ACC ~ 1 Thessalonians 5 v4

KEEPING THE BALANCE. AUGUSTINE: Therefore, not to know the times is something different from decay of morals and love of vice. For, when the apostle Paul said, “Don’t allow your thinking to be shaken nor be frightened, neither by word nor by epistle as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand,” he obviously did not want them to believe those who thought the coming of the Lord was already at hand, but neither did he want them to be like the wicked servant and say, “My Lord is long in coming,” and deliver themselves over to destruction by pride and riotous behavior. Thus, his desire that they should not listen to false rumors about the imminent approach of the last day was consistent with his wish that they should await the coming of their Lord fully prepared, packed for travel and with lamps burning. He said to them, “But you, brothers, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief, for all you are the children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night nor of darkness.” LETTERS 199.1.2.

ISAAC OF NINEVEH: Now if the good God sees that a man’s heart has not inclined to any of these things (as David said, indicating the same, “Thou hast proved my heart, Thou hast visited it in the night, Thou hast tried me by fire, and unrighteousness was not found in me,”) then God will help him and deliver him. Why does he say “in the night” and not “in the day”? Because the enemy’s deceptions are a night, as Paul also said, “We are not children of the night but children of the day,” since the Son of God is the Day, but Satan is night. THE FIRST SYRIAC EPISTLE OF SAINT MAKARIOS OF EGYPT 7.

MANY KINDS OF DAYS. AUGUSTINE: On the verse: “This is the day which the Lord has made.” What we have sung to our Lord let us put into practice with his help. To be sure, every day has been made by the Lord, but with good reason has it been said of a particular day, “This is the day which the Lord has made.” We read that when he created heaven and earth, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light, and God called the light Day, and the darkness Night.” But there is another day, well established and definitely to be commended by us, concerning which the apostle says, “Let us walk becomingly as in the day.” That day, commonly called “today,” is caused by the rising and setting of the sun. There is still another day by which the word of God shines on the hearts of the faithful and dispels the darkness, not of the eyes, but of evil habits. Let us, therefore, recognize this light; let us rejoice in it; let us pay attention to the apostle when he says, “For we are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of night nor of darkness.” SERMONS 230.

1 Thess