Description
Today’s meditation is on 1 Thessalonians 5:6 – staying alert for the Day of the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 5:6: So then let us not sleep, … (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Today’s meditation is on 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 6. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
The Apostle Paul has just been writing about the Day of the Lord coming like a thief in the night, and about trouble and calamity and disasters befalling the people to whom he was writing. And Paul says that we aren’t to be alarmed by these things. We aren’t to be alarmed by another war starting. We aren’t to be alarmed by earthquakes. We aren’t to be alarmed by invasion.
And why not? Because we have hope, of course. But also because we know that we don’t fear him who can kill the body, but him who can kill the immortal soul, which is God. And God will preserve our souls.
It’s an interesting word that’s used at the end there as well. Be sober. It’s, in the Greek, it’s nepho, and it means to be calm and collected, as well as not to be drunk. But primarily the sense here is to be stable, secure, not panicking.
And that might be a difficult state for us to feel like we can enter into, but we have to fix our focus, our minds, our hearts on Christ and his promises and to know that he’s got this, whatever happens. So we don’t celebrate disaster. We don’t go, aha, yes, we knew this was coming. We say to our neighbours, our friends, come with us. We want you to be in the Kingdom of God with us.
Lord help us to be prepared please at all times for your arrival. And Lord help us please to be bold and to save as many as we can, grasping them by the hand and pulling them out of the fire. Amen.
