The end is near. Christ is coming soon. It’s a message that has been lost in too many pulpits today. Perhaps after being echoed for such a long time throughout church history the message has become worn out. Perhaps people just want to live in the here and now. Perhaps we have just become jaded to the message that didn’t come true for the generations which came before us who so fervently held to its truth. Yet, it is still true today because the Bible is true.

No, we don’t know the day or the hour. But we do know that the day and hour is coming. There is no prophetic event that needs to take place in Scripture before Jesus Christ returns again. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye… the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). The reason we continue to wait is not because Christ has forgotten or His word is un-true, but because God is merciful towards mankind. It is God’s longsuffering towards the lost that He is prolonging this next event on the prophetic calendar from occurring (2 Peter 3:9). So, if there is no telling when Christ might come and we just need to know we are saved when it happens - what does it really matter? Why is it that we are to be looking expectantly for the return of Christ? How is our hope in this truth supposed to inform our way of life today? I’d like to suggest several things….

1. To stay SOBER (v.7) – this can also be translated “serious”, “self-controlled” or “alert”. The idea is that it gets our head out of the affairs of this life. We can too easily spend our days twiddling away our time and resources, living for the pleasures of today, and being in a stupor when it comes to anticipating the things of eternity. Keeping an awareness of Christ’s coming is designed to wake us up to the reality of an eternity that could begin at any moment.


2. To stay PRAYERFUL (v.7) – it’s a well-established fact that prayer meetings are the least attended service of the church (for those churches that even have them anymore). This is probably indicative of what your personal prayer life is like as well. Prayer keeps us in tune with God and draws us into a closer relationship with Him. It will keep you prepared to meet Christ when he returns.


3. To show LOVE (v.8) – note that while we are to show love to the world, this is love that is to be given to other Christians. Love requires grace and humility. It promotes unity. Disunity is one of the greatest desires of Satan within the church and one of the greatest abominations before God (see Proverbs 6:16-19). As if we didn’t have enough division, polarization and hatred within ourselves, the current political and cultural climate has intensified this attack on the harmony in love that we are to have with each other as Christians. Perhaps one of the worst things about this pandemic is the division that it has caused within the church.

These are just a few of the reasons why we must keep the coming of Christ in our thoughts and minds. This is the great HOPE we have as Christians. As Paul put it, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19). I know some miserable Christians and every one of them share in this same lack of eternal perspective. How are we to share the hope of the gospel, the love of Christ, and the joy of being filled with the Spirit when we wallow in the shallow and temporal things of this life. We must work harder now because the end is near!