1 Thessalonians 5:6 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Thessalonians 5:6

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Do not sleep like the unconverted. And the opposite of sleep here is ‘let us watch’. Sleep and watchfulness are given as opposites, so, in verse 6, here come the exhortations to believers. Our trouble is that we may fall asleep and stop watching and stop the self-scrutiny, the self-examination that keeps us on the mark for Christ. The apostle Paul has in mind a sentry, a guard. You see this from verse 8. He has got a soldier in mind, and that is really in mind in verse 6 – ‘Let us not sleep [on sentry duty] as do others, but let us watch and be sober.’Sober means to abstain from wine, but the apostle Paul frequently uses it as a picture of being rational, never stupefied. It strengthens the word watch. Let us watch as those who are never inattentive, never vague. Well, do we sleep through the Christian life? Or become inattentive or vague? What does the sentry do? Well, a sentry in those days did not just sit in a box like a ceremonial sentry today, but a sentry had to be active and watchful. He was a member of a party, a band, who had to look at everything, by night, by day also. They particularly watched the gates of the city – who is coming in? Who is approaching the gate? Was there anything suspicious? Is there anyone in that clump of trees? Is there a group of people gathering there outside the walls? What are they up to? We must send a detachment to examine and to see. And armed men would go and find out. So the sentry is watchful, and he sends his people to see and to check out, and, in those days, particularly the water sources of the city. The wells had to be watched lest they should be blocked or poisoned or contaminated by an enemy. Certain vulnerable points had to be watched.

Application

We have to watch the entry point of ideas and suggestions and a way of thinking. If we go on the internet, and if anybody uses the social facilities of the internet, well it is like a gate into your mind, into your very soul. What kind of language are you picking up? What kind of expressions are you getting into? Are you following things which by their very nature and character are arrogant and opinionated and hostile and superficial, and it is getting into your system? You are not watching the gates, and locking out certain things, and blocking entry. You are going along with them and interacting with people through a medium which is, perhaps, wholesome, unhelpful. If we had lived a hundred years ago and we were ploughing fields and so on, what a wonderful life in a way. You may look back and think well, that is arduous. That is manual work. That is not intellectually stimulating. Yes, but if you were a Christian you could meditate, you could read, you could reflect, you could think while doing all these things. But today, almost every way you turn, there are things coming at you – information, fashions, styles of behaviour and thinking. Your life is like a city with a hundred gates, and people and thoughts and ideas are coming in from all angles.

Am I scrutinising my conduct? Am I becoming off-hand, over-casual, over-confident? Am I speaking roughly to my wife, to my husband, to my employees, to anybody? Is my conduct deteriorating? Are they gracious words, edifying words, hostile words, criticism of other people all the time? Gossip perhaps. My clothing – is it chaste? Is it right? Is it drawing attention to myself? My worship – do I come into the house of God and to my private devotions earnestly, sincerely. My love for Christ – am I expressing and thinking about my love for Christ? Reflecting on his goodness and his kindness and praising and thanking him for everything. My learning – am I learning? Or have I stopped learning. You may be quite knowledgeable in doctrine. The day you stop learning you are in trouble.

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1 Thessalonians 5:6 Commentary and Bible Study