Watchfulness for the Lord's coming
The Didache closes with an apocalyptic exhortation: the community is to stay awake and ready, because the Lord will come at an unknown hour, and the final days will bring false prophets, the world-deceiver, and a testing by fire before the Lord appears on the clouds.
Stay awake for the sake of your lives. Do not let your lamps go out, and do not let your loins be loosened. Be ready, because you do not know the hour when our Lord is coming (Matthew 24:42).
Gather together frequently, and seek what is fitting for your souls. The whole time of your faith will not help you unless you are made perfect at the last season.
For in the last days the false prophets and the corrupters will multiply, and the sheep will be turned into wolves, and love will be turned into hatred.
For as lawlessness increases, people will hate one another and persecute one another and betray one another. Then the deceiver of the world will appear as a son of God, and he will perform signs and wonders, and the earth will be handed over into his hands, and he will do unlawful things such as have never happened from eternity.
Then the creation of human beings will enter the fire of testing, and many will be made to stumble and will perish. But those who endure in their faith will be saved from that very accursed one.
And then the signs of the truth will appear: first, a sign of spreading out in heaven; then, a sign of a trumpet's voice; and the third, the resurrection of the dead.
Not of all, however, but as it was said: The Lord will come, and all the holy ones with him (cf. Zechariah 14:5).
Then the world will see the Lord coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 24:30).
Greek
Γρηγορεῖτε ὑπὲρ τῆς ζωῆς ὑμῶν: οἱ λύχνοι ὑμῶν μὴ σβεσθήτωσαν, καὶ αἱ ὀσφύες ὑμῶν μὴ ἐκλυέσθωσαν, ἀλλὰ γίνεσθε ἕτοιμοι: οὐ γὰρ οἴδατε τὴν ὤραν, ἐν ᾗ ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν ἔρχεται.
πυκνῶς δὲ συναχθήσεσθε ζητοῦντες τὰ ἀνήκοντα ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν: οὐ γὰρ ὠφελήσει ὑμᾶς ὁ πᾶς χρόνος τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν, ἐὰν μὴ ἐν τῷ ἐσχάτῳ καιρῷ τελειωθῆτε.
ἐν γὰρ ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις πληθυνθήσονται οἱ ψευδοπροφῆται καὶ οἱ φθορεῖς, καὶ στραφήσονται τὰ πρόβατα εἰς λύκους, καὶ ἡ ἀγάπη στραφήσεται εἰς μῖσος.
αὐξανούσης γὰρ τῆς ἀνομίας μισήσουσιν ἀλλήλους καὶ διώξουσι καὶ παραδώσουσι, καὶ τότε φανήσεται ὁ κοσμοπλανὴς ὡς υἱὸς θεοῦ, καὶ ποιήσει σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα, καὶ ἡ γῆ παραδοθήσεται εἰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ, καὶ ποιήσει ἀθέμιτα, ἅ οὐδέποτε γέγονεν ἐξ αἰῶνος.
τότε ἥξει ἡ κτίσις τῶν ἀνθρώπων εἰς τὴν πύρωσιν τῆς δοκιμασίας, καὶ σκανδαλισθήσονται πολλοὶ καὶ ἀπολοῦνται, οἱ δὲ ὑπομείναντες ἐν τῇ πίστει αὐτῶν σωθήσονται ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ τοῦ καταθέματος.
καὶ τότε φανήσεται τὰ σημεῖα τῆς ἀληθείας: πρῶτον σημεῖον ἐκπετάσεως ἐν οὐρανῷ, εἶτα σημεῖον φωνῆς σάλπιγγος, καὶ τὸ τρίτον ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν.
οὐ πάντων δέ, ἀλλ’ ὡς ἐρρέθη: Ἥξει ὁ κύριος καὶ πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι μετ’ αὐτοῦ.
τότε ὄψεται ὁ κόσμος τὸν κύριον ἐρχόμενον ἐπάνω τῶν νεφελῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ.