New Testament in a Year

³⁰ That is when the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. All the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming; they will see Him powerful and glorious, riding on chariots of clouds in the sky. ³¹ With a loud trumpet call, He will send out battalions of heavenly messengers; and they will gather His beloved faithful elect from the four corners of creation, from one end of heaven to the other.

³² Now think of the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and greenish, as soon as it begins to sprout leaves, you know to expect summer. ³³ In the same way, when you see the wars and the suffering and the false liberators and the desolations, you will know the Son of Man is near—right at the door. ³⁴ I tell you this: this generation will see all these things take place before it passes away. ³⁵ My words are always true and always here with you. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

³⁶ No one knows the hour or the day, not even the messengers in heaven, not even the Son. Only the Father knows. ³⁷ As it was at the time of Noah, so it will be with the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ In the days before the flood, people were busy making lives for themselves: they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, making plans and having children and growing old, until the day Noah entered the ark. ³⁹ Those people had no idea what was coming; they knew nothing about the floods until the floods were upon them, sweeping them all away. That is how it will be with the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be plowing a field: one will be taken, and the other will be left in the field. ⁴¹ Two women will be somewhere grinding at a mill: one will be taken, and the other will be left at the mill.

⁴² So keep watch. You don’t know when your Lord will come. ⁴³ But you should know this: If the owner of a house had known his house was about to be broken into, he would have stayed up all night, vigilantly. He would have kept watch, and he would have thwarted the thief. ⁴⁴ So you must be ready because you know the Son of Man will come, but you can’t know precisely when.

⁴⁵ The trustworthy servant is the one whom the master puts in charge of all the servants of his household; it is the trustworthy servant who not only oversees all the work, but also ensures the servants are properly fed and cared for. ⁴⁶ And it is, of course, crucial that a servant who is given such responsibility performs his responsibility to his master’s standards—so when the master returns he finds his trust has been rewarded. ⁴⁷ For then the master will put that good servant in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸ But imagine that the master’s trust was misplaced, that the supposedly responsible servant is actually a thief who says to himself, “My master has been gone so long, he is not possibly coming back.” ⁴⁹ Then he beats his fellow servants and dines and drinks with drunkards. ⁵⁰ Well, when the master returns—as certainly he will—the servant will be caught unawares. The master will return on a day and at an hour when he isn’t expected. ⁵¹ And he will cut his worthless servant into pieces and throw him out into darkness with the hypocrites, where there is weeping and grinding of teeth.