For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

1 Thessalonians 5: 5-6

Yesterday a friend of mine gave me a retirement card that encouraged me to take a number of naps. While I am open to the idea of taking a nap, I haven’t taken advantage of it as of yet.

In the verses above, Paul isn’t speaking of a literal sense of sleepiness. The kind of sleep he mentions here is a kind of spiritual sleepiness or apathy for the people around us. According to Paul, as light in the world, we are charged with a responsibility to shine the love of Christ in dark places and we should be alert and ready to shine the light of the Gospel.

In the next few verses he tells us the results of walking in the light –

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:8-11

• In a world of darkness, we are to stay wide awake and alert as we live a life of love and faith (v 8).
• We look forward to Salvation through Christ (v 9).
• Our walk encourages the walk of others (v 11).

There are days when we may feel a bit discouraged. It may feel like darkness is creeping in, but we do not depend on our feelings, do we? We believe in and act upon God’s promises so that the “Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:35).