Commentary on Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians Thessalonians Timothy Titus and Philemon John Calvin (continued)
CHAPTER 5
seen in us. (Isaiah 60:2)
He admonishes us, therefore, that it were an unseemly thing that we should be caught by Christ asleep, as it were, or seeing nothing, while the full blaze of light is shining forth upon us. He calls them children of light, in accordance with the Hebrew idiom, as meaning --- furnished with light; as also children of the day, meaning --- those who enjoy the light of day. 765 And this he again confirms, when he says that we are not of the night nor of darkness, because the Lord has rescued us from it. For it is as though he had said, that we have not been enlightened by the Lord with a view to our walking in darkness.
1 Thessalonians 5:6-10
1 Thessalonians 5:6-10 6. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 6. Ergo ne dormiamus ut reliqui, sed vigilemus, et sobrii simus. 7. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
7. Qui enim dormiunt, nocte dormiunt: et qui ebrii sunt, nocte ebrii sunt. 8. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
8. Nos autem qui sumus diei, sobrii simus, induti thorace fidei et caritatis, et galea, spe salutis:
9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
9. Quia non constituit nos Deus in iram, sed in acquisitionem salutis, per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum:
10. Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
10. Qui mortuus est pro nobis. ut sive vigilemus, sive dormiamus, simul cum ipso vivamus.
6 Therefore let us not sleep. He adds other metaphors closely allied to the preceding one. For as he lately shewed that it were by no means seemly that they should be blind in the midst of light, so he now admonishes that it were dishonorable and disgraceful to sleep or be drunk in the middle of the day. Now, as he gives the name of day to the doctrine of the gospel, by which the Christ, the Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2) is manifested to us, so when he speaks of sleep and drunkenness, he does not mean natural sleep, or drunkenness from wine, but stupor of mind, when, forgetting God and ourselves, we regardlessly indulge our vices. Let us not sleep, says he; that is, let us not, sunk in indolence, become senseless in the world. As others, that is, unbelievers, 766 from whom 765"It is 'day' with them. It is not only 'day' round about them, (so it is wherever the gospel is afforded to men,) but God hath made it 'day' within." —Howe's Works, (Lond. 1822,) vol. 6, p. 294. — Ed. 766"The refuse, as the word {λοιποὶ} emphatically signifies, or the reprobate and worst of men…. The word {καθεύδωμεν}, signifies a deeper or a more intense sleep. It is the word that is used in the Septuagint