Awake To the Light - 1 Thessalonians 5:5

Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night nor darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as to others; but let us watch and be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

In John 3:19-21 we read:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rahter than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.

To be a child of light is to be a child of Christ; to be a child of Christ is to follow His light, or in other words, to have faith in Him. To exercise faith in Him requires commitment to discipleship, or a firm resolve to seek His truth (in the light of Christ) and obey it.

Thus we see that we cannot "sleep as do others" but we must "be sober" and watch. This is like the light that we experience every day; it gives us real vision as does the light of the sun. Without the light of Christ, the true nature of things is hidden from us, and we cannot know "things as they really are, and of things as they really will be". Without faith, it is as if we are asleep. We become objects that don't act, but are "acted upon"; part of a dark and dross world, unaware of the real things that are around us. I believe this to be literal, not a metaphor.

The light of Christ is real, and the intelligence and vision it provides is real. But no man may give it to another - it requires a personal commitment to perfect obedience to that truth and light, which commitment is faith.