Maranatha: The Lord Is Coming
"He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." — Revelation 22:20
Maranatha is an Aramaic word the early church used as a greeting. Paul writes it in 1 Corinthians 16:22 without even translating it — because everyone already knew what it meant.
Maranatha: the Lord is coming.
Think about what this actually was. It wasn't a verse for Bible study. It was a greeting. Christians would meet one another and remind each other that He was coming back. That's how they encouraged one another in a time of persecution.
That one word carried three things at once:
Comfort — for those who were suffering, it was the assurance that this was not the end of the story.
Urgency — if He is coming, what am I doing with the time I have?
Hope — the final promise in the Bible is "Yes, I am coming soon," and the final prayer is "Come, Lord Jesus."
We live in a time when it's easy to arrange our lives as if this world were all there is. We make ten-year plans and don't spend a single minute thinking about eternity.
But the promise still stands. And it changes everything — not so we live in fear, but so we live wide awake.
Maranatha. The Lord is coming.