Watch Therefore: The Master's Return and Vigilant Readiness

"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." (Matthew 24:42)

Christ's coming is aptly compared to a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4). The dispensation under which we live is emphatically that of night, in comparison with the dispensation to be introduced at the day of the Lord. The housebreaker lays his plans beforehand yet conceals them studiously; so too the coming of the Lord and the day of His appearing are fixed with infinite wisdom, but kept secret with profound reserve.

This mystery wears a pleasing or repulsive aspect according to the preparedness of those to whom the Master comes. Personal preparation for the coming of our Lord must be regarded as a matter of imminent motive with us all. Though you may be deceived as to the signs, you are not to be negligent of the event itself.

"Watch and pray." Watchfulness is the habit of keeping the eye constantly alive to events; prayer is the habit of keeping the heart constantly lifted up to Elohim. The chief motive for this vigilance defies analysis—the holy instinct of loving hearts prompts that ardent expectancy with which hope anticipates the appearing of the Lord. Such gregoreuo (watchfulness) demands increasing prayer, unfaltering diligence, and unfailing patience, biding the Lord's time submissively. He will not always tarry.