Be Watchful: Do Not Follow in Thomas’ Footsteps in Welcoming the Coming of the Lord!
It’s recorded in the Bible, “And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the middle, and said, Peace be to you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and behold my hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, My LORD and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John 20:26–29).
These verses are what the Lord Jesus said to Thomas after His resurrection. From the scriptures, we can see that Thomas followed the Lord Jesus but he didn’t have true faith in the Lord. Thomas’ principle of believing in God is to believe what he could see with his own eyes. Thus, in the matter of the Lord’s resurrection, he didn’t believe it until he saw the Lord and touched the nail marks of the Lord. However, it was too late and God didn’t approve of his belief at the time. Then, what warning does the failure of Thomas’ belief in God give to us?
God says, “What happened with Thomas was a warning and a caution for later generations so that more people could warn themselves not to be doubting like Thomas, and if they were, they would sink into the darkness. If you follow God, but just like Thomas, you always want to touch the Lord’s rib and feel His nail marks to confirm, to verify, to speculate on whether or not God exists, God will forsake you. So, the Lord Jesus requires people to not be like Thomas, only believing what they can see with their own eyes, but to be a pure, honest person,harbor doubts toward God, but only believe in and follow Him. This type of person is blessed. This is a very small requirement the Lord Jesus has for people, and a warning for His followers.”
Seen from God’s word, God hopes we can be pure, honest people who accept and obey God’s word after hearing it, and only such people are praised and blessed by God. If one believes merely by seeing with his own eyes, such kind of people will be eventually abandoned and eliminated by God. Now is the critical moment of welcoming the Lord’s return. So, How can we be a person who believes in God after hearing the gospel?
The Lord said, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Mat 25:6). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches” (Rev 2:7). From these verses, we can see that when the Lord returns He will speak more words. God requires us to focus on listening to His voice. When someone preaches to us that the Lord has returned, if we can recognize the Lord from His utterances, then we are the wise virgins, able to welcome the Lord’s return and attend the feast with the Lord.
If we don’t focus on listening to the Lord’s voice yet we only accept the Lord Jesus who returns upon clouds and appears in public, and believe in the Lord’s return only when seeing the Lord’s appearance with our own eyes, is our such belief, as same as that of Thomas, merely based on seeing with our own eyes? The Lord Jesus said, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” The words of the Lord Jesus are a warning to us of the last days. In welcoming the Lord’s second coming, we should learn lessons from Thomas’ belief which God disapproves of; we should not be the ones like Thomas who believe what they see with their own eyes in everything, otherwise we will lose God’s end-time salvation forever and be eliminated by God.
Grow in Christ, a website well worth recommending, shares with you the latest gospel messages about Jesus Christ’s return and various devotional resources.
