protection to you. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen (HEB 11:1). Love is serving and giving and witnessing and sacrificing and accepting others.
Hope is a joyous expectation which faith claims as certain. This brings us back around to Paul’s opening statement that the Day of the Lord is coming like a thief. We hope in the coming day of salvation which will be consummated at our death and the coming of the Lord.
So many fiery missiles are shot at our soul that without the hope of our salvation, meaning absolute confidence in it, we would succumb to despair, doubt, and likely quit on the life. But faith is the assurance of things hoped for. We know that Jesus is one day going to make all things right. When we know this, we do not despair, nor are we overwhelmed by the problems and injustices that are always around us.
But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.
“Because God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.”
His death is the means of our salvation. Whether salvation or life be spoken of, the two terms are practically synonymous in the NT usage. This salvation is salvation from eschatological wrath.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Negatively, we are saved from the wrath of the Day of the Lord, and positively we are raised with Christ.
Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
Notice how similar the context of this sentence is to 1Th.
Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
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