Ready for the Master’s Return

³⁵ “Be ready for service^[a] and have your lamps lit.^{(A) 36} You are to be like people waiting for their master^(B) to return from the wedding banquet^(C) so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once.^{(D) 37} Blessed will be those servants the master finds alert^(E) when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will get ready,^[b] have them recline at the table, then come and serve them.^{(F) 38} If he comes in the middle of the night, or even near dawn,^[c] and finds them alert, blessed are those servants. ³⁹ But know this: If the homeowner had known at what hour the thief was coming,^(G) he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰ You also be ready,^(H) because the Son of Man^(I) is coming at an hour you do not expect.”^(J)

² For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord^(A) will come just like a thief^(B) in the night.

⁶ So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled^(A) and put on the armor^(B) of faith and love, and a helmet^(C) of the hope of salvation.