The believers who do not watch for the Lord's coming back and live a proper life will suffer shame (Rev. 16:15). In Revelation 16:15 the Lord tells us to keep our garments. In the Bible, a garment always signifies what we are in our walk and living. We must have a clean walk, and our spiritual garment must be pure, white, and approved by God. We must watch for the Lord's coming and keep our garments pure. If we live such a clean life, we shall have no nakedness when He comes and men will not see our shame. This verse also says that the Lord is coming as a thief. He will not come as a visitor announcing His arrival ahead of time. When we do not think that the thief will come, he comes. I have been told that thieves often come about three or four o'clock in the morning, at the time when people are deeply asleep. We need to be sober and watching. Otherwise, the Lord will come as a thief and our nakedness will be exposed. Once again, this tells us that there is the possibility that a saved person may be put to shame at the Lord's coming back.
God's people who do not live and walk according to His way, that is, according to His economy, will come short of the fulfillment of His purpose and be put to shame. As we have seen, this is the significance of the pillar of salt. Do not take this merely as a Bible study, but as a warning for us all. Even we who are in the Lord's recovery cannot afford to be loose or indifferent. We must be sober and consider the situation to be quite serious. We need to have a life and walk that fulfills God's purpose. Then at the Lord's appearing we shall be in His parousia and not be cast out to the third place, the place of shame.