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Mat 24:42. Γρηγορεῖτε, watch[1068]) This was the reason, no doubt, that the names Gregory and Vigilantius were so common in the ancient Church. You may ask why those who were so far distant from the last day were exhorted to watchfulness on that ground? I answer-(1.) The remoteness of the event had not been indicated to them. (2.) Those who are alive at any particular time represent those who will be alive at the end of the world; see Gnomon on 1Th 4:15. (3.) The principle of the Divine judgments, and of the uncertainty of the hour of death, resembles in every age that of the last day; and the hour of death is equivalent to the hour of resurrection and judgment, as though no time had been interposed. (4.) The feeling of the godly, which stretches forward to meet the Lord, is the same, whether with the longest or the shortest expectation. (5.) If every one had had to watch, from the time of the Apostles to the Lord’s coming, it would have been well worth the trouble of so doing.-ὁ κύριος ὑμῶν, your Lord) called in Mat 24:44 the Son of Man.
[1068] Latin, “vigilate,” from which verb (vigilo) the name Vigilantius is derived; as Gregorius from the Greek verb employed in this passage.-(I. B.)