1 Thessalonians 5:9

5:6-11 Most of mankind do not consider the things of another world at all, because they are asleep; or they do not consider them aright, because they sleep and dream. Our moderation as to all earthly things should be known to all men. Shall Christians, who have the light of the blessed gospel shining in their faces, be careless about their souls, and unmindful of another world? We need the spiritual armour, or the three Christian graces, faith, love, and hope. Faith; if we believe that the eye of God is always upon us, that there is another world to prepare for, we shall see reason to watch and be sober. True and fervent love to God, and the things of God, will keep us watchful and sober. If we have hope of salvation, let us take heed of any thing that would shake our trust in the Lord. We have ground on which to build unshaken hope, when we consider, that salvation is by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, to atone for our sins and to ransom our souls. We should join in prayer and praise one with another. We should set a good example one before another, and this is the best means to answer the end of society. Thus we shall learn how to live to Him, with whom we hope to live for ever.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 . Ἔθετο , hath appointed ) So the LXX., Psalm 66:9 , τοῦ θεμένου τὴν ψυχήν μου εἰς ξωήν , who hath placed (holdeth) my soul in life; Jdg 1:28 , ἔθετο τὸν Χαναναῖον εἰς φόρον , put the Canaanite to tribute; where indeed the Vatican reading has ἐποίησε , but ἔθετο was a phraseology certainly not unusual with the transcriber.— περιποίησιν σωτηρίας ) Salvation of that sort is intended, by which they who are saved are taken out (excepted) from the multitude of those that perish.[30] [30] See note on Ephesians 1:14 , as to the meaning of περιποίησις . It is said of that which remains, when all else is lost. So here of the elect saved, when all others are lost.—ED.

For (ὅτι) Special emphasis is laid on the hope of salvation. The exhortation to put it on is enforced by the fact that God's appointment is to salvation and not to wrath. To obtain (εἰς περιποίησιν) More literally, unto the obtaining. See on Ephesians 1:14. In three out of five instances in N.T. the word clearly means acquiring or obtaining. In Ephesians 1:14 and 1 Peter 2:9, it is sometimes rendered possession (so Rev.). But in Ephesians the meaning is redemption or acquisition, or redemption which will give possession; and in 1st Peter a people for acquisition. The meaning here is that we might obtain. Comp. lxx, Malachi 3:17.

Verse 9. - For . Not a new reason for watchfulness and sobriety, but referring to "the hope of salvation," why we may with confidence put on such a hope as a helmet. God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain - or, to the acquisition of - salvation by - or, through - our Lord Jesus Christ . Not through the doctrine of Christ, nor even through faith in Christ, but through the Lord Jesus Christ himself, through what he has done for us, and especially through his atoning death. The appointment of God's grace is here mentioned as the efficient cause of our salvation; and the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Mediator through whom salvation is bestowed. 1 Thessalonians 5:9

(9) For. —This is not the reason for being watchful, but for being hopeful of salvation. The image of the soldier is abandoned’ as suddenly as it was introduced. Hath not appointed.—Rather, did not appoint, referring to some mysterious moment of God’s eternal counsels, when He fixed His predestination of us—whether the moment of creative thought, or of sending the gospel to us. The “wrath” is that which is to come upon the “children of wrath” at the Second Advent, as in 1Thessalonians 1:10; 1Thessalonians 2:16. (Comp. 1Peter 2:8.) We may well be confident then, for we ourselves are the only persons that can defeat God’s predestinations. To obtain salvation.—More than “obtain;” the Greek means “acquire” by one’s own efforts;” earn and make our own;” being the same word as is used in 1Timothy 3:13 and Acts 20:28 in the verb; and in the substantive in Ephesians 1:14 (where it is translated “purchased possession”); 2Thessalonians 2:14; Hebrews 10:39 (translated “saving”); and 1Peter 2:9, where see Note. It will be seen that God does not predestinate men to “salvation” without laborious acquisition on their part, but predestinates them to occupy a position in which they will be able to “work out their own salvation” by placing them “under grace” in the Church.

The very same word is used of the Christian’s way of securing salvation, and of Christ’s way of securing it for him (see references); both are “purchasing,” “earning.” But mark that the Christian can only so purchase salvation “through our Lord Jesus Christ:” apart from Him a man can do nothing to redeem himself, but through union with Him the believer can pay the whole price of his salvation (see e.g. John 15:5);

9. For—assigning the ground of our "hopes" (1Th 5:8). appointed us—Translate, "set" (Ac 13:47), in His everlasting purpose of love (1Th 3:3; 2Ti 1:9). Contrast Ro 9:22; Jude 4. to—that is, unto wrath. to obtain—Greek, "to the acquisition of salvation"; said, according to Bengel, Of One saved out of a general wreck, when all things else have been lost: so of the elect saved out of the multitude of the lost (2Th 2:13, 14). The fact of God's "appointment" of His grace "through Jesus Christ" (Eph 1:5), takes away the notion of our being able to "acquire" salvation of ourselves. Christ "acquired (so the Greek for 'purchased') the Church (and its salvation) with His own blood" (Ac 20:28); each member is said to be appointed by God to the "acquiring of salvation." In the primary sense, God does the work; in the secondary sense, man does it.

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation: some expositors make these words an argument to all the duties of holiness mentioned both in this and the foregoing chapters; and it is true, that the knowledge of our being elected, or appointed to salvation, doth not in the elect encourage to sin or sloth, as some affirm, but engage to all holiness: but I had rather restrain the words, and that either to the hope of salvation, mentioned immediately before, and then the sense to be this, we may well hope for salvation seeing God hath appointed us to it; or, to his whole discourse about the coming of Christ, and so they may give the reason why the dead in Christ must rise, and must, with the living saints, meet the Lord in the air, and be for ever with him; yea, and why they need not fear the destruction that will come upon others at that day, and why they should be watchful for its coming, because, saith the apostle: God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation, & c.

Having spoken of two sorts of persons, the children of the day, and children of the night, and the sudden destruction of the one and salvation of the other at the coming of Christ, he here ascends to the first original of both, which is God’s appointment, which is an act of God’s sovereign will, determining men’s final estates; which seems to be more than mere prescience or foreknowledge, an act of God’s mind, as appears by Romans 8:29 1 Peter 1:2 , or more than appointing of the means and way of salvation; but not of persons to be saved, or of persons only materially, as to the number how many, but not formally, or individually, who they are that shall be saved; whereas the apostle writes of some whose names are in the book of life, Philippians 4:3 , and that from the foundation of the world, Revelation 17:8 , and chosen before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4 : otherwise, every man’s salvation would depend more upon the uncertainty of man’s will, than the eternal and immutable will of God; whereas whatever God works in man’s salvation, is according to the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1:11 ; and God’s counsel is certain, immutable, and eternal, extending not only to actions and means, but persons, Romans 8:29,30 .