Matthew 24:42-44 42Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not have permitted his house to be broken into. 44Therefore you also must be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not suppose.
Verse 42 applies (therefore) the illustrations of verses 37-41. The key idea is the need to stay awake and be ready because we do not know when Jesus will return. The implied message is that we must be living in obedience to his commands. Jesus will make this message clearer in chapter 25.
Jesus uses a simple illustration from home life to point to the need to be alert. If the master of the house knew about the unexpected visit of a thief, he would stay awake and stop the theif from breaking into his house. The master could sleep the rest of the night and just wake up at the last moment. The problem is that he could not know. His only choice would be to stay awake all night and be ready. The only option is to be ready at all times. Jesus will explain what that means in the following section.
These verses make the clear point that Jesus is coming again, the Son of Man is coming, but we cannot know at what time of the day or night that will be. We cannot play around with Jesus’ coming again and think that we will have time to be right with God. It will be too late at that moment. We do not want to be part of the group of those left behind. The fervor and expectancy of Jesus’ return comes and goes based world events and the troubles certain people experience. With his coming delayed generation after generation, people are tempted to become skeptical, and believers tend towards spiritual laziness. We must be vigilant and ready and not fall asleep in our faith and obedience. It can be difficult to stay awake all night, so we need one another to keep nudging each other to stay alert so we are ready for that day and hour.
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