⁸But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

So how should we then live in light of Christ’s return? It is really nothing exotic. Paul doesn’t say sell your home and possessions and wait on a hilltop or the desert for the event. Some have indeed done things like that in history. Entirely too much time is given to things in Scripture that are not there, and we miss the obvious things of the Spirit that are clearly laid out.

Even in our treatment of what Scripture does say, we waste much energy wrestling with minute things that often become points of argumentation and debate. For example, here the apostle gives what we might call an abbreviated listing of “the full armor of God” as found in Ephesians 6:12–18. A close inspection shows that Paul assigns the elements of the armor differently to the spiritual disciplines. We dive “deeply” to discover the nuanced reason why Paul in his letter to the Ephesians would refer to the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith, but then here speaks of the breastplate of faith and not mention the shield at all. What is the deeper meaning here? Some spend much time at this level in their reading of Scripture, while missing the obvious.

We need not lose energy dissecting the differences and reasons why. Writers of Scripture, just like all communicators, are not bound to use metaphors with iron-fisted consistency or with overly nuanced meanings. We must interpret metaphors in the context and with the sense in which the writer expresses it. Paul has already commended the believers by describing his prayer for them as “constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ . . .” (1 Thess. 1:3). And then he tells them to “encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” It is very natural then to interpret Paul in our verse today as telling them to continue to do what they are already doing, namely, being intentional in their faith, love, and hope. He even lists them in the same order, which is different from his classic statement to the Corinthians, “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). In the latter, he emphasizes love by placing it at the end (which is the point of the entire chapter). But in the letter to the Thessalonians, he emphasizes all three.

Preparing for the Lord’s return is simply living in faith, love, and hope, treating these like armor that protects our vitals (breastplate) and our brains (the helmet). We need to be intentional in all three, just as Paul has been telling the Thessalonians, and to continue in them as our daily focus.

Lord, thank You for making this so simple, even I can understand it.