The unsealed book

“Then he told me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.’” Revelation 22:10-11
As stated when referring to Rev. 1:3, many people tend to shy away from reading the book of Revelation, because they think it’s too hard to understand. But here, at the end of the book, we see an angel telling John not to seal up the words of the prophecy. This is in contrast to what Daniel was told, that the words of prophecy he had been given were to be sealed until the time of the end (Dan. 12:4, Dan. 12:9). If John, therefore, was in the ‘end times’, how much closer are we! In no previous generation have all the pieces been in place for Revelation to be able to be fulfilled – Israel is back in the land as a nation, the world is crying out for a one-world government with a Messiah-like leader, a cashless society and the technology to implement it, and so forth.
But the following verse is equally interesting. It is divided in two: him who does wrong, him who is vile; him who does right, him who is holy. I’ve been told that the construction of this sentence implies that the wickedness of the wicked will increase, but on the same token the righteousness of the righteous will increase. That is, right and wrong will become more and more polarised. There won’t be anybody sitting on the fence. It’s easy for us to look around and see wickedness on the rise. But are we also seeing righteousness on the rise, in our own lives? Jesus said that in the last days, the love of many would grow cold because of this increase in wickedness (Matt. 24:12). But He also said that our love for each other would be a sign by which people would know that we belong to Him (John 13:35). Are you doing right today? Are you being holy – set apart for God’s purposes? Or is your love growing cold? I would encourage you to pray to God about this, and ask Him to show you where you are at.