Profundities From the Apostle Paul

1 Thessalonians 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.6 ¶ Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.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.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

Sleep. Awake. Darkness. Light. Sober. Drunken. These are words that the Scripture includes in this passage. We are admonished by the Apostle Paul to be be "sober," be "awake," and not "sleep," in the spiritual sense as do others.

Have you ever been in the physical state between being asleep and being awake? I remember being in this state at different times in my life. It is not a good feeling. If you have ever been drunk on alcohol to the point of passing out, you may know how it feels to be in this state between being physically awake and asleep. You want to wake up and it seems you are stuck and no matter how much you try to wake up, you continue to be in limbo. I remember feeling smothered and strangely frozen in this state. I felt that If I fell back to sleep, I would never wake up. So I struggled and struggled until I finally awoke. When I finally awoke, I jumped up and breathed heavily for several minutes. Not a good feeling.

In the spiritual sense, we are admonished to be "awake." The Apostle Paul encourges Christians to continue as children of the light and to avoid the darkness. Perhaps there are those who are "stuck" in limbo between being awake and being asleep in the spiritual sense. We should be ever diligent in being prepared for the coming of the Lord for we know that he has warned that he "will come as a thief in the night." Our light should shine out to others who need to be awakened out of darkness or to those Christians who are stuck in "limbo" between being actively awake or just hanging on between being awake and being asleep spiritually. These Christians are "drunk" on things that keeps them from being actively awake. This "stupor" keeps them from shining as they should for the Lord. Maybe its the stupor of unforgiveness or the stupor of gossip, or a number of other stupors. The cry is "AWAKE!" Those stupors are just "drugs" of the devil to keep us from being awake. Put those things away and joyfully awake!

Put those stupors away and joyfully put on faith and love in HIM! So we gladly rejoice that we can be with HIM who died for us that whether we continue living in this life joyfully awake or in that final light that comes with the final sleep with HIM (passing from temporal breath to the celestial breath). . . .God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5