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So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate[a] of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation.[b] For God did not destine us for wrath[c] but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died[d] for us so that whether we are alert or asleep[e] we will come to life together with him.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.
  2. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 tn Grk “hope of salvation” (“a helmet…for salvation” is an allusion to Isa 59:17).
  3. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 sn God did not destine us for wrath. In context this refers to the outpouring of God’s wrath on the earth in the day of the Lord (1 Thess 5:2-4).
  4. 1 Thessalonians 5:10 tn Grk “the one who died,” describing Jesus Christ (1 Thess 5:9). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 10 in the translation.
  5. 1 Thessalonians 5:10 sn The phrases alert or asleep may be understood (1) of moral alertness (living in faith, love, and hope as vv. 6, 8 call for, versus being unresponsive to God) or (2) of physical life and death (whether alive or dead). The first fits better with the context of 5:1-9, while the second returns to the point Paul started with in 4:13-18 (no disadvantage for the believing dead).