The Signs of the Times, vol. 11

March 26, 1885

“‘Let Us Be Sober’” The Signs of the Times 11, 13, pp. 201, 202.

IN 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, Paul sets forth the coming of the Lord, the resurrection of the righteous dead, and the righteous living caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. Then in the next chapter he proceeds thus: “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.” This being written to the “brethren,” and to those too who are to be alive on the earth when the Lord comes, he says, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief;” but that these are “all the children of the light and the children of the day;” and that thus they know “perfectly” in regard to the “times and the seasons,” and that therefore it is not necessary for him to write of these. Although these are so much the children of the light that they know these things perfectly, yet to any one who will read carefully this fifth chapter of first Thessalonians clear through it will appear very plain that the apostle did not think that there was no need that he should write unto them in regard to the duties that would devolve upon them, in view of the times and the seasons which they would know so perfectly. SITI March 26, 1885, page 201.1

One of these important duties which he would specially impress upon us is to be sober. “Let us who are of the day be sober;” “let us watch and be sober.” In his letter to Titus also Paul insists upon this. He commands that Titus shall teach “that the aged men be sober;” “the aged women likewise;” “that they may teach the young women to be sober;” “young men likewise exhort to be sober minded;” “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Titus 2. Thus he calls upon aged men and aged women, young men and young women, all to be sober. Nor is it simply soberness as opposed to drunkenness, upon which the apostle insists; but sober-mindedness. The mind must be so inclined to soberness that the whole life will be but the expression of it. Webster says that “sober is opposed to flighty.” That upon which the Scriptures insist therefore, is a character words, as stanch, solid, not puffed up, but built up. SITI March 26, 1885, page 201.2

Remember that these exhortations to sobriety are written to those who will be alive when the Lord comes; it is in view of that important event that he writes; and for the further reason that the Scriptures show plainly that lightness and trifling will be characteristic of this very time. And Paul in reasoning out of the Scriptures saw this and therefore set up this standard against it. Notice in 1 Thessalonians 5:3 he says, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them; ... and they shall not escape.” Now turn to Jeremiah 23:16—,and read: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.” Here is pointed out the very cry of “Peace and safety” which Paul names, and here follows too the very destruction to which Paul refers, “Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.” SITI March 26, 1885, page 201.3

Here then are the very sentiments of Paul’s argument. “Peace”—“ye shall have peace,” and “safety”—“no evil shall come upon you;” and this at the very time when the anger of the Lord is to fall grievously on the head of the wicked; Paul expresses it, “sudden destruction cometh upon them;” Jeremiah says it shall be in the latter days; Paul says, just before the coming of the Lord. It is impossible to read the two passages together without reaching the conclusion that it was to this very passage in Jeremiah that Paul had reference when he wrote that in 1 Thessalonians 5. This is made sure when we read in Jeremiah 25:15, 33, and find that this “whirlwind” is that which marks the culmination of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture in the seven last plagues (Revelation 16), when that “great voice” is heard from “the temple of Heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.” And this assurance is made doubly sure when we read onward in Jeremiah 23 to verse 32 and find there: “Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.” The apostle reading this scripture saw how that “lightness” and trifling would characterize the “peace and safety” prophets, and, knowing the “times and the seasons,” he impresses upon all, the important words, “Let us watch, and be sober,” and thus he would, and he would have us, lift up a standard against the lightness and trifling that will prevail even in the pulpit. SITI March 26, 1885, page 201.4

Jeremiah is not the only one of the prophets that points this out. Zephaniah says, “Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; ... they have done violence to the law.” Zephaniah 3:4. But all this is because “like people, like priest” (Hosea 4:9), and because the “people love to have it so” (Jeremiah 5:31); therefore Isaiah says: “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever (margin, the latter day); that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord; which cry to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” Isaiah 30:8-11. Paul’s comment on this passage is, “The time will come [it has come] when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3, 4. The “sound doctrine” which they will not endure, is, according to Isaiah, the law of God; “children that will not hear the law of the Lord.” Of these it may be said as of Ephraim of old, “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted a strange thing.” Hosea 8:12. And because that they will thus not receive the love of the truth that they may be saved, “Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in fraud [margin] and perverseness, and stay thereon; therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.” Isaiah 30:12, 13. SITI March 26, 1885, page 202.1

The Lord therefore not only calls us to be sober-minded, but he directs us to that which if given a place in the mind, will create staidness and solidity of character; to that which will not puff up, but which will build up, that is the law of God. At the time when they will not hear the law of the Lord, he sends a loud cry to all the world. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” At the very time when their disposition is to “depise this word,” he declares, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word.” May we all who are waiting for the coming of the Lord come humbly to him praying the prayer, “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” May he put his law in our minds, and write it in our hearts. And knowing the times and the seasons, let us “watch;” knowing the lightness and the trifling, let us be “sober;” knowing the willfulness and the rebellion, let us be “willing and obedient;” knowing how the word of the Lord is despised, let us honor it; knowing how the law of God is cast down, let us exalt it. SITI March 26, 1885, page 202.2

A. T. JONES.