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Here we see "arousing" where the subject is sleep, and "arising" or "standing up"
when the subject is the dead. Even where the A.V. uses "arise" to translate egeiro it is
evident that awaking out of sleep is intended as in Matt. 2: 13. Diegeiro is found in
Matt. 1: 24 "raised from sleep" and Luke 8: 24 "awoke Him", and gregoreo is
translated "watch", "wake" or "be vigilant". Diagregoreo occurs in Luke 9: 32 "when
they were awake, they saw His glory". It is the teaching of Scripture that the believer
will be RAISED from the dead and anistemi and anastasis is rightly used in this
connexion, but where we read "raised together with" it is always the compound of egeiro.
Even though we are still here in mortal bodies, we have been "made alive with Christ"
and have been ROUSED with Him, a blessed anticipation of the ultimate resurrection
from the dead.
Sunegeiro "to raise (or rouse) together" occurs three times in the N.T.: Eph. 2: 6;
Col. 2: 12 and 3: 1. A person awakened from sleep, usually is first roused and then
stands up. This is the experimental order of faith. We are "roused" even here, in this life,
we shall "stand up" in the day of resurrection. If we are "roused" it suggests that we are
at least awake and aware, and we can be exhorted to watch. I Thess. 4: and 5: clearly
distinguishes between the full awakening of future resurrection, and the partial
"arousing" even here and now. In I Thess. 4: 13, 14, 15, "sleep" and "asleep" translate
the Greek word koimaomai; these are described as "the dead in Christ".
In I Thess. 5: 6, 7, 10 the word so translated is katheudo. Now katheudo means "to
lie down to sleep", a voluntary action, whereas koimaomai means rather "put to sleep"
involuntarily, as in death. The one is voluntary and so can be used of a sleepy person
who should be watching, the other means to fall asleep involuntarily, hence is used as a
figure of death. The word to "wake" in I Thess. 5: 10 is the Greek gregoreo "to watch"
and is so translated in verse six. There it is associated with being drunk and being sober,
not with physical death, whereas I Thess. 4: deals only with death, and not with moral
sluggishness. When the Scriptures speak of the Saviour Himself, both words egeiro "to
rouse" and anistemi "to cause to stand up, to raise" are employed, for in His case there
was no interval as there is between the conversion and quickening of the believer, and his
resurrection in glory. As we have before remarked, Eph. 5: 14 differentiates the two
terms:
AWAKE (egeiro to arouse) thou that SLEEPEST, and
ARISE (anistemi to cause to stand up) from the DEAD.
We see that the words "and hath raised us up together" do not teach that for the
believer "the resurrection is past already", and in the same way, we must remember that
the words that follow "and made us sit together in heavenly places" do not alter the fact
that those originally addressed were living at Ephesus or some other city; they were still
here upon earth surrounded by sin and temptation, called upon to walk worthy of their
calling and to avoid complicity with the unfruitful works of darkness.