E. About The Day Of The Lord (5:1-11)
E. ABOUT THE DAY OF THE LORD (5:1-11)
Paul now turns from the Thessalonians’ concern about believers who have died before the Lord’s return (the Parousia) to the related matter of “the day of the Lord.” The reason for addressing this issue here, however, is not immediately clear. On the one hand, it is quite closely related to what has preceded. The general content is totally eschatological, in which some Old Testament language is intermixed with some of the teaching of Jesus as it comes to us in the Gospels.568 Moreover, verse 10 repeats, with different language to be sure, the key ideas from 4:13-18. Thus, “whether we are awake or asleep” corresponds to the preceding “the living” and “those who sleep,” while “we may live together with him” corresponds to “so we will be with the Lord forever” in 4:17; and verse 11 basically repeats the conclusion of 4:18 about “encouraging one another with these words.”
On the other hand, the present material is clearly not addressing the same issue at all. What has immediately preceded is all about “the dead” (= believers who have died), while the present passage is about “the living” (= how believers are to live in the present). Thus Paul here returns to the “recall” language that dominates so much of the letter through 4:12.569 What is most noteworthy is that the Parousia (“the Coming”) is not mentioned at all; rather, the present section has to do with living in light of the coming “day of the Lord.” The presenting language is about “the times and seasons” with clear contrasts between those appointed to receive (eternal) salvation and those consigned to “wrath.” But the major concern570 is altogether with how the Thessalonian believers are to live in the present, while awaiting the Lord’s return.571
What seems to account for this material, therefore, at least in part, is an attempt by Paul, in light of their present anxiety over some who have died before the Parousia, to remind them of the nature of the eschatological instruction they had previously received,572 and to use this reminder as a way of pressing on them the need for genuinely godly living. He does this in a most fascinating manner. By way of the biblical phrase “day of the Lord” (v. 2), which has to do with God’s judgment on the wicked (the Thessalonians’ opponents in this case, without being mentioned), Paul moves quickly from metaphor to metaphor (day/night; awake/sleeping; sober/drunken) as a way of both encouraging and warning the Thessalonians in their present “between the times” existence and reassuring them of God’s righteous judgment on their enemies.
The net result is an exhortation whose concerns and main elements are easy enough to discern, but whose rapid movement from one metaphor to another gives one reason to pause — and wonder (admire?) — in light of the quickness of the Apostle’s mind. The exhortation itself is in two clear parts (vv. 1-3 and 4-11 [as TNIV]), the first having to do with unbelievers, the second with believers.573 Finally, it should be noted that the concluding affirmations (vv. 9-10) and exhortation (v. 11) appear also to serve as a kind of “lead in” to the series of exhortations with which the letter concludes (5:12-24).
1. The Day of the Lord and Unbelievers (5:1-3)
1 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the574 day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While575 people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on576 them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
What is immediately noticeable in these opening sentences is Paul’s return to the motif of reminding the Thessalonians about some things on which they have already received instruction (see the introduction to 4:1-5:11, pp. 136- 37 above). The surprising feature is the content itself, since the perspective has to do with the day of the Lord in relationship to unbelievers rather than believers. But it is precisely this perspective that dictates how the admonitions that follow will proceed. Whatever else, the coming day of the Lord, which poses a threat only to unbelievers, will nonetheless serve — especially the “thief in the night” metaphor with which it is expressed — as the grounds for those admonitions.
1 With a second “now about” (see 4:9) and his tenth vocative (“brothers and sisters”) Paul moves from the completely new concern taken up in 4:13-18 back to the reminder language that features in so much of the letter to this point. However else we are to understand Paul’s use of “now about” in the present letter,577 it functions here at least as a way of moving on to the next item to be addressed. What we cannot know from this distance is what lies behind Paul’s addressing this issue at all. It could be something that came to Paul from the Thessalonians by way of Timothy,578 in which case Paul would be responding to questions or concerns they themselves had raised. Or it could be an issue either reported to Paul by Timothy regarding the Thessalonian community or simply a matter that Paul himself felt the need to remind them of, given their grief over some who have died before the Coming. In light of his use of the adverb “accurately” in the next clause (“very well” in the TNIV) it is probably the former (something brought to Paul by Timothy). But in either case, in light of their present bewilderment Paul chooses to do two things simultaneously: to remind them of the nature of the Lord’s return and its effect on unbelievers; and thus to reinforce the need for readiness on the part of the believers themselves.
The phrase “times and seasons”579 appears to be something of a stock phrase among early Christians having to do with the events of the End, since that is the context of its several occurrences in the Greek Bible. It is almost certainly to be taken as a hendiadys, where, as this Greek term itself implies, the two words function to express a single idea.580 The fact that its four occurrences in the Greek Bible, including Wisdom 8:8, are all eschatological references suggests that it is a purposely ambiguous phrase to refer to events that belong to God’s final eschatological “wrap-up,” but events whose precise nature belongs to the wisdom and knowledge of God alone. This is made clear in the present instance by Paul’s going on to elaborate what he is referring to in terms of the (eschatological) day of the Lord.
It is of further interest that the first point he makes regarding “the day of the Lord” is that what he is about to say is something they already know; hence on this matter “we have no need to write to you.” But write he will, so this opening clause functions primarily as a way of telling the Thessalonians that what follows is information they have already received. His apparent concern is to reiterate the significance of what they know, which does not have to do with “cooling their enthusiasm,” as some have suggested,581 but with reminding them how they should live in light of its certainty.
2 With an explanatory “for” Paul now offers the immediate explanation as to why he has no need to write regarding “times and seasons.” They already “know very well” about “the day of the Lord,” a clause that has all the earmarks of parental language, where a parent, not for the first time, is about to tell the child something they should know very well but in any case need to be reminded. The clause thus begins with yet another emphatic “you yourselves”582 know, the fourth in this letter. The adverb rendered “very well” in the TNIV,583 which sits in the emphatic first position in Paul’s sentence, perhaps suggests that the issue raised here came to Paul from the Thessalonians. 584 Thus, with what may be a touch of irony, Paul’s point is that what they want to know “accurately” is not something that can be known at all.585 In any case, the content of what they already know becomes the metaphor from which the rest of the passage is a spin-off.
This is the first occurrence of the phrase “day of the Lord” in the Pauline corpus, and it is clear by the way it appears here that it is well known to the Thessalonians themselves. The phrase will occur again in the next letter (2 Thess 2:2) as a primary point of contention within the community, where some have asserted (probably in a prophetic utterance) that the day of the Lord has already come in some way. Thereafter it occurs infrequently, and only in passing rather than as a matter of discussion.586 The language itself comes from the prophetic tradition, where it already had a degree of ambiguity. Apparently at an earlier period it was for the people themselves a day of expectation when Yahweh would come and restore Israel’s fortunes. This is especially the perspective expressed in its earliest appearance in the Old Testament — in Amos 5:18, where the prophet turns the people’s expectation of privilege on its head, announcing that it should be seen as a day to be dreaded because of God’s coming judgment (5:20; 8:3, 9). And this is the perspective that is continued throughout most of the prophetic tradition, although the positive aspect can be found as well, especially in Isaiah (2:2-4; 11:10; 19:18-25; 25:6-9), but as “that day” without the explicit qualifier “of the Lord.”587 The judgmental aspect of the expected “day of the Lord” is what Paul picks up in this passage; but he will also turn it on its head as he goes on in verses 4-8 to make a wordplay on the “day/night” language in this opening clause. In any case, Paul’s immediate concern is merely descriptive, reminding the Thessalonians of what they already know well: that (literally) “the day of the Lord, as a thief in the night, thus it comes.”
Along with matters from the preceding passage, this particular imagery is further evidence that Paul is well acquainted with the Jesus tradition, again as it is found in Luke’s version. After all, the “thief in the night” image does not occur at all in the prophets, but it is found in the teaching of Jesus: “But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into” (Luke 12:39), a passage which is followed immediately with an appeal to readiness because of the unexpected nature of such thievery.588 The point of the imagery both in the Gospel and here in Paul is that Christ’s coming will be sudden and without warning.589
One should also note that “the Lord” in this phrase is now Christ, rather than God the Father. The christological significance of this transfer of language should not be missed. The actual wording of this phrase in the Old Testament is “the day of Yahweh,” which in oral reading in the Jewish community had become “the day of Adonai [the Lord].” This in turn is what the Septuagint translators turned into “the day of Kyrios [Greek for ‘Lord’].” As with prayer addressed to Christ in 3:11-12, this is another moment which demonstrates that a very high Christology was already in place for Paul by the time he wrote this his earliest letter,590 since “the Lord” in his phrase refers as always to Christ, not to God the Father.
3 Although there are several directions Paul could go with the preceding imagery, his immediate concern is to reassure the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord does not pose a threat to them.591 Indeed, the entire passage lacks altogether the kind of “be watchful” language that so often accompanies this theme both in Scripture and in later applications of it in the church. Rather, and quite in keeping with the concern of the passage as a whole — to reassure the Thessalonians regarding the coming of the Lord — the clauses of the present verse are the only mention in this passage of the “downside” of the Parousia; here they serve as a reassurance that this aspect of the Coming exists strictly for those who are not followers of Christ. This, too, is what they “know accurately.”
Paul makes his point about the fate of unbelievers vis-à-vis the coming day of the Lord with a brief spelling out of the preceding imagery. In so doing, he abandons the day/night contrast as such. Rather, it is the unexpected nature of “the thief in the night” that gets a hearing. Borrowing from the prophetic tradition, especially Jeremiah 6:14,592 Paul reaffirms the constant danger in which the unbeliever lives.593 They live as though all were “peace and safety,” especially in a city which owed its present status to the Roman Empire, thus bringing them under the Roman Pax.594 But in living so, and affirming it as “peace and safety,” they have thus disregarded the greater reality of God’s righteous judgments. Paul’s point is that such thinking is illusory. Rather, and now drawing from the Jesus tradition — especially as it is found in Luke 12:39 — Paul reassures the Thessalonians that “destruction will come on them [their unbelieving neighbors] suddenly.”595 Although he uses different language from Luke 12:39 and thus makes a slightly different point,596 Paul’s concern is still very much that of the Lord himself: the sudden and unexpected nature of their “destruction.”597
This seems the more certain when one considers that this application moves a considerable distance from the imagery of “thief in the night” in the preceding sentence. The “destruction” now is apparently envisioned as happening to the individual as such, while its “suddenness” is emphasized by the concluding analogy: the onset of birth pangs.598 In many ways this second imagery is the more fitting, since it emphasizes both the suddenness of the Lord’s coming and the concluding reality that “they [the unbelievers] will not escape.”
One should note finally that the argument of this passage could have gotten by without the sentence that makes up our verse 3, especially so since Paul himself goes back to verse 2 when he actually applies the imagery to the Thessalonian believers in verse 4. In the present case, therefore, it almost certainly exists by way of contrast, not by way of warning. That is, as Paul will go on to say, believers are not going to be among those noted in this sentence. So the question remains, Why say it at all? The answer would seem to be that it allows Paul yet another opportunity to contrast the believers in Thessalonica with those in their city who are causing their present grief.599 In any case, in verse 2 Paul emphasizes the unexpected nature of the Lord’s coming in terms of “timing,” something the Thessalonian believers themselves “know well,” while in verse 3 he goes on to emphasize the surprising and sudden nature of that coming for those who are not expecting it at all.
As the rest of the passage that follows indicates, and as noted above, this reality is intended as a reassurance to the Thessalonian believers, not a threat. What will happen to others as “a thief in the night” is not a cause for anxiety for those who believe; rather, it serves as reassurance that their enemies, the source of their own present afflictions, will eventually “get theirs.” Even so, having made this point, Paul will go on to use this reassuring word to “spur them on” to righteousness.
One of the unfortunate aspects of the emphasis in some North American Christian communities on the Lord’s return is that this passage, which was intended as a word of reassurance and hope for these beleaguered believers, has so often been used by preachers as a threat, so as either to spur believers on to behave righteously or to frighten them so to do. But Paul’s reassurances that follow make it clear that they are not to take it as a threat, but as an encouragement to live christianly in the face of their present hardships. In what follows, to be sure, his aim is to reassure them about their own future, but even there he reinforces his singular concern for them to live as Christ’s people in the midst of their adversity. The greater problem for many of God’s people in the contemporary context of abundance and affluence is to live in this context as Christ’s people, and thus as an alternative to the present world and its values.
2. The Day of the Lord and the Thessalonian Believers (5:4-11)
4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.600 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We601 do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others,602 who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.603 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Paul now comes to the main concern of this section: how the Thessalonians are to live in light of the certainty of the day of the Lord.604 The entire passage is predicated on the language of “day” and “night” from verse 2, which by way of application also become “light” and “darkness”; this in turn is further extended to the activities of “day” and “night,” both “sleeping” or “being awake,” and “sobriety” or “drunkenness.” While the latter imagery (sober/ drunken) seems to move a far stretch from where Paul began in verse 1, he most likely brings it into the picture at this point because of the inherent tension that exists in the day/night, awake/sleeping imagery. That is, being awake during the day and sleeping at night are normal things to do; it is sleeping during the day and being awake at night that would have been unseemly for his culture at large. Thus, to keep the imagery alive, Paul moves on to a nighttime activity that is always pejorative — drunkenness.
The flow of thought can be easily traced. Paul begins with an affirmation about the Thessalonian believers that puts them in sharp contrast to the certain (negative) future, just noted, of those who oppose them. “The day [of judgment]” with its “thief in the night” imagery will not catch believers off guard because they are in fact “children of light and of the day” (vv. 4-5). Since this is so, Paul follows with a brief exhortation for them to live as “day people” (v. 6) in contrast to “night people,” to which he adds a second nighttime activity, “drunkenness” (v. 7). Being “sober” (and alert) leads in turn, and in typical fashion, to yet another metaphor — of military preparedness (v. 8) — where he combines the Christian triad from 1:3 with the imagery of the soldier’s armor from Isaiah 59:17. This leads finally, in rapid succession, to an affirmation of salvation (v. 9) with its final goal (v. 10), and a concluding exhortation (v. 11).
4-5 With the combination of an adversative “but [as for] you” and still another vocative “brothers and sisters” (number 11), Paul brings the Thessalonian believers back into the picture, now in clear contrast to those portrayed in verses 2b and 3 as destined for destruction. What they “know very well” as believers (v. 2) is the coming fate of unbelievers — especially those who oppose them in Thessalonica — for whom the coming of the day of the Lord is totally unexpected. Unlike them the Thessalonian believers do not live “in darkness”; but their opponents do, and they will thus be overtaken by the day of the Lord, in the same way that a thief surprises the unexpecting householder. But there are no surprises for God’s people.
Paul’s second sentence (v. 5a) is then introduced with an explanatory “for,”605 wherein he goes on to spell out in plain Greek the implications of the opening sentence. The Thessalonians do not live “in darkness” be-cause in fact they are “children of the light,” and therefore “children of the day.”606 Thus the contrast is complete, and perfectly balanced. The “day of the Lord” with its coming judgment will not be so for those who are “day people,” and thus people “of the light.” With considerable craft,607 Paul here picks up the inherent contrast in verse 2 of “the day coming as a thief in the night,” which will overtake the Thessalonian opposition. Believers, however, are “day” people, and thus people who live in “the light.”608
What happens next is also typically Pauline — and not because he is unwilling to let the imagery go, as it were. Rather, with a new, now concluding, sentence he brings the comparison full circle by applying it to the Thessalonian believers. He does so again in contrast to their opponents in Thessalonica, “night” people who thus live “in darkness.” At the same time, and again typical of Paul,609 he changes the pronouns from “you” to “we,” so as to include himself, Silas, and Timothy in this reality. Thus you are children of the day and therefore children of light, because we are not “night” people who as such dwell in “darkness.”
6-7 With a strong “therefore”610 Paul proceeds to offer a series of applications of the day/night, light/darkness imagery, in which he basically keeps the imagery intact, but at the same time adds a new wrinkle to their being “day people.” The new contrast, begun in verse 6 and explained in verse 7, is between sobriety and drunkenness, the latter being characteristic of night people. Thus the new “take” on the imagery has to do with the activities associated with day or night. Paul’s first application is straightforward. Given that he and they are not night but day people, “let us not sleep as do the rest, but let us be awake.” Given further that Paul will use the same imagery some years later in writing to the believers in Rome (Rom 13:11-12), one should recognize this for the imagery that Paul intends it to be, and thus not press it beyond his present concerns.
Still in view is the intentional distinction between believers and unbelievers, especially those responsible for the Thessalonians’ present suffering. Now by way of application Paul urges that as “day people” these believers themselves not be found sleeping (during the day, of course). Given its present place in the exhortation, this is imagery pure and simple, which does not carry some further, unexpressed meaning. The believers’ present difficult situation in Thessalonica, not some form of “feverish expectation,” is what drives the imagery. They are “day people,” who are simply being reminded to live as such — the point that will be picked up in verse 8, where Paul shifts images altogether. What prompts the present imagery, and especially the further addition of “drunkenness” as a nighttime activity, is the inherent contrast between themselves as believers and the opposition in Thessalonica. So the point of the contrast is straightforward: Live as believers in Christ in your city, and do so in stark contrast to your pagan neighbors who do not know him.
To be sure, with this application of the imagery Paul has now moved a considerable distance from the presenting phrase in verse 1 (“now about times and seasons”), but not far from his own concerns in taking up this issue. The reason they should have no anxiety about “the day of the Lord” is that it will come as judgment on “night people,” their opponents in Thessalonica. The latter are “the rest,” who are now “asleep,” but will awaken to a day of judgment that is coming. Thus most of what is said in these two verses has to do with “the rest [“the others,” TNIV],” and it appears here as a way of urging the Thessalonian believers to live in a way that stands in stark contrast to that of these others.611
Thus the two nighttime images that characterize the opposition are “sleep” and “drunkenness.” Paul’s application is for the believers in Thessalonica to be the opposite of them: to be “awake” rather than “asleep,” and to be “sober” rather than “drunken,” which has to do with the way they live overall in their very pagan city. All of this is pressed in verse 7 by the emphatic characterization, and thus reiteration, of their opponents as “night people,” those who are “sleeping,” on the one hand, and “getting drunk,” on the other. Inherent in this contrast is the distinctly negative view of drunkenness that recurs throughout Scripture. But drunkenness as such is not Paul’s point here; rather, it is to urge the kind of “soberness” that causes God’s people to live sensibly and uprightly in a world that in its fallenness rejects God, and thus rejects God’s people who stand in such utter contradiction to their worldview, including especially the way of life that proceeds from that worldview. It is this opposite way of life, the way of the believer, to which Paul turns next in the final exhortation of the passage.
8 With this very long sentence (vv. 8-10) Paul now brings the present exhortation to its fitting conclusion. He begins (v. 8) with a direct, hortatory application of the preceding imagery; then in typically Pauline fashion (v. 9) he offers the theological/experiential grounds for the exhortation, and concludes (v. 10) with a final purpose clause reminding them of the eschatological goal of the work of Christ for those who believe. All of this leads to a final, twofold exhortation (v. 11) intended to comfort and encourage them — and perhaps also intended to serve as the concluding word to all of 4:1-5:10.
Thus, by going back to the affirmation in our verse 5, Paul moves toward his conclusion with the reassertion that “we belong to the day.” At the same time, and for understandable reasons, he abandons the former set of metaphors (day/night, awake/sleeping), which are not inherently pejorative, for the latter set (sober/drunken), which is altogether so, and urges, “let us be sober.” But right at this point he also makes a sudden shift of images that will require the Thessalonians to be alert at another level as well. For what happens next is a finely woven texture of three different matters: a pickup of the imagery of being sober; a shift to military imagery; and a return to the triad of “faith, love, and hope” which was the substance of the opening thanksgiving in 1:3.612
The clause thus begins with a repetition of the second (and final) verb in verse 6: “let us be sober.” But the contrast with which this imagery began — between believers and unbelievers, the latter being “night people” and thus also given to “drunkenness” — is now lost sight of altogether as Paul focuses singularly on the Thessalonian believers themselves. He does this by a most unexpected shift of metaphors, from sobriety vis-à-vis drunkenness to that of the soldier outfitted for combat. Thus, reflecting on the military imagery of Isaiah 59:17, where Yahweh clothes himself in military armor as he sets out to achieve justice,613 Paul picks up on the breastplate and helmet, both of which, as is often pointed out,614 are for defense, not weaponry. In doing so Paul substitutes “faith and love” for Isaiah’s “righteousness” and adds “hope” to Isaiah’s “helmet of salvation.” Thus he settles for a new image altogether: the believer’s helmet having to do with with one’s hope of salvation. But as always in Paul, “hope” is not, as it often is in English, a kind of watered-down wishfulness about the future (as in “I hope so” but have no certainty). Rather, for Paul this is a “content” word, full of assurance of the absolute certainty of the believer’s future, predicated on the death and resurrection of Christ. Thus the phrase “hope of salvation” does not refer to a vague “hope” for salvation in the future; rather, this phrase has to do with one’s certain future based on God’s saving work effected by Christ.
Although it is true that with these words Paul has come a long way from verse 1 as far as his use of imagery is concerned, nonetheless his desire regarding the Thessalonians remains steady throughout: that in contrast to their opponents, who are destined for destruction, the believers in Thessalonica be on constant alert (= live righteously) as they await their final salvation at the coming of the Lord. To these matters, therefore, Paul returns as he brings this long exhortation to its conclusion, first (vv. 9-10a) by way of a clause that offers the theological reason for their constantly being on the alert, and second (v. 10b) with a final purpose clause that ties the entire passage together. And further typical of Paul, what generates the concluding clause is the language, “hope of salvation,” since this is the term which Paul now moves on to elaborate, both as a reminder and as grounds for their hope.
9-10a With this causal clause Paul now does two things at once. First, he again grounds the Thessalonian believers on God and Christ, and second, he thereby once more reminds them of the ultimate reason for their living in hope. The hope is expressed with a typical (for Paul) “not/but” contrast, in which the ultimate end of all peoples is spelled out in terms of “wrath” and “salvation.” Thus with these words Paul instinctively (on the basis of the word “hope”) shifts from life in the present toward the life of the future, which comes to fruition in the final purpose clause at the end of the sentence (v. 10b). Everything is predicated on the fact that the eternal God, who has offered redemption through Christ the Son, “appoints [or ‘consigns’]615 us” for one destiny or the other.
The one destiny, to which God’s people are not “appointed,” is expressed in terms of “wrath.”616 This biblical term does not refer to an emotional response on God’s part toward those who reject him, but to the retributive justice that is the (necessary) corollary of their rejection of God’s grace and mercy. In using this language, therefore, Paul is once more reflecting his deep indebtedness to the Old Testament, where this term is used regularly in the Septuagint to refer to the retributive dimension of God’s justice.617 The good news for the Thessalonian believers and Paul (note the continuing “us”) — and for all who believe — is that this is not the destiny of those who by grace are God’s own children.
The contrasting destiny, the one to which God’s people are appointed, is expressed in terms of “for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” where the phrase “for obtaining salvation” stands in immediate and direct contrast to “for wrath.”618 The striking feature is the addition of “obtaining,” a word whose only other occurrence in this verbal sense in the Pauline corpus is found in the next letter (2 Thess 2:14).619 What is “striking” about it is that at first blush it seems quite unnecessary. That is, Paul could easily have kept the contrast tight by saying “not for wrath but for salvation,” which is in fact the point of the clause. The addition of the noun “obtaining” thus puts the emphasis not on the goal (salvation as such), but on the Thessalonian believers’ actually realizing it. Their true destiny is to “obtain/ realize” the salvation that God has provided for them (and us) through Christ, and has appointed them/us to receive.
But having said that, Paul is not finished with his sentence,620 since in typical fashion the mention of “our Lord Jesus Christ” in a context like this calls for the additional modifier, “who died for us.” On any view,621 this is the earliest occurrence of this specific language in Paul’s letters.622 The preposition “for” here means “on behalf of,” thus pointing to Christ’s death as having happened specifically “for our sakes.” As such this final participial phrase serves to bookend the present clause (vv. 9b-10a in Greek) with the opening phrase “for the obtaining of salvation,” which in turn serves as the spin-off elaboration of the preceding phrase, “the helmet of the hope of salvation.” Thus this clause presents us with all the essential data for Paul’s understanding of “salvation in Christ.” In Paul’s own order — the goal: “the obtaining of salvation”; the agent: “through our Lord Jesus Christ”; and the means: “who died on our behalf.” It is of some interest that this is the only passage in the letter that spells out the primary theological concerns of the Apostle. It is thus also the clear evidence that such theology had long been in place before this letter was written. In many ways this is quintessential Paul, who began his exhortation with warfare imagery taken from Isaiah 59:17, and whose final phrase, “the helmet of the hope of salvation,” is what is being elaborated here.
10b But Paul’s sentence, and thus his present concern for the Thessalonians, is not completed. The finishing touch comes by way of a purpose clause, which simultaneously brings closure to the present sentence as well as to the entire paragraph that began in verse 1. The purpose of Christ’s death “for us,” just noted in the preceding clause, is “that we might live with him” eternally, words which also echo the conclusion of the preceding passage (“so will we be with him forever”). But this theological and experiential reality is expressed here precisely to bring the present explanation-turned-exhortation to its fitting conclusion. Thus the clause opens by picking up the language of concern from the preceding exhortations. Paul’s point is found in the duplicate “whether” clauses with which he begins, where he picks up the two contrasting verbs in verse 6: “whether we are awake,” or “whether we are asleep.” But here, and in typical fashion for the Apostle, he uses them in a quite different way. Thus, whether believers are living at the time of the Parousia or have previously died ,
623 they have the same destiny.
At the same time, of course, this clause also serves to bring closure to the preceding issue addressed in 4:13-18. The concern there had to do with believers who are now “sleeping”; the concern here is with believers who are now living, or at least who are living at the time of Christ’s coming. This concern is addressed in part by the word order itself: “in order that . . . together with him we might live.” Paul’s emphasis is on the “together,” by means of which he ties the two sections together. There he dealt with the currently “sleeping,” meaning believers who have died before the Parousia; here he has been dealing with the “awake,” that is, with believers such as the Thessalonians who from Paul’s perspective could well be alive at the time of the Coming. What is most noticeable about this final purpose clause is its altogether affirmative nature, which thus not only brings the present argument to its fitting conclusion but also once more affirms the point of the immediately preceding section (4:13-18), that the dead in Christ shall live again. Thus for Paul the entire passage has to do not with threat lest they fail to shape up, but with urging them on in the midst of present difficulties.
11 With a strong “therefore”624 (= “for this reason”) and two imperatives, followed by an affirmation, Paul now brings this series of affirmations and warnings to their conclusion. The first imperative, “encourage one another,” is the otherwise ambiguous word noted earlier in 2:12 (see n. 106), which he has already used to bring the preceding matter to its conclusion (4:18). As in the preceding instance there is scarcely any ambiguity here, since “appeal” or “exhort” is unlikely in this context. Thus, as before, they are urged to “encourage one another.” This is followed immediately with “build each other up,”625 a verb that will appear much less frequently in Paul’s subsequent letters, but whose metaphorical sense has become common stock in English on the basis of Paul’s use of it in 1 Corinthians.626
What is striking in this case is Paul’s concluding affirmation, “just as in fact you are doing.” This affirmation also indicates the considerable difference between what has been addressed in this passage and the new information they have received in the preceding one. Both passages are intended to encourage; but in the former the believers themselves are to do the encouraging with Paul’s words that precede (in 4:13-17). Here they are to continue to do what Paul affirms has been their regular habit. And even though he surely intends his own words to be a part of it, his immediate concern is for them to continue to do for one another what has been their ongoing habit. Paul’s preceding words will serve only as part of the package, intended as they are primarily to remove any misunderstanding or anxiety with regard to “the day of the Lord.”
In the later church the concerns that Paul addresses here have often fallen along the wayside, as it were, except for the occasional eschatologically focused groups whose singular passion has to do with the coming of the end. Paul’s concern lies elsewhere. Even the metaphor of “the thief in the night” does not have to do with believers, but with unbelievers. His obvious concern regarding believers is not to frighten them into watchfulness, but to remind them of the need to be living in such a way as to be constantly “prepared” for that day. Thus the major part of the passage is neither explanation nor exhortation but affirmation. The exhortation that does appear calls for constant preparedness, which has to do not with living “uptightly,” as it were, but uprightly, constantly “wearing” the armor of “faith, hope, and love.” Nonetheless, the major concern is affirmation, that they (and we) have been “appointed” to “receive salvation,” and thus must constantly live in hope, even as they (we) live in faith and love. And “hope” is not wishfulness regarding the future; it is certainty based on Christ’s resurrection (“so that we may live together with him”).