In order for us to be faithful and prudent slaves of God who do business until He comes, we need to be those not loving the present evil age but love the Lord’s appearing, and we should not mistreat our fellow believers (beat our fellow slaves) by reviling, criticizing, or speaking evil words about them, but love them and minister Christ to them.
In Matt. 24:45-51 the Lord Jesus said that, in view of His return, we must be faithful in service to give food to the members of His household so that, when He comes back, we would gain the reward from Him.
What a joy it is to hear, Well done, faithful slave, you were faithful over a few things, now I will set you over many things in My kingdom!
Our God has the greatest household in the universe, and in this household, He has set some to be faithful and prudent slaves to give His people food at the proper time. Who are these slaves? It is us, each one of us.
What we have received from the Lord, His wonderful salvation with all the divine riches, is actually a stewardship; on His side, God has an economy, and when we enter into His economy, this becomes our stewardship.
We all are stewards of God, slaves of God; we were given all the divine promises, all the riches of the divine life, and also all the members of God’s household, and we can simply minister life to them, dispense Christ into them, for their growth in life unto maturity.
For us to give others food is for us to minister the word of God and Christ as the life supply to the members of God’s household, which are the believers in the church.
First, we have to enjoy Christ, take Him in the way of life through His Word, and then we need to minister something of Christ to those around us, to the fellow believers in Christ (our fellow slaves).
We need to enjoy the Lord as our spiritual food so that we can feed others; for this, we must pray over His word, muse prayerfully over the word, and taste and enjoy it through careful consideration.
We need to devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4; 2 Cor. 3:6, 8; John 7:38-39; cf. Heb. 7:25; 8:2).
Christ is the Heavenly Minister and the High Priest who always intercedes for us before God, and we on earth need to intercede for the saints and minister life to them by being one with Christ.
When we devote ourselves by having focused attention and applying ourselves in a definite way to prayer and the ministry of the word, we will internalize and absorb the riches in God’s word, and when we meet with others, we will simply minister these riches to them. Amen!
Not Loving the Present Evil Age but Loving the Lord’s Appearing to be His Faithful and Prudent Slaves
On the negative side, our being prudent and faithful slaves of God involves not loving the present evil age but loving the Lord’s appearing.
In Matt. 24:48 the Lord warned us not to be an evil slave who says in his heart, My master delays…To say in our heart that our Master delays is to love the present evil age and not to love the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:8, 10; cf. Acts 26:16).
An evil slave of God says in his heart that it is not urgent for him to minister food to those in God’s house, for the Lord delays His coming, and He may come in ten or twenty years; so he gives himself time and excuses to enjoy the pleasures of the world.
The first thing that will frustrate us from carrying out our commission to give food to God’s household is our saying to ourselves that the Lord delays His return, and we still have time; this is to give ourselves excuses, not having a sense of urgency of the Lord’s return.
When we were young believers, we may have desired for the Lord to come a bit later, for we have a lot of things we want to enjoy and experience in the world; however, many believers want the Lord not to come too early, for they still have to get a career, achieve something, get a Ph.D., and they have their own agenda, so they want the Lord to come after they accomplish what they want. Oh, Lord!
As normal believers in Christ, the Lord expects us to love His appearing as if He is coming today; He said, I come quickly, two thousand years ago, and today in our spirit we sense His desire to return.
How soon He will return no one can tell us, but we need to have this consciousness of His return and be on the alert; it can be even today.
Especially as we come to the end of another year, our expectation should be that the Lord is coming back soon; we may even turn a corner as we walk on the street, and the Lord will return.
Every day we need to love the Lord and love His appearing, and we need to ask Him to put within us the longing and expectation to see His appearing.
The Lord will return “in a sneaky way” as a thief when most are unaware of; we should not say in our heart that He delays, and we shouldn’t procrastinate or put things off. We must beware of covetousness, not storing up treasure for ourselves but being rich toward God (Luke 12:16-21; 2 Cor. 6:10; Eph. 3:8).
In Luke 12 we have the story of a rich man who had so much riches to enjoy that he wanted to build bigger barns, enjoy the riches, and retire.
As we live in this age of abundance with so many opportunities, may our heart not be set on the things in the world that we covet them and try to store up treasures for ourselves.
Rather, may we seek to be rich toward God by enjoying His riches and being constituted with Him every day.
We must remember Lot’s wife (Luke 17:32) so that we would not love and treasure the evil world that God is going to judge and utterly destroy; may this become a solemn warning to us that we may not be world-loving believers (Rom. 1:21, 25).
The Lord wants to fully rescue us out of the world, but at His coming, He will not take us if we still linger in the things of this world, if we still take a lingering look at the things we leave behind.
This doesn’t mean that we should be stupid or careless in this world, or that we are loose with our life and we just “read the Bible all day long”; rather, we need to take care of our responsibilities, but our heart should not be set on the things of this world but on the Lord’s coming, loving Him and loving His appearing.
We must be watchful and beseeching so that the day of the Lord’s coming would not come upon us suddenly as a snare (Luke 21:34-36; cf. Matt. 2:3).
May we not be weighed down by the love for the things of this world and by the roots in this earth; may we be filled with Christ as the spiritual air to be taken by Him at His return!
Amen, may we be those watchful and beseeching that we may prevail to escape! May the Lord have mercy on us that we may be strong and prevail to escape the great tribulation which will come on this earth!
Save us, Lord Jesus, from being an evil slave who says in his heart that his Master delays. Oh Lord, save us from loving the present evil age! We love You, Lord, and we love Your appearing. Our focus is You, our desire is for You to return, and our heart is for You to take us to Yourself as soon as possible! Dear Lord Jesus, put in us a longing and expectation for You to return, and make us those who love Your appearing. May we be those who are not covetous or store up treasure for themselves but rather, those who are rich toward God! Amen, Lord Jesus, we don’t want to love and treasure the evil world which You will judge and utterly destroy! We beseech You, dear Lord, to keep us watchful and ready for Your return, so that Your coming may not come us suddenly as a snare!
Not Judging, Condemning, Reviling, or Criticizing our Fellow Believers but Loving them and being Kind to our Fellow Slaves
The evil slave who says in his heart that his Master delays, begins to beat his fellow slaves (Matt. 24:49).
To beat our fellow slaves is to mistreat our fellow believers (Acts 9:4). This includes our criticizing them, judging them, condemning them, demeaning them, speaking contemptuously of them, and reviling them or even scolding them. Oh, Lord!
It is very serious for us to mistreat our fellow slaves, the believers in Christ, for this will cost us the kingdom reward.
Beating the fellow slaves is mistreating them, belittling them, speaking a critical word about them, criticizing them, and passing on judgement to them; instead of doing this, we should consider them more excellent than ourselves.
May we not judge and condemn our fellow believers but be kind to them, tenderhearted, forgiving them even as God in Christ forgave us (Luke 6:37; Eph. 4:31-32; cf. 1 Thes. 5:14).
If we judge, we will be judged; if we condemn, we will be condemned. Before we judge others, we should first judge ourselves, for the same judgment we judge others with, we will also be judged.
We must not revile or criticize our brothers but consider them more excellent than ourselves (see 2 Tim. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 3:8-10; Jude 10; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Phil. 2:2-4, 29; Rom. 12:3).
To revile others is to assail them with contemptuous language, to speak abusive words; this is related to our speaking.
Our tongue needs to be circumcised.
We treasure the speaking of God’s word in the meetings, in the ministry, and in our prophesying, but what about our daily life, in our time with the saints or even with our spouse, what kind of speaking comes out of our mouth?
Our tongue can be like a fire that lights up the whole forest; if we can’t bridle our tongue, we can’t bridle our whole person.
Reviling and criticizing happens too often in the church life; we may not speak of the good things that the saints do, but we may be eager to gossip about their failures and mistakes. Oh, Lord!
We may say we want to “correct the wrong” that someone did, but we actually revile them.
Especially if we love the Lord and the church, and we see someone making mistakes, we may tell people off, we may speak about their problem to others, and in this way we revile them; all this is out of our care for the church and the saints. Oh, Lord Jesus!
Our temper comes out when we live in the church life; our anger, our putting down the saints, and our telling others off – all these may come out. Because of his, the church and the saints suffer very much.
We need to be reminded that the revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God; God groups the revilers together with the idolaters, fornicators, and adulterers.
May the Lord have mercy on us that we may know how serious it is to revile a member of the Body, for we may cause that person to be stumbled and leave the church life. When we stumble a little one, we offend God.
Reviling is when we cause the saints to inwardly suffer pain or to be inwardly wounded by assailing or criticizing them harshly with abusive language.
Some brothers may have a strong disposition and they lash out in such a way that the saints are wounded and stumbled. Oh, Lord!
We need to come under the Lord’s light, realizing that there will be a judgment seat where all that we do and say will be judged; may we be fearful to speak something that will stumble others, and may we refrain from reviling the saints.
The fact that someone did something wrong and should not behave in a certain way does not give us the ground to revile them.
The Lord’s way is not to condemn but to bind up our wounds to heal us, and He pours oil and wine on our wounds by giving us the Holy Spirit and the divine life to heal us and make us whole (Luke 10:33-34).
One of the reasons that the church is divided and damaged is that there are reviling words; those who take in reviling words bear the same responsibility as those who speak the reviling words.
For us in the church life to maintain the oneness, we must withstand reviling words.
The one who speaks reviling words is held responsible and accountable before the Lord, but the one who takes in the reviling words is also responsible and accountable.
We should not revile back when being reviled; we should not take in the reviling words and be knocked out, feeling sorry for ourselves; rather, we should bring these reviling words to God!
Like Moses in Num. 12 and the Lord Jesus in 1 Pet. 2:23, when we’re reviled, we should bring these reviling words to God. Amen!
The consciousness of sin comes from knowing God; in the same way, the consciousness of reviling words comes from the knowledge of the Body, for reviling words are opposed to the testimony of the Body.
If we know the Body, we will be afraid to speak any reviling words, for those will damage the Body.
The Lord wants us that revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God in the next age as a reward to the overcoming saints. Amen, Lord Jesus!
May we not lord it over our fellow believers but rather, may we serve them as slaves to feed them with the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Pet. 5:3; Matt. 20:25-28; cf. Num. 17:8). May we feed others by our speaking and not revile them; may we give others Christ and not criticize them!
Lord Jesus, we want to be the faithful and prudent slaves who serve You faithfully and do not mistreat the fellow believers in Christ. Amen, Lord, may we not judge or condemn our fellow believers but be kind to them, tenderhearted, forgiving them even as God in Christ forgave us. May we not revile or criticize our brothers and sisters but consider them more excellent than ourselves. Oh Lord, save us from stumbling the saints by our speaking; may we not be a cause of stumbling but a channel of the life supply. May we be one with You, dear Lord, to bind up the wounds of the saints and give them Christ for their recovery and restoration. Oh Lord Jesus, we want to be those who don’t lord it over our fellow believers but rather, serve them as slaves to feed them with the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 15, pp. 297-302, 337-351, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life, the Church Life, the Consummation of the Age, and the Coming of the Lord (2020 fall ITERO), week 4, Being Faithful in Service.
- Hymns on this topic:
– How real that He is coming— / Come quickly, Lord, again! / We watch for His appearing, / His precious Word amen. / Oh, don’t delay His coming, / Pray without ceasing, pray; / He’s eagerly awaiting / That coming wedding day. (Hymns #1323)
– Built up in love together, / Not one would criticize; / To perfect one another, / We all would exercise. / Each one from self delivered, / The natural life forsakes; / In grace each trained in spirit / The Body-life partakes. (Hymns #867)
– To the work! to the work! let the hungry be fed; / To the fountain of life let the thirsty be led; / In the cross and its vict’ry our glory shall be, / While we herald the tidings, “Salvation is free!” (Hymns #895)
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