1 Thessalonians 5:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Apostle speaks not only of drunkenness from wine, but also of every sin. Greed, attachment to money, fleshly love, and whatever else of this kind you may mention, all constitute drunkenness of the soul.

But why did he call sin sleep? First, because the sinner has no strength for virtue. Next, because he is continually carried away by imagination and sees nothing in the true light.

On the contrary, he is full of dreams and often of senseless fantasies. And if at last he did see something good, he would draw from it nothing firm and unchanging.

Such is the present life. It is filled only with dreams and fantasies. Wealth, glory, and all such things are a dream seen in sleep.

Here the Apostle calls those who remain in evil "sleeping," since they are unmoved toward virtue and immersed in deceptive fantasies. Such indeed are the works of the present life, differing in no way from dreams in sleep. Further, by drunkenness he means not only drunkenness from wine, but also from every passion. It removes a man from his usual state and darkens the ruling power of the soul, that is, the mind. Therefore you must not be such people, for you are not sons of night and darkness, but sons of day through baptism and the acceptance of the yoke of God's commandments.

For those who sleep and become drunk sleep and become drunk at night. That is, all works hostile to the light they perform at night.

"For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who become drunk are drunk at night. But let us, being sons of the day, be sober." The Apostle said this elsewhere also: "The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light" (Rom 13:12). He proposes the same armor here also. Let us put on "the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation." Let faith in God and love for neighbor guard us in place of a breastplate, says the Apostle. Let the hope of the promised salvation be an unbreakable helmet for us.

"Therefore let us not sleep, as the others do, but let us watch ... being sons of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of the hope of salvation" (1 Thess 5:6-8).

According to St. Chrysostom, "even one who watches may sleep if he does not do good." Therefore, by the words "let us not sleep as the others do," the Apostle teaches us not to give ourselves over to moral carelessness, like pagans who do not know Christ.

He teaches us not to forget the coming day of judgment. By the words "let us be sober," he calls us to active watchfulness, that is, to works of piety.

But it is still not enough merely to watch and be sober. One must also be armed, like a cautious and attentive soldier who keeps watch on guard duty.

"For," says St. Chrysostom, "if someone has no weapons, then even if he is watchful and sober, robbers can immediately kill him." In the moral life, this armor consists of faith, love, and hope.

Calling them to watchfulness, the Apostle commands them to be sober, not to sleep, and to put on the Christian armor: the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of the hope of salvation.

By this he reminds them that the Christian's battle is not against external enemies, but against spiritual delusions and against the heart's betrayal of the fundamental Christian virtues.

If a Christian loses these, he loses everything. But when he is clothed in them, he is strong to defend himself and others at every time and in all circumstances.

This remains true however heavy the times may be, and however dangerous the trials of Christians may become.

They must carefully preserve this good condition. They must conduct themselves as sons of light, not yielding to spiritual sleep. Such sleep is as unworthy of a Christian as it is improper for anyone to spend the day sleeping.

Christians must watch and be sober. That is, they must not allow their mind to be clouded by the intoxicating pleasures of the world. Pagans and sinners, who live in the darkness of spiritual night, usually give themselves over to such things.

More than this, as watchful guards we must be clothed in spiritual breastplate and helmet. That is, we must be adorned with the virtues of faith, hope, and love, against which every assault of the world and evil would be shattered.

He has bound them to watchfulness and sobriety. Now he says that they cannot act otherwise. For failure to watch, that is, sleeping, and lack of sobriety, that is, drunkenness, happen at night and not by day.

But you are sons of light and day. Sleeping and drunkenness must not come near you. Yet as he understands watchfulness and sobriety morally, so sleeping and drunkenness must also be understood morally.

Here he means those who sleep through carelessness, insensibility, and blindness. He also means those made drunk by attachments, sensuality, and passions, who through intoxication with all this lose their Christian consciousness.

He explains his thought by examples from ordinary life. People usually sleep and drink at night, while by day they work and set their affairs in order.