He won't come yet!
This mainly speaks to ministers, but we have all got duties that we need to be faithful in.
Paul wrote that a sinful state is like being asleep. (1 Thessalonians 5)
That means being inactive and senseless.
Then Paul says:
“So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self controlled, and faithful.” (verse 6)
Imagine Bert working at a small family business.
When the owners go away for odd days, Bert looks after it.
But suddenly they announce that they’ve arranged a two week holiday, so they give him the keys, and they say: “Phone us if there is a problem.”
As the days go by Bert’s motivation starts to dwindle.
The bed gets more comfortable and warm when it is time to get up. “Oh it doesn’t matter, there’s no one to tell me off,” he thinks.
So Bert get’s to open the business up later, and later each day, and the other workers complain that they’ve been kept waiting outside.
Bert sits in the office, and he starts to think: “What a lovely desk, what a grand chair, this feels good.” He sees a magazine and starts to read it through the morning, and when he’s done that , he decides to go out shopping for some more magazines, some tasty snacks and some booze.
Bert thinks: “This is the life, my bosses trust me to run their business and I’m doing a pretty good job, nothing to it really. Whenever a problem arises, I tell the staff: ‘You do what you think.’ - It’s called delegation.”
But of course, at the end of the two weeks, the whole thing has gone pear shaped.
All the staff are heading in different directions, with different priorities, the customers are getting really upset, and orders are being lost, and the companies reputation is being blown to pieces.
Was Bert alert, self controlled, and faithful?
There’s a saying that goes: “When the cat is away the mice will play.”
When we are away from our church, or away from our Christian friends, do we find our motivation to live a godly life fades away? “No one will see me, I’ll just......”
If Bert's bosses had said “We’re going to be missing for a while, don’t know whether it will be hours, or days, or weeks, but we will expect everything to run as if we were here.”
Then that would have been more of an incentive for Bert to keep going, because they could have walked in at any time.
This is only an illustration.
In reality the Lord knows what we’re doing all of the time, but even so, the thought that Jesus could return at any moment should be a check to any wayward tendencies we may have.
We don’t know when Christ will come back, neither do we know how much longer we’ve got to live.
In Jesus’ parable He mentions a house.
We all have a house to keep, in which is our very being.
That house is our very soul, which we must keep watch over.
In Proverbs it says:-
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” (Proverbs 4:23-27)
Let’s keep watch, be alert, self controlled, and faithful.
Vulture image: thanks to Serif ARTGallery CD
Man seated image: thanks to GSP 100,000 clipart CD.
© 2003 Bible Explained part of www.seeking-god.co.uk
(Continuation of Bible passage) "...But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 24:42-51 (NIV)
