Blog 27:
I have been reading a lot of materials regarding discipleship and obedience recently, and faithfulness is a theme that I continue to reflect on as I go through this material. Jesus has instituted those of us who confess Him as Savior to be His ambassadors to the world (John 15-17, 2 Cor. 5:20-21). Since this is so, there is an obvious expectation that we are faithfully representing Him and doing the work that He has established for us (Eph. 2:10). In the middle of a large section of Jesus’s teaching about His second coming we find this passage about faithfulness:
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:45-51)
There are certainly two attitudes at play in this passage with regard to the servant. The first is an obedient and faithful servant who accomplishes exactly what his master expects of Him even without direct oversight. The second is the opposite of that; the lack of direct oversight is taken advantage of and that servant does not accomplish what is expected of him…in fact he performs unexpected abuse to others.
What sticks out to me is the way the master lavishly rewards the servant who is faithful. Look again at verse 47: Jesus claims of the master (God the Father) that, “Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.” Can you even fathom what being placed in charge of all God’s possessions? Jesus fulfilled this faithfulness completely and was placed in charge of all things at His resurrection (Matthew 28:18) but Jesus is not talking about Himself here…He is talking about those who are following Him. This is a promised redemption of the initial charge given to Adam and Eve to have dominion over all creation. What an incredible promise!
At my previous job in the laboratory, I got a small glimpse of what this looks like. It was a small privately owned laboratory and I faithfully worked for the owners for many years. I did everything I could to treat their business as if it was my own and tried to ensure that their laboratory was successful. After 10 years of faithful service for them in the lab the owners called me aside privately and rewarded my faithfulness with a Rolex watch. It may seem like a worldly thing (I promise I am not trying to promote a gospel of prosperity) but I look at my watch as a testimony of what faithfulness looks like. Every time I wear it, (not an exaggeration!), my mind reflects on the concept of faithfulness. If well-intentioned yet fallen sinful people can recognize and reward faithfulness so extravagantly, how much more extravagantly will God reward faithfulness to Him?
The converse of this is true as well. Those same owners witnessed all kinds of unfaithfulness within their myriad businesses. There were individuals who embezzled, stole, mismanaged clients and materials, one individual even started his own company in direct competition with the owners while still employed as a supervisor for them. Most of this unfaithfulness came as a result of thinking there was a lack of direct oversight…a mentality of ‘I can do this because nobody is watching.’ Like the master in the parable, the owners were watching and these people were all terminated from employment. Some were even taken to court to seek restitution for their unfaithfulness. If well-intentioned yet fallen sinful people can recognize and punish unfaithfulness so comprehensively, how much more comprehensively will God punish unfaithfulness to Him?
Please don’t think that the Master is not watching. Our faithfulness or unfaithfulness are on display before the Father even now as we write/read this post. He is certainly a God of grace and mercy in our failures but He is also an expectant Father that requires obedience. He uses the same shears to prune branches in the vine of Jesus as He does to cut branches out of the vine of Jesus. Walk faithfully, serve faithfully, live faithfully and allow the Father to place you in charge of His possessions. The blessings of faithfulness are incomprehensible and eternal, and God desires to give them to His children. May you experience those blessings today!