1 Thessalonians 5:4

1 Thessalonians 5:4. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. There is nothing appalling to the Christian, in the suddenness of the Lord's coming, for to those who are waiting and longing for Him, He cannot come as a thief and find them unprepared. The full light of day is no surprise to those who have been eagerly watching for the morning. It is anticipated, longed for, welcome. Those are ‘in darkness' who have not accepted what Christ, the Light of the world, taught; who do not accept His life as their example, nor believe in those principles which it exemplifies; who do not think of God as holy, loving, and near; but who have desires to fulfil, which for their fulfilment require that the knowledge of God and of ourselves which Christ brought into the world be held in abeyance. He who feels he can get on better without those ideas and principles and that connection with God which Christ has brought to light, he who feels that all he is most concerned about would thrive much better in a world that shut out Christ, this man is ‘in darkness.' And as be needs and counts on this darkness for the fulfilment of all his schemes and hopes, the return of Christ to enforce the principles He revealed in His first coming is distasteful, unreckoned on, destructive. With Christians it is not so, because they are ‘not in darkness;' what they are, Paul proceeds to state.