As we wait for the Lord to return, we can’t be standing on our tiptoes every moment, looking into heaven. Life has to go on. Christ could delay His return, and if so, we must maintain our hope, keep watching for Him, and meanwhile carry on serving Him faithfully. Those who fail to take into account that the Lord may delay longer than we anticipate will eventually be caught unprepared when an unplanned-for future catches up with them. Then when the Lord does return, they will be ashamed (cf. 1 John 2:28).

Planning for Eternity

The only way we can make sure we are ready for the Lord’s return is to stay ready every day. Common sense should teach us that this is the only proper perspective on the future anyway. After all, we do not know when we are going to die. That could happen at any time, even if the Lord does delay His return another generation. We need to be prepared for death as well as for the Lord’s return, for we shall face immediate judgment either way. “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Staying prepared for the Lord’s return will therefore ready us to face death too.

Meanwhile, we should live our lives, do our work, and plan for the future with wisdom and godly discretion. Those who think the Lord’s imminent return cancels out the need for wise planning don’t understand what Scripture demands of us.

The necessity of prudent planning is a constant theme in Scripture. “Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good” (Ecclesiastes 11:6).

We often hear supercilious church members denigrate planning for the future as if it were antithetical to “walking by faith.” But what such people think of as “faith,” Scripture reckons as foolishness. Jesus said, “Which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’” (Luke 14:28–30). It is right to plan, to prepare, and to strategize for the future. Solomon wrote, “He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully” (Proverbs 10:5).

It is especially essential that we remain diligent, hardworking, and resourceful while we await the Lord’s return. The fact that Christ could return at any moment is no excuse for quitting what God has called us to be and do. The day may indeed be drawing very near, but now is not the time to put on our pajamas and sit on the roof! This is no time to fold up our things and retire from all Christian service to await the Lord’s appearing. Quite the opposite. The knowledge that Christ could appear at any time is a great incentive to work harder, apply ourselves more diligently, and stay faithfully at the task. The day of opportunity may be short. The time is certainly drawing closer. We dare not squander the opportunity we have left. We must heed Jesus’ words: “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light” (John 12:35–36).

The apostle Paul called us to look for our Lord’s return when he wrote,

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:51–54)

But he immediately added, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (v. 58).

Parables on Preparation

In the Olivet discourse, Jesus told a series of parables to His disciples to illustrate for them how His people should prepare for His return. The two parables teach opposite but complementary lessons. The parable about the servants (Matthew 24:45–51) teaches us to be prepared for Christ in case He comes sooner than we think He will. The parable of the virgins (25:1–13) teaches us to be prepared in case He delays longer than expected. Both attitudes are absolutely essential to a balanced biblical hope.

On the one hand, people who have no expectancy of Christ’s imminent return are inclined to develop careless spiritual habits. They become preoccupied with worldly things and grow apathetic about spiritual matters.

But the opposite error poses equal dangers. Lots of people fix a time frame in their minds beyond which they presume Christ could not possibly tarry. That establishes an artificial boundary for all their plans, preparations, and aspirations. They never look beyond their arbitrary deadline. They therefore have an unwise and reckless view of the future. In effect, they also impose a false time limit on hope itself—and many who fall into this error finally lose heart when their expectations are not met.

Both of those parables illustrate the tragedy of a wasted opportunity—the theme Christ powerfully presses in parable of the talents (25:14–30). In this familiar story, a wealthy man takes a journey, giving each of his servants a number of talents to manage until he returns. Two of the servants invest and double the resources they were given stewardship over. The third buries his talent in the ground and does nothing productive with it.

This parable and the two preceding ones round out the full picture of what it means to be ready for Christ’s return. The parable of the two servants teaches us to show our readiness for Christ’s return with an attitude of expectantly watching for Him. The parable of the virgins urges us to prove our readiness for Christ by patiently waiting. This parable teaches us to remain ready for Him by diligently working.

Unfortunately, much of the popular teaching about the Lord’s return upsets the balance of those attitudes. Sensationalist approaches to Bible prophecy use hype and exaggeration to motivate people to remain watchful, but in the process the aspects of waiting and working often get short shrift. Where expectancy is heightened, patience is often lacking. Frankly, all of us find it difficult to maintain the necessary balance. That is why Christ took such care to illustrate each of the necessary balancing perspectives.

Maintaining the proper balance was evidently something of a struggle in the early church too. The apostle Paul had to correct an imbalance in the Thessalonian church. The believers there had heard that the Lord was coming soon, and many of them expected Him momentarily. That caused them to become careless and undisciplined in their daily lives. Some of them evidently gave up doing any work at all. They became busybodies, and they were a serious disruption to the rest of the church. In 2 Thessalonians 3:10–15, Paul rebuked them severely and commanded the rest of the church to discipline them if they did not change their ways. He reminded them,

For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.

If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person band do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

The latter-day mockers described in 2 Peter 3:3–4 suffer from the opposite problem. They think the Lord’s long delay means He is not coming back.

The challenge for the true believer is to maintain the proper balance of all three perspectives—watching, waiting, and working. The parable of the talents emphasizes the aspect of working. It illustrates four essential points about our stewardship while we await the return of Christ: the responsibility we receive, the reaction we have, the reckoning we will face, and the reward we will gain.

In the days ahead, we will examine each of those aspects in detail to answer the question, How should I prepare for Christ’s return?

(Adapted from The Second Coming.)