“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” (Re 16:15 AV)
Let me give a bit of background here that might help. According to Mideastern tradition at the time, the groom would provide the foundation for a wedding dress to his soon-to-be wife. This is referred to as the white garment in the Book of Revelation. This white garment is the righteousness of the saints. It is a great picture of the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ being placed on the saint. Have you ever wondered why the saint can earn gold, silver, and precious stones? There is no system of commerce in heaven and what value would they have in glory, anyway? Well, it appears as though the wedding dress was to be adorned by the bride-to-be for her wedding day. If you remember the parable of the lost coin in which the woman lost one of ten, she was saving those coins for her eventual wedding dress. So the commentators tell me. The good that we do for the LORD is intended to please Him in return. These precious things we receive because of our sacrificial service will adorn the wedding garment we will wear for our Savior! So, the nakedness above is not nakedness in the sense of being without clothes. Rather, the less we do for Christ, the more plain our garment will appear.
Watching is more than just guarding. It is watching for opportunities in which more ornamentation can be attained. When I read the news, I like those odd, out-of-the-way stories of good news. A few weeks ago was no exception. There was a story of a woman who found her dream sectional at a thrift store and bought it for $150. It turned out the be an antique and worth several hundred times more. When it comes to wedding dresses, most brides take their mothers to all the bridal shops in town and try on all the dresses within their price range. Then the young lady talks her parents into spending about twenty-five percent more than they had planned. Brand new will do. Unless the dress is a family heirloom, it is new or nothing. Which brings me to my second story. It is in line with the last one. A bride was shopping for a wedding dress. She could not afford to go to one of those swanky shops, so she went to a thrift store instead. She went from one store to the next. Not a lot of choices in thrift stores. Most used dresses are sealed in a keepsake box for memory’s sake. However, this young lady found her dream dress. She did not settle. She actually picked out a dress that was exactly what she was looking for. She paid less than $100 for it and found out it was a one-of-a-kind designer dress from Paris. That dress was hand-sewn and only worn by one individual. It was worth tens of thousands of dollars. She looked for an opportunity to please her fiancĂ© and God was good to her and gave her the dress that fairy tales are made of.
As we near the coming of Christ, the saint will have to juggle persecution with opportunity. It is easy to get wrapped up in how life affects us. It is easy to become preoccupied with the things of this world and put opportunities of service to Christ on the back burner. We are just trying to survive. We are trying to live a life as comfortable as we can given the circumstances of our world. Opportunity may come knocking, but we don’t answer because we are too busy keeping our heads above water. When we decline to honor God with our lives first, we are removing what could have been wonderful ornamentation on the robe of righteousness that awaits us. This garment is one we will have for all of eternity. When the LORD tells us to guard our garments, He is encouraging us not to let the world, devil, or flesh keep us of the treasures that await. Treasures that will please the LORD Jesus Christ!
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