Like A Thief?

[tsth]

I was awakened tonight with these passages on my heart and mind, to ask for understanding on them. I am wanting to understand the "context" of these passages, as they are VERY important!


Re 3:3 -
Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, 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.

Re 16:15 -
"Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."


Matthew 24:43
But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.

1 Thess. 5:1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.


What exactly does it mean to keep watch, and NOT LET YOUR HOUSE BE BROKEN INTO??? What am I missing in these passages, in regard to specifics?

In His Love,
Suzanne

[tsth]

I am focusing on word meanings from Rev. 16:15. Take a look and click on any of the underlined words:

http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyB ... anguage=en

In His Love,
Suzanne

[tsth]

I then went to 2 Peter 3

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

The specifics in 2 Peter are pretty clear in regard to guarding against apathy and complacency.

11........what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.

13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

Then the passages go on to talking about what to guard against, in terms of how people get off-track, in other words, how they "let their guard down".

His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.

I also went back to thinking about Jesus saying He will come like a thief at an unspecified time. I also went back to this passage:

Matthew 24:43
But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.

I thought, now how would a Christian keep his house from being broken into? In today's standards, we think of in the physical/fleshly part of us, literally guarding our house, say with weapons or whatever.........BUT, I knew that's not what Jesus was referring to, for Christians. So, what is it that a homeowner would have done to "keep" his house from being broken into? What came to mind, was that if you had a neighborhood that a thief was surveying, the house that is least likely to be chosen for breaking into, would be the house that has "LIGHT"! We cannot let our lights/lamps go out. We cannot give up, in holding firmly to His Word.

1 Thess. 5:1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.



The focus above is most certainly, to be self-controlled, sober, alert, faithful, loving, hopeful.

To be of light.

1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.


In His Love,
Suzanne