Day and Night
Are you a night person or a day person?
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing. - 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Paul uses the day and night as metaphors for the way we live our lives.
If we are children of the day, we are living in light, rather than darkness. So, we do the things that are fully seen, not hidden, and we are awake, not asleep.
Children of the night live in darkness, letting the world take hold of them, so that they are swayed by the forces of the night, letting themselves become intoxicated with worldly things.
They do not pay attention to the signs that this life is short and we need to work at staying on the path to eternal salvation.
It is tempting at times to just let go and have a good time, but when the morning comes, we know that reality will set us back on track.
Paul believed the day of judgment was near, so he wanted us to be alert, but with all this time that has passed, we might get lazy and stop thinking about such things.
It is because we don't focus on the end that we can miss the joy of the present.
Living in the light of God is what we want to do, not just because it will help us later, but because it brings us to a better place now.
If we don't see that, it might be because we are too tired from living it up in the night.
More to come...