Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Thessalonians · About this commentary
Whether We Wake or Sleep
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11
9 For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, · WEB
The ground of the hope is an appointment God made, and it covers both groups the letter has been worried about.
God didn't appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. The word appoint is a decision made in advance, and the sentence is built as a contrast between two possible destinations rather than two possible performances. What settles the outcome is God's placement, not the readers' vigilance — which is what keeps the exhortation of verse 6 from becoming a burden.
Verse 10 names the cost in a relative clause: who died for us. Everything in the appointment rests on that, and Paul spends no more words on it here.
Then the phrase that gathers the whole letter: whether we wake or sleep, we live together with him. Sleep has meant death in chapter 4 and inattention in verse 6; here the pair simply means alive or dead, and both end in the same place. Together is the adverb of 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
Verse 11 closes as chapter 4 closed: exhort one another and build each other up. The doctrine is handed to them as work.
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