Moral Application: The Day of the Lord Comes as a Thief (1 Thessalonians 5:1–4)

Having depicted the coming of the Lord and what will then happen to the dead and to those who remain alive, the holy Paul now turns to the lessons that flow naturally from this teaching. The chief lesson (bb) is vigilance and sobriety—attentiveness to oneself and one’s deeds, by which an upright life is governed (1 Thess. 5:4–11). As a force to arouse and sustain vigilance and sobriety, the teaching about the Day of the Lord can have effect only when one continually remembers that day and continually awaits it; and this latter is sealed in the mind by the certainty (aa) of the suddenness of the Lord’s appearing. It is this thought, therefore, that the holy Paul places first, as a transition to his lesson (1 Thess. 5:1–3). The time of the Lord’s final appearing is unknown. Do not push it far off, and do not draw it near. Stand watch, for the Lord will come suddenly—and will render to each according to his deeds.

1 Thess. 5:1. But of the times and the seasons, you have no need that we write to you.

The Lord also said to the holy Apostles in response to their question about His Second Coming: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power” (Acts 1:7).

“Times” and “seasons”—both words are used as synonymous (compare Lk. 1:57 with 2 Tim. 4:6; Acts 20:18 with Lk. 21:36). Yet more subtle connoisseurs of language distinguish between them, understanding by “time” χρονος — any indeterminate duration, and by “season” καιρος — a definite time, at which it is fitting or needful for some deed or event to occur. Here the Apostle has in mind the definite moment of the Lord’s appearing, as if to say: as for precisely when the Lord will appear, there is no need to write to you about that. — Both words frequently stand together in Scripture (Acts 1:7; Dan. 2:21; Eccl. 3:1). They stand here in the plural in order to signify, as commentators conjecture, the circumstances surrounding the Lord’s appearing and preparatory to it, each of which has its appointed moment—or more directly, on account of the indefiniteness of the day and hour of this event.

“You have no need that we write”—this does not mean that there is no need at all to speak and know of this, but that there is no need to write to them, no need to write again now, because it was spoken to them in person and they already know it. And what they know is this: that no one can know anything about this, and therefore nothing definite can be written.

There is no indication that the Thessalonians had any dispute or perplexity or mistaken opinion about this. The reminder is given in order to draw the lesson of sobriety and watchfulness, and of walking in the light of hope. The Apostle speaks as if to say: it was necessary to write to you in consolation about the lot of the departed at the coming of the Lord, and I wrote it. As for when that coming itself will be, there is no need to write to you about that. For, as you know, nothing definite can be said about it, and to inquire into it would be empty curiosity not worth satisfying. This is why the holy Chrysostom, when approaching the interpretation of this passage, places reproach of curiosity at the very outset. “In no human nature, it seems,” he says, is there such curiosity and avidity for knowledge of the unseen and hidden as in human nature. This commonly shows itself when the mind is still imperfect and unformed. So inexperienced children incessantly trouble their tutors, their teachers, and their parents with a multitude of questions that contain nothing more than, for example: when will this happen and when will that happen? The same thing happens with adults who are either pampered or lack a definite occupation. Thus our mind strongly desires to know and even to comprehend many things, but above all the time of the world’s end. And what wonder if this preoccupies us, when it preoccupied even the holy Apostles themselves most of all? For before the (Christ’s) Passion they came to Christ with the words: “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world?” (Mt. 24:3). And after His Passion and resurrection from the dead, they likewise said to Him: tell us, “do You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). And about nothing else did they first ask Him. But after that it was otherwise. When they were deemed worthy of the Holy Spirit, they not only ceased to ask themselves, but also restrained others who suffered from such misplaced curiosity. Hear what the blessed Paul now says: “but of the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that we write to you.”

1 Thess. 5:2. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

“Yourselves”—not by your own independent grasp of this truth, but from the earlier instructions of the holy Apostle (Theodoret). “Know perfectly”—you know precisely, with such definiteness as admits no doubts or wavering; you know not the time, but the untimeliness of the Lord’s coming: “suddenly” He will appear. “The Day of the Lord”—in the holy prophets it is the day on which God promised to manifest in a particular way His goodness, omnipotence, and righteousness (Joel 2:31; Mic. 4:6; Ezek. 13:5; Is. 2:12). In the New Testament, the Day of the Lord refers exclusively to the day of the Second Coming of Christ, when Christ the Lord will appear again on earth in His glory in order, after the resurrection of the dead, to execute judgment over all people and to bring to final completion the ordering of His eternal kingdom—including here also the terrible signs in heaven and on earth which, according to the Lord’s own word, are to accompany this appearing. It is called, besides “the Day of the Lord” (2 Pet. 3:10), also: the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:8; 5:5, 2 Cor. 1:14); the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6); and simply the day of Christ (Phil. 1:10; 2:16; 2 Thess. 2:2).

“As a thief.” This comparison is taken from the words of the Lord Himself and is common to more than the Apostle Paul alone (2 Pet. 3:10). “Only the suddenness of the Master’s coming is likened to a thief” (Theodoret). When all are asleep in confidence that there is no danger, the thief creeps in. So shall the Day of the Lord creep in. Yet this is not hidden from us; it is frequently urged upon us so that that hour may not overtake us suddenly, as a thief overtakes a careless householder. The thief’s opportune time is the dead of night. It may be that the Lord too will appear at midnight, like the bridegroom in the parable of the ten virgins. Some of the teachers of the Church thought that this might perhaps occur at midnight on the night of the bright Resurrection of Christ, just as the angel appeared during the first Passover of the Jews in Egypt. Is it not from this that the all-night vigil on the feast of the bright Resurrection of Christ and on other Sundays derives (as on Athos)? “So He will come”—the Greek reads “He comes,” corresponding to the expectation of His sudden appearing, at every moment one may say: He is coming—or to express the certainty of His coming, a thing already settled: He comes, just as in the Epistle to the Romans: “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven” (Rom. 1:18). The Day of the Lord may in a proper sense also be understood as the hour of each person’s death. For it too overtakes one suddenly, and immediately after it there follows the preliminary determination of each one’s lot, just as at that final day the definitive determination follows. Morally, let each person apply to himself the sudden onset of the Day of the Lord as the sudden onset of the hour of death, examples of which are everywhere and not few. Await the Lord, whether He comes during your lifetime or not. Even if He does not come, death will come nonetheless—and death is for you the decisive moment. If the Lord’s long delay can weaken the conviction that He is coming any moment, nothing else has such power to renew it as the conviction that death is coming any moment. Reminders of this are very frequent. Await death then. And with it comes for you the Day of the Lord—the terrible judgment of the Lord upon you. The holy Chrysostom writes: “Hear what Paul says: ‘for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night’—not only the universal day, but each person’s own. For this latter is likened to the former because it has resemblance and kinship with it. What the former signifies for all together, the latter signifies for each individually. (A little earlier.) Does not the end of a man’s life constitute for each person the end of the age? Why do you inquire so curiously about the universal end, and why do you cause yourself grief by this? — But what happens to us in other matters, we observe here as well. As in other matters we, paying no attention to our own affairs, scrutinize those of others, saying: this one is a fornicator, that one an adulterer, another has stolen, another has wronged someone—while we say not a word about our own affairs, and on the contrary care more about the conduct of all other people than about our own—so here too each of us, not caring about his own end, desires to learn about the common end. If you prepare well for your own end, you will suffer no evil from the universal one. Whether it be far off or near, this will not in the least affect the determination of our lot. This is why Christ did not say anything about it. Hear what He says to the Apostles: ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power’ (Acts 1:7). After this, what need is there for you to inquire? This is what those who were with Peter heard when they desired to know more than they needed to know.”

1 Thess. 5:3. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

The Lord comes so unexpectedly not because He deliberately intends to catch everyone off guard and unprepared, but because this is how it will be on account of people’s carelessness. In prophetic spirit the holy Paul is transported to the last time and sees that people will then conduct themselves just as they did in the days of Noah, with no thought at all that a terrible storm is ready to burst over their heads. The Lord says: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away—so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be” (Mt. 24:37–39). We may suppose here in the Apostle a hidden comparison of the sudden appearing of the Lord with the sudden raid of enemies and with all cases of sudden disasters—earthquakes, storms, and the like. “When they shall say”—who shall say this? Those who are alive before the coming of the Lord, but who have evidently forgotten about that coming, who despise the truth, are negligent of salvation, indulge their passions, and do not think about the imminent judgment and determination of their final lot. “They shall say”—that is, they will settle in their minds and hearts and rest in the conviction that “peace and safety” are secure; all is calm within and the defenses without are firm, the foundations of prosperity and security are solid—like people living peacefully on their estates and thinking of nothing other than: eat, drink, and be merry. Such boasting on the part of false prophets is set before us by the prophet Ezekiel, together with God’s judgment upon it (1 Thess. 13:10 and following).

“Then sudden destruction comes upon them”—a disaster that overwhelms everything, destroys everything, and moreover admits no escape, from which there is nowhere to flee: “and they shall not escape.” The only means would be utter annihilation: “mountains, fall on us;” but even that is out of reach, and there will remain only terror and despair. In the Second Epistle the Apostle depicts how the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven will come with the angels of His power, in flaming fire, to render “vengeance on those who know not God and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:7–9). The Apostle presents the Second Coming of Christ in its terrifying aspect, giving the Thessalonians a motive for a watchful life, so that they too may not fall into the carelessness of the people of this world, expressed here by the words “peace and safety”—the carelessness of those in whom sin reigns, drawing the wrath of God upon them, though the careless do not perceive this through their self-delusion. All will be nursing other hopes and desires, and will encounter—this!

“As travail upon a woman with child.” This expresses the suddenness, the inescapable extremity, and the extreme painfulness of the disaster. A woman in labor knows that the birth is near, but the moment of delivery seizes her all at once—unforeseen; such will be the coming of Christ (Theodoret and Oecumenius). All the signs will already be clear, but the moment of the appearing will not be known and will descend suddenly. “In such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes” (Mt. 24:44). “For as the lightning comes out of the east and shines even to the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be” (Mt. 24:27).

The holy Chrysostom raises at this point one difficulty, which he then resolves: The following circumstance deserves attention: if Antichrist is to come, if Elijah is to come, then how is it that “when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them?” These events, as signs of Christ’s coming, will give notice of that day. But Christ will not give forewarnings about Himself; He will come suddenly and unexpectedly. So too for a pregnant woman the time of delivery does not come unexpectedly, the Apostle says, for she knows that after nine months there will be a birth. And yet this time is very uncertain for her, because some give birth after seven months and others after nine, while the day and hour of delivery are in any case unknown. So this is what Paul means in saying this. Indeed, he uses an apt comparison! There are not many signs of birth; because of this, many, not foreseeing it, have given birth on the road and out of doors. But the Apostle wished to indicate by this comparison not only the uncertainty of the time, but together with it the cruelty of the suffering. For just as a woman in labor, playing and laughing and foreseeing nothing at all, is suddenly seized by inexpressible sufferings and is tormented by the pangs of delivery, so too will the souls of those people be stricken when that day arrives. “And they shall not escape.”

Departing somewhat from the thread of the argument, we may on the occasion of the words about the travails of a woman in labor enter upon the thought concerning the significance of humanity’s present condition. It resembles the formation of a child in the mother’s womb. When the moment of its complete formation comes, then the end of the present mode of existence of all things will come as well: something new will be born. — With respect to each Christian, baptism is the beginning of a new life; the labors of virtuous deeds, the efforts of self-correction, the sorrows of bearing with adversities represent the period of being carried in the womb and of the formation of the new man—and death will be the birth. The entire present period up to the end of the world is, for all and each, a period of being carried in the womb.

1 Thess. 5:4. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Having spoken of the suddenness of the Lord’s appearing, the Apostle draws from it the obligation to a watchful and sober manner of life, under the influence of the constant expectation of the Day of the Lord, in the awareness that Christians are sons of light and of the day. He could have said directly, after the words cited (1 Thess. 2:3), what the Lord said: “Watch therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord comes” (Mt. 24:42). But the Apostle places first the characteristic mark of Christians—their sonship to light, by virtue of which they ought to live watchfully and soberly even apart from the expectation of the sudden coming of the Lord, acting as people act in the daytime.

“You are not in darkness.” Darkness here is either ignorance of divine things, as the source of errors and vices. So Theodoret: “By darkness the Apostle means ignorance, and by day he means knowledge. He speaks as if to say: having received the ray of the knowledge of God, flee the counsels of darkness, lest judgment and punishment be suddenly pronounced upon you.” Or it is life in sin, in dark deeds. So the holy Chrysostom: “Here he speaks of a dark and impure life, since dissolute and wicked people do everything by night, hiding from everyone and surrounding themselves with darkness—for tell me, does not the adulterer wait for the evening and the thief for the night? And does not the one who robs graves carry out his scheme at night?” One must take both meanings, and moreover in the Christian sense, according to which both knowledge and goodness of life—all comes from Christ, in Whom is light, and outside Whom is darkness. The Apostle speaks as if to say: you are not outside Christ, you are not in the darkness of the fall, not in the bonds of sin and the devil, not in the domain of the prince of darkness, where neither the Lord nor His will is known and there is no power to fulfill it; and (tracing the darkness of sin back to its sources)—you are not in a state of carelessness, insensibility, and blindness, not darkened by worldly vanity, not sunk in sensual pleasures (Jn. 3:19; 8:12; 12:35; 12:46).

“That that day should overtake you as a thief.” Here one may find two meanings: either—you are not such that the day could overtake you as a thief overtakes. A thief creeps in at night, when it is dark and all are asleep; but you have come out of darkness and night and are in the condition of a householder keeping watch over his house—the day will not overtake you as a thief would, it will overtake you, but not as a thief overtakes a careless householder. Or, in saying that they are not such, he means: you ought not to be such that the day overtakes you as a thief, finding you unprepared; it is unbecoming for you to allow yourselves to come to that—it would be contrary to your essential character, which is freedom from darkness and sonship to light. — Either interpretation leads to the same conclusion: “let us watch and be sober” (1 Thess. 5:6).

The holy Chrysostom asks at these words: “What then? Will the last day not overtake them as a thief? Will it not come upon them unexpectedly? Will they foreknow it?” — And he answers: “Here he hints not at knowledge of the time, but at the misfortune associated with it—that is, the last day will not come to their misfortune, for it will dawn upon them suddenly as well, yet it will bring them no sorrow. As a thief can do no harm to those who are awake and abide in the light, even if he should succeed in entering—so too will that day be to those who live as they ought.”