47 Verily I say unto you, That ho shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayethhis comiiifr ;
49 And shall begin to smite Ms fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken ;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint Mm his portion with the hypocrites : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
There are verses in this passage which are often much misapplied. " The coming of the Son of man" is often spoken of as being the same thing as death. The texts which describe the uncertainty of His coming are often used in epitaphs, and thought suitable to the tomb. But there is really no solid ground for such an application of this passage. Death is one thing, and the coming of the Son of man is quite another. The subject of these verses is not death, but the second advent of Jesus Christ. Let us remember this. It is a serious thing to wrest Scripture out of its true meaning.
The first thing that demands our attention in these verses, is the aivful account that they give of the state of the world when the Lord Jesus comes again.
The world will not be converted when Christ returns. It will be found in the same condition that it was in the day of the flood. When the flood came, men were found ^' eating and drinking, marryingand given in marriage," absorbed in their worldly pursuits, and utterly regardless of Noah's repeated warnings. They saw no likelihood of a flood. They would not believe there was any danger. But at last the flood came suddenly and " took them all away." All that were not with Noah in the ark were drowned. They were all swept away to their last account, unpardoned, unconverted, and unprepared to