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stand alone, if need be, in the blessed fellowship of a rejected Apostle, a rejected
revelation, and alas a rejected Christ.
"To watch."
The fourth and closing exhortation of those listed by us in the opening of this series is
the exhortation to "watch". Two passages are before us:
"Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving" (Col. 4: 2).
"But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make
full proof of thy ministry" (II Tim. 4: 5).
Two different Greek words are employed by Paul in these passages. (1) gregoreo,
and (2) nepho. While both words are translated "watch", they have distinct origins that
must be investigated.
The first word is derived from egeiro `to awake' as from sleep, and which is used not
only to speak of actual wakefulness, but of resurrection from the dead.
To awake from sleep. Matt. 2: 13, 14, 20, 21; 8: 25, 26.
To arise from the dead. Matt. 10: 8; 28: 6; Rom. 4: 24.
Watchfulness that demands the word gregoreo therefore, is a watchfulness that is
wakeful, has aroused itself, is anticipating the resurrection of the dead in its alertness in a
world that sleeps the sleep of death.
In the Gospels the word is used of two calls for vigilance `watching' because the day
and the hour of the Lord's return is unknown, and `watching' with the Lord in the garden
of Gethsemane.
When Paul warned the Ephesian church concerning the grievous wolves that would
enter in among them, not sparing the flock, drawing away disciples after them, he said
"Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn
everyone night and day with tears" (Acts 20: 31).
To the Corinthians who were divided among themselves, and whose doctrine and
practice had been invaded by false teaching and false ideas, he said:
"Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong" (I Cor. 16: 13).
To the Thessalonians the Apostle wrote:
"Therefore let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober" (I Thess. 5: 6).
Here Paul introduces the second word nepho `be sober' indicating most clearly that
while there is a watchfulness that rises above the claims of natural sleep, there is a
watchfulness that can be impaired by insobriety.