To Bible Index
Please consider a donation to help keep Daily Prayer online and spread the word of God. The IRS has determined that DPM is a tax-exempt public charity under Sec. 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code; all donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.
(UK residents may use
Amazon UK)
1 Thessalonians 5
Daily Prayer New Testament
American Bible
The Verbatim Bible
Prepare for The Day of the Lord
1-10It is pointless to speculate about when the Day of the Lord will come — It could come tomorrow or a thousand years from now. But there is one thing for certain: nobody will expect it. It will come as abruptly as labor comes to a pregnant woman, and as unexpected as a thief in the night. While people are talking about how much peace and security they have, it will fall upon them.
So ask yourself: Who does a thief take by surprise? Those who are in darkness. And who lives in darkness? The very children of darkness, those who drink the wine of night and sleep in drunken stupor – it is they who will be caught unprepared. They will have no chance of escaping God’s wrath.
But we are children of light, standing in the sunshine of our Lord. God has not destined us to suffer His wrath, but to attain salvation through Christ Jesus. Christ died for us, the living and the dead, that we might live with Him for eternity. So stand always in the daylight of Christ, sober and alert, wearing your faith and love like a suit of armor, and the hope of your salvation like a helmet.
Christian Conduct
11-22 Continue to encourage one another, my brothers and sisters. Build each other up. Be sure to love those who labor for you, respect those who lead you in Christ, and honor those who give you instruction. Be at peace with one another.
And we urge you, do not be hesistant to chide the undisciplined and lazy (but always out of love). Encourage the faint of heart, help the weak, and with everyone, be patient. See that nobody repays evil with evil; you must always pursue goodness, no matter who, no matter what.
Rejoice alway, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything you do: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
You must test everything against the Gospel, but if it passes the test, do not discourage the Spirit or disdain prophecy. Hold fast to the good. Abstain from evil in every form.
Benediction
23-28 And now, may the God of Peace Himself sanctify you completely, preserving your spirit and soul and body without flaw for the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Know that He will do this, for our God is a faithful God.
Pray for us. Greet your fellow saints with a holy kiss. And I charge you before God, make sure this epistle is read to everyone in the church.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
1 Now concerning the times and dates, brothers, there is no need to write to you, 2 for you know full well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
3 When they say, “Peace and security,” then unexpected destruction will fall upon them, as labor pains may come suddenly upon a woman, and they will have no chance of escape. 4 But you, brothers and sisters, do not live in darkness where a thief could take you by surprise, 5 for you are all the children of light and day. We are not of the night, nor the darkness;
6 Thus we must not sleep like the rest, but be alert and sober. 7 For those who sleep at night sleep, and those who drink at night become drunk; 8 but we of the day should control ourselves, putting on a breastplate of faith and love, and hope and salvation as our helmet; 9 for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to attainment of salvation through our Lord, Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are alive or asleep, together with Him we may live.
11 Therefore encourage one another, and build each other up, just as you are doing now. 12 We ask you, brothers and sisters, to honor those who labor among you, and those who lead you in Christ and give you instruction, 13 and to respect them most highly with love on account of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters: chide the undisciplined and lazy, encourage the faint of heart, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 See that nobody repays evil with evil, but always pursue goodness, for each other and for everyone. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in everything; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
19 Do not hinder the Spirit, 20 or disdain prophecy. 21 but test everything, hold fast to the good, 22 abstain from every form of evil.
23 And now, may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and preserve your spirit and soul and body entirely without flaw at the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ; 24 for He who calls you is faithful, and He will do this.
25 Brothers and sisters, pray for us, also. 26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27 I charge you before the Lord to have this epistle read to all the brothers.
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
1 Now concerning the times and the periods, brothers, no need you have to you to be written,
2 for yourselves accurately you know that day of lord like thief in night in this way it comes.
3 When they are saying, Peace and security, then unseen [a]By extension, unexpected; alt. sudden. to them befalls destruction just as the labor pain in womb having, and not not [b]idiom, definitely not, an emphatic negative. they might escape.
4 But you, brothers, not are in darkness, that the day you like thief might overtake by surprise,
5 for all you sons of light are and sons of day. Not we are of night nor of darkness;
6 Therefore then not we must sleep like the rest, but we should be alert and should be self-controlled [c]Alt. sober, esp. in the context of v. 7. .
7 For the sleeping of [d] Or at night, so-called “temporal genitive”, but the simultaneous possessive sense deepens the meaning and appears to be intentional – see v. 5. night sleep, and the becoming intoxicated of night become intoxicated;
8 but we of day being should control ourselves, putting on breastplate of faith and of love and helmet hope of salvation;
9 for not appointed us God for wrath but for obtaining [e]True noun (not a participle), akin to attainment; poss. security. of salvation through the lord of us Jesus Christ,
10 who having died for us so that whether we be awake or we be asleep together with him we might [f]Might is used to reflect the subjunctive, not as a indicator of doubt. If you are not familiar with this usage, substitute would be able to. The verb is aorist subjunctive, and translating it “will live” is not very accurate. live.
11 Therefore encourage [g]Alt. edify; one another and build up one the one [h]Idiom, one another , just as indeed you are doing.
12 So we ask you, brothers, to know [i]By extension, to recognize, or by further extension to honor, to respect. the toiling [j]Or those being weary from labor; among you and standing-before [k] By extension, either caretaking, or leading. of you in lord and admonishing you,
13 and to respect them uttermostly [l]Fyi, Paul goes “over the top” with this word, lit. something like “above most abundantly”; in love on account of the work of them. Be at peace with each other [m]Or, yourselves. .
14 And we exhort you, brothers, chide the undisciplined [n]Or the idle (see 2 Thess 3:6-13), poss. the disorderly; , encourage the faint-hearted [o]Compound derived from roots meaning small-souled or small-in-life. , help the weak, be patient with everyone.
15 See not someone evil with evil to someone repays, but always the good pursue both for each other and for all.
16 Always rejoice,
17 unceasingly pray,
18 in everything give thanks; for this is will of god in Christ Jesus for you.
19 The spirit do not quench [p]Or hinder. ,
20 prophecy do not disdain [q]Possibly reject, reject disdainfully. ;
21 but everything test, the good hold fast,
22 from every form of evil abstain.
23 Himself the god of peace may he sanctify you perfect [r]Or complete. Do not read “perfect” as an adverb; “sanctify” has a double direct object (called an object-complement). Read “sanctify you to be perfect,” i.e. “so that you are perfect.” , and flawless [s]Or complete (predicate adjective of preserve). of you the spirit and the soul and the body blamelessly in the coming of the lord of us Jesus Christ preserve.
24 Faithful is the one calling you, which also he will do.
25 Brothers, pray also concerning us.
26 Greet the brothers all with kiss holy.
27 I adjure you the lord [t]Idiomatic double direct object of persons, peculiar to oaths: I adjure you by the Lord. to be read the epistle to all the brothers.
28 The grace of lord of us Jesus Christ with you.
Notes:
v. 3 – [a] By extension, unexpected; alt. sudden. [b] idiom, definitely not, an emphatic negative.
v. 6 – [c] alt. sober, esp. in the context of v. 7.
v. 7 – [d] or at night, so-called “temporal genitive”, but the simultaneous possessive sense deepens the meaning and appears to be intentional – see v. 8.
v. 9 – [e] true noun (not a participle), perhaps attainment - poss. security.
v. 10 – [f] Might is used to reflect the subjunctive, not as a indicator of doubt. If you are not familiar with this usage, substitute would be able to. The verb is aorist subjunctive, and translating it “will live” is not very accurate.
v. 11 – [g] alt. edify; [h] idiom, one another.
v. 12 – [i] or to honor, to respect; ext. of to know; [j] or those being weary from labor; [k] by ext., caretaking, or leading.
v. 13 – [l] fyi, Paul goes “over the top” with this word, lit. something like “above most abundantly”; [m] or, yourselves.
v. 14 – [n] or the idle (see 2 Thess.), poss. the disorderly; [o] compound derived from roots meaning, most lit., the small-souled or small-in-life.
v. 19 – [p] or hinder.
v. 20 – [q] poss. reject, reject disdainfully.
v. 23 – [r] or complete; [s] or complete (predicate adjective of preserve).
v. 27 – [t] Idiomatic double direct object of persons, peculiar to oaths: I adjure you by the Lord.
Quickie Key (Text)
1. Italicized words are implied but not spelled out in the Greek.
2. Words are kept in original order, with rare exceptions.
3. Omissions are not noted and do not affect meaning.
4. Hyphenated terms represent either a single Greek word that must be translated as a phrase in English, or an adjectival phrase that has been moved in front of the noun it modifies (the not-knowing-god Gentiles) or both (the being-left-behind living).
Key (Footnotes)
1. or = indicates an alternate, equally sound translation.2. alt. = alternately. A reasonable alternate translation, but the one given is slightly more sound.
3. poss. = possibly. A possible translation, but not as sound as the one used.
4. lit. = literal or literally. Used in cases where idiomatic English is used in the text, because it is simply too difficult to glean the meaning from direct translation.
5. by extension = indicates a meaning that is correct and fully understood in Greek and will be found as a meaning in a Greek-Engish lexicon, but was not the original meaning of the word. For example, the original Greek word unseen had been extended to mean unexpected by the time the NT was written.
6. by transfer = identical to “by extension”, but with a greater jump in meaning. Often an abstraction from a more concrete term.
7. most lit. = an older, more literal meaning; used when a Greek extension or transfer is given in the text. The opposite of “by extension/transfer,” i.e. the extended meaning is given in the text.
8. idiom = English meaning of a difficult Greek idiom. I.e. “not not” in Greek means “definitely not” in English. We translate the raw Greek “not not” and indicate the idiomatic meaning by footnote.
9. per ______ = an authority has another primary meaning; generally BDAG, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (3d ed.)
10. fyi = for your information; something that the reader might find interesting, not directly relevant to this translation.