Faithfulness in the Waiting: Keeping Our Lamps Burning

From the Series: Ordinary Saints: Lessons from the Ante-Nicene Church

Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Waiting is easy when you know exactly when someone will arrive. You straighten the room, finish what needs to be done, and glance at the clock. If they are expected at seven, you know when to be ready. But sometimes waiting does not come with a set time. We might wait for a loved one’s safe return on a long drive, for a medical result to arrive, or for important news that could change our plans. In those moments, time stretches, and uncertainty can grow. Not knowing when something will happen shapes the way we wait, often requiring more patience and preparation. Jesus used the familiar setting of a wedding to teach His disciples something important about His return. Ten virgins took their lamps and went out to meet the Bridegroom. Five were wise and brought additional oil with them. Five were foolish and did not. Then something happened that is easy to overlook. The Bridegroom was delayed.

Jesus tells us, “But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:5). All ten slept. The difference between the wise and foolish virgins, therefore, was not that five physically remained awake while the others became drowsy. The difference was that five had prepared beforehand for the Bridegroom’s arrival, even if the waiting lasted longer than expected. Then, suddenly, the waiting ended. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'” (Matthew 25:6). Everyone rose. Everyone trimmed her lamp. But not everyone was ready. The foolish virgins discovered too late that their lamps were going out. While they went away to obtain what they lacked, the Bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready entered the wedding with him, “and the door was shut” (Matthew 25:10).

Jesus does not leave His disciples to guess at the central lesson of the parable. He tells them: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Matthew 25:13). Watchfulness, then, is not frantic speculation about when Christ will return. It is readiness for His return whenever He comes. That distinction matters.

Christians can become so occupied with identifying signs, constructing timelines, and discussing prophetic events that watchfulness itself becomes confused with prediction. Yet Jesus repeatedly turned His disciples’ attention away from calculating the unknown and toward faithfulness in the present. The question is not merely, When will the Bridegroom come? The more searching question is, Will I be found ready when He does? The Christians of the Ante-Nicene era lived with that question close at hand.

Imagine hearing Matthew’s Gospel read aloud among believers sometime during the second century. You know Christ has promised to return, but generations have now passed since His ascension. Some believers have suffered persecution. Others have died awaiting His appearing. Rome still stands. Life continues. The Bridegroom appears to be delayed. Those circumstances made Jesus’ parable particularly meaningful. The challenge was not merely remaining faithful for a dramatic moment. It was remaining faithful through ordinary days that became years, and years that became generations.

Early Christian writings repeatedly encouraged believers toward perseverance, holiness, and readiness. They warned against allowing the apparent delay of Christ’s return to produce spiritual carelessness. That danger remains remarkably familiar. Most spiritual drifting does not happen in a single dramatic decision. It happens gradually. Prayer becomes less important. Scripture becomes easier to neglect. A compromise that once troubled the conscience becomes comfortable. Love for Christ competes with countless distractions. We still profess the same faith, but somewhere along the way our attention begins to settle more firmly on this present world. This is why biblical watchfulness reaches much deeper than simply knowing prophecy. It shapes the way we live.

To guard against such drifting and remain watchful, we can anchor ourselves in simple daily practices. Setting aside time each day for prayer and reading Scripture keeps our hearts attentive to God’s voice. Choosing regular acts of service, whether at home, at work, or in our community, helps us stay engaged in loving others for Christ’s sake. Practicing gratitude, confessing sin promptly, encouraging fellow believers, and keeping Sabbath rest are all habits that remind us of what matters most. These ordinary disciplines, consistently practiced, help us stay watchful and keep our lamps lit, even when the waiting feels long or routine.

Jesus told His disciples elsewhere, “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master” (Luke 12:35–36). Peter likewise connected anticipation of the Lord’s coming with the character of God’s people, asking, “what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11). John makes the relationship even more personal. Speaking of Christ’s appearing, he writes that “everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). Holiness does not purchase our entrance into the Kingdom. Christ alone saves us. Nor do we make ourselves ready through anxious religious striving. Rather, the hope of seeing Christ increasingly shapes those who belong to Him. Because we love Him, we want to please Him. Because He has forgiven us, we turn from sin. Because He is coming, we want to be faithful with what He has entrusted to us. That readiness often develops in places no one notices. It is found in the believer who confesses sin instead of concealing it. In the Christian who continues praying when prayer feels ordinary. In the employee who refuses dishonesty even when compromise would be profitable. In the believer who forgives rather than nurturing resentment. In the weary saint who continues serving Christ after decades of waiting. These may not look like dramatic acts of preparation for the return of a King. Yet each quiet, unseen act of obedience is precious in the sight of God. He delights in the small and hidden faithfulness of His people. Your ordinary, daily efforts to follow Christ matter deeply to Him. These simple moments—often overlooked by others—are the true substance of a faithful life.

Perhaps this is one of the lessons the early Church can offer us. Many of those believers did not live to see Christ return. Neither did the apostles. Yet their waiting was not wasted. They worshiped. They served. They proclaimed the gospel. They raised children in the faith. They cared for the suffering. They endured persecution. And eventually, one generation entrusted the faith to another. The Bridegroom’s apparent delay did not make His promise less certain. Neither does it today.

Nearly two thousand years have passed since Jesus told His disciples to watch. That long span of time can tempt us toward one of two extremes: obsession with predicting His return or practical forgetfulness that He is returning at all. Jesus calls us to neither. He calls us to readiness. But what does readiness look like? Being ready for Christ’s return means living each day in faith, obedience, and love. It means keeping close to Him through prayer and Scripture, seeking to leave nothing unreconciled in our relationships, turning from sin when we recognize it, serving others wherever we have opportunity, and entrusting every hope and fear to God. Readiness is not measured by a perfect record or endless activity, but by a heart that stays open to Christ and a life pointed toward Him. There is something wonderfully peaceful about that kind of watchfulness. The believer does not need to awaken every morning wondering whether today’s headlines have finally unlocked the prophetic calendar. Neither should we live as though this present world will continue forever. We remain faithful to our Lord today. And tomorrow, if He has not yet come, we remain faithful again. One day the waiting will end. Growing in holiness.

The cry that Jesus described in His parable will no longer belong to a story: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” Until then, we keep our lamps lit—not by trying to decipher what Jesus has not revealed, but by faithfully living according to what He has. Watch, serve, encourage one another, and wait with hope for the Bridegroom who has promised to return.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, keep my heart watchful while I wait for You. Guard me from both distraction and speculation, and teach me to live faithfully in what You have already revealed. Through Your Word and Your Spirit, continue to sanctify me, strengthen me when the waiting feels long, and help me encourage others to remain faithful. May I be found serving You when You come. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.