Preparation

And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bondservants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunders, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”

Revelation 19:5-7

Who is the Bride? It is the Church of the Lamb, of Christ. Who is that Church? It is those who make themselves ready for the coming of the Lord. The holy apostle John writes, “if we walk in the light as God is in the light the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). That takes care of the contamination of sin on God's side. If we walk in the light of Christ, His Blood cleanses us from all sin. But we too must prepare ourselves.

And everyone who has this hope purifies himself as He is pure.

1 John 3:3

This verse speaks about our becoming like Christ, when He returns. What is the one mark of those who have the hope of Christ’s return in their hearts? They purify themselves constantly. Everyone who does not have the hope of the parousía, the return of Christ, can be identified by this fact: He does not purify himself in his daily life to Christ’s standard of purity.

Having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, and [let us] perfect holiness in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 7:1

The Temple of God has no common ground with idols, and that is what we are—the Temple of the Living God. We have God's Word for it: I will make My home among them and live with them; I will be their God and they shall be My people. Then come away from them and keep aloof, says the Lord. Touch nothing that is unclean, and I will welcome you and be your Father, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Almighty Lord.

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 Jerusalem Bible

The condition for these promises to be fulfilled is that we cleanse ourselves. What do we have to cleanse ourselves from? From all defilement of flesh and spirit. It is thus that the Bride of Christ makes herself ready. It's obvious that not all believers can claim to be part of the Bride of Christ, because the vast majority of them don’t have the slightest interest in cleansing themselves.

In a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honour and some to dishonour. Therefore if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honour, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

2 Timothy 2:20-21

We all start out as dishonourable vessels, christianized, maybe even converted, but not Christ-like. But we can cleanse ourselves and become honourable, sanctified (separated from sin first by will, then by deed) golden vessels that are useful to the Master for every good work that He has in mind for us. It all depends on how seriously we take our calling to cleanse ourselves.

I have heard the saying for many years, "What to do until the Messiah comes..." and often it comes from a very irreverent and even flippant attitude, even from people who call themselves believers. People even write books about it.

When I was still living in my sins, an unbeliever who didn't deserve by any means the grace of God, I was working at my job, sanding some desk tops (I was trained as a furniture maker). My mind was never idle but always bristling with thoughts about God, the true God that I was beginning to understand was nothing and no one I had up till now known, the living God that I was beginning to suspect might actually exist. (I believed in the God of religion, but only as a man believes that there is fire because he gets burned by it.)

Suddenly, I felt that someone was standing behind me, actually not standing on the floor that I was standing on, but somewhere else, higher up and behind me, a little to my left. I could see Him, somehow, though I never actually turned around. I knew who He was, and I asked Him,

"When You return, will You know me, will You recognize me?"

No answer, just the feeling of His persistent, sorrowful, pitying look, as He gazed upon me long and hard, saying nothing. Then I found myself answering my own question. "No, He won't recognize me, because I don't recognize Him." The experience faded and I spent the rest of the work day thinking about what this meant.

It became clear to me, then, that it is more important to believe in Christ's return than anything else. It was to be held as a certainty beyond all doubt. This was the beginning of the my conversion to Christ, to know that He would come again for sure. Everything else that I learned and believed about Him flowed out of this.

And when He comes again, what then?

Will He know me?

I ask myself these questions every day... waiting.