PRÉCIS ON WORTHINESS: NOT EVERYONE WHO ‘SAYS’ THEY ARE WORTHY, ‘ARE’ WORTHY!

SCRIPTURE. “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and ‘pray always that you may be counted worthy’ to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.’” – LUKE 21:34-36, NKJV

KEY TERM: “COUNTED WORTHY.” ‘Kataxioó’ [καταξιόω]: “‘To deem entirely deserving;’ to weigh in on [God’s Balance Scale] to assess one’s exact value or worthiness [to enter the Kingdom of Heaven]; to be judged; refers to a man distinguished for useful and estimable qualities; a man of valor [a nobleman].”

QUOTATION. “25 February. Hold fast to the Diary from today on! Write regularly! Don’t surrender! Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it at every moment.” – FRANZ KAFKA, The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923

COMMENTARY. “‘Christ tells His disciples to observe the signs of the times, which they might judge by.’ He charges them to look upon the ruin of the Jewish Nation as near. Yet this race and family of Abraham shall not be rooted out; it shall survive as a Nation, and be found as prophesied, when the Son of man shall be revealed. He cautions them against being secure and sensual.

‘This Command is given to all Christ’s disciples:  Take heed to yourselves, that ye be not overpowered by temptations, nor betrayed by your own corruptions. We cannot be safe, if we are carnally secure!’ Our danger is, lest the Day of Death and of Judgment should come upon us when we are not prepared. Lest, when we are called to meet our Lord, that be the furthest from our thoughts, which ought to be nearest our hearts. For so it will come upon the most of men, who dwell upon the earth, and mind earthly things only, and have no converse with Heaven. It will be a terror and a destruction to them!

‘Here see what should be our aim, that we may be accounted worthy to escape all those things.’ That when the Judgements of God are abroad, we may not be in the Common Calamity, or it may not be that to us which it is to others. Do you ask how you may be found worthy to stand before Christ at that day? Those who never yet sought Christ, let them now go unto Him; those who never yet were humbled for their sins, let them now begin; those who have already begun, let them go forward and be kept humbled.

‘Watch therefore, and pray always.’ Watch against sin; watch in every duty and make the most of every opportunity to do good. Pray always: Those shall be accounted worthy to live a life of praise in the Other World, who live a life of prayer in this world. May we begin, employ, and conclude each day attending to Christ’s Word, obeying His Precepts, and following His example, ‘that whenever He Comes we may be found watching.’” – MATTHEW HENRY, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

DK. Well now my friends, here’s a Teaching I have not heard in decades about the grave responsibility we all have to keep ourselves ever so carefully in the Faith. Further, as Mr. Henry so wisely warns three centuries ago, ‘we must never presume on God’ that no matter what condition He may discover in us when He Arrives, that we ‘Get to go,’ as it were.

No! Such presumption is heinous disabuse of the high privilege of our calling, beloved. Would we be so cavalier in our marriage to so presume? I daresay no marriage covenant could sustain so careless a commitment. Well then, all the more so in our Covenant with Christ! He is deserving of so very much more, and only thereby may we find Security in Him by adoringly laboring to honor Him at every turn.

I close with KAFKA’S MAXIM: “Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it at every moment.” May this be our Personal Narrative, the Guiding Light in sacred preparation for His Return. And nothing less!