42. Watch therefore Lord doth come The same coming as in Mat 24:39. They must not be like the world in the time of the flood, slumbering and revelling; but watch, for it will be a sudden event.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord comes.”

So in view of this suddenness and unexpectedness of His coming all His own people are to be on watch, because they do not know when He will come. The interesting thing here is how the imminence of His coming is balanced here against the fact that there are certain matters which indicate delay (indicated previously and assumed in what follows in that His servants have a task to accomplish, and one can say, ‘my Master delays His coming’). Jesus was quite happy to teach the two ideas in tension. His followers must be busy, not easily led astray by false hopes, but at the same time watchful and ready and working faithfully in readiness for His coming (Luk 12:35-40).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Need of Watchfulness.

A summary:

v. 42. Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

v. 43. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

v. 44. Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.

Therefore: Since the exact time is unknown and since faithfulness is required, watch, be on your guard, do not even for a day, an hour, a moment, relax your vigilance. Like a thief in the night His day is coming. The housefather, knowing that a thief is coming some time during the night, will far rather watch all night than take chances, with the result that his house is searched through, as if with his permission. Thus the believers of the last days cannot afford to take chances, there is too much at stake. A state of unremitting watchfulness is required of the followers of Christ, in which they are aware every minute of the seriousness of the situation, one fact always standing out in their minds and being brought out in their lives: The Son of Man is coming, a stern and implacable Judge upon the unbelievers that left His warning unheeded, a merciful and kind Judge upon the believers that were always ready for His coming.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 24:42 . Moral inference from Mat 24:36-41 . Comp. Mat 25:13 .

The following . . . ( because ye , etc.) is an emphatic epexegesis of . This exhortation is likewise based on the assumption that the second advent is to take place in the lifetime of the disciples, who are called upon to wait for it in an attitude of spiritual watchfulness (1Co 16:13 ; 1Co 16:22 ). The idea of watchfulness, the opposite of security, coincides with that implied in the constant (Eph 6:15 ). Comp. Mat 24:44 .

] at what (an early or a late). Comp. Mat 24:43 ; Rev 3:3 ; 1Pe 1:11 ; Eur. Iph. A . 815; Aesch. Ag . 278.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Chapter 84

Prayer

Almighty God, thou art always coming: behold Jesus Christ is born amongst us every day, every night the shepherds sing and hear the song of the angels, and are filled with great joy because the delivering life has come into the world. May Christ be born in us the hope of glory, and may he come to us with the light of every morning, and shine upon us all the night long through every star. Enable us always to hear the footfall of thy coming, that we may always watch and be ready, and be found amongst those servants who are blessed because of their industry and vigilance.

Enable us to know the uncertainty of our life as we surely know the littleness of its span. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. May we know how to reckon our days well, with all soberness and accuracy, that we be not found amongst those fools who suppose they can never die. Enable us by the ministry of thy Holy Spirit, ever indwelling and ever working within us, to see life as it is, in its simplicity and mystery, in its immediate duty and its far-off anticipations, in its tragedy of sin, in its need of divine help, and enable us, having seen all this, to avail ourselves of divine answers to the whole necessity, and to live in thy truth and walk in the light of thy revelation. Teach us that greatest of all lessons, self-renunciation, utter, complete, joyous, triumphant trust in God.

In thee we would live and move and have our being, not only by the necessity of nature, but by the compulsion and sweet constraint of sympathy and love. We have undertaken for ourselves, and behold a great failure is the result. We cannot touch the inner wound, we cannot heal the disease which consumes our life, but there is balm in Gilead, there is a Physician there, there is One who is mighty to save, Jesus Christ of God, Emmanuel, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Prince of peace, known to us by many names expressing one love, and completing one grand capacity to deliver. We bless thee for Jesus Christ: we needed his name for our names are poor without it; we needed his presence as flowers need the sun. Thou hast not withheld him: by a great shining of love he fills the whole sky, and by infinite tenderness of grace, he re-lights the lamp of our hope day by day, so that we can look beyond death and the grave and all things terrible and feast our vision on the Paradise of God. Whilst we are here, make us quick to know thee well, clear-sighted that we may see the inner meaning of thy word, and conscientious, that with all faithfulness of purpose and service we may do the immediate duty, and find in it a great reward.

We commend one another tenderly to thy care. We find no fault with one another, for when we stand in thy presence, we are all guilty before God, but we pray for one another with all the desire and simplicity of eager love, that every one may have a blessing all his own, that there may fall upon us a common benediction, impartial as the glory which lights every corner of the earth. Pity our littlenesses: in the day of our feebleness and humiliation look not upon us with the scorn we cannot bear. Pardon our sin: when it is greatest, thy love is greatest: where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound. Thou wilt have the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession, and thy blood shall take away the sin of the whole world. This is our joy, this our hope, and out of this glad prospect do we draw every song that our heart would sing.

O Living One, cause death itself to die; O thou in whose heart there is no purpose but of love to the children of men, drive out of our hearts all anger, wrath, bitterness, clamour, and selfishness, and make our spirits sanctuaries of thine own presence.

We commend unto thy tender love all for whom we ought to pray the old, who will soon become young again; the young, who know nothing of the mystery and sadness of the world into which they have come; the poor, to whom it is a hardship to live; the rich, who have the responsibility of wealth; the wayward and the wandering, the prodigal, who seems as if unable to come home again, the hard heart that even our love cannot soften. We pray for the sick and those that are ill at ease, for all who are housed in our hospitals and are there receiving the ministrations of science and Christian charity. We pray that thou wouldst make their bed in their affliction, comfort them in their manifold sorrows, and sanctify unto them every visitation of thy purpose. Prosper thou all wise and learned men who are searching into the causes and the remedies of disease; let a great light shine upon them in all their inquiries, and may the time come when disease shall be unknown because sin is no longer in the world.

The Lord give us this day sweet messages from Heaven: may we hear great voices, like rushing, mighty winds, and tender voices, the very whispers of God’s own love, so that according to our necessity all the revelation of Heaven may be adjusted. Make every preacher of the gospel today as a flame of fire, anoint him with an unction from the Holy One, and make the Christian pulpit this day vindicate itself as the supreme institution of the world for the education and inspiration and ennoblement of the human mind. To this end do thou make even our weakness a cause of strength, and make all thy preachers but instruments on which thou wilt discourse the music of the eternal decrees and the infinite love. Amen.

Mat 24:42-51

The Two Futures

You know that he will come, you do not know at what precise hour he will appear. The future is known, yet unknown. Consider what the future is. It touches the uttermost bound of time. If one might perpetrate a contradiction in terms, it is the horizon of eternity, the furthest away point in a line which has no limits. We are obliged thus to talk in self-contradictory speech when we would represent the great and grand things of creation. Number has to be set aside or talked of in terms that appear to be confusing, as the Three are One, and the One is Three.

There are two futures. This is a fact which is so often forgotten in the reasoning of men. There is a grand future, and a little one; the great future in which Imagination holds court, the future of fancy and speculation, the unmapped land of dream and fancy and vision, where life is to be a miracle, and every day a keen surprise. That is the future which the poets have taken under their care, that is the future whose firmament they have punctuated with radiant stars; but there is a little future in which Imagination has been supplanted by Anxiety, the future that is just about to dawn, the near To-morrow, the Presently that makes weak men restless and strong men quiet in hopefulness.

With these two futures we are well acquainted. The danger is that we confuse them in our view and reasoning, and should thus be talking about two totally different things in one and the same way. We have a future which we consign to Imagination: we have another future which we hand over to Anxiety, and anxiety often beats imagination, gets a firmer grip of some men than Imagination can ever get; men who take thought for tomorrow may take no thought for eternity: anxiety bars and limits and bounds them with prison boundaries and forces. Their anxiety is greater than their imagination because their selfishness is greater than their religion. Herein it is that so many persons get wrong.

So we have two futures, the near and the distant, the future in which Anxiety plays its vexatious and harassing part, and the great future where Imagination revels and poetises and dreams; and my difficulty, as a religious teacher, is this, that my scholars or pupils will so give way to little carking mean anxiety as to leave no space or time or opportunity for the consideration of that grand future which must come and bring with it all that we mean by the sweet pure name of Heaven.

Let us see how Jesus Christ himself treated the question of the future. His action in relation to it was varied yet consistent, and, as usual, was authoritatively instructive. In the first place Jesus Christ used the future as a source of inspiration, but it was not the little future of tomorrow, it was the great future of all time unborn that he so used; he often spoke of the Grand Future. “Hereafter ye shall see heaven opened,” said he. “What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter.” “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” “Fear not, little flock: it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” “He that endureth unto the end shall be saved.” “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him.” You do not wonder that a man who could project himself thus infinitely across the ages, should say, from the point of his final projection, “Take no thought for the morrow, do not be the victims of anxiety; have a future, but let it be a grand one, apocalyptic in its possibility and colour and form and tone, worthy of the mind that dreams it; and do not be the victims of anxiety and petty care and carking vexation.” He provided for that particular element, so to say, of the human mind, which must take hold of the future, but as he saw that element rising and asserting itself, he put within its grasp something worthy of its capacity.

The New Testament is full of the same thought. What wonder that Jesus Christ said, “I am not come to destroy the prophets”? The world must live in its prophecies. Today is too small a boundary for the soul: one world at a time was not enough for the soldier Alexander ’tis not enough for a man in whom the divinity has come. The prophets lived in the sunny future, so did Christ set his little church under its warm rays, and bless it with the promise that the voice of the turtle should be one day heard above the roar of the storm. Our life is not to be locked up in the narrow prison of one day. Among the riches of the church are not only things present but things to come. These things to come make up the mystery of glory which burns in the apocalypse. A nation is to be born in a day, the enemy of man, the old Abaddon is to be encoiled in chains that cannot be broken, the dead are to be raised incorruptible, death itself shall die, the grave-scars are to be rubbed out of the green earth, sorrow and sighing are to flee away, the whole creation, forgetting its grievous overthrow and its sharp pain, shall stand fast on eternal pillars and be beautiful as a palace built for God.

Nor is this the poetry of speech; it is the reality of fact. The word poetry is often misunderstood: it is the blossom of reality, the uppermost phase and culminating beauty of hard history and stern fact. Tell me does he talk mere poetry, in the sense of talking only that which is visionary and impossible, who takes a root or a seed of a flower and says, “Out of this shall come strength and shapeliness, bud and blossom and fruit: birds shall sing in its branches and men shall lie down at noon beneath its cool shade or out of this little seed shall come a flower, an apocalypse in itself, and the bee shall draw honey from its hidden cell”? If we had never seen the outcome of root or seed we should say concerning such a man “Visionary, poetical, romantic, dreamy, utterly without practical sagacity and arithmetical and measurable aptitude in relation to things of time and sense.” But the man is no mere poet in the sense of creating universes in words only: rightly judged, the man who so speaks about root or seed is only an historian by anticipation; he is a reasoner, he is the prince of logicians.

In viewing the future, therefore, do not be drawn away by the cry of poetry or romance. He is no visionary who sees in the seed time the prose out of which will come the poetry of harvest. On the other hand he would be the loose reasoner who sees seed only in the seed, wood only in the root, and did not see in the seed waving cornfields, and food for the lives of men. There shall be a handful of corn on the top of the mountains, the fruit thereof, the poetry thereof, shall shake like Lebanon. Was he only a word-painter who so spoke? Credit him with the most penetrating vision and with that grand historical capacity which sees all possibilities in the germ and seed of things.

There is a poetry which is the highest form of fact. If a man could have said in England two hundred years ago, that communication with the ends of the earth would one day be a question of mere moments, and that according to the face of the clock men would be talking in New York about something which had happened in London actually before it had taken place, he would have been regarded as the wildest of lunatics, without practical aptitude, one of the dreaming seers that you can make nothing of, a puzzle in providence, the very mystery of Omnipotence. Yet would he not in reality have been the severest of reasoners, the most acute and penetrating of logicians? We who have no faith discount and discredit the faith of other men. The passionless man can never understand passion, the literalist cannot follow the logic of prophecy, the moral Laplander can never be made to dream of the luxuriant Christian tropics. You cannot be more than you are. But do not therefore say that other men are no more gifted than yourselves. There are men to whom there has been no future in the sense of cloud and mystery and chaos, but to whom the future has given up its secret in many a fore-blessing rain, in many a secret hint, in many a quiet night visit in many a glowing dream.

Do not let us therefore measure others by ourselves. We have to take our view of the future from Christ, and he regarded the future as an inspiration. It was his sanctuary of retreat: he lived in it, he projected himself beyond the fevered day, and lived in the calm eternity. We must do the same, or we shall be vexed and stung with details which come and go with the fickle wind. Blessed is the future which is coming upon Christ’s church, a day without a threatening cloud, an infinite paradise without one thorn or noxious plant, a home from which no child has wandered, a sweet heaven unvisited by sin and untroubled by pain. Such is the flower which comes out of the Christian seed, and he who foresees and foretells its coming is not a speaker of words but a prophet of facts. Therefore comfort one another with these words. If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. We have reckoned this world at a cheap rate because of the power of an endless life. If there be no endless life, we have done this world an injustice. Our light affliction, therefore, is but for a moment, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which arc seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. In proportion as we live in heaven are we masters of earth: just as we hide ourselves in the sanctuary of the great future and view all things from Christ’s standpoint are we at rest, and amid raging seas and rocking mountains our eyes look upon the river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God. Let us see to it that we follow Christ in this, namely, that we do not live in the little future which is mastered by anxiety, but in the great future, which yields its riches to a reverent imagination.

In the next place, Christ treated the future as unknown and yet well known. “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh. Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” Here we have a quantity spoken of that is well known yet unknown, unknown yet well known. Have we any parallel to this in our lower courses of thinking and action? Most assuredly we have. We know that tomorrow will come: tell me what will tomorrow bring with it a sullen face of cloud or a bright countenance of June light, blessing the lands that wait for it with all the benediction of summer? We know the great fact that to morrow will dawn; we know not what will be the incidents of the day, who shall live, who shall die, what controversies will be adjusted, what correspondence will turn our thoughts into new directions, and tax our energies with new claims. We know it we do not know it.

So with the harvest: the harvest will surely come, but will it be good or bad, early or late, satisfying or disappointing? Will it be well gathered or ill gathered? The harvest is known, but the incidents of its quality and abundance no man can know, with certainty. And death will come. When? Thank God we cannot tell. Who could face his duty, if he knew to a moment when and how he would die? The great future is revealed, the detailed future is mercifully kept back. Watch therefore therefore be ye also ready. That is all.

So then from the parallels or analogies which are supplied by our own life I can understand in part Christ’s treatment of the future. The Lord will come: great events will transpire, the trumpet shall sound and the elect shall be gathered together from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. The long-waiting earth shall receive her Lord when? Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. There are some secrets which can be at rest in only one heart.

And yet Jesus Christ viewed the future as having an immediate influence on the present, therefore he called for vigilance and readiness, and rebuked the men who were so miscalculating the coming of the future that they did injury to their fellow-servants. He had such a knowledge of history that he was enabled to tell his age that in the days of Noah men were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and knew not until the flood came in great blotches of black rain upon the hot streets, and the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled and the whole heaven became a deluge and the wicked were lost. “So,” said he, “it will be about this coming of my own. Men will chaffer with one another, hold wordy controversy with one another in points theological and ecclesiastical, and will speak about difficulties which a reverent heart could have subdued and dissolved, or be indulging in selfish appetite and desire until the great trumpet sound and the event transpire. Such was his grasp of the future, such his insight into its breadth and narrowness!

We cannot improve though we might enlarge his lesson, when he condensed his instruction into one word, “Watch.” A great expectation warms the heart, a grand dream helps us to bear the burden of the sweltering day, and noble thought ennobles the mind which entertains it. He who has only a wall in front of him is in a prison. He who is bounded by a horizon has an infinite liberty.

Now Christ comes into the region which we term practical, and in that region he says, “Be ready: WATCH: be in the tower: be looking out: at any moment the crisis of creation may supervene.” To work in this spirit is to work well.

Jesus Christ was always practical, though oftentimes he said things which seemed to be of a visionary nature. He was practical when he told his church to take care of the poor and to visit the sick and bless the unblest and give joy to him who was sad of heart. Christianity has its own secularism as well as its own theology. To hear some persons talk one would imagine that Christianity was only the latest phase of the theological imagination. Christianity has its humanities as well as its divinities. There are two commandments in its infinite law, the love of God, the love of man. There is no religion under heaven so hard-working as Christianity: it never rests. Hindooism has its At Home, Mahometanism makes no proselytes, Confucianism lets the world alone, but Christianity lets nobody alone. It is the working religion, the missionary religion, the energetic faith, the revolutionary force. Do give Christianity the credit of being the hardest working religion known amongst men. I do not mean merely hard-working in any ceremonial sense, but in the largest sense of beneficence, love, evangelisation, caring for everybody, never resting, until the last man is brought in. Not judging by majorities, but judging by individualities; counting every man one, and reckoning that its work is unfinished till the last man is homed in the very heart of Christ.

Our Christianity is nothing if it be not thus practical. He only is the visionary theologian who is so lost in theological speculation as to neglect the ignorance, the disease, the poverty which are lying round about his very house and path.

” This Gospel shall be preached for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end be. ” “That is the end of Jerusalem, before the destruction whereof the Gospel was preached throughout the world. Witness Paul, saying, Their sound hath gone out into all the earth; and again, The Gospel is preached to every creature under heaven, so that ye may see it running from Jerusalem into Spain. And if one only apostle, Paul, spread the Gospel so far, what shall we think did all the rest? And this was a great miracle for the convincing of the unbelieving Jews before their destruction, for the Gospel to be preached in all parts of the world, in twenty or thirty years at the most; if this would not move them to believe, nothing could.” (Chrysostom). “This must not be understood as done by the apostles, for there are many barbarous nations of Africa amongst whom the Gospel was never yet preached, as we may gather by such as have been captives there. This therefore remaineth yet to be accomplished; and because it is a secret when the world shall be filled with the Gospel, it is a secret likewise when shall be the day of judgment, before which this must be.” (Augustine.)

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Ver. 42. Watch therefore, &c. ] Laeti simus, non securi Let us be happy, not carefree. (Bernard). While Ishbosheth slept upon his bed at noon, Baanah and Rechab took away his head. “Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown from thee,” Rev 3:11 . While the crocodile sleepeth with open mouth, the Indian rat gets into him and eateth his entrails. Satan works strongest on the fancy when the soul is drowsy. The spouse therefore promiseth to get up early, Son 7:12 , to shake off security, and not to be found henceforth supine and sluggish, but to stand upon her watch; as of Scanderbeg it is said, that from his first coming to Epirus, he never slept over two hours in a night, but with restless labour prosecuted his affairs. Aristotle and some others would not sleep but with brazen balls in their hands, which falling on vessels purposely set on their bedsides, the noise did dissuade immoderate sleep. Our Saviour pronounceth them three times happy that watch, Luk 12:37-38 ; Luk 12:43 . a The blessed angels are called watchers, , Dan 4:10 .

For ye know not what hour your Lord, &c. ] He may haply come upon you, as Epaminondas did upon his sentinel, whom finding asleep, he thrust through with his sword, and being chidden for so severe a fact, he replied, I left him but as I found him, Talem eum reliqui, qualem inveni.

a Terque quaterque beati. Virg. Faelices ter et amplius, Horat.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

42 44. ] Our Lord here resumes the tone of direct exhortation with which He commenced. To the secure and careless He will come as a thief in the night: to His own, as their Lord. See Oba 1:5 ; Rev 3:3 ; Rev 16:15 ; 1Th 5:1-10 , where the idea is expanded at length. Compare Mat 24:7 there with our Mat 24:49 , and on the distinction between those who are of the day, and those who are of the night, see notes, there.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 24:42 . , watch, a frequently recurring exhortation, implying not merely an uncertain but a delayed Parusia , tempting to be off guard, and so making such repeated exhortations necessary. , on what sort of a day, early or late; so again in Mat 24:43 , at what sort of a watch, seasonable or unseasonable.

[133] Westcott and Hort.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Matthew

WATCHING FOR THE KING

Mat 24:42 – Mat 24:51 .

The long day’s work was nearly done. Christ had left the temple, never to return. He took His way across the Mount of Olives to Bethany, and was stayed by the disciples’ question as to the date of the destruction of the temple, which He had foretold, and of the ‘end of the world,’ which they attached to it. They could not fancy the world lasting without the temple! We often make a like mistake. So there, on the hillside, looking across to the city lying in the sad, fading evening light, He spoke the prophecies of this chapter, which begin with the destruction of Jerusalem, and insensibly merge into the final coming of the Son of Man, of which that was a prelude and a type. The difficulty of accurately apportioning the details of this prophecy to the future events which fulfil them is common to it with all prophecy, of which it is a characteristic to blend events which, in the fulfilment, are far apart. From the mountain top, the eye travels over great stretches of country, but does not see the gorges, separating points which seem close together, foreshortened by distance.

There are many comings of the Son of Man before His final coming for final judgment, and the nearer and smaller ones are themselves prophecies. So, we do not need to settle the chronology of unfulfilled prophecy in order to get the full benefit of Christ’s teachings here. In its moral and spiritual effect on us, the uncertainty of the time of our going to Christ is nearly identical with the uncertainty of the time of His coming to us.

I. The command of watchfulness enforced by our ignorance of the time of His coming Mat 24:42 – Mat 24:44.

The two commands at the beginning and end of the paragraph are not quite the same. ‘Be ye ready’ is the consequence of watchfulness. Nor are the two appended reasons the same; for the first command is grounded on His coming at a day when ‘ye know not,’ and the second on His coming ‘in an hour that ye think not,’ that is to say, it not only is uncertain, but unexpected and surprising. There may also be a difference worth noting in the different designations of Christ as ‘your Lord,’ standing in a special relation to you, and as ‘the Son of Man,’ of kindred with all men, and their Judge. What is this ‘watchfulness’? It is literally wakefulness. We are beset by perpetual temptations to sleep, to spiritual drowsiness and torpor. ‘An opium sky rains down soporifics.’ And without continual effort, our perception of the unseen realities and our alertness for service will be lulled to sleep. The religion of multitudes is a sleepy religion. Further, it is a vivid and ever-present conviction of His certain coming, and consequently a habitual realising of the transience of the existing order of things, and of the fast-approaching realities of the future. Further, it is the keeping of our minds in an attitude of expectation and desire, our eyes ever travelling to the dim distance to mark the far-off shining of His coming. What a miserable contrast to this is the temper of professing Christendom as a whole! It is swallowed up in the present, wide awake to interests and hopes belonging to this ‘bank and shoal of time,’ but sunk in slumber as to that great future, or, if ever the thought of it intrudes, shrinking, rather than desire, accompanies it, and it is soon hustled out of mind.

Christ bases His command on our ignorance of the time of His coming. It was no part of His purpose in this prophecy to remove that ignorance, and no calculations of the chronology of unfulfilled predictions have pierced the darkness. It was His purpose that from generation to generation His servants should be kept in the attitude of expectation, as of an event that may come at any time and must come at some time. The parallel uncertainty of the time of death, though not what is meant here, serves the same moral end if rightly used, and the fact of death is exposed to the same danger of being neglected because of the very uncertainty, which ought to be one chief reason for keeping it ever in view. Any future event, which combines these two things, absolute certainty that it will happen, and utter uncertainty when it will happen, ought to have power to insist on being remembered, at least, till it was prepared for, and would have it, if men were not such fools. Christ’s coming would be oftener contemplated if it were more welcome. But what sort of a servant is he, who has no glow of gladness at the thought of meeting his lord? True Christians are ‘all them that have loved His appearing.’

The illustrative example which separates these two commands is remarkable. The householder’s ignorance of the time when the thief would come is the reason why he does not watch. He cannot keep awake all night, and every night, to be ready for him; so he has to go to sleep, and is robbed. But our ignorance is a reason for wakefulness, because we can keep awake all the night of life. The householder watches to prevent, but we to share in, that for which the watch is kept. The figure of the thief is chosen to illustrate the one point of the unexpected stealthy approach. But is there not deep truth in it, to the effect that Christ’s coming is like that of a robber to those who are asleep, depriving them of earthly treasures? The word rendered ‘broken up’ means literally ‘dug through,’ and points to a clay or mud house, common in the East, which is entered, not by bursting open doors or windows, but by digging through the wall. Death comes to men sunk in spiritual slumber, to strip them of good which they would fain keep, and makes his entrance by a breach in the earthly house of this tabernacle. So St. Paul, in his earliest Epistle, refers to this saying a proof of the early diffusion of the gospel narrative, and says, ‘Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.’

II. The picture and reward of watchfulness.

The general exhortation to watch is followed by a pair of contrasted parable portraits, primarily applicable to the apostles and to those ‘set over His household.’ But if we remember what Christ taught as the condition of pre-eminence in His kingdom, we shall not confine their application to an order.

‘The least flower with a brimming cup may stand,

And share its dew-drop with another near,’

and the most slenderly endowed Christian has some crumb of the bread of life intrusted to him to dispense. It is to be observed that watchfulness is not mentioned in this portraiture of the faithful servant. It is presupposed as the basis and motive of his service. So we learn the double lesson that the attitude of continual outlook for the Lord is needed, if we are to discharge the tasks which He has set us, and that the true effect of watchfulness is to harness us to the car of duty. Many other motives actuate Christian faithfulness, but all are reinforced by this, and where it is feeble they are more or less inoperative. We cannot afford to lose its influence. A Church or a soul which has ceased to be looking for Him will have let all its tasks drop from its drowsy hands, and will feel the power of other constraining motives of Christian service but faintly, as in a half-dream.

On the other hand, true waiting for Him is best expressed in the quiet discharge of accustomed and appointed tasks. The right place for the servant to be found, when the Lord comes, is ‘so doing’ as He commands, however secular the task may be. That was a wise judge who, when sudden darkness came on, and people thought the end of the world was at hand, said, ‘Bring lights, and let us go on with the case. We cannot be better employed, if the end has come, than in doing our duty.’ Flighty impatience of common tasks is not watching for the King, as Paul had to teach the Thessalonians, who were ‘shaken’ in mind by the thought of the day of the Lord; but the proper attitude of the watchers is ‘that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business.’

Observe, further, the interrogative form of the parable. The question is the sharp point which gives penetrating power, and suggests Christ’s high estimate of the worth and difficulty of such conduct, and sets us to ask for ourselves, ‘Lord, is it I?’ The servant is ‘faithful’ inasmuch as he does his Lord’s will, and rightly uses the goods intrusted to him, and ‘wise’ inasmuch as he is ‘faithful.’ For a single-hearted devotion to Christ is the parent of insight into duty, and the best guide to conduct; and whoever seeks only to be true to his Lord in the use of his gifts and possessions, will not lack prudence to guide him in giving to each his food, and that in due season. The two characteristics are connected in another way also; for, if the outcome of faithfulness be taken into account, its wisdom is plain, and he who has been faithful even unto death will be seen to have been wise though he gave up all, when the crown of eternal life sparkles on his forehead. Such faithfulness and wisdom which are at bottom but two names for one course of conduct find their motive in that watchfulness, which works as ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye, and as ever keeping in view His coming, and the rendering of account to Him.

The reward of the faithful servant is stated in language similar to that of the parable of the talents. Faithfulness in a narrower sphere leads to a wider. The reward for true work is more work, of nobler sort and on a grander scale. That is true for earth and for heaven. If we do His will here, we shall one day exchange the subordinate place of the steward for the authority of the ruler, and the toil of the servant for the ‘joy of the Lord.’ The soul that is joined to Christ and is one in will with Him has all things for its servants; and he who uses all things for his own and his brethren’s highest good is lord of them all, while he walks amid the shadows of time, and will be lifted to loftier dominion over a grander world when he passes hence.

III. The picture and doom of the unwatchful servant.

This portrait presupposes that a long period will elapse before Christ comes. The secret thought of the evil servant is the thought of a time far down the ages from the moment of our Lord’s speaking. It would take centuries for such a temper to be developed in the Church. What is the temper? A secret dismissal of the anticipation of the Lord’s return, and that not merely because He has been long in coming, but as thinking that He has broken His word, and has not come when He said that He would. This unspoken dimming over of the expectation and unconfessed doubt of the firmness of the promise, is the natural product of the long time of apparent delay which the Church has had to encounter. It will cloud and depress the religion of later ages, unless there be constant effort to resist the tendency and to keep awake. The first generations were all aflame with the glad hope ‘Maranatha’-’The Lord is at hand.’ Their successors gradually lost that keenness of expectation, and at most cried, ‘Will not He come soon?’ Their successors saw the starry hope through thickening mists of years; and now it scarcely shines for many, or at least is but a dim point, when it should blaze as a sun.

He was an ‘evil’ servant who said so in his heart. He was evil because he said it, and he said it because he was evil; for the yielding to sin and the withdrawal of love from Jesus dim the desire for His coming, and make the whisper that He delays, a hope; while, on the other hand, the hope that He delays helps to open the sluices, and let sin flood the life. So an outburst of cruel masterfulness and of riotous sensuality is the consequence of the dimmed expectation. There would have been no usurpation of authority over Christ’s heritage by priest or pope, or any other, if that hope had not become faint. If professing Christians lived with the great white throne and the heavens and earth fleeing away before Him that sits on it, ever burning before their inward eye, how could they wallow amid the mire of animal indulgence? The corruptions of the Church, especially of its official members, are traced with sad and prescient hand in these foreboding words, which are none the less a prophecy because cast by His forbearing gentleness into the milder form of a supposition.

The dreadful doom of the unwatchful servant is couched in terms of awful severity. The cruel punishment of sawing asunder, which, tradition says, was suffered by Isaiah and was not unfamiliar in old times, is his. What concealed terror of retribution it signifies we do not know. Perhaps it points to a fate in which a man shall be, as it were, parted into two, each at enmity with the other. Perhaps it implies a retribution in kind for his sin, which consisted, as the next clause implies, in hypocrisy, which is the sundering in twain of inward conviction and practice, and is to be avenged by a like but worse rending apart of conscience and will. At all events, it shadows a fearful retribution, which is not extinction, inasmuch as, in the next clause, we read that his portion-his lot, or that condition which belongs to him by virtue of his character-is with ‘the hypocrites.’ He was one of them, because, while he said ‘my lord,’ he had ceased to love and obey, having ceased to desire and expect; and therefore whatever is their fate shall be his, even to the ‘dividing asunder of soul and spirit,’ and setting eternal discord among the thoughts and intents of the heart. That is not the punishment of unwatchfulness, but of what unwatchfulness leads to, if unawakened. Let these words of the King ring an alarum for us all, and rouse our sleepy souls to watch, as becomes the children of the day.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 24:42-44

42Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

Mat 24:42 “be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming” This parable is paralleled in Luk 12:39-40. The emphasis on being ready (cf. Mat 24:43-44) and the uncertainty of the time (cf. Mat 24:39; Mat 24:47; Mat 24:49-50; Mat 25:5; Mat 25:13) are recurrent themes in the chapter. The uncertainty of the time provides motivation for the continued readiness of each generation of believers.

Mat 24:43 “if” This is a second class conditional sentence, which is called “contrary to fact.” A statement is made that is false so the conclusion drawn from it is also false.

Mat 24:44 “you also must be ready” This phrase is present (deponent) imperative (cf. Mar 13:5; Mar 13:9; Mar 13:23). This is the key for believers, not speculation and dogmatism about the when and how!

The fact that so many expect His coming soon may be an evidence that this is not the last generation!

“an hour” See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE HOUR at Mat 24:36.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Watch. As in 1Th 5:6 and 1Th 5:10 (“wake”).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

42-44.] Our Lord here resumes the tone of direct exhortation with which He commenced. To the secure and careless He will come as a thief in the night: to His own, as their Lord. See Oba 1:5; Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15; 1Th 5:1-10, where the idea is expanded at length. Compare Mat 24:7 there with our Mat 24:49, and on the distinction between those who are of the day, and those who are of the night, see notes, there.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 24:42. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

That he will come, is certain. That his coming may be at any moment, is equally sure; and, therefore, we ought to be always ready for his appearing.

The Lord mate us to be so!

Mat 24:43-44. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

Perhaps you can imagine how eagerly the householder watches when he expects thieves. Every little sound alarms him. He thinks he hears someone at the door; then he fancies it is someone at the window; but he is on the alert, with eye and ear and his whole being wide awake. So ought we to be, with regard to the coming of the Lord, as watchful as if we knew that Christ would come tonight; we do not know that he will come so soon, yet it may be so, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

Mat 24:45-46. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

Doing whatever the Master has appointed him to do; if he be a minister, preaching the truth with all his heart; if he be a teacher, endeavoring to feel the minds of the young with sound doctrine; whatever may be his calling, endeavoring to fulfill it to the great Taskmasters satisfaction, as if he should suddenly break in upon the work, and loots at it there and then, and judge his servant by it. This is the way to live.

Mat 24:47. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.

There are rewards for faithful service; not of debt, but of grace; not according to the law, but according to the discipline of the house of God. Oh, that we may be such faithful servants that our Lord may make us rulers over all that he has!

Mat 24:48-51. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that, he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

He was a servant, you see; so this is a warning, not to the outside world, but to you who are inside the nominal church, and who profess to be servants of God; and it is especially a warning to those of us who are ministers of the gospel. Oh, that we may never begin to smite our fellowservants! Of course, we shall not do it with the fist, but we may do it with the tongue; and may we never be numbered with those who are living for the delights of the flesh! If so, see what must come to us. Our Lord still continued to speak upon the same subject of watchfulness by delivering the very stirring parable of the wise and foolish virgins.

This exposition consisted of readings from Mat 24:42-51; and Mat 25:1-13.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Mat 24:42. , watch[1068]) This was the reason, no doubt, that the names Gregory and Vigilantius were so common in the ancient Church. You may ask why those who were so far distant from the last day were exhorted to watchfulness on that ground? I answer-(1.) The remoteness of the event had not been indicated to them. (2.) Those who are alive at any particular time represent those who will be alive at the end of the world; see Gnomon on 1Th 4:15. (3.) The principle of the Divine judgments, and of the uncertainty of the hour of death, resembles in every age that of the last day; and the hour of death is equivalent to the hour of resurrection and judgment, as though no time had been interposed. (4.) The feeling of the godly, which stretches forward to meet the Lord, is the same, whether with the longest or the shortest expectation. (5.) If every one had had to watch, from the time of the Apostles to the Lords coming, it would have been well worth the trouble of so doing.- , your Lord) called in Mat 24:44 the Son of Man.

[1068] Latin, vigilate, from which verb (vigilo) the name Vigilantius is derived; as Gregorius from the Greek verb employed in this passage.-(I. B.)

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

The King Commands his Servants to Watch

Mat 24:42. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

This is the practical conclusion of the whole matter. That our Lord is coming, is certain; that his coming may be at any moment, is a matter of faith; and that we are ignorant of the time of his coming, is a matter of fact: “Ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” Christ’s words are in the present tense. He does not say, “Ye know not what hour your Lord will come,” but, “what hour your Lord doth come”, as if to keep us always expecting him; and lest we should not heed his words, he puts the command in plainest language: “Watch therefore.” The title that he uses gives additional force to the command to his disciples to watch, for it is our Lord who is coming quickly.

Mat 24:43-44. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

If the householder has reliable information that a thief is coming, but does not know at what hour he will arrive, he will keep awake all night, waiting for his appearance; but if “the goodman of the house “is told “in what watch the thief” will come, he will be specially on the alert at that time. Every little sound will attract his attention. He thinks he hears someone at the back door; no, the thief is trying to enter by a front window! Wherever he comes, he will find that the master’s ear is listening, the master’s eye is watching, the master’s hand is ready to arrest him; for he had received timely warning of the housebreaker’s coming. Men act thus wisely with regard to burglars; what a pity they are not equally wise in watching for the coming of their Lord! We do not know, we cannot even guess, in what watch of earth’s long night he will come: “In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” There is the present tense again, “the Son of man cometh,” he is coming; his own words are, “Behold, I am coming quickly.”

Christ’s coming to the world will be like that of the thief, when it is not suspected or expected, and therefore when due preparations for his reception have not been made; but his true followers will not let “that day” overtake them “as a thief” (1Th 5:4). They ought ever to be looking for his appearing. Our Lord’s injunction to his disciples ought to have even greater weight with us who live so much nearer to the time of his Second Advent than it had with those to whom he addressed his warning words, “Therefore be ye also ready” We ought to be as watchful as if we knew that Christ would come to-night; because, although we do not know when he will come, we do know that he may come at any moment. Oh, to be ready for his appearing, watching and waiting for him as servants whose Lord has been long away from them, and who may return at any hour! This will not make us neglect our daily calling; on the contrary, we shall be all the more diligent in attending to our earthly duties because our hearts are at rest about our heavenly treasures.

Mat 24:45-46. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

The apostles were “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1Co 4:1), and “good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1Pe 4:10). One great qualification for a steward was that ho should be found “faithful” both to “his lord” and to all in the “household “over whom he was “made ruler.” It was needful also that he should be “wise” in his dealings with his fellowservants; for, notwithstanding the honour put upon him, he was still a “servant”, who must give to his lord an account of his stewardship. These words describe the service of a minister, preaching the truth with all his heart, and seeking “to give meat in due season ” to all over whom the Holy Ghost hath made him an overseer. Or they picture a teacher, endeavouring to feed the minds of the young with sound doctrine; or they portray any servant of Christ, whatever his calling may be, doing the work that his Master has appointed him, just as he would wish to do it if he knew that his Lord was coming at that moment to examine it: “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find, so doing.” Such a servant of Christ is blessed; he is a happy man to be found by his Lord “so doing.” May our Master find us thus occupied when he cometh!

Mat 24:47. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.

His lord had formerly made him “ruler over his household”, the steward who had charge of all the household servants. His faithful and prudent conduct in that office won for him promotion to a higher post, so that his lord resolved to “make him ruler over all his goods.” Thus is it among the servants of King Jesus, there are rewards for faithful service not of debt, but of grace; not according to the rule of the Law, but according to the discipline of the house of God, and the higher rule of Love.

It should be noted that faithfulness in one form of service is rewarded by further service and increased responsibility. The servant, whose pound gained ten pounds, received authority over ten cities (Luk 19:17).

Mat 24:48-51. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This man was a “servant”, so that we have here a warning, not to the outside world, but to those who are inside the Church of Christ, and who profess to be servants of God. This is also specially a warning to ministers of the “Word, those who are made rulers over God’s household. This man, though a servant, was an “evil servant”; a hypocrite, one who had intruded into an office which he had no right to occupy. His thoughts and words were evil: “If that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming.” His conduct towards those put under him was evil: “and shall begin to smite his fellowservants.” His own life was evil: “and to eat and drink with the drunken.” His evil-doing would be suddenly cut short by his master’s appearance: “The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.” Immediate and terrible punishment would be meted out to him: “And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites:” he was one of them, he pretended to be a servant of God when all the while he was a slave of Satan, serving self and sin; let him go to his own company. He was really cut in two before, outwardly he was a follower of Christ, inwardly he served his own lusts; to “cut him asunder “will only be a righteous perpetuation of his own double-faced character. Will that be the end of him? No; “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” What a “portion” for one who was numbered amongst God’s servants! As we read of it, let us, in deep humility, remember the solemn injunction of the apostle, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom

Watch: Mat 25:13, Mat 26:38-41, Mar 13:33-37, Luk 12:35-40, Luk 21:36, Rom 13:11, 1Co 16:13, 1Th 5:6, 1Pe 4:7, 1Pe 5:8, Rev 3:2, Rev 3:3, Rev 16:15

for: Mat 24:36, Mat 24:44, Mar 13:33

Reciprocal: Mat 16:28 – see Mat 24:50 – come Mat 26:41 – Watch Mar 13:35 – General Mar 14:38 – Watch Luk 12:36 – men Luk 12:40 – General 1Th 5:2 – the day 2Pe 3:10 – as a

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

4:42

To watch means to be alert and thoughtful concerning one’s duty to the Lord, and then regardless of when he comes the servant will be ready.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mat 24:42. Watch therefore. In view of the suddenness and unexpectedness of this coming, watch. Mark: watch and pray. Not, be always expecting what will come unexpectedly, nor be seeking to know what cannot be known, but be always in the state of readiness, because of the uncertainty.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here we have the application made by our Saviour, of the foregoing doctrine concerning the certainty and suddenness of a future judgment. Watch therefore, always; not without intermission, but without giving over; that ye may be not only in an habitual but actual readiness for my appearance.

Learn hence, That it is the indispensable duty, and ought to be the indefatigable endeavour of every Christian, to stand upon his watch in a prepared readiness for Christ’s appearance, both for his coming to us, and for our going to him.

Watch always, for ye know not the hour when our Lord cometh!

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 24:42-44. Watch therefore Let your mind be thoroughly awake to a sense of the certainty and importance of these things, and be on your guard that they may not overtake you unawares, but that you may be prepared to meet Christ in the way of judgment or mercy; for ye know not what hour your Lord cometh Either to avenge himself of this nation, to require your soul of you, or to call you and all mankind to his bar. Be ye also ready By being assured of Gods favour, and stamped with his image, and by a holy deadness to the objects of this uncertain and transitory world, which you are so soon to leave, and may be called to leave at a moments warning; be prepared to receive every event of divine providence with resignation to Gods will, and a perfect acquiescence in the wisdom of all his dispensations, fully persuaded that all things shall work for good to them that love him.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Mat 24:42 to Mat 25:13. Abbreviating Mar 13:33-37, with its simile of the absent householder, into one verse (Mat 24:42; cf. Luk 21:36), Mt. inserts (a) the short simile of a householder off his guard, (b) the longer one describing the absent master and the careful and careless stewards (for these cf. Luk 12:39-48), (c) the parable of the bridesmaids (Mt. only). At Mat 25:13 he repeats Mar 13:33, the starting-point of his inserted material. Note that in (a) the Parousia is boldly likened to the coming of a thief (cf. 1Th 5:2), in (b) the lesson is taught that every disciple must play his part loyally in the brotherhood. In its present form the parable may point to the contrast between faithful and heedless leaders of the early Church. One looks after his flock, the other neglects and maltreats them, and seeks his own advantage (Montefiore, p. 743).cut him asunder (Mat 5:1) possibly means discharge him from his service. See Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary, p. 165, and cf. EGT. In (c) the Parousia is compared to a wedding procession. The contrast between the ready and the unready is again brought out, and the moral is the same as in the preceding illustrations. Be prepared for Messiahs advent; it is too late to repent after His arrival. This parable is a good instance of the futility of trying to squeeze a meaning out of every detail. Montefiore thinks the parable (which is not one of the best) is later than Jesus, and grew up to explain the delay in the coming of the Kingdom, and to point out how the intervening timeof uncertain durationshould be spent.

Mat 25:1. After bridegroom add and the bride.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

24:42 {11} Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

(11) An example of the horrible carelessness of men in those things in which they ought to be most careful.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

An exhortation to watchfulness 24:42 (cf. Mark 33-37; Luk 21:34-36)

This verse applies all that Jesus said beginning in Mat 24:32. Jesus’ disciples need to remain watchful because the exact time of the King’s return is unknown, even though signs of His coming will indicate His approach.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)