‘For you are all sons of light, and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.'
In contrast to those who are in darkness, Christians are ‘sons of light' and ‘sons of the day'. To be sons of light means that light characterises us, that we are those who believe in the Light (John 12:36), who come to the light that it may reveal what is right and wrong within (John 3:21; 1 John 1:7) and who reveal and enjoy light in our lives (Matthew 5:14-16). For ‘the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth' (Ephesians 5:9 compare Philippians 2:16; Luke 16:8). ‘Sons of the day' stresses a contrast with those who are in the night, and therefore asleep. The change to ‘we' stresses that this is true of all Christians, not just of the Thessalonians.