Thief in the Night

Paul does not provide detailed information about signs and seasons since the Lord will arrive like a thief in the night – 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3.

Paul continues to discuss the “arrival” or ‘Parousia’ of Jesus Christ in Chapter 5 of First Thessalonians, as he addresses the question of the timing of that day and how it will affect the prepared and the unprepared. Rather than signs and timetables, the Apostle reminds his readers that the Day of the Lord will come like a “thief in the night.”

God alone knows when that day will come; therefore, we must remain prepared for its sudden arrival (“Take heed! Watch and pray! For you do not know when the season is!” - Mark 13:33).

[Photo by Alan Labisch (Houghton, MI) on Unsplash]

What Paul does not do in 1 Thessalonians is provide a list of definitive “signs” that will mark the imminence of the Day of the Lord, nor does he give chronological keys by which we may calculate its timing. His emphasis is on the unexpectedness of the event.

• (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3) – “But concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need for anything to be written to you, because you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night. As soon as they begin to say, ‘Peace and Security’, then, suddenly, destruction comes upon them just as the birth-throes to her that is with child, and in no way will they escape.”

The phrase “now concerning the times and the seasons” marks the beginning of this literary section, but that does not mean the new subject matter is unrelated to what preceded it.  Paul has been addressing anxieties in Chapter 4 of the letter over the participation of dead believers in “the arrival” of Jesus. He continues here with related information about the Day of the Lord.

Verse 2 begins with the Greek conjunction “because” or ‘gar’ (γαρ), which links Paul’s statement logically to the preceding verse.  Paul does not need to write to the Thessalonians about the “times and seasons” because they “themselves know accurately” that the Day of the Lord is “coming like a thief in the night.” Not because they understand the specific signs that will precede the arrival of the ‘Parousia’ (παρουσια).

Paul uses the emphatic Greek pronoun, or “you yourselves,” to stress what his readers already know. He describes their knowledge as “accurate” (‘akribōs’). They understand that Jesus will come just “like a thief in the night.”

The point of the analogy is that Christ will arrive unexpectedly, like a thief, at a time the homeowner could not possibly know. Men and women who are unprepared, including some believers, will be overwhelmed by events. Paul’s words echo several sayings of Jesus. For example:

• “But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken through. Therefore, be you also ready; for in an hour that you think not the Son of man is coming” – (Matthew 24:42-45).

• “But take heed to yourselves, so that your hearts are not burdened with debauchery and drunkenness and anxieties about livelihood, and that day comes upon you suddenly like a snare. Because it will arrive by surprise upon all those who are dwelling on the face of all the earth. But be watching in every season, making supplication, that you may gain full strength to escape all these things that are going to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” – (Luke 12:34-36).

TIMES AND SEASONS

Both “times” and “seasons” are plural in Paul’s Greek sentence. Together, they cover any possible delimitation of time. The answer to the question of ‘when’, is the same answer provided by Jesus himself – “No one knows except his Father.” Paul’s description, “times and seasons,” may allude to Christ’s warning to his disciples before his Ascension:

• “And he said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has put in His own authority” - (Acts 1:7).

The comparison to a “thief in the night” stresses our inability to know the timing of the Day of the Lord. Paul concludes that we must remain prepared for its sudden arrival precisely because we do not know when that day will arrive.

• “Howl! For the day of Yahweh is at hand. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. For this reason, all hands will hang down, and every mortal heart will melt. And they will be in distress. Writhing and pain will seize them, as a woman in childbirth, they will be in pangs” – (Isaiah 13:6-8).

Paul used the term ‘Parousia’ or “arrival” in Chapter 4 when describing the coming of Jesus from Heaven, as he also does in his second letter to the Thessalonians. Now, in Chapter 5, he applies the label “Day of the Lord” to this same event:

• “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, that are left to the arrival [‘Parousia’] of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, that are left, will together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord” – (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).

• “Now, we implore you, brethren, concerning the arrival [‘Parousia’] of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him; to the end, that you are not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just at hand” – (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2).

The Day of the Lord will arrive “like birth pains.” No one is surprised when a pregnant woman goes into labor, and no one doubts the outcome. Labor pains point to the inevitable, and in the present passage, to the coming and inevitable destruction of the unprepared when Jesus arrives.

The picture of the thief emphasizes the unexpected arrival of the Day of the Lord. The woman suffering labor pains represents the inevitability of the destruction of the unprepared. “And they will not escape.”

Paul is describing complacency on the part of the unprepared, and this is confirmed by his use of the Greek conjunction ‘hotan’ (“whenever they are saying”). The Apostle’s warning reflects the warning of Jesus to his disciples:

• “Likewise, even as it came to pass in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. But on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. After the same manner will it be on the day that the Son of man is revealed” – (Luke 17:28-30).

We can prepare for the eventuality of a home invasion, but we cannot predict when the thief will strike.  For the unprepared, the ‘Parousia’ or arrival of Jesus on the Day of the Lord will be an unexpected event with dire consequences. For those who do prepare, it will bring rewards and glory.

• “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. For you are all sons of light, and sons of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. So, then, let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep in the night. And those who are drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us, since we are of the day, remain sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love. And for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God appointed us not for wrath, but for the acquisition of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” – (1 Thessalonians 5:4-9).

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SEE ALSO:

• The Just Judgment of God - (The arrival of Jesus will mean vindication and rest for the righteous, but everlasting loss for the wicked - 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10)

• Rumors and Lies - (Disinformation about the day of the Lord caused alarm in the congregation at Thessalonica – 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2)

• The Apostasy - (Paul warned the Thessalonians of the future apostasy, which he linked to the unveiling of the Man of Lawlessness, the Son of Destruction)

• Signos e Estações - (Paulo não fornece informações detalhadas sobre sinais e estações, pois o Senhor chegará como um ladrão na noite – 1 Tessalonicenses 5:1-3)