WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE READY!!

Who Has To Be Ready?

When Jesus talked about being ready, in almost every case, study of the context reveals that He addressed His statements exclusively to His Disciples, His closest followers. He was telling them that they had to make a conscious effort to be ready. See Matthew 24:44 and Luke 21:34-36. If they had to do so, how much more do we? The obvious implication of this is that just being a Christian doesn't necessarily make you ready. Christians have become red-in-the-face angry at hearing this idea, but it is the obvious intent of the Scriptures. A person who isn't saved isn't even in the race as far as being ready is concerned. These warnings simply are not addressed to the unsaved. It is the Christians who have to make a conscious effort to be ready.

So the question becomes: What do we have to do to be ready?

There are three basic requirements that can be discerned from Scripture; two "should's" and one "must":

1. We should really expect the Second Coming.
2. We should have a Biblically accurate idea of what really is going to happen.
3. We must be prepared spiritually. Only this is guaranteed to help. You may get away without meeting the first two requirements, but you absolutely won't get away with not meeting this one.

So, what do we have to do to be prepared spiritually?

Jesus did not leave us without answers to this. In fact, there are two distinct passages in which He presented teachings on this issue. The first actually begins in Matthew 24:45, right after His final admonition to be ready. We can conclude from this that the following Parables are about being ready. This is further shown by the fact that each ends in something that is a figure of the Second Coming and/or Judgment Day.

The second is in the Book of Revelation, chapter 3:18-20, and especially verse 18. This passage  is addressed to the Church of Laodicea. It is the position of this ministry, and many other Christians, that the Seven Churches of Revelation 2 & 3 are seven ages in the history of the Church. If that is the case, and the Second Coming is indeed near, then we have to be in the age of the Church of Laodicea. Therefore, what Jesus told them to do about their spiritual problems is what we have to do to be ready.