Active Watching

Matt 25:13 "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

 

The last time I wrote, Jesus told His guys to be ready because He was coming at an hour when they didn't expect. Now He kind of repeats that exhortation, but now He changes it a little. Instead of "be ready" He now says "watch" because they were not going to know the hour or even the day when He would return.

 

Why does He say "watch"? The word for watch actually is an active word. It is a word that tells us to pay strict attention to what is going on and what we are doing. It is an active expectancy. It implies that we are to not just sit on our hands with our eyes open, but rather, we are to be busy because what we do proves that we are watching.

 

Jesus explains this with a few parables. The parable of the 10 virgins. Five of the virgins were actively expectant. Five of them were not. Five of the virgins were ready to go into the wedding feast because they had enough oil to see when the bridegroom came, and five of them did not. Five of them prepared for what was going to happen. Five of them were lazy. How prepared am I? I mean, am I actively expectant? Is everything ready to go? Or is Christ's coming going to take me by surprise? The active participation here is preparation.

 

The next parable is the giving of the talents. One guy got five, one guy got two and one guy got one. The five gained five more, the two gained two more and the one was, once again, lazy and gained nothing. The guys who used their talents, who took risks and who invested were told: "Well done." The lazy guy had to turn his one over to the guy who had ten and then he was cast into outer darkness. Interesting, the guy who had one really proved one thing: he really did not believe the things that he said that he did. He claimed that he knew that his master was exacting and expected things but he did nothing about it. He did not act on what he claimed he believed. The end result proved who he really was: a fraud.

 

This last weekend I went on another men's retreat. I think I am done retreating for awhile. Anyway, it really challenged me to not stay where I am. It challenged me to press on. To keep growing. To not sit on what I know and have but to keep moving forward. There is so much to learn. There is so much to do. There is so much more that God wants for me. I can't plant my talent in the ground. I have to use what God has given me and gain more. If I don't, it proves that I really don't believe.

 

Finally, and this is where the rubber meets the road, the sheep and the goats. The sheep: True believers. The goats: Only playing the game. The true believers prove who they are by what they did. Helped others. The ones playing the game ignored others. The true believers inherited the kingdom. The fakers: everlasting fire. Question: What am I doing to prove I am a true believer? How am I helping others…the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned? Really a very challenging question.

 

All these things proving whether I am actively watching…or if I am just playing a game.