So then let us not fall asleep
as others do, but let us
keep awake and be sober
1 Thessalonians 5:6
The Apostle Paul asks us to consider two pairs of words today: "keep awake" and "be sober."
Sobriety is continually urged throughout the Scriptures. It's in lots of scriptural lists as one of the sins that draw us from God. For example, in Ephesians 5:18 Paul warns, "do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." Thus, while "sober" is absolutely the word Paul used here, he's not really talking about drinking in this context.
This is reflected in other English translations. They tend to render this word as "serious," "self-controlled," "calm," "collected," and "circumspect." Clearly, none of us are fully any of these things when we are drunk! Thus, Paul is urging us to be sober even when we're sober!
But that's the least significant of these two pairs of words. "Keep awake" is the more pressing call.
On the night when Jesus was betrayed, even as Judas was leading the soldiers to the garden, Jesus asked a few of his disciples to keep awake and pray while he went a few steps away to pray himself. They couldn't. They didn't. The spirit was willing, but the flash was weak.
And one of Jesus parables, he told about five wise and five foolish bridesmaids waiting for the groom to come. Five were wise - they kept their lamps trimmed and they stayed awake. Five for foolish, dozing they were not ready for the Messiah.
Each day, we can choose to be awake and attentive to the movements of God. Or we can be foolish and slumbering. Missing his presence. Inattentive to word. Blind to his will.
Paul is urging us to not only wake up, but to not fall asleep in the first place. To be attentive. Listening. Curious. Hungry. Focused.
In Christ's Love,
a guy who wants
some spiritual caffeine
Sent from my iPhone
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