Pay attention

 This week's verses are Revelation 16:12-16:

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and dried up its water to prepare the way for the kings from the east. Then I saw three unclean spirits that looked like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of the demons performing signs who go out to the kings of the earth to bring them together for the battle that will take place on the great day of God, the All-Powerful.

(Look ! I will come like a thief!
Blessed is the one who stays alert and does not lose his clothes so that he will not have to walk around naked and his shameful condition be seen.)

Now the spirits gathered the kings and their armies to the place that is called Armageddon in Hebrew.

 These verses are about the end times, and the part in parentheses really caught my eye when I read them recently. Pay attention or you will lose your clothes?? What?? That just seems crazy! I have a terrible attention span and I have never once found myself losing my clothes! But then I read this:

Then I heard what sounded like the voice of a vast throng, like the roar of many waters and like loud crashes of thunder. They were shouting:

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God, the All-Powerful, reigns!
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him glory,
because the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
She was permitted to be dressed in bright, clean, fine linen” (for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints).

 (Revelation 19:6-8)

So, our "clothing" is our righteous deeds. Or basically the thing that identifies us externally as Christians in the midst of a world that is going its own way. But why are we being warned about losing our external covering?

The context is the time of the final battle between good and evil. Unclean spirits are trying to influence the influencers of that era to fight on the side of the devil and to provide convincing evidence of their false claims. So the warning is that we'll be presented with an alternative to our Christian values that seems convincing and right, but is actually dangerous!

So, in that context, imagine if the governments of the world, and the media, were all sending the same message. It's a message that conflicts with Christian morality, Christian values, and eternal truth. It's easy to get swept up in that and lose our bearing as Christians. And that's what these verses are warning us about.

Jesus is saying, "Look, I will come back suddenly and without warning." He'll sneak back to Earth like a thief. And when he does, what will we be doing? Will we be dressed in the bright clean fine linen of our righteous deeds? Or will we naked and exposed in our immorality?

It's easy to consume media and internalize it to the point where it seems normal. We glorify adultery and greed and shallow Instagram values. We pepper our statements of faith with disclaimers and disqualifiers in order to fit in. But what if that was the work of the unclean frog spirits? What if our decision to stop trying to conform to Biblical Christianity was resulting in us being found naked and ashamed?

So Jesus is saying to pay attention and be aware of what is likely to be happening behind the scenes. Are we being manipulated into hating and disagreeing with each other in the name of politics? Are compromises being sold to us that are dangerous to our well-being? Are we willing to accept applause and "likes" in order to abandon our faith?

Jesus says "blessed is the one who stays alert and does not lose his clothes." In other words, pay attention or you will be robbed! First step in that is to be aware that we have clothing. Our righteous deeds matter, not as a way to buy us salvation in place of the Cross, but as a way of demonstrating who we are. We are "clothed" differently than those around us.

The rest is being alert and aware that forces are trying to trick you. They are masters of convincing rhetoric and fabricated evidence. Fake news isn't just about politics. There is also plenty of "fake news" about spiritual and moral matters. Be aware.

We won't know when the end times are here. We won't know when Jesus will come back to judge the Earth. But we do know what we need to do until it happens: be alert so that you don't lose your clothes!