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.
5:6 we must not sleep Earlier in this letter, Paul used a Greek word for “sleep,” koimaō, metaphorically to describe those who have died (4:13). In this verse, he uses a different Greek word, katheudō, also translated “sleep,” to refer to being unaware of God, His workings, and His return.
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 5:6–7). 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.
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.
5:6 Paul continues to use sleep imagery—or rather its reverse. Believers are not to “sleep”—in the sense of becoming dulled to what is going on in these last days. They are instead to be “awake” and “sober,” metaphors for being spiritually alert and vigilant. Christ already taught through his famous Parable of the Ten Virgins that these qualities are necessary among his disciples (Matt 25:1–13). The unexpectedness of Christ’s coming must not produce in believers a complacent dullness.
Mangum, D., ed. (2020). Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament (1 Th 5:6–11). Lexham Press.
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