Revelation 3:3 ESV
Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
We seem plagued in remembering. We are often consistent only in our inconsistency. What we receive from Christ can fade as we are weathered by the cares and toils of this life. If we have plenty, it is easy to forget our poverty before the Lord. That it is why Jesus said it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom. Not long after being delivered out of Egypt, alone in the wilderness while Moses met with God, the people reverted to their old ways and crafted a golden calf and fell before it in worship. This they did after seeing the mighty hand of God reach out on their behalf.
The young man who fell asleep in a window as he listened to Paul and then fell out of the window to the ground below serves as an image of the danger of such slumber. Paul covered him with his own body and revived him. Jesus covers us when we repent and hold fast to His word. We will see him soon one way or another. The time of his coming is uncertain, as is the time of our passing, but there is no question of both happening. He will come or we will go. Those watching will not be caught off guard when He returns and will have oil in their lamps for the journey home.
Remember - μνημονεύω * mnēmoneuō * mnay-mon-yoo'-o * From a derivative of G3420; to exercise memory, that is, recollect(CWS).
Remembering is an ongoing activity, necessary in knowing who we are and what has been done on our behalf. It is an exercise of our faith which keeps us strong and growing in life.
Wake up - γρηγορεύω * grēgoreuō * gray-gor-yoo'-o * From G1453; to keep awake, that is, watch (literally or figuratively): - be vigilant, wake, (be) watch (-ful).
They began to slumber, to no longer watch for the Lord and attend to His word, but had become careless if not uncaring in following the Lord. They do not sleep resting in the Lord, but in some foreign pasture.
1 Thessalonians 5:2
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
2 Peter 3:10
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
2 Timothy 1:13-14
Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
1 Thessalonians 5:2
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
1 Timothy 6:20
O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,”
2 Timothy 1:13
Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:6-8
So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
Matthew 25:13
Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Mark 13:36-37
lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
Hebrews 2:1
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
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