The Watchful Servants

*Bible verses from the KJV and AMP version.

*Verse by Verse Commentary from Adam Clark, Matthew Henry, Charles Spurgeon and John Gill.

*Mark 13:34–37/Luke 12:35–40

L12:35 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;

Be dressed and ready for active service, and keep your lamps continuously burning.

Let your loins - Be active, diligent, determined ready; let all hinderances be removed out of the way; and let the candle of the Lord be always found burning brightly in your hand.

M13:34 For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
It is like a man away on a journey, who when he left home put his servants in charge, each with his particular task, and also ordered the doorkeeper to be continually alert.

Left his house - Οικιαν, family. Our blessed Lord and Master, when He ascended to heaven, commanded His servants to be faithful and watchful. 

This fidelity to which He exhorts His servants consists in doing every thing well which is to be done, in the heart or in the family, according to the full extent of the duty. 

The watchfulness consists in suffering no stranger nor enemy to enter in by the senses, which are the gates of the soul.

L12:37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
Blessed (happy, prosperous, to be admired) are those servants whom the master finds awake and watching when he arrives. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, he will prepare himself to serve, and will have them recline at the table, and will come and wait on them.

Christ is our Master, and we are His servants, not only working servants, but waiting servants, servants that are to do Him honor, in waiting on Him, and attending His motions:
Christ our Master, though now gone from us, will return again, return from the wedding, from solemnizing the nuptials abroad, to complete them at home.

L12:38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
Whether he comes in the second watch (before midnight), or even in the third (after midnight), and finds them so [prepared and ready], blessed are those servants.

The time of our Master's return is uncertain; it will be in the night, it will be far in the night, when he has long deferred his coming, and when many have done looking for Him; in the second watch, just before midnight, or in the third watch, next after midnight. 

His coming to us, at our death, is uncertain, and to many it will be a great surprise; for the Son of Man cometh at an hour that ye think not.

L12:39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time the thief was coming, he [would have been awake and alert, and] would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

But we do not know at what hour the alarm will be given us, and therefore are concerned to watch at all tines, and never to be off our guard.

M13:37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
What I say to you I say to everyone, Be on the alert [stay awake and be continually cautious]!

We know not when He will come; and He has very wisely kept us at uncertainty, that we might all be always ready.

"Here is where we need to watch, to strive, to pray, that nothing may entice us to choose another master; for we are always free to do this."
Steps to Christ (White)