The Day of the Lord

Probably during Paul's brief stay in Thessalonica, he had taught the church about a coming day of judgment. Yet, despite his teaching, the Thessalonians were still puzzled about many of the details. For this reason, Paul is writing to clarify what he had taught them about eschatology.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul addressed Jesus’s Second or Final Coming in conjunction with the resurrection of the dead. And then in chapter 5:1-11, he deals with the matter of the Day of the Lord, which is an important topic of Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. It appears they had a problem that has plagued believers throughout church history - an unhealthy curiosity about dates and times related to Bible prophecy.

The history of the church is checkered with people and communities who believed they knew beyond doubt when Jesus' Last Coming would occur. A most notable episode took place in Korea, where a group of Christians believed that Christ would come again in October 1992. Some people believed this so fervently that they sold their homes and gave away their possessions. When the date came and went, there was despair on the part of some; a few even committed suicide. Obviously, without exception, the expectations of each of these groups throughout history have been dashed. Frustrated expectations and false speculations have plagued the church from its earliest beginnings.

1. The Day of the Lord Should Not Involve the Believer in Speculation about Events and Dates – 5:1

Paul's opening statement in 1Thess. 5:1 addresses this potential problem in the church at Thessalonica: Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you. The "times and dates" refers to Christians attempting to set up timetables in order to ascertain the specific point at which Christ will return

Paul was convinced that his prior teaching on the Lord's coming was sufficient. Dates and times were not part of God's revelation (Matt 24:36, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”; Acts 1:7, “He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”).

1. The Meaning of the Day of the Lord

In general terms, the Day of the Lord refers to a special or unique time when God’s power and holiness are unveiled, bringing terror and death to His enemies. It is a prophetic term that primarily speaks of the supernatural outpouring of God's judgment on Israel, the Gentile nations or both. It never refers to a literal day but is used figuratively to refer to a period of time much as John uses hour in the phrase "the hour of His judgment has come." 

Reginald E. Showers writes: "The Day of the Lord refers to God's special interventions into the course of world events to judge His enemies, accomplish His purpose for history, and thereby demonstrate who He is - the sovereign God of the universe.”

The Day of the Lord is not a New Testament concept but has its roots in the Old Testament, being found some 16 times in the NASB (Isaiah 13:6; 13:9; 58:13; Ezek 13:5; 30:3: Joel 1:15; 2:1; 2:11; 2:31; 3:14; Amos 5:18; 20; Obadiah1:15;  Zeph1:7; 14 

There are four NT passages that use the same phrase, the Day of the Lord. Acts 2:10, 'THE SUN SHALL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS, AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.”

1 Thessalonians 5:2, “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.”

2 Thessalonians 2:2, “that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”

2 Peter 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

While there have been many "Days of the Lord" in history, the Bible assures us that there is a "Last Day" which is to come, the Final Judgment, when all accounts will be settled and both just and unjust receive their eternal rewards. Each time He used the term, Jesus inseparably connected ''the Last Day" with another event: “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the Last Day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the Last Day” (John 6:38-40). “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the Last Day” (John 6:44). “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day” (John 6:54). The Resurrection, therefore, is an event inextricably bound up in the events of the Last Day, the final Day when the judgment of God will be absolutely comprehensive and complete, when God's final and ultimate verdict is pronounced upon all creation. That is the Day when the dead will be raised: "those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:29).

2. The Day of the Lord Will be Sudden and Unexpected – 5:2

 “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” 

"Sudden" indicates that the doom which overtakes them is unexpected and unforeseen, catching them totally unprepared. The noun rendered "destruction" {olethros}, used only by Paul in the New Testament, does not imply annihilation but "carries with it the thought of utter and hopeless ruin, the loss of all that gives worth to existence." It does not denote loss of being but rather loss of well-being, the ruination of the very purpose of their being.

When addressing the Day of the Lord, Paul seemed to include information about both the relatively near events of AD 64 to AD 70, and the far away events of Christ’s ultimate return to Planet Earth. 

Notice that Paul reminds the brothers and sisters at Thessalonica how they already knew, based on what he taught them that the expected judgment would come like a thief. He is clear, however, that they will not be victims of the thief. Only those who are asleep or drunk will be surprised by the sudden events. The “children of light” will not be taken unaware. They are not destined to wrath but to salvation.

I think Paul is answering, like Jesus did in Matthew 24, when answering His disciple’s questions about the destruction of the Temple, as well as about the final “Last Day”. So he is addressing immediately the events of 70 A.D and ultimately the Last Day. He has already mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 the wrath coming on the unbelieving Jews. In Acts 2:16-21, Peter at Pentecost said Joel's prophecy was being fulfilled. Within a generation of Peter's sermon, God judged the real enemies of Christ using the Roman army just like He used the locust in Joel's day."

The Jews had looked forward to the day of the Lord because they had identified God’s enemy as Rome. When the day came, the enemy was revealed as unbelieving Israel. Salvation came to the despised sect known as Jesus' followers. Finally, Christians were no longer identified with Judaism, and the rabid Jewish leaders were no longer around to persecute them.

That day came on the Jews like a thief. They were totally unaware of what was happening.

3. The Day of the Lord is Sure and Unavoidable – 5:3

“While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” 

The Day of the Lord will be as inevitable and unavoidable as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. From this judgment there will be no escape for unbelievers. The thief/pregnancy imagery illustrates the inescapability of divine judgment for those who have rejected Christ. As Stott puts it, "The thief gives you no warning, and labor pains give you no escape."

N.T. Wright comments, “Two more pictures complete the rich paragraph. The first is of people (night people, Paul would say) who mumble to each other in their sleep, 'Peace and security, peace and security. Everything's all right. Nothing's going to happen. No, says Paul, everything's not all right. Sudden disaster is on the way.

“Who is he talking about? Anybody who imagines that God’s new world will never break in, shining the light of divine judgment and mercy into the world's dark corners. But the slogan 'peace and security’ was also one of the comforting phrases that the Roman empire put out, to reassure its inhabitants around the Mediterranean that the famous 'Roman peace', established by Paul's time for more than half a century, would hold without problems. That is what Paul is really attacking. Don’t trust the imperial propaganda, he says. The world will soon plunge into convulsions, bringing terror and destruction all around. Within 20 years of this letter, the warning had come true.”

For this reason, I think the primary reference in 5:1-11 is to the times leading up to the catastrophic judgments of AD70. This points out, very particularly, the state of the Jewish people when the Romans came against them. They were so fully persuaded that God would not deliver the city and temple to their enemies that they refused every proposal that was made to them.

Albert Barnes makes an accurate observation about unsaved men learning nothing from history: “It seems to be a universal truth in regard to all the visitations of God to wicked people for punishment, that he comes upon them at a time when they are not expecting him, and that they have no faith in the predictions of his advent. So it was in the time of the flood; in the destruction of Sodom Gomorrah, and Jerusalem; in the overthrow of Babylon: so it is when the sinner dies, and so it will be when the Lord Jesus shall return to judge the world. One of the most remarkable facts about the history of man is, that he takes no warning from his Maker; he never changes his plans, or feels any emotion, because his Creator “thunders damnation along his path,” and threatens to destroy him in hell.”

4. The Day of the Lord Should Motivate Believers to Live Their Lives Soberly and Take Their Faith Seriously – 5:4-8

Probably Paul refers to an idea that was very prevalent among the Jews, namely that God would judge the Gentiles in the night time, when utterly secure and careless; but he would judge the Jews in the day time, when employed in reading and performing the words of the law. The words in Midrash Tehillim, on Psa_9:8, are the following: When the holy blessed God shall judge the Gentiles, it shall be in the night season, in which they shall be asleep in their transgressions; but when he shall judge the Israelites, it shall be in the day time, when they are occupied in the study of the law. This is the truth the apostle appears to have in view in 1 Thess. 5:4-8.

1Thess 5:5, “For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. Children of God enjoy both his light and life. Christians belong to him who has brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel. You who walked formerly in heathen ignorance, or in the darkness of Jewish prejudices, are now light in the Lord, because you have believed in him who is the light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory and splendor of his people Israel.

We are not of the night, nor of darkness - Our actions are such as we are not afraid to expose to the fullest and clearest light. Sinners hate the light; they are enemies to knowledge; they love darkness; they will not receive instructions; and their deeds are such as cannot bear the light.

So then let us not sleep, as others do - Let us who are of the day - who believe the Gospel and belong to Christ, not give way to a careless, unconcerned state of mind, like to the Gentiles and sinners in general, who are stupefied and blinded by sin, so that they neither think nor feel; but live in time as if it were eternity; or rather, live as if there were no eternity, no future state of existence, rewards, or punishments.

Let us watch - Be always on the alert; and be sober, making a moderate use of all things. To be sober-minded means to be alert, to live with your eyes open, to be sane and steady.

For they that sleep - Sleepers and drunkards seek the night season; so the careless and the profligate persons indulge their evil propensities, and avoid all means of instruction; they prefer their ignorance to the word of God’s grace, and to the light of life. It may be remarked, also, that it was accounted doubly scandalous, even among the heathen, to be drunk in the day time. They who were drunken were drunken in the night.

Having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. In 5:8 Paul adds the last of his pictures. The dawn is breaking, the birth-pangs are coming upon the world, the robbers might break in at any time, and the empire itself is under threat - so you need to put on your armor! Verse 8 is a shorter version of the fuller paragraph in Ephesians 6.10-20; here he mentions only the two main defensive pieces of armor, the breastplate and helmet.

He began the letter with the trio of faith, hope and love (1.3), and that is how he draws it now towards its conclusion. Faith and hope are the breastplate, to ward off frontal attacks. The hope of salvation is the helmet, protecting the head itself. Underneath it all, as always in Paul, we find God's action in Jesus the Messiah.

We are not only called to work but to war. To wage a victorious war we must be sober; and that we may be enabled to conquer, we must be armed: and what the breastplate and helmet are to a soldier’s heart and head, such are faith, love, and hope to us. Faith enables us to endure, as seeing him who is invisible; love excites us to diligence and activity, and makes us bear our troubles and difficulties pleasantly; hope helps us to anticipate the great end, the glory that will be revealed, and which we know we will in due time obtain, if we faint not.

For God has not appointed us to wrath - So then it appears that some were appointed to wrath, to punishment; on this subject there can be no dispute. But who are they? When did this appointment take place? And for what cause? In the preceding verses, the apostle refers simply to the destruction of the Jewish religious institution and to the terrible judgments which were about to fall on the Jews as a nation. Therefore, they are the people who were appointed to wrath; and they were thus appointed, not from eternity, nor from any indefinite or remote time, but from that time in which they utterly rejected the offers of salvation made to them by Jesus Christ and his apostles; the privileges of their election were still offered to them, even after they had crucified the Lord of glory; for, when he gave commandment to his disciples to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, he commanded them to begin at Jerusalem. They did so, and continued to offer salvation to them, until at last, being everywhere persecuted, and the whole nation appearing with one consent to reject the Gospel, the kingdom of God was wholly taken away from them, and the apostles turned to the Gentiles. Then God appointed them to wrath; and the cause of that appointment was their final and determined rejection of Christ and his Gospel.

5. The Day of the Lord Should Cause Believers to Realize that the Only Source of Security is God and Not Human Institutions – 5:9-11

A. Eternal Security is Found in the Gospel's Provision of Deliverance from God's Wrath - 5:9-10

In contrast to unbelievers, who have a false sense of security (5:3), believers have genuine security in the gospel of our salvation that’s grounded in the death (and, by implication, resurrection) of the Lord Jesus Christ (5:9-10).

B. Encouragement and Edification is Found in the Gospel’s Provision of Assurance Instead of Apprehension – 5:11

Emerging like a clear tune out of the complex symphony of the paragraph, is Paul's main message: Trust the gospel message, and you will find in it all the comfort and strength you need.

It is unfortunate that passages like this often create more confusion than they provide encouragement. It's easy to get caught up in debates about signs and seasons. However, the true test of whether we get it is not that we gathered all the facts but ultimately whether we get the point. And the point of this passage from beginning to end is that our only hope is in Jesus.