1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 Let Us Watch and Be Sober

1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 (KJV)  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 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. 

To be watching, one needs to be sober. Be not caught off guard. The thief comes to steal while all at home are asleep. Or when drunken, there is no strength to resist an intrusion.

The prophet Isaiah observed concerning the watchmen of Israel – Isaiah 56:10 (KJV)  His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. 

The Apostle Paul said well in Romans 13:11-14 (KJV)  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. 

What does it mean to be children of the day? 1 John 1:7 (KJV)  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Romans 13:12 (KJV)  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 

It is in faith and love as our shield against the onslaught of the enemy and with hope against all despair and discouragement, the Christian triumph through these virtues. Amen.