Be Ready for the Day of the Lord

5 Brothers and sisters, you don’t need anyone to write to you about times and dates. ² You know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ When people say, “Everything is safe and sound!” destruction will suddenly strike them. It will be as sudden as labor pains come to a pregnant woman. They won’t be able to escape. ⁴ But, brothers and sisters, you don’t live in the dark. That day won’t take you by surprise as a thief would. ⁵ You belong to the day and the light not to the night and the dark. ⁶ Therefore, we must not fall asleep like other people, but we must stay awake and be sober. ⁷ People who sleep, sleep at night; people who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸ Since we belong to the day, we must be sober. We must put on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. ⁹ It was not God’s intention that we experience his anger but that we obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ He died for us so that, whether we are awake in this life or asleep in death, we will live together with him. ¹¹ Therefore, encourage each other and strengthen one another as you are doing.