We belong to the day.
We belong to the day. How do we belong and what is it we belong to? We’re looking at 1 Thessalonians 5:8 among other gems in the Bible today. So, join us, as we break it down, read the context, and see how the beauty of God’s Word changes our lives.
Having an Evergreen Relationship with God is a time for women and teen girls to seek the one thing that can’t be taken away from us—God’s Words—and to let it light our path, so we can be with God all the days of our lives and purposefully live our lives for him.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 says, “We belong to the day.”
It sounds so victorious and mighty. That we belong to the day.
Belonging is something so many people yearn for. From the worldly perspective, it doesn’t matter what we belong to. Sometimes any cause or community will do, because it gives them purpose and a sense of belonging. Importance and value.
But as we know, it does matter what—and Who—we belong to. Because we were created to belong to Someone very specific—our Creator. The God of the universe, who made Day and Night. And the One who came to destroy darkness, that we might live forever in his light, the light of the Day.
That is where we belong.
So let’s break it down:
We. There actually needs to be a bit of context for us to know who the “we” is. We’re told at the very beginning of this chapter— “brother” which is the overall meaning for “brother and sister.” And it’s used six more times in this chapter! In verse 4, 12, 14 and then the last few verses, 25, 26, 27. This is for the family of God! We’re more than a united people, a crowd with a common cause—we are family.
That word has different meaning for all of us. It should bring a sense of comfort, protection, and love. It should reflect the beauty of how God created family. Like it says in Ephesians 3:14-15, “I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”
Family is there when no one else is. They are bonded by a shared history, part of the same heritage and looking forward to a future together in hope. No matter what our family is on earth, that is our family in God.
As a family, we have a shared history of being saved from death and now enter in the story of the people of God. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once we were not a people, but now we are God's people; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy, as it says in 1 Peter 2:9-10. Our past is behind us and instead, the overarching story of the Bible—what God has done from day one through his people from the very beginning until now—that is our story.
As a family, we have the heritage promised to us, as it says in Ephesians 1:11, “In him we have obtained an inheritance.”
And as a family, we have hope. We know that everything may not be perfect now (actually, it’s almost guaranteed not to be if we’re truly following Christ), but we know that our lives as God’s family is so worth it now and will be immeasurably worth it then.
So the family of God, the children of God, for those of us who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, as it says in John 1:12. But being his children isn’t something to be taken for granted. And it’s not stagnant. It is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God (1 John 3:10). If we are the children of God, then we to do seek righteous things.
We don’t work to belong, but by belonging, we work.
We have so much to do in sharing the vision and purpose God has for his family, that he is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9). So as the family of God, we reach out to those around us.
We reach out to those who don’t know him, wanting the same peace and life for them that we’ve finally found in God.
And we reach out to those in the family because we’re all one in God. Because everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. (1 John 5:1-2).
Belong to. The beautiful thing is, we aren’t just part of the family of God. It’s not a membership that we cancel anytime we don’t feel like it. We belong to him. To God. The King above all authorities. If Satan tries to lure us away from him by making us believe we don’t belong, that doesn’t change the fact that with God is where all of us belong.
Like we’ve said before, it’s not a passive thing. The world shouldn’t have to ask us if we’re still a Christian— it should be evident that we belong to God, that we spend time with him and his family. When Moses came down from the mountain after talking with God and hearing the commandments God gave, he didn’t know it but his face was shining because he had been talking with God. The people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining. They knew, it was evident that Moses spent time with God (Exodus 34:29-35).
We no longer belong to the world. We who have put on Christ have made that commitment. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, as it says in Galatians 5:24 (which is the verse after the fruit of the Spirit!). We don’t spend our time in our passions and desires. Those things are in the past! By continuing in them, we are showing that we belong to them, that our desires have control over us and that our worth is nothing more than to be tramped on by Satan’s whims.
We, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in us. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness, as it says in Romans 8:9-10. Being committed to Christ, we have his Spirit within us, a promise, guiding us throughout this life. He did not leave us alone!
He has put his stamp on us, his own Spirit. When we heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and believed in him, we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of God’s glory, as it says in Ephesians 1:13-14. The Spirit helps us talk to God and he is the proof that we are God’s at the end of time.
We belong to God. If we have accepted his Son, who God has sent to save us, we are His. He puts his hand on our shoulder in front of all the earthly and heavenly authorities and says, “This one is mine.” And at the end of time, we will belong completely with him—forever.
The day. So we belong to God. And by belonging to him, we belong to the day. It’s a full picture of life, value, and promise! We aren’t cowering in the corners of darkness, surrounded by the sin that easily entangled us. We live in the fullness of day, everything clear and without shame, because we are in Christ, the light of the world.
That is why he came. He said, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46) He came to take us out of darkness, so that we can belong to light. And it’s nothing for God to conquer the darkness: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
That’s been the plan from the very beginning. He even told us so through Isaiah in chapter 9:2 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone” (and it's later in this chapter that says “For unto us a child is born…”). Since even before sin, God was ready to bring us back to him in a beautiful way: he sent Christ. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)
That terrible life that sins makes us believe is the best is actually Satan’s domain of darkness, one that we have no hope of escaping without Christ coming to get us. And he does. If let him, God delivers us out of it and instead brings us to his kingdom, where his Son stands for us so God sees his purity and erases our sin.
This is life we can now have! It’s all through Jesus Christ and God our Father! He is the Day.
As Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, said “the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)
And the sunrise of Christ brought light everywhere he went while he was on earth. He said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” in John 9:5. There was so much to do to help us see and bring us back to God. And we in turn are light of the world (Matthew 5:14) by letting his light shine through us so others can see the beauty of who he is and find life.
Because the day is coming, when everything will be brought to light at the end of time. And we want as many as possible to say ‘we belong to the light.’
So that was breaking it down. Now let’s look at the context:
Verse 1-3 says: “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
Like we established earlier, this is to the “we,” those who have taken God’s hand to bring us up out of darkness, those who have turned away from the evil deeds of that darkness, and chosen to be clothed with Christ in baptism—the family of God. We know that the fullness of day, the day of judgement, will come when we least expect it.
So many around us may be saying that everything if fine, that there is even peace and security—but what is it that they are trusting in to make them think that? How long does that “peace and security” last? Especially when the light of day shines on it and makes it obvious they were trusting in something that was fragile and precariously built, not worth their trust. We can’t be like the rich fool in Luke 12 who said, “And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’” We can’t limit what we see to the superficial.
Which is why later in Luke 12:37-40, Jesus says, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
We don’t know when Jesus is coming back. But we do know it will be like a thief in the night—unexpected and on God’s time, not ours. When God is ready, you don’t ask him to wait.
We get a glimpse of it in Exodus 12: after 400 years of captivity, God was acting powerfully through the plagues, with the promise of deliverance so close. And when it was time, it was time. As it says, “So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.” And later, “And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.” And God took care of them.
For us, through the years of the world being in captivity of sin, God is acting powerfully through his Son, with the promise of our deliverance so close. And when the time will come, it will be time. We’ll either be ready or we won’t. It will be like a thief in the night.
Which is why verse 4 continues by saying: “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” For the family of God, we aren’t fearing that day. As far as we’re concerned, it can come anytime! Because we are ready. We have left the darkness behind us.
That was our past. For all of us. None of us escaped the darkness of sin. That was our life with those who went against God, “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind,” as it says in Ephesians 2:3. We were deserving of the wrath that God has against the injustice sin brought because we chose to obey what Satan whispered to us in the dark.
Which is why later in Ephesians, Ephesians 5, it says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
We don’t let the darkness have any control over us or those around us. We show it for what it is! We are done with it’s trickiness and deceit. Instead we let God’s light show us the truth and in him, we have hope, that we can arise from the death the darkness brings, that he will shine on us and God won’t see our past in the darkness.
“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:19-21)
Which leads us to verse 5: “For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.” That is who we are! “If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light” (Luke 11:36). We put away the darkness and instead we are wholly bright! That incredible imagery of a lamp with the rays that spreads light everywhere.
Because “at one time we were darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. We are to walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),” (Ephesians 5:8-9).
We regretfully know what we did in darkness but what does life look like as children of light, children of the day? We bear fruit of light, which simply means our lives show everything that is of the light: everything good and right and true. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what is good and right and true. As humankind, we know right and wrong, whether we choose to admit it or not. But we don’t just know it—we live it!
Verse 6-7: “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.” Those who sleep spiritually and those who are wasted spiritually are those who will be surprised when that day comes like a thief in the night. That is not who we are! We prepare our minds for action and being sober-minded, set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:13)
We have hope, but that doesn’t mean we are entitled to sit back and be holier-than-thou to all of those around us who aren’t ready. We aren’t entitled to anything! It’s all because of Christ. And we want those around us to also be ready. Not as a threat, but as a plea. Because there are no second chances then.
It's like the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, some ready to meet the Bridegroom and some who were not. In the end, after they waited and it was time, that’s the moment that mattered, the moment when it’s obvious. We can’t share our oil then, but we can try to encourage others to be ready before that time comes.
It's reflected beautifully in the first part of Luke 12 that we looked at earlier. Starting in v. 35, it says, “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.”
When he comes, we don’t want to be shocked and woefully scrambling to be somewhat ready to greet him. When he comes, we want to sitting there, waiting expectantly and hopefully, so that when he looks at us, we can smile unabashedly that our faith is reality and with confidence in Christ, we walk home with him.
Because we belong to the day!
But there’s more to the verse. Verse 8: “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.” This is everything that is good and right and true: it’s a life in faith, love, hope, and salvation. But notice it’s described as armor! It’s not as detailed as the armor of God talked about in Ephesians 6, but nevertheless, it gives us the mindset that we need these things if we’re going to make it. They are gifts from God, helping us ward off Satan’s attacks so we can be ready when Jesus comes and not caught in evil.
So faith, “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” as it says in Hebrews 11:1. Faith is what keeps us going. Not some feeble wish half-hearted assumption that God might be real and is who he says he is. No, it is assurance of what we are constantly hoping for, we are sure that he is who he says he is! And we are convinced, that even if we can’t see him now, our faith will become reality when we finally see him face to face on that beautiful day.
And the love that we know in part now will be full and overflowing. As 1 Corinthians 13 gives us details of what true love is (and it’s not what the world says it is), the chapter finishes by saying, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Faith is great and so is our hope, but the greatest, what holds us up in darkest of times is God’s love. His love is forever, constant and true and never lets us go. It is the reason he came and the reason we get to be with him in eternity.
Hope is what we hold fast to, the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, as it says in Hebrews 6:18-19. Just as much as we are sure and convinced in our faith and comforted and safe in God’s love, we are anchored and steadfast in our hope. No matter what happens on earth, we have hope. Again, it’s not a lukewarm “maybe-it’ll-happen” thing. It is a promise at the end of a long and hard road. That our hope is real. Our hope came on our behalf.
And brought us salvation. That is what our hope is in. That we have a Savior who delivered us. From that darkness into his light, that we can be children of the day. Romans 13:11 says, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” And with excitement, not anxiety, we should want to say, “Yes! It is!”
Verse 9-10: “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.” Our salvation, what Christ saved us from, is the wrath that God has on the injustice that we talked about in Ephesians 2:3. The wrath that comes on those who are disobedient, those who go against the Truth.
But our salvation is that we are saved by him from the wrath of God, as it says in Romans 5:9. That was God’s plan, which is why he sent his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
He died for all of us, that we might live with him.
I’m not sure if this is spiritually awake/asleep or physically awake/asleep, but it works either way. Whether we are spiritually awake or asleep on earth we will always have the option to find God. We try to wake others out of darkness so they will know Christ and might then live with him. But it is our choice if we accept his indescribable gift.
And at the end of time, if we are physically asleep (dead) or still alive, we will live with God. “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
Which is the conclusion verse in this section, verse 11: Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. This is what we do, belonging to the day. Encouraging each other is such a big part of our lives! Saved and wanting others to be saved. But those of us who are saved, who are in the family of God, still need constant encouragement. We need to lift each other up, not with our own strength, but with the power of the words of God. He has given us everything we need to live for him.
So that was the verse in context. Now how does the beauty of this part of God’s Word change our lives:
We eagerly await the day. We don’t just passively look forward to it. It’s what drives our daily actions. “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.” Romans 8:23
We choose light, not darkness. Darkness is a thing of the past. We have accepted Christ and choose to live in him, cradled in the warmth of his light. For at one time we were darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light! Ephesians 5:8
We stay awake. We don’t go through life idle and unintentional. We live each day ready to see our hope, our Lord. “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning.” Luke 12:35
In faith, we live in love, awaiting salvation with hope. Our faith is our assurance, God’s love (his greatest gift) gives us reason and we wait with radiant hope for the One who has saved us.
We live in Christ. We have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer us who live, but Christ who lives in us. And the life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. Galatians 2:20
We encourage each other. We pick each other up and run together towards our God. As it says later in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, “We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”
Because we are running toward something much greater than we could ever imagine. Revelation 22:3-5 : “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. We will see his face, and his name will be on our foreheads. And night will be no more. We will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be our light…”
Because we belong to the day.
Well, that’s it for this time. I pray this week is a wonderful one as you continually seek the Truth in God’s Word, that by its light we will know the right path to follow to live as children of God- children that have an evergreen relationship with him.
Until the next one- same time, same place. See you soon :)
- Rebecca
1 Thessalonians 5:1-14
“Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 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. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 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.”
