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1 Thessalonians 5.8-9
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Passage

1 Thessalonians 5.8-9

Book: 1 Thessalonians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

6. so then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. 7. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunken are drunken in the night.

8. But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9. For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

  1. who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 11. Wherefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as also ye do. (1 Thessalonians 5:6-11, ASV)
WEB

6. so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. 7. For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night.

8. But let us, since we belong to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9. For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

  1. who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 11. Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do. (1 Thessalonians 5:6-11, WEB)
KJV

6. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

8. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

  1. Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 11. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. comfort: or, exhort (1 Thessalonians 5:6-11, KJV)
YLT

6. so, then, we may not sleep as also the others, but watch and be sober, 7. for those sleeping, by night do sleep, and those making themselves drunk, by night are drunken,

8. and we, being of the day, let us be sober, putting on a breastplate of faith and love, and an helmet, a hope of salvation, 9. because God did not appoint us to anger, but to the acquiring of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

  1. who did die for us, that whether we wake, whether we sleep, together with him we may live; 11. wherefore, comfort ye one another, and build ye up, one the one, as also ye do. (1 Thessalonians 5:6-11, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul, writing with Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy, who are named as co-senders in the opening (1 Thess 1:1).
  • Audience: The church in Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia; a largely Gentile congregation of recent converts (1 Thess 1:9) founded on the second missionary journey (Acts 17:1-9).
  • Location: Written from Corinth, shortly after Timothy returned with news of the young church (1 Thess 3:6).
  • Time period: c. AD 50-51. The Gallio inscription from Delphi fixes Paul in Corinth around AD 51-52 (Acts 18:12), which makes this letter either the earliest or one of the two earliest surviving Pauline writings, roughly twenty years after the crucifixion.

Theological reading

"But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God appointed us not into wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The armor and its ground. Verse 8 gives the believer God's own armor from Isaiah 59:17, "righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head," and fills it with the letter's triad of faith, love and hope (1 Thess 1:3). Verse 9 begins with "for": the reason the helmet holds is that God has decided the outcome.

"Appointed." Strong's G5087 in the KJV, the ordinary verb to set or place, used here of God's purpose for his people. Paul's use is pastoral. He is steadying a frightened church, not adjudicating between Calvinist and Arminian accounts of election, and the verse is read within both.

"Wrath." G3709 in the KJV. In this letter it is the coming wrath of the last day, "Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come" (1 Thess 1:10). The promise is not exemption from suffering, which the same church was already enduring and was told to expect (1 Thess 3:3-4), but exemption from condemnation. The hope of verse 8 is the expectation of the salvation verse 9 says God has appointed.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.