42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. -Matthew 24:42 King James Version (KJV)
42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. -Matthew 24:42 English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)
Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com
...Be wakeful, signifies that they should acquire for themselves life. This is evident from the signification of "being wakeful," as meaning to be in spiritual life... This life is meant by "wakefulness" and "being awake," because spiritual life is to moral life, apart from spiritual life, as wakefulness is to sleep, or as noonday light is to the evening, yea, to darkness. But that this is so is not known or perceived by those who are in natural life alone, neither by those who are in moral life apart from spiritual life, for this life also is natural life. They do not know or perceive this, because they are in natural lumen only, and this lumen in comparison with spiritual light is as the darkness of evening to the light of noonday. Moreover, to such the darkness of evening seems like light; for their interior sight, which is that of the thought, is adapted to that darkness, just as the sight of owls, bats, and other birds that fly by night, is adapted to the shade. Consequently they believe themselves to be in light because they are able to reason, when yet they are in darkness. That this is so is manifest from the state of such after death, when they become spirits. They then believe, when with their companions, that they are in light, because they not only see all things that are about them, but also are able to think and speak about any matter whatever; and yet their light, when the light of heaven flows in with them, is changed into darkness, and they become so blind in respect to the understanding as not to be able to think at all. Moreover, when angels who are in the heavens look down on those who are in such lumen, they see nothing there but mere darkness. That spiritual life compared with moral life apart from spiritual life is as wakefulness compared with sleep, can be further seen from this, that those who are in spiritual light are in angelic wisdom and intelligence, which is such as to be incomprehensible and ineffable to those who are in natural lumen alone, and this not only with men while living in the world, but also with the same when after death they become spirits; and when intelligence and wisdom constitute wakefulness. From this it can now be seen that "Be wakeful" here signifies that they should procure for themselves spiritual life. [2] To "be awake" has a similar signification in the following passages. In Matthew: Be awake, therefore, for ye know not in what hour your Lord cometh (Matt. 24:42). In Mark: Be ye awake, for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, at evening, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing; lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. What I say unto you I say unto all, Be awake (Mark 13:35-37). He that is ignorant of the internal sense of the Word may believe that these words refer to the Last Judgment, and that everyone should be prepared for that; but man's state in respect to love and faith when he dies is what they refer to, for then is his judgment. "Evening," "night," and "cock-crowing" signify such states; "evening" signifying a state of waning faith and charity, which is man's state when he comes into the exercise of his own judgment, and is extinguishing in himself the things that he imbibed in childhood; "night" signifying a state of no faith and charity; "cock-crowing" or "daybreak" the state when faith and charity are beginning, which is, when man loves truths and wishes to be reformed by them. In whatever state a man dies he remains, and according to that he is judged. From this it is evident what is meant by "Be ye awake, lest the Lord coming suddenly find you sleeping. What I say unto you I say unto all, Be awake," namely, that "to be awake" means to receive life from the Lord, which life is spiritual life, and that "sleeping" means living a natural life apart from a spiritual life. (That "evening" signifies a state of waning faith and charity, see Arcana Coelestia, n. 3056, 3197, 3833, 8431, 10134, 10135; "night" a state of no faith or charity, n. 221, 709, 2353, 6000, 7870, 7947; and "daybreak" before morning, or "cock-crowing," the state when faith and charity are beginning, n. 10134.)
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