1 Thessalonians 5:6

ως without και, א*AB 17, cop syrpesh: και belongs to the Western and Syrian witnesses; cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:13; Ephesians 2:3.

6. ἄρα οὖν μὴ καθεύδωμεν ὡς οἱ λοιποί, ἀλλὰ γρηγορῶμεν καὶ νήφωμεν: accordingly then let us not sleep on like the rest, but let us be wakeful and sober. This consequential clause should be separated from the last (1 Thessalonians 5:5 b) by a colon only, while the full-stop is placed in the middle of 1 Thessalonians 5:5 : “We are not of night, &c.…; so then let us not sleep” (see the last note). “Ἄρα in classical usage never commences an independent sentence. But in later Greek it assumes a more strictly argumentative sense than in the earlier language, and so frequently occupies the first place” (Lightfoot). The combination ἄρα οὖν is peculiar to St Paul (the interrogative ἆρα οὖν …; occasionally in classical authors), occurring eight times in Romans, and once each in Galatians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians (also in Ignatius ad Trall. x.); it brings in the conclusion with a full and round emphasis, as though enforcing what reason and duty both demand. Ἄρα connotes a logical inference, a conformity of thought: οὖν draws the practical consequence, and is as freely used in exhortations as in statements; cf. τοιγαροῦν in 1 Thessalonians 4:8.

“Sleep” is natural to those who are “of the night” (cf. Ephesians 5:11 ff.); it symbolizes the moral insensibility and helpless exposure to peril resulting from sin: cf. Romans 13:11 f., “The night is far spent … it is high time to awake out of sleep,” &c.; also Psalms 13:3. For καθεύδω in this ethical sense, cf. Ephesians 5:14; Mark 13:36; distinguish the verb from κοιμάομαι, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, &c. (see note above). On οἱ λοιποί, see 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

Γρηγορέω, the antithesis of καθεύδω, is a verb of later Greek, a new present formed from ἐγρήγορα, the perf. of ἐγείρω. The word occurs many times in the warnings of Jesus—Matthew 24-26, Mark 13. f., and Luke 12.; in Acts 20:31; thrice in Revelation; twice besides in Paul; and once in Peter (1 Thessalonians 5:8) coupled, as here, with νήφω. It enjoins the continued wakeful activity of a mind given to Christ’s service and occupied with the thought of His coming. The Lord’s return is the chief object of this “watching” (1 Thessalonians 5:2; 1 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Peter 3:12; Luke 12:37); prayer is specified as its accompaniment in Colossians 4:2; Mark 14:38, &c. Watching protects against the “thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:2 f.; Luke 12:39): thus Chrysostom, Ἐπὶ γὰρ τῶν ἐγρηγορότων καὶ ἐν φωτὶ ὄντων, κἂν γένηταί τις εἴσοδος λῃστοῦ, οὐδὲν λυμανεῖσθαι δυνήσεται.

Νήφωμεν prescribes the moral, as γρηγορῶμεν the mental, side of the attitude and temper befitting the “sons of day.” In νήφειν the literal and ethical senses are combined; the word excludes, with actual drunkenness (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:7; Luke 12:45 f., Luke 21:34; Romans 13:12, &c.), all immoderation and self-indulgence (cf. 1 Peter 4:7, σωφρονήσατε καὶ νήψατε εἰς προσευχάς; νηφάλιος, 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 2:2, &c.). In this connexion, the term deprecates excitability and credulity about the Parousia (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:1 ff.) Καὶ γὰρ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ, ἂν γρηγορῇ μέν τις μὴ νήφῃ δέ, μυρίοις περιπεσεῖται δεινοῖς, ὥστε ἐγρηγόρσεως ἐπίτασις ἡ νῆψίς ἐστιν (Chrysostom).