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1 Thessalonians 5:6
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6 Therefore [ara] [oun] let us [katheudo] not [me] sleep, [katheudo] as [hos] [kai] do others; [loipoy] but [alla] let us watch [gregoreuo] and [kai] be sober. [nepho] KJV-Interlinear
6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. NASB
Your life constantly revolves around your thinking. What you think dictates how you orient to life, and how you perceive life. Your thinking dictates your attitudes, your beliefs, your assumptions and your conclusions regarding life.
Bible doctrine is the only source of information that can keep your thinking on track with reality.
Bible doctrine learned and inculcated while in fellowship is the only means of your correct orientation to life.
No, Bible doctrine will not make you a star athlete, or a brilliant rocket scientist. Those are temporal gifts that pertain to this physical world.
But Bible doctrine does give you a sober mind, or a mind that is not inebriated.
Without doctrine, you are in effect living life under the influence of disorientation. Your disorientation has to do with your relationship with God, with truth, with reality, and therefore with all of life. Your thoughts are confused, your attitude is not aligned correctly with reality.
The spiritually dysfunctional person lives in darkness, in disorientation, and therefore his conclusions regarding life are inaccurate. They will never be accurate.
And yes, people will live their normal daily lives in this world. They will attend school and learn academics, they will go to work and earn a living, they will buy and sell and trade and some will be successful, even brilliant within the scope of their lives.
But those things all pertain to this carnal or temporal world, which is a very small portion of ones entire existence. Your spiritual side of life is far more vast than anything of this carnal world.
To live within the carnal realm only, is to ignore the lions share of your life, or of your potential life.
The spiritually dysfunctional person, lives their life as though they were asleep.
Now, if you were to examine your own self, then describe just how much productivity in your life is achieved while you are asleep. Can you eat while asleep? Can you drive your car while asleep? Can you work at your job while asleep? Can you clean your home while asleep? Can you really accomplish anything while asleep?
And if you are honest then you have to say that your sleep, while it allows you to rest and recover your energy, does not really accomplish much more then that. If you were to sleep all of your life, you would not live very long. You would die of starvation.
And spiritually dysfunctional people live their lives as though asleep. They accomplish nothing.
So, life without God, without Christ, without doctrine, is a very empty unproductive life.
However, life with all of the components of the spiritual life, makes you alert by default, with respect to your understanding of reality, of Gods plan, of how this world really functions. You do not have to stay awake twenty-four hours a day in order to be awake when Christ returns. That is not what alert, means.
Alert, in the spiritual life means, to know, to understand, to be advanced in your spiritual life such that when Christ actually does return, or when your time is up in this world and God calls you home, or when any other event occurs in this world, you are not taken by surprise, because you know what is going on.
You have learned it, you comprehend it, and you understand it.
And by pursuing your spiritual life day to day, all of your life, then you maintain your understanding, your knowledge, your wisdom, and therefore your alertness.
