Ready For The Return Of Christ?

"Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." (Matt. 24:44)

Christian, are you ready?
Unbeliever, are you ready?
World, are you ready?

What is meant by being "ready" for the Lord? What is the fate of those "servants" who are not watching and not ready?

"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (45-51)

Notice that Christ will find both "faithful and wise" and "evil" servants when he returns and that the latter shall suffer the fate of the hypocrites, in the place where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth." From the above text, what are the differences between these two servants?

The good servant is "faithful," "wise," not slothful (working only when the master is around), and always on the lookout for the master's return. He wants to be "ready" for that day.

The evil servant is not wise nor faithful, and his cry is "my lord delays his coming."

And, for what reason does he "smite (attack) his fellowservants"? Is this not what scoffers of preaching on the second coming (and prophecy and the book of Revelation) do? When someone begins to stir up Christians, because of signs occurring, is he not often ridiculed by other Christians who call such heralds of the soon coming of Jesus by such words as "fanatic date setters," "Chicken Little preachers," "alarmists," etc.?

Why do so many Christians make a merit of not understanding unfulfilled bible prophecy or the book of Revelation? Why do so many think it unimportant to know about the second coming of Christ? Are there not many in our day who, like those of old, "put far off the evil day" (Amos 6:3)?

It seems clear to me that it is those Christians who are in love with this world (hypocrites) who do not want to hear about the second coming. To think about such things makes them too uncomfortable while in their state of worldly comfort and so, they put it out of their minds, a way for them to deal with this cognitive dissonance.

"And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." (I John 2:28)

"Abide in him" is the way to be ready for the return of the Lord. Any who are not abiding in Christ at the time of the Lord's return will be "ashamed" (or disgraced) "before him at his coming." Those who are watching and anticipating the return of the Lord, and abiding in him, and "occupying till he come" (Luke 19:13), will have "confidence" in that day. Warned Jesus:

"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth." (Luk 21:34-35)

"That day" will catch the nominal hypocritical Christian (one who is such in name only) "unawares" just like it will upon those who never professed the name of Christ. He warns them against worldliness, secularism, hedonism, and a carnal lifestyle. So many Christians are today caught up in the Laodicean spirit and are so comfortable in their lives ("at ease in Zion"), just like those in Noah's day, that they do not want to hear about the Lord coming and bringing on the awful day of judgment.