Matthew 25:13

13 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. ^[a]

Matthew 25:13 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 25:13

Watch therefore
In ordinances, in prayer, public and private, in hearing the word, at the Lord's supper, and in every religious exercise; over the heart, the thoughts and affections of it; over words, actions, life, and conversation; and against all sin and unbelief, Satan's temptations, the world, and its charms and snares, false teachers, and their doctrines, and for the bridegroom's coming. This is the use and application of the whole parable, and shows the general design of it; the reason to enforce watchfulness follows:

for ye know neither the day nor the hour;
of death, or of judgment, or of the coming of the son of man, of one or the other; for it is added,

wherein the son of man cometh:
that he will come is certain, and that quickly; the time is fixed, but when it will be is unknown; and therefore it becomes us to be our watch and guard. This last clause is not in the Vulgate Latin, nor in the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, and was wanting in three of Beza's copies, but is in most Greek copies, and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel, and seems to be necessary.

Matthew 25:13 In-Context

11 Later the other virgins arrived and said, ‘Lord, lord, open the door for us!’

12 But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’

13 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

14 For it is just like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them with his possessions.

15 To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent—each according to his own ability. And he went on his journey.

Footnotes

• [a]. BYZ and TR include when the Son of Man comes.