“But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”
King James Version (KJV)
5:6 Awake, and keep awake - Being awakened, let us have all our spiritual senses about us.
5:7 They usually sleep and are drunken in the night - These things do not love the light.
5:9 God hath not appointed us to wrath - As he hath the obstinately impenitent.
5:10 Whether we wake or sleep - Be alive or dead at his coming.
1Th 5:8 Putting on the breastplate of faith and love. The exhortation to the soldierly duties of watchfulness and sobriety suggests the thought of a sentinel and his armor. Compare Eph 6:11,14. There the shield of faith is spoken of; here the breastplate. Both were for the defense of the body. Nothing will better protect the heart from evil thoughts and keep us watching than faith and love. For an helmet, the hope of salvation. See PNT "Eph 6:17". What a power to protect, a blessed hope of salvation through Christ.