1 Thessalonians 5

Text

Textual witnesses

• Papyrus 46
• Papyrus 30
• Codex Vaticanus
• Codex Sinaiticus
• Uncial 0226
• Codex Alexandrinus
• Codex Freerianus
• Codex Claromontanus

  The Need for Wakefulness (5:1–11)

Verse 2

• "For you yourselves know perfectly": It was made plain and evident with high certainty to them either from the words of Jesus Christ, or from Paul's and his co-workers' teaching.
• "The day of the Lord": when Jesus will reveal himself to be "King of kings, and Lord of lords, and the Judge of the whole earth", as he will appear in his glory. This is sometimes referred to as "the day of the Son of man" or "the day of God", also "the day of redemption" of the body from the grave from mortality, and "the last day" when resurrection of the dead will happen, as well as "the day of judgment", when Jesus Christ will come to judge "the quick and the dead".
• "Comes as a thief in the night": when people are unaware that the Lord himself in that day will come, not to the character of the thief, nor to the goal of his coming; but the sudden manner of it, when not thought of and looked for and least expected. Since the Thessalonians knew this full well, it was needless for the apostle to write about the time and season of it that it could no more be known and fixed, than the coming of a thief into any of their houses.

  Verse 8

• "Putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation ": alluding :

Final Exhortations and Greetings (5:12–28)