SLEEP

Apart from having its common meaning of physical rest, ‘sleep’ is used in the Bible as another word for physical death (1 Kings 2:10; Job 14:12; Jer 51:39; Matt 27:52; John 11:11-14; 1 Cor 11:30; 15:20,51). This is because death is not permanent. One day all people will rise from death to meet the great judge of the universe and receive either his blessing or his punishment (Dan 12:2; John 5:28-29). Sleep is used also as another word for spiritual laziness, whether of non-Christians (Eph 5:14) or Christians (Rom 13:11). Christians must not be ill-disciplined or careless, as those are who live in the ‘night’ of spiritual darkness. They must be spiritually alert and watchful, as they now belong to the ‘day’ of spiritual life and light (Rom 13:11-14; 1 Thess 5:4-8; cf. Matt 25:1-13).