1 Thessalonians 5:2

For yourselves know perfectly "For yourselves know:" a turn of expression characteristic of these Epistles; ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:5 (see note), 1 Thessalonians 2:1 (Identical with this), 2, 5, 11; 1 Thessalonians 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:7 (identical).

"Perfectly" is a somewhat vague rendering of an adverb that with verbs of knowingsignifies precisely, or accurately; in Matthew 2:8, &c., it is rendered carefully(R. V.). Possibly the Thessalonians In sending their query had used this very word: "We should like to know more precisely," they may have said, "about the times and seasons, and when the Day of the Lord will be." 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 shows that the Church was full of eagerness about the Second Advent, and even after this caution many of its members continued to listen to those who professed to answer their Irrepressible questions. The Apostle replies, with a touch of gentle irony (comp. note on ch. 1 Thessalonians 4:11): "You already know precisely that nothing precise on the subject can be known, that the Great Day will steal upon the world like a thief in the night!"

the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night More exactly, as a thief in the night, so there is coming a day of the Lord; the definite article is absent in the Greek. Such a Day of the Lord as the Church expected is coming; it is on the way (comp. note on ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:10). The event is certain: whenit will arrive, no man can tell. Even in the act of going away Jesus said repeatedly, "I come," "I am coming to you" (John 14:3; John 14:18; John 14:28; &c.).

The figure of the night-thiefpoints, as the next verse shows, to the effect of the Day upon the unprepared. The simile is taken from the lips of Jesus in His discourse of the Judgement (Matthew 24:43; also Luke 12:39-40, where It is applied In warning to Christ's servants): it is employed by other Apostles, in 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 3:3, &c. It signifies, beside the unexpectednessof the event, its bereaving effect: it brings "sudden destruction" (1 Thessalonians 5:3); the house of the worldling is "broken through."

"The day of the Lord" was a standing designation in the O.T., occurring first in Joel (ch. Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1-2; Joel 2:11; Joel 2:31; Joel 3:14; comp. Amos 5:18) amongst the written prophets and handed down to Isaiah and Ezekiel, denoting the great epoch of judgement which in their age impended over Israel and the surrounding nations, and closed the prophetical horizon. In the O.T. therefore, the Day of the Lord has chiefly, if not exclusively, a judicial aspect. This meaning the expression carries over into the N.T.; and "the day of the Lord" is synonymous with "the day of Judgement" (Matthew 11:22, &c.) often called simply "that day" (Matthew 7:22; Luke 17:31; &c.), also "the last day" (John 6:39, &c.). Moreover Christ ascribes to Himself, "the Son of Man" (Luke 17:24; Luke 17:26; Luke 17:30), what the O. T. in this connection predicts of "the Lord" (Jehovah). Hence St Paul describes the same Day of the Lord as "the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6, &c.). But our Apostle loves to regard the Day on its brighter side, as the time when Christ's glory will be revealed in His people (2 Thessalonians 1:10; Philippians 2:16; &c.), "when He comes to be glorified in His saints and wondered at in all that believed." Now the world is having its day; "this is your hour," said Jesus to those who seized Him, "and the reign of darkness" (Luke 22:53). But that will be the Lord'sday, when the Lord and His Christ will be manifested, and vindicated whether in salvation or judgement, when "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together" (Isaiah 40:5). Afterwards the weekly day of Christ's resurrection came to be called "the Lord's Day," as we call it now (Revelation 1:10) this also a day of Divine vindication, and a pledge and foretaste of the final and perfect Day of the Lord: comp. the connection of the resurrection of Jesus with the Last Judgement in ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and Acts 17:31.

We have already observed a tacit reference under the words "as a thief in the night" to our Lord's discourse on the Judgement; and we shall find others in the sequel. These allusions make one think that the Apostle in his preaching at Thessalonica had surely quoted from Christ's words on this solemn theme. Otherwise, how would the Thessalonians "precisely know" that "the Day comes as a thief in the night"? While in regard to the state of the sainted dead a new revelation was needed (ch. 1 Thessalonians 4:15), on the question of the time of His coming His own well-remembered words were sufficiently explicit.