You also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
If we believe in Jesus we will live differently. If we only say we believe in him, or if that belief is shallow, and not integrated into our way of living, we will tend to forget about our faith. Whenever there are not immediate consequences for our lack of response to the Gospel it is possible for us to slip into complacency with sin. This is important because, in most cases during this life, there are not profound immediate consequences for such disobedience. This is not to say that there are no consequences at all. When we persist in sin we definitely fail to fully manifest the fruits of the Spirit. But the results of our vicious behavior don't always automatically remind us of our responsibility to Jesus. It is fairly easy to misinterpret the signals we receive from the results of our behavior, attributing them to chance, or otherwise ignoring them. The missing element that we need to remember is the closeness of Jesus, the fact that he could return at any moment. This truth is meant to help us connect every instant of our lives to a higher truth, and motivate us to live for a higher purpose.
Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward
whom the master will put in charge of his servants
to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?
We may not have leadership positions in the Church. But for all of us, the Lord has some goods that he has entrusted, for the purpose of communicating them to others, a food allowance to share at the proper time. In order to retain awareness of this duty, and, in particular, to have any sense of what the proper time is in our specific case, we must be prudent. Prudence helps us connect the individual events of our lives to our higher purpose, acting wisely in the moment because of what we know about eternity. This is why we need to remember, to the degree of being preoccupied with, the nearness of Jesus, and the fact that at any moment his presence might break through into our lives. When this breakthrough happens it manifests as judgment and consequences, blessings for obedience, and punishment for disobedience. Prudence helps us to steer our ship toward our eternal destinies moment to moment. And these destinies can be defined in one of two categories: life with with Jesus in God forever, or life forever apart from that. No matter how cleverly we live our lives and plan our futures if we forget this truth we cannot be called prudent. We will be held accountable for all that we know and have been taught, excused only if the fault for our ignorance was not our own. What we have been given is not trivial, and we must respond.
This was according to the eternal purpose
that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,
in whom we have boldness of speech
and confidence of access through faith in him.
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
If we believe in Jesus we will live differently. If we only say we believe in him, or if that belief is shallow, and not integrated into our way of living, we will tend to forget about our faith. Whenever there are not immediate consequences for our lack of response to the Gospel it is possible for us to slip into complacency with sin. This is important because, in most cases during this life, there are not profound immediate consequences for such disobedience. This is not to say that there are no consequences at all. When we persist in sin we definitely fail to fully manifest the fruits of the Spirit. But the results of our vicious behavior don't always automatically remind us of our responsibility to Jesus. It is fairly easy to misinterpret the signals we receive from the results of our behavior, attributing them to chance, or otherwise ignoring them. The missing element that we need to remember is the closeness of Jesus, the fact that he could return at any moment. This truth is meant to help us connect every instant of our lives to a higher truth, and motivate us to live for a higher purpose.
Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward
whom the master will put in charge of his servants
to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?
We may not have leadership positions in the Church. But for all of us, the Lord has some goods that he has entrusted, for the purpose of communicating them to others, a food allowance to share at the proper time. In order to retain awareness of this duty, and, in particular, to have any sense of what the proper time is in our specific case, we must be prudent. Prudence helps us connect the individual events of our lives to our higher purpose, acting wisely in the moment because of what we know about eternity. This is why we need to remember, to the degree of being preoccupied with, the nearness of Jesus, and the fact that at any moment his presence might break through into our lives. When this breakthrough happens it manifests as judgment and consequences, blessings for obedience, and punishment for disobedience. Prudence helps us to steer our ship toward our eternal destinies moment to moment. And these destinies can be defined in one of two categories: life with with Jesus in God forever, or life forever apart from that. No matter how cleverly we live our lives and plan our futures if we forget this truth we cannot be called prudent. We will be held accountable for all that we know and have been taught, excused only if the fault for our ignorance was not our own. What we have been given is not trivial, and we must respond.
This was according to the eternal purpose
that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,
in whom we have boldness of speech
and confidence of access through faith in him.
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