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1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonianschapter 5

28 verses · BSB1 Thessalonians book hub →

Speaks with:Matthew 24×3Ephesians 5×3Hebrews 13×3Philippians 4×3Romans 12×3Romans 13×2

Summary

Chapter summary

Of the times and the seasons ye have no need that I write. The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Ye, brethren, are not in darkness. Ye are all the children of light and of the day. Watch and be sober. Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another. Know them which labour among you. Warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak. Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in every thing give thanks. Quench not the Spirit; despise not prophesyings. Prove all things. Wesley reads the closing as the compact catechism for a waiting church.

Context

Epistle · Paul — 1 Thessalonians overview

  • A. 1–11 A Thief in the Night — but You Are Children of Day
  • B. 12–22 Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks; Quench Not the Spirit
  • C. 23–28 Spirit, Soul, and Body Kept Blameless

The outline

  1. A.A Thief in the Night — but You Are Children of Dayvv. 1 to 11

    Read vv. 1 to 11 →

  2. B.Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks; Quench Not the Spiritvv. 12 to 22

    Read vv. 12 to 22 →

  3. C.Spirit, Soul, and Body Kept Blamelessvv. 23 to 28

    Read vv. 23 to 28 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Faith, hope, and love as one triad

Pattern

Paul binds the three graces into one triad across three letters: now abideth faith, hope, charity; faith in Christ Jesus, love to all the saints, and the hope laid up in heaven; the work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope; and the triad worn as armor.

The triad is Paul's shorthand for the whole Christian life, and the greatest of these is charity. At 1 Thessalonians 5:8 the three become armor, the breastplate of faith and love and the hope of salvation for an helmet.

  1. 1 Corinthians 13:13

    Now abideth faith, hope, charity

    These three abide when prophecies, tongues, and knowledge have served their season; the greatest is charity.

  2. Colossians 1:4-5

    Faith, love, and the hope laid up

    The Colossian thanksgiving runs the same triad: faith in Christ Jesus, love to all the saints, the hope laid up in heaven.

  3. 1 Thessalonians 1:3

    Work of faith, labour of love, patience of hope

    The letter opens by remembering each grace at work in a church a few weeks old.

  4. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 you are here

    The triad worn as armor

    The breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

The coming of the Lord closes every chapter

Pattern

Every chapter of 1 Thessalonians ends on the coming of the Lord: waiting for his Son from heaven, the crown of rejoicing at his coming, hearts stablished unblameable at his coming, the dead raised and the living caught up, and the whole person preserved blameless unto the coming.

A church a few weeks old was taught to live with this horizon. The letter's frame makes the coming of the Lord the ordinary hope of ordinary believers, and 4:15-17 gives the fullest account of the catching up in Scripture.

  1. 1 Thessalonians 1:10

    To wait for his Son from heaven

    The model church turned to God from idols to serve, and to wait for his Son from heaven.

  2. 1 Thessalonians 2:19

    The crown of rejoicing at his coming

    Paul's hope and joy is the Thessalonians themselves, in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming.

  3. 1 Thessalonians 3:13

    Unblameable in holiness at the coming

    Hearts stablished unblameable in holiness at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

  4. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

    Caught up together to meet the Lord

    The Lord himself descends, the dead in Christ rise first, and the living are caught up together with them in the clouds.

  5. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 you are here

    Preserved blameless unto the coming

    Spirit and soul and body preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The world behind this chapter

1 Thessalonians 5
When
The second missionary journey · c. AD 50–51
Where
The closing instructions of a letter meant to be read out loud to the whole gathering
Who first heard it
A house church learning how to run its own meetings without its founders present

The history

'Peace and safety' was not a random phrase. Peace and security was the standing boast of Roman rule, stamped on coins and carved on monuments, the promise that the empire had ended the wars. Quoting it and then saying destruction comes suddenly was aiming at the slogan itself.

The night imagery is practical. Cities were dark; a person out after sundown carried a lamp or stayed put. Burglary was a night trade and there was no police force, so a householder's only protection was staying alert. Roman armies split the night into watches, and soldiers on watch wore the breastplate and helmet named here.

The letter itself was an event. Very few members could read, so a letter was performed aloud by a reader to the assembled group, probably in the largest house available. Paul's charge that it be read to all of them is a charge about who gets included.

The instructions about leaders are the earliest picture in the New Testament of church life running itself: men who work hard among them and look after them, prophecies to be weighed rather than swallowed, and the disorderly to be warned by the group rather than by an apostle.

What it meant to them

For hearers anxious about when the day would come, the answer is that the timing is not their business — their business is being awake. Children of the day do not need to be told the hour.

The closing list gave a leaderless group a working order: respect the ones doing the labor, do not stamp out prophecy, test everything. That is a church being handed responsibility for itself.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on 1 Thessalonians 5. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 8 · The same writer, elsewhere

Paul's own earlier, shorter armor list ('breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation'): same two Isa 59:17 pieces; the strongest internal control on the reading.

Ephesians 6:14→

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed,

biblical text (ASV floor)

This page draws on J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon; James Denney, The Epistles to the Thessalonians (Expositor's Bible); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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