to keep awake · verb — present active subjunctive, 1st person plural
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
sober
νήφωμεν.nēphōmen
G3525
to abstain from wine (keep sober) · verb — present active subjunctive, 1st person plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Je…
Matthew 24:42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Luke 22:46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Romans 13:11-14 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Revelation 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
1 Corinthians 16:13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
Ephesians 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Thessalonians 5:6-10
On what had been said, the apostle grounds seasonable exhortations to several needful duties.
I. To watchfulness and sobriety, Th1 5:6. These duties are distinct, yet they mutually befriend one another. For, while we are compassed about with so many temptations to intemperance and excess, we shall not keep sober, unless we be upon our guard, and, unless we keep sober, we shall not long watch. 1. Then let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch; we must not be secure and careless, nor indulge spiritual sloth and idleness. We must not be off our watch, but continually upon our guard against sin, and temptation to it. The generality of men are too careless of their duty and regardless of th…
others--Greek, "the rest" of the world: the unconverted (Th1 4:13). "Sleep" here is worldly apathy to spiritual things (Rom 13:11; Eph 5:14); in Th1 5:7, ordinary sleep; in Th1 5:10, death.
watch--for Christ's coming; literally, "be wakeful." The same Greek occurs in Co1 15:34; Ti2 2:26.
be sober--refraining from carnal indulgence, mental or sensual (Pe1 5:8).
Adam Clarke on 1 Thessalonians 5:6
Let us not sleep, as do others - Let us who are of the day - who believe the Gospel and belong to Christ, not give way to a careless, unconcerned state of mind, like to the Gentiles and sinners in general, who are stupefied and blinded by sin, so that they neither think nor feel; but live in time as if it were eternity; or rather, live as if there were no eternity, no future state of existence, rewards, or punishments.
Let us watch - Be always on the alert; and be sober, making a moderate use of all things.
John Gill on 1 Thessalonians 5:6
Therefore let us not sleep as do others.... As the rest of the Gentiles, as unconverted persons, who are in a state of darkness, and are children of the night; let us not act that part they do, or be like them; which professors of religion too much are, when they indulge themselves in carnal lusts and pleasures, and are careless and thoughtless about the coming of the day of the Lord; and get into a stupid, drowsy, and slumbering frame of spirit; when grace lies dormant as if it was not, and they grow backward to, and slothful in the discharge of duty, and content themselves with the bare externals of religion; and become lukewarm and indifferent with respect to the truths and ordinance of t…
The Church Fathers
The winged messenger of day Sings loud, foretelling dawn's approach, And Christ in stirring accents calls Our slumbering souls to life with him. "Away," he cries, "with dull repose, The sleep of death and sinful sloth; With hearts now sober, just and pure, Keep watch, for I am very near."
Wherefore, let us honor this sacred day, the day on which the author of our salvation appeared. Whom the wise men revered as an infant in his crib, let us worship as all-powerful in heaven. Just as they offered to the Lord mystical kinds of gifts from their treasures, let us bring forth from our hearts things that are worthy of God. Although he himself bestows all good things, he nevertheless asks for the fruit of our effort. For the kingdom of heaven comes not to those who sleep but to those who work and watch according to the Lord's command. If we do not render his gifts ineffective, we may deserve to receive what he promised through the very things which he has given.
So that you may know that the prayers which are uttered in time of affliction would have the best chance of being heard, hear what the prophet says, "In my affliction I cried to the Lord, and he listened to me." Therefore, let us stir up our conscience to fervor, let us afflict our soul with the memory of our sins, not so that it is crushed with anxiety but so that we may make it ready to be heard, so that we make it live in sobriety and watchfulness and ready to attain heaven itself. Nothing puts carelessness and negligence to flight the way grief and affliction do. They bring together our thoughts from every side and make our mind turn back to ponder itself. The man who prays in this way, in his affliction, after many a prayer, can bring joy into his own soul.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Kiss — Of affection (Gen. 27:26, 27; 29:13; Luke 7:38, 45); reconciliation (Gen. 33:4; 2 Sam. 14:33); leave-taking (Gen. 31:28, 55; Ruth 1:14; 2 Sam. 19:39); homage (Ps. 2:12; 1 Sam. 10:1); spoken of as…
Commandments · PRECEPTS OF PAUL. EXPLICITLY STATED OR IMPLIED IN DIDACTIC EPISTLES — PRECEPTS OF PAUL. EXPLICITLY STATED OR IMPLIED IN DIDACTIC EPISTLES
Sobriety · With watchfulness — With watchfulness
Temperance · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Warfare Of Saints · To be carried on: With sobriety — To be carried on: With sobriety
Watchfulness · 4:2,17; — 4:2,17;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
1 Thessalonians 5:6-10
6. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
6. Ergo ne dormiamus ut reliqui, sed vigilemus, et sobrii simus.
7. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
7. Qui enim dormiunt, nocte dormiunt: et qui ebrii sunt, nocte ebrii sunt.
8. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
8. Nos autem qui sumus diei, sobrii simus, induti thorace fidei et caritatis, et galea, spe salutis:
9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
9. Quia non constituit nos Deus…
Stay alert and be clearheaded echoes Jesus’ call to be morally prepared because the disciples will not know the day of his return (Matt 24:42, 44; 25:13; cp. 1 Pet 1:13).
