Sleepless Faith
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, adults between the ages of 18 and 60 should get at least seven hours of sleep per night. Children need a lot more sleep than adults. Sleep does a lot of good for us. When we sleep our brains and bodies recover from exertion the previous day. Sleep is essential for learning and fighting many diseases. There is even some evidence that getting enough sleep helps with weight regulation. If you are trying to lose weight, but you aren’t getting enough sleep, you might find the weight loss more challenging than it should be. According to modern medical science and years of practical experience, sleep is absolutely necessary for us to be functional people.
So why does Paul seem to strongly oppose us sleeping in 1 Thessalonians 5:6-7? In this passage, Paul argues that Christians are children of the day, not children of darkness. Therefore, they shouldn’t be sleeping because people sleep when it is dark, not during the day. Sleep is for night. Getting drunk is for night. We should behave as if it is the day. It should be obvious that Paul isn’t actually talking about literal sleeping here. It has been nearly 2000 years since this letter was written. If no one had slept since then, there wouldn’t be any Christians left. So what does Paul actually mean when he is talking about sleep, and could he be understanding drunkenness metaphorically too?
Sometimes in the New Testament, falling asleep is a sort of euphemism for dying (Matthew 27:52, John 11:11). Perhaps Paul is encouraging the Thessalonians to not die. But given the rest of this letter, that wouldn’t really make sense. Just before this, Paul talked about how the dead will be raised in Christ at the end of time. He tells the Thessalonians not to worry about those who have died. Death cannot prevent us from sharing in the resurrection, even if it comes before the return of Christ. Furthermore, just a few verses later, in 5:10, Paul says that we will live with Jesus whether we are awake or asleep.
Perhaps a more likely meaning to this sleep metaphor is lethargy. When Paul founded a church in a city, he didn’t convert everyone in the city. He probably didn’t even visit most of the villages in the administrative district. He got the ball rolling with the expectation that his converts would continue his work. He planted the seed, God grew the plant. Perhaps the sleep Paul is opposing is spiritual and missional laziness. The church needs to continue to grow. The Gospel must be preached to more and more people. Paul saw the church as the front lines of the great cosmic battle between God and the forces of evil. Adding people to the faith was not only recruiting more soldiers for this campaign, it was also plundering the camp of the enemy. They couldn’t rest as if victory had already been won. They are children of the day, and day is time to work.
In addition to condemning sleep, which I think all agree should not be taken literally, Paul also condemns drunkenness, which not everyone agrees upon. Certainly, Christians throughout history have valued moderation. Alcoholism is a disease that tears families apart and gets people killed. However, Jesus also turned water into wine at a wedding and there are passages throughout the Bible in which the vineyard is seen as a blessing. Has something changed at this point in salvation history? Is alcohol now something to be entirely condemned under every circumstance? Probably not. If Paul is referring to sleep metaphorically, it would make sense for him to be referring to alcohol consumption metaphorically as well.
As a brief aside, I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting that Christians should be going out and getting drunk regularly. There are certainly problems with alcohol consumption of any level when it comes to health and decision making. We should certainly be responsible with how we approach alcohol. Nevertheless, I don’t think that is what Paul is talking about here.
Just as sleep was a metaphor for lethargy, sins of omission, drunkenness may be a metaphor for sins of commission, the bad things that we actively do. Paul wants to encourage the community to live holy and righteous lives, without engaging in behavior that would bring shame on individuals and the church as a whole. When people get drunk, they lose some self control. They say and do things that they regret. Maybe Paul is saying that we need to avoid making such mistakes in general. The Christian community shouldn’t set itself apart by saying it is better than other people but rather by holding itself to the highest possible standards of behavior. Paul wants the church to show people the transforming power of the Gospel through the positive changes God makes in their lives.
But if that sounds too pure, too self-righteous, there is another possibility of what drunkenness might mean. When people get drunk, they can’t speak well. They slur words and struggle to form coherent thoughts. Paul’s understanding of mission requires communication. Christians are expected to testify to their faith, to proclaim the Gospel at any time. Perhaps Paul is worried about people failing to preach, teach, and proclaim the good news. Drunkenness stands for all those things that may get in the way of our proclamation: fear of public speaking, performance anxiety, lack of knowledge about the Gospel, uncertainty with the message, embarrassment, shame, underdeveloped language skills, and sometimes actual drunkenness.
Paul isn’t saying that Christians should never sleep. And I don’t think that Paul is saying that Christians should never drink alcohol, but Paul is certainly calling us to have high standards for ourselves and our church communities. Paul wants us to work, spreading the good news of the kingdom of heaven like the day is upon us, and he wants us to avoid getting ourselves into trouble. We should be honest and have nothing to hide. Of course, we know we will never accomplish this perfectly. Perhaps we should really view this as a call to moderation. Maybe we would sin less, if we slept more, but sometimes we need to take the risks of being in the world, of engaging in the messiness of human relationships. We will certainly make regrettable decisions. We will certainly have times when we are ashamed of ourselves, but at least we will be working for the Gospel, trying our best to care for and preach hope to a broken world. And even when we fail to do our work, even when we are caught sleeping, we can remember that we have obtained “salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.” God’s work will not be turned back by our failings. Whether we are awake or asleep, drunk or sober, living or dead, God’s love in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit comes to us to bring us home.
