He did not tell us to predict the day. He told us to be found faithful when it comes.
There are two ways to get the end times wrong, and they are opposite errors. One man reads every headline as a countdown, charts the wars, sets the dates, and lives in a low hum of anxiety. The other man hears “no one knows the day” and quietly files the whole subject away as irrelevant to Monday morning. One is consumed by the calendar. The other ignores it entirely. And Jesus, who spoke more about His return than almost any subject, aimed His teaching at a third kind of man — the one who is neither frantic nor asleep, but simply ready. Pastors in the readiness tradition keep pressing this point because the everyday believer needs it: the right response to the Lord’s coming is not a chart and it is not a yawn. It is faithfulness in the ordinary.
“Do Business Until I Come Back”
Just before the crowds expected the kingdom to appear immediately, Jesus told a pointed story about a nobleman leaving on a journey and entrusting his servants with money.
“And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business with this until I come back.'” (Luke 19:13)
The older translations render it “occupy till I come.” It is a working word, not a waiting word. The master does not say, “Stand at the window and watch the road.” He says, “Get to work with what I gave you, and keep working until you see Me.” The whole point of knowing He will return is not that you stop living — it is that you live on purpose, because everything you do between now and then is being invested for an account you will one day give. Readiness is not staring at the sky. Readiness is faithful stewardship of the ordinary trust in your hands: your family, your work, your gifts, your witness, your day.
The Servant Who Was Ready Was Just Doing His Job
When Jesus describes the blessed servant — the one who is found ready at the master’s sudden return — watch what that servant is actually doing.
“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.” (Matthew 24:45-46)
He is not calculating the hour of the master’s arrival. He is feeding the household at the proper time. He is found faithful “so doing” — in the middle of the assignment, doing the next right thing. This is the heart of pastoral readiness, and it is enormously freeing. You do not have to decode the news to be ready. You have to be faithful where you have been placed. The man who quietly does his duty — loves his wife, raises his children, works with integrity, serves the church, tells the truth about Jesus — is more truly “ready” than the man with the most detailed prophecy chart and the most neglected home.
Ready, Not Afraid
But what about the fear? The headlines are genuinely frightening — wars, instability, the sense that the world is coming apart at the seams. Here Jesus is tender and direct with His disciples.
“You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.” (Matthew 24:6)
“See that you are not frightened.” That is a command, not a suggestion. He tells His people in advance that the world will look like this precisely so that when it does, they will not panic. The believer reads the same alarming headlines as everyone else, but reads them differently — not as proof the world is spinning out of God’s hands, but as the very things Jesus said would come, on the schedule He already knows. Fear says the chaos is in charge. Faith says the King foretold the chaos and is still on the throne above it. You can look squarely at a dark world and not be afraid, because the One who holds the end already told you how the story goes.
The Real Danger Is Not the Antichrist. It Is Drowsiness.
Jesus identifies the threat to readiness, and it is not what you would expect. It is not persecution or tribulation. It is the slow dulling of an ordinary, comfortable life.
“Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap.” (Luke 21:34)
Notice the three weights: not just dissipation and drunkenness, but “the worries of life.” Anxiety itself can drowse you spiritually as effectively as indulgence. The man consumed with the cares of this world is just as unprepared as the man consumed with its pleasures, because both have their eyes fixed downward. That is why obsessing over the prophetic timeline can be its own kind of unreadiness — it feels spiritual, but if it leaves you anxious, distracted, and arguing about dates instead of feeding the household, the trap has already half-sprung. Jesus prescribes the cure in the next verse: “keep on the alert at all times, praying” (Luke 21:36). Watchfulness is not a chart. It is a prayer life.
What the Waiting Is For
So how does a believer actually live in the in-between? Paul gives the everyday believer the most practical word of all, and he gives it precisely because of the resurrection and the hope of Christ’s coming.
“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.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
“Therefore” — because He is coming and the dead will rise — be steadfast. Keep working. Your labor is not pointless. This is the great gift of a sound hope: it does not pull you out of your life, it pours meaning back into it. The dishes you wash, the kids you raise, the coworker you pray for, the small unseen faithfulness no one applauds — none of it is wasted, because the Master is coming back to settle accounts, and He forgets nothing done for Him.
“Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.” (2 Peter 3:14)
Found by Him in peace. That is the goal — not found calculating, not found cowering, but found at peace and at work. If He came back this hour, the question He would ask is not “did you predict this morning?” It is “were you faithful with what I gave you?” You do not need to know the day. You need to be the kind of person it would be good to be found as, doing the kind of thing it would be good to be found doing. Occupy till He comes. Live ready. And let the One who set the hour carry the worry about it, while you carry the trust He placed in your hands today.
Teaching the Word. Watching the Times.
— SmithForChrist