Keep Watch

“Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matt 24:42).

The King is coming! One day the sky will split open and the Lord will appear. We “do not know the day or the hour” (Matt 25:13), but he’s coming, and it will be good for the servant whose Master finds him doing his job when he returns (Matt 24:46).

It’s tempting to wonder if he’s really coming. It’s been such a long time. This was a problem in the first century, so it’s not surprising for it to appear now.

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” ...

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. ... (2Pet 3:3-10)

God’s “soon” isn’t necessarily our “soon”, but he fulfills his promises.

For perspective, we should look to the past. After the last Old Testament prophet, people wondered when God was going to do something for 400 years before Jesus came. From God’s promise to David until the arrival of his Son was 1000 years. The fulfillment of the promise to Abraham of a Seed in whom all the nations would be blessed took nearly 2000 years.

So if we’ve been waiting 2000 years, we’re in good company. We’ve waited a long time, but that doesn’t mean that God won’t fulfill his promises.

One day “the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God'' (1Thes 4:16). One day “the heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” (2Pet 3:10).

So “what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” (2Pet 3:11-12).

I think that’s really what “keep watch” means. Yes, signs have been given, but more than looking for signs the Lord wants us to live like he’s coming back at any time. CS Lewis wrote, “The doctrine of the second coming has failed ... if it does not make us realize that at every moment of every year of our lives Donne’s question ‘What if this present were the world’s last night?’ is equally relevant.”¹

“Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions” (Luke 12:42-43).

When Jesus returns, he will reward faithfulness, so keep watch — live like he’s coming back soon.

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.²

1 CS Lewis, “The World’s Last Night”
2 Horatio Spafford, "It Is Well With My Soul"

See also, The Return of Christ to Judge the Quick and the Dead

Part of Christianity 102

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