1 Thessalonians 5:2 - Exposition

For yourselves know perfectly ; namely, not from Scripture, nor from oral tradition, but from the teaching of the apostle when in Thessalonica. That the day of the Lord . "The day of the Lord" is a common Old Testament expression, denoting the coming of the Divine judgments ( Joel 1:15 ; Joel 2:1 ); and by the phrase here is meant, not the destruction of Jerusalem, nor the day of one's death, but the day of the Lord's advent, when Christ shall descend from heaven in glory for the resurrection of the dead and the judgment of the world. The idea of judgment is contained in the term "day." So cometh as a thief in the night . The same comparison is used by our Lord himself ( Matthew 24:43 ; Luke 12:39 ), and the very words are employed by Peter ( 2 Peter 3:10 ). The point of resemblance is evidently the unexpectedness and suddenness of the coming. The thief comes upon people in the night season, when they are asleep and unprepared; so, in a similar manner, when Christ comes, he will find the world unprepared and not expecting his advent. The ancient Fathers inferred from this passage that Christ would come to judgment in the night season, and hence they instituted vigils, or night watches. Some, still more precisely, fixed the coming on Easter night, from the analogy of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt on the paschal evening.