What is the context?
Paul addresses the believers as people who belong to the light and draws out the conduct that fits that identity: wakefulness, sobriety, faith, love, and hope. Their future with Christ shapes their present life together.
The reason for hope is God’s saving purpose through Jesus, who died for them. The paragraph ends, like 4:18, with encouragement. Readiness includes building others up rather than merely looking for signs of danger.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads being awake or asleep in verse 10 as being alive or dead at Christ’s coming. The USCCB note sees Paul also playing on the paragraph’s imagery of spiritual wakefulness and sleep. Both readings place the emphasis on life with Christ. His death is the stated ground of salvation; the verse is not a stand-alone timetable for escape from every future hardship.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.