Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Thessalonians · About this commentary
Children of Light
1 Thessalonians 5:4-5
4 But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. · WEB
The thief image is immediately limited: it describes how the day meets the unprepared, not everyone.
But you, brothers, aren't in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. The qualification matters, and it is the reason this letter and its sequel do not contradict each other. The thief simile is about a condition, not about the event — a thief surprises the sleeping householder, and the letter says the readers are not that man.
That is worth holding when the second letter arrives with a sequence of things that must happen first 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Sudden for the unready and preceded by signs for the watchful are not competing claims; the Lord holds both in one discourse, giving signs to read Matthew 24:33 and then withholding the hour Matthew 24:36.
Verse 5 states their identity twice: children of light and children of the day. The Hebrew idiom makes a person the child of whatever characterizes them, so this is belonging rather than achievement. Then the negative half — we don't belong to the night. Paul shifts to we, including himself in the class he has just described.
settled What this mark means