The Immediate Context That Defines “They”

Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 do not float in isolation. They are welded to what he has just said about the resurrection hope and the comfort Christians give one another (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Then he pivots: “Now as for the times and the seasons, brothers…” (1 Thessalonians 5:1). That opening signals that Paul is not giving a calendar, nor is he inviting speculation. He is correcting a mindset. The Thessalonian Christians needed steadiness, not date-finding; vigilance, not feverish prediction.

The contrast that governs the whole paragraph is the contrast between “you” and “they.” Paul speaks to the congregation as “you,” “brothers,” “sons of light,” and “sons of day” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5). He speaks of outsiders as “they,” those who are in darkness, those who are asleep, those who are intoxicated, and those not living with spiritual alertness (1 Thessalonians 5:3-7). That contrast is not ethnic, national, or social. It is spiritual and moral. “They” are the people who are not living as disciples of Christ, not watching, not sober-minded, not oriented to the Kingdom hope, not governed by the Word of God.

So “they” is not a mysterious coded group that must be guessed. “They” is the world outside faithful Christian discipleship, the broader human society that carries on with normal life under the present system and assumes tomorrow will be like today. It includes the influential voices that shape that assumption—political rulers, cultural authorities, economic planners, religious leaders who have aligned themselves with the world, and the general public who takes its cues from them. But the pronoun itself is not limited to elites. Paul’s point requires that “they” be broad, because the effect he describes—false confidence followed by sudden collapse—falls upon a whole population that is not spiritually awake.

The Meaning of “Peace and Security” in Paul’s Argument

The expression “Peace and security!” in 1 Thessalonians 5:3 functions as a slogan of complacency. Paul is describing a mood and a public claim: a settled conviction that stability has been achieved, that danger has been managed, that the future is secure. The very next line defines the spiritual danger: “then sudden destruction is to be instantly upon them, just as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will by no means escape.”

Notice what Paul does not do. He does not say that the proclamation itself is righteous, nor that it is a sign of genuine peace. He portrays it as a confidence that collapses. The world’s “peace” is the kind that can be announced, marketed, celebrated, and institutionalized while the underlying rebellion against God remains untouched. That is why Paul pairs the proclamation with the image of labor pains. Labor pains do not mean nothing was happening before. They mean a process has reached a point where the outcome is unavoidable and the intensity becomes undeniable. Paul is saying that the world can talk itself into thinking it has achieved stability, but the decisive moment arrives as surely and suddenly as labor pains arrive, and at that point escape is no longer an option.

“Peace” and “security” are not merely personal feelings here. They are public claims. That is why Paul frames them as speech: “Whenever they are saying…” The grammar points to a repeated or characteristic saying, not necessarily a single isolated sentence whispered by a few people. It is a mentality expressed in words, policies, declarations, and cultural narratives: “We are safe now. The threats are contained. We have secured the future.”

When Will They Proclaim It?

Paul anchors the timing with the phrase “then,” tying the proclamation to the onset of “sudden destruction.” He also frames the entire discussion under “the day of Jehovah” coming “as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). That metaphor is not meant to terrify faithful Christians; it is meant to demolish the world’s assumption that it can foresee and manage the decisive intervention of God. A thief does not schedule an appointment. The world does not get to vote on the day when Jehovah brings judgment and Christ executes His authority.

So when will “they” proclaim “peace and security”? In the period leading up to the day of Jehovah in the sense Paul uses it here: the climactic time when God’s judgment breaks in upon a world that has declared itself stable. The proclamation belongs to the final phase of false confidence. The world tends to speak confidently precisely when it believes it has solved its greatest threats. That is the irony Paul presses. The proclamation is not proof that peace has arrived; it is proof that complacency has hardened.

Paul’s pastoral aim is to keep Christians from being swept into that complacency. He is not handing the congregation a headline-reading hobby. He is saying: the world will keep telling itself it is secure, and at some point that self-assurance will be shattered. Therefore, you must live differently now.

Why Christians Are Not Overtaken as “They” Are

Paul’s warning includes an assurance: “But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as it would thieves” (1 Thessalonians 5:4). That line is decisive. The day comes like a thief to “them,” not to faithful disciples. It is not because Christians possess secret codes or hidden calendars. It is because Christians live in the light—meaning they live under the revealed truth of Scripture, with moral clarity, awake to spiritual realities, and oriented to Christ’s Kingdom.

Paul’s language “sons of light” and “sons of day” is covenantal identity language. It signals belonging and conduct. Those who belong to the day live like it is day. They do not get drunk on the world’s narratives. They do not go to sleep spiritually. They do not let the world’s slogans define reality.

This is why Paul immediately moves into exhortation: “So then, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay awake and keep our senses.” He then names the protective mindset as “the breastplate of faith and love” and “the hope of salvation as a helmet” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). That is not mystical. It is concrete. Faith anchors the mind in what Jehovah has said. Love governs conduct toward God and neighbor. Hope stabilizes courage under pressure. The world’s claim of “peace and security” is a counterfeit helmet; it protects nothing when judgment arrives. Hope in God’s salvation is the real helmet.

The Ethical Weight of the Passage

Paul’s imagery of labor pains and inescapability is sobering. Yet Paul does not intend to produce anxiety. He intends to produce preparedness. The passage presses one dominant ethical contrast: the world is spiritually asleep, but Christians must be awake. The world is intoxicated with present satisfactions and false assurances, but Christians must remain sober. The world announces security as a substitute for repentance, but Christians look for the Kingdom and remain steadfast.

The warning also exposes a temptation: to want the world’s comfort more than God’s truth. The slogan “peace and security” is seductive because it appeals to a basic human desire to feel safe. But safety purchased by denying reality, ignoring sin, and rejecting the Kingship of Christ is not safety. It is anesthesia. Paul is telling Christians not to take the world’s anesthesia.

The Pastoral Application Without Date-Setting

Paul refuses to give “times and seasons” not because timing is irrelevant, but because the faithful response does not depend on knowing a date. The faithful response is a way of life. Christians who are awake and sober will not be morally surprised when the world’s confidence collapses. They will not be spiritually unprepared. They will not be among those saying, “Peace and security,” as though human arrangements can prevent Jehovah’s day.

The proclamation, whenever it crystallizes most loudly, will be the voice of a world that believes it owns the future. Paul’s counsel is to live as people who know the future belongs to God, and that Christ’s Kingdom is the only lasting peace and security.

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