10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be discovered. (NASB)
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. (NRSV)
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (KJV)
I used three different translations for this verse because I wanted to understand the meaning of the last phrase better; however, all three show some variation in meaning. The NASB is supposed to be the best literal translation of the Bible and the NRSV is supposed to be the superior reference for 'thought for thought' translation; since they both differed I looked at the KJV and it too differs from the others. I eventually realized it was impossible to come to a conclusion about the last word so here's the Greek and it kind of shows why translators interpret it differently: link
This verse is really powerful and it warns us about the unexpected nature of Christ's return; 'like a thief' implies that it will come about very unexpectedly and without warning. When we read this we might imagine that most people will be sleeping, when we awaken to this sudden reality of Christ returning to gather his flock.
These verses show us that Christ and God have such deep love for us that they warned us two thousand years ago that the events will happen at the end of the age, and that we need to keep ourselves in a state of constant readiness. When we keep ourselves ready for Christ's return, we can relax and know that we are going home with Jesus whenever these events transpire.
The first step of course is to accept Christ as Lord and Savior by inviting him into our lives and accepting Salvation from him. We ask him into our lives and give our souls to his care, to guide us along the path of following his teachings in the Gospels. We repent of our sins and ask forgiveness, and we continue to repent and ask forgiveness when we transgress.
I have had to learn over and over again that if there is a part of this journey I feel I am lacking in, or failing in, or not understanding, the answer is always to pray to Christ to give me what I lack. In the world I learned to be ashamed and shrink away when I felt like I was failing. I still fall into this habit sometimes in my journey, until I am reminded I can pray about everything I feel I am lacking. Jesus wants us to come to him for answers, not to give up because we feel we aren't succeeding. I hope everyone will accept Christ as Savior today to begin this journey of emulating Christ and growing in his likeness, because like this verse in Peter says, we never know when he will return.
If you want to accept Salvation from Christ here are some resources:
A Prayer for Salvation from Christ:
Lord Jesus, I confess my sins and ask for your forgiveness. Please come into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Take complete control of my life and help me to walk in Your footsteps daily by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord for saving me and for answering my prayer.
A more detailed step by step process:
https://www.wikihow.com/Accept-Jesus-Into-Your-Life
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