lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.
Parallel translations
- WEB lest coming suddenly he might find you sleeping.
- KJV Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
- BSB Otherwise, he may arrive without notice and find you sleeping.
- NASB so that he does not come suddenly and find you asleep.
- NLT Don’t let him find you sleeping when he arrives without warning.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The warning is lest the master return suddenly and find his servants asleep. Spiritual sleep leaves us unprepared for Christ's coming.
Overview
To be found 'sleeping' pictures spiritual complacency and unreadiness. Jesus warns against drifting into carelessness during his absence. The danger is not active rebellion only but passive slumber. The call is to remain spiritually awake and engaged, living in expectation of the Lord who may come at the least-expected hour.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 1 Th 5:6–7so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober.
- Rom 13:11–14Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.
- Mark 14:40Again he returned, and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they didn’t know what to answer him.
- Matt 24:48–51But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’
- Luke 21:34“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
- Matt 25:5Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
- Isa 56:10His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
- Prov 6:9–11How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?
- Prov 24:33–34a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep;
- Mark 14:37He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you watch one hour?
- Eph 5:14Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Song 5:2I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.”
- Song 3:1By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him.
- Luke 22:45When he rose up from his prayer, he came to the disciples, and found them sleeping because of grief,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 13:36 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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