Faithlife Study Bible (FSB) is your guide to the ancient world of the Old and New Testaments, with study notes and articles that draw from a wide range of academic research. FSB helps you learn how to think about interpretation methods and issues so that you can gain a deeper understanding of the text.
5:1–11 Paul continues his discussion of the Lord’s return but now turns to another question that the Thessalonians had raised—the timing. Paul dismisses the need for speculation. Instead, he urges believers to be alert and self-controlled as they live in expectation of the Day of the Lord.
Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (1 Th 5:6). Lexham Press.
The Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament surveys each book of the New Testament at several levels—Book, Division, Section, Pericope, Paragraph, and Unit—providing contextually appropriate commentary on each level. The reader of the commentary can easily ascertain the contextual importance of any larger section, or pericope, or even a particular verse of Scripture.
The Day of the Lord (5:1–11)
The “Day of the Lord” describes various periods of time in Scripture; in this context it refers to the event described in 1 Thess 4 in which Jesus will come to take believers to himself.
Be Sober and Awake (5:6–11)
Paul both encourages and urges the Thessalonians: because sudden destruction is coming, they must be sober and awake.
5:11 Paul apparently saw in the Thessalonians a real need for comfort and encouragement (cf. 4:18).
Mangum, D., ed. (2020). Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament (1 Th 5:1–11). Lexham Press.
This set of detailed commentaries provides valuable exegetical, historical, cultural, and linguistic information on the original text. Over the years this series has been instrumental in shedding light on the Scriptures so that translators all over the world could complete the important task of putting God’s Word into the many languages spoken in the world today.
So refers back directly to verses 9–10, but also more generally to all the encouragement Paul has been giving his readers throughout the chapter, just as so then in 4:18 refers back to the entire section 4:13–17.
One another … one another. No doubt for stylistic reasons, Paul uses two different expressions in Greek, but they have the same meaning, and therefore need not be distinguished in translation. Help is a literal equivalent for Paul’s metaphorical “build one another up” (cf. JB “keep on strengthening one another”). Both verbs, encourage and help, suggest continued action over a period of time, and this is made explicit by the following words, just as you are now doing (cf. 4:10). This clause may be rendered as “that is, of course, just what you are now doing,” or “you are, of course, doing just that.”
Ellingworth, P., & Nida, E. A. (1976). A handbook on Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians (p. 114). United Bible Societies.
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