1 Thessalonians 5:7 - Exposition

For ; the reason of this exhortation. They that sleep, sleep in the night ; and they that are drunken are drunken in the night. Here not to be taken in a metaphorical sense, but a simple statement of fact—what occurs in ordinary experience. The night is the season in which sleep and drunkenness usually occur; whereas the day is the season of watchfulness, sobriety, and work. Both heathen and Jews considered it as eminently disgraceful for a man to be seen drunken in the day-time. Hence, when the Jews accused the believers on the day of Pentecost with being filled with new wine, Peter answered, "We are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day" ( Acts 2:15 ).