… ⁵for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness … ⁶so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. ⁷For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.

Would that all of Scripture would be positive and affirming, and not negative. But the Lord must give warnings that are essential to discipleship, walking according to the truth. We are, as Paul has just written, “sons of the light and sons of the day.” Don’t live as though you are asleep. He uses metaphorical language here, because sleep is a biological necessity of life. He speaks of a spiritual sleep that renders us to live by falsehoods while thinking we have our act together. Drunks think that way! In general, when people are controlled by any other way of thinking than that which is based on the revealed truths of God, then we live and act in ways that can be described as sleeping or living in a fog. Paul milks this metaphor well! Darkness, sleeping, drunkenness—he is sin-shaming any Christian who does not adjust his life to the knowledge that Christ is soon coming.

Some translations use the word “children” in place of the NASB rendering “sons.” That is a fair translation of the Greek word “huios.” The field of meaning for that term is not limited to the male gender, but can be used in a generic sense of offspring. That is the meaning here. Such language does not disparage women, in the same way as the Hebrew term “adam” in the creation narrative does not disparage women. This word is used for the “man” (Heb. “adam” in Gen 1:26) whom God called Adam (Heb. “adam” in Gen 2:20). Scripture also uses the word in an inclusive sense later in the recap of the creation account: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man (Heb. “adam”) in the day when they were created (Gen. 5:1–2). All this to say that in our passage to the Thessalonians, Paul is not just addressing male believers, but all believers, men and women.

At times inspired Scripture does make gender distinctions with words that specifically designate male or female (see for example, 1 Tim. 2:8–15, Eph. 5:22-33). But this is not one of those places. In our relationship vertically with God, there is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28), and we are “fellow heirs of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). We are the children of light and children of day. Let us walk in that way, hopefully, expectantly, and obediently.

Lord, thank You for re-enlightening me with the truth of Your return.