1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Being Sober-Minded about Jesus’ Return

It is kind of discouraging that Paul doesn’t fill in all the blanks with the Thessalonians about Jesus’ return, doesn’t repeat what he had taught them in person, because they “know with accuracy” all about it. So instead, we have to piece together our information about Jesus’ return from other Scriptures and from inferences in this passage to come to an understanding.

^5:1 Now about the times and seasons of Jesus’ return, brothers and sisters, you have no need for us to write you. ² For you yourselves know with accuracy that the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night. ³ When people are saying, “Peace and safety,” then destruction will come upon them suddenly, just like contractions come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁴ But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, so that this day would catch you by surprise like a thief. ⁵ For you are all sons of light and sons of daytime. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. ⁶ So let’s not sleep like the rest of the world does. Rather, let’s be alert and sober-minded. ⁷ Because those who sleep do so at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. ⁸ But we who are of the day are sober-minded, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, and with the helmet of the hope of salvation. ⁹ Because God has not appointed us to wrath at the judgment, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord, Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us, so that whether we are sleeping in death or awake when he returns, we live together with him. ¹¹ For this reason, encourage one another and build up one the other, just like you are doing.

The Day of the Lord (Day of Yahweh, in the Old Testament) is a huge event in the divine calendar of God’s plan for the earth. It is, in its ultimate form, the day of judgment on the world, and following that judgment, the day of exaltation of believers from Israel and all the other nations. It is the beginning of the kingdom rule of Christ on earth for a thousand years. And it starts with what Jesus calls the “great tribulation” or “distress” or “suffering” (Matthew 24:21).

Paul says his readers don’t need him to write about this because they know it will come like a “thief in the night,” that is, when there is no expectation of it. In fact, the world will be experiencing a time of relative peace and safety when it comes. Robbery victims feel safe until the thief upsets their happy dream. So it may be false confidence that is being felt. But the fact that Paul can say this is a time when everyone is saying, “Peace and safety,” suggests it may be a time of real political peace. And this may be because the antichrist has brokered a peace with Israel, mentioned in Daniel 9:27,

The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.

Paul has just told the Thessalonians that Jesus will return to the air (not the earth) to catch up believers, dead and living, transforming their bodies to be like his (Philippians 3:21). But does Paul see this happening as a start to the Day of the Lord or as something that follows the Day of the Lord? It could be after because he says that his readers will not be taken by surprise by this day arriving, but will be aware and be clothed with faith, love, and the hope of salvation. But that is not necessitated by these words. They could be unsurprised because they recognize that the political peace is not a guarantee of real peace. They are raptured as an inauguration of the Day of the Lord.

If the rapture occurs at the end of the great tribulation, then everyone enters the kingdom in glorified or resurrected bodies. Assuming that glorified or resurrected people do not have babies, there is no explanation for who, in the millennial reign of Jesus on earth, will be the unbelievers who follow Satan in his attack on Jesus in Jerusalem (Revelation 20:7-9). A pre-tribulation rapture makes the most sense, with new believers made during the tribulation who enter the kingdom unresurrected, and thus capable of having children, not all of whom believe.

There will be people saved during the tribulation (Revelation 7:9-14). But it will be true for them as for those raptured at the beginning of the Day of Yahweh, that we are not appointed for wrath but “that whether we are sleeping in death or awake when he returns, we live together with him” (verse 10). We have a great basis for encouraging and building one another up.