Living like people who expect Him

The grace that teaches

The clearest New Testament summary of how to live between the two comings of Christ is a single sentence from Paul to Titus.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

Grace appeared: the first coming. Grace teaches: the present age. Grace looks for the glorious appearing: the second coming. And in between, a people redeemed, purified and “zealous for good works”. The hope of His coming is called “blessed” and His appearing “glorious”. Paul does not describe a people hiding from the world and waiting for the exit; he describes a people made holy by the expectation.

Readiness is a way of life, not an event

“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.

Girded waist, burning lamp, listening for the knock. Readiness in Jesus’ picture is not a frantic last-minute scramble; it is a posture held steadily through the night. And look at the reward. The master will “gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them”. The One who washed His disciples’ feet will do it again. His coming is not only the end of our waiting; it is the beginning of His serving us at His own table.

Jesus also named the things that smother readiness:

“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Carousing and drunkenness we would expect. “Cares of this life” we would not, and it is the one that catches most believers. A heart can be weighed down by legitimate responsibilities until the coming of Christ becomes a doctrine on a shelf. The remedy Jesus gives is “watch therefore, and pray always”. Prayer keeps the lamp lit.

Do business till I come

Waiting is not idleness. In the parable of the talents the master “delivered his goods” to his servants and went away; when he returned “after a long time” he “settled accounts with them” (Matthew 25:14-19). The faithful servants had traded and doubled what they were given, and heard the words every believer longs to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant ... Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matthew 25:21). In Luke’s version the instruction is even plainer: “Do business till I come” (Luke 19:13). The people who expect Jesus are the busiest people on earth: feeding the hungry, raising children in the faith, preaching the gospel to every nation, which is the very sign that brings the end. The expectation of His coming is the opposite of an excuse to withdraw.

Holy conduct and godliness

Peter draws the same conclusion from the destruction of the present order:

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;

“What manner of persons ought you to be.” If the house is coming down, you do not spend your life polishing its furniture. You invest in what will survive: character, relationships, the kingdom. And Peter says something startling: believers are “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God”. The gospel to every nation is the sign of the end, and the church has been given the gospel. In some real sense, how we live and what we proclaim bears on when He comes.

Awake, and clothed

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

Paul wrote that nearly two thousand years ago, and it is truer now than when he wrote it. The night is far spent. Every morning the believer is nearer than they were. The response is not panic but a change of clothes: off with the works of darkness, on with the armour of light. Readiness is something you wear.

Not ashamed at His coming

John adds a motive that is easy to miss: “abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (1 John 2:28). The question is not only whether we will be saved when He comes but whether we will be glad to see Him. A servant who has been doing the master’s work is not embarrassed by the master’s arrival. A life lived in the open, with nothing to hide when the lightning fills the sky, is the only kind of readiness that will not be ashamed.

The last prayer in the Bible

“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Bible ends in a conversation. Jesus says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” The church answers, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” And in between, the invitation stands open to anyone who thirsts: come, and take the water of life freely. That is the posture of a people who expect Him: calling to Him to come, and calling the world to come to Him, while there is still time.

He is coming. Not secretly, not in a desert or an inner room, not in a way that only the enlightened will recognise, but with clouds and with a trumpet, in the glory of His Father with His angels, so that every eye will see Him. He said so. He has told us beforehand. The only question left is the one He asked of the long night before the dawn: will He find us watching?