What Jesus Christ Taught Concerning His Return (Part 4)

Jesus Christ: The Lord's Return and His Judgment

The punishment for work not done will be stripping and separation. Jesus Christ covers three points in discussing this unprofitable servant. {Matthew 25:24-30} 

[Remember: Jesus Christ is speaking of a person who professes to be saved and is in the church]

1. The servant's reasons for not using the gifts his lord had entrusted into his care:

a) He misunderstood the lord. The unprofitable servant said that the lord was too demanding, exacting, stern, and unsympathetic. He was a lord who demanded too much and was too strict. He did not allow the man the right to enjoy this world and its pleasures enough. The servant felt that if he spent his time in the service of the lord, he would miss out on life. The demands of the lord upon his time and affairs were just too burdensome. The servant was too involved in the world and its affairs to give that much time and effort to labor for the lord and to concentrate upon his demands.

b) He added that he feared; he feared using and putting his talent to work for the lord. Therefore, he hid the lord's talent and did not use it to increase what belonged to the lord - what the lord had given him.

2. The reasons for the lord condemning the servant; note the vast difference between what the lord said and what the servant had to say.

a) The unprofitable servant was wicked and slothful. He was wicked because he went about doing exactly what he wished to do, spending his time and energy on his own thing. He transgressed the lord’s command and will. He was slothful because he did nothing with the lord’s gift. He buried and hid it.

b) The unprofitable servant was inconsistent, or perhaps a better description would be deceptive, double-minded, and self-contradictory. If he really believed the lord was harsh and stern, he would have labored and worked diligently. The servant was either lying or terribly deceived and self-contradictory, all in an attempt to justify his behavior.

c) The unprofitable servant failed to use his gift. The lord was direct: the servant should have used the gift and served (Matthew 25:27). He had no legitimate excuse.

3. The judgment of the unprofitable servant (Matthew 25:28-30). The lord pronounced a twofold judgment upon him:

1) The unprofitable servant was stripped of what he had. All that he had was taken from him. The servant's responsibility—the glorious privilege of working for and serving the lord—was not to be his anymore. He was to have nothing else to do with the lord. His responsibility was taken from him and given to the one who proven most faithful.

2) The unprofitable servant was cast into outer darkness. He was cast out of the lord's presence and banished forever. And there was no joy there, nothing but outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Thoughts to ponder:

1) Many people think God is hard, stern, demanding, and unsympathetic. They are unwilling to follow such a hard, narrow way. So they bury, hide their God-given gifts and travel along the easy, broad way.

2) Others think that what they have is their own, and they can use it and live as they please. They think that what they do is no one's business except their own, not even God's.

3) Many of us don’t feel any responsibility to God for what we have; we don’t feel the necessity to serve God faithfully and diligently.

4) Slothfulness, doing nothing for God, is one of the great sins of professing Christians.

5) Sins of omission are as serious as sins of commission. Being idle and slothful, being complacent and doing nothing, being lethargic and self-satisfied—all are condemning sins: sins that condemn a person to outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

6) We deceive ourselves. We rationalize our comfort, ease, and slothfulness by minimizing our gifts. We think that we will be excused by downing or denying our gifts.

7) Inactive righteousness is as condemning as active wickedness.

8) Idle service is as condemning as a busy sin.

9) Sleepy concern is as condemning as stimulating flesh.

10) Indulging comfort is as condemning as assault and robbery.

11) Being unprofitable is as condemning as being evil.