1 Thessalonians 5:1-8

1 Thessalonians 5:1

I. The Apostle having disclosed much in the foregoing verses about the Lord's second coming, and the respective shares in its glory which are to fall to those of His people who are then asleep, and those of them who are then alive, and remain, and having shown that the one class will not be more highly favoured than the other, proceeds now to declare to his readers that, having such assured knowledge, they have enough. It is not for them in a spirit of mere curiosity to pry into the times and seasons when these things shall be. Christ has willed it that, certain of His eventual arrival, we should remain in uncertainty as to its destined moment.

II. The path of God's people is as the shining light. It cannot, then, be that that day should overtake them as a thief; the day of the Lord, loved and longed for, can never actually come upon them as something unwelcome disliked, dreaded. The very statement of their character and privilege is thus, on the part of the Apostle, an earnest appeal addressed to them. To those who are watchful, sober, armed, the Saviour's own promise will at length be fulfilled, when He comes in His glory: "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you."

J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians,p. 189.

References: 1 Thessalonians 5:2. R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons,1st series, p. 159; H. P. Liddon, Advent Sermons,vol. i., p. 368. 1 Thessalonians 5:4. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 1; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xxvi., p. 27; R. H. Newton, Ibid.,vol. xxviii., p. 378. 1 Thessalonians 5:5. A. Macleod, Talking to the Children,p. 93. 1 Thessalonians 5:6. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ii., No. 64; vol. iii., No. 163; vol. xvii., No. 1022; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 65; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 137. 1 Thessalonians 5:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:8. T. H. Pattison, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 380.