Being Prudent Slaves to be Rewarded by the Lord not Evil Slaves who will be Cut Off

As those learning to be faithful and prudent slaves of God, we need to beware of eating and drinking with the drunken (keeping company with the worldly people, who are drunk with worldly things) and spread the Lord’s word to give others food at the proper time so that we may be rewarded with the authority to rule in the manifestation of the kingdom. Amen!

May we be those who are sober and prudent, not indulging in the things of this world, not murmuring against our fellow slaves, and not beating others but rather, giving them food at the proper time.

The Lord has given us a rich storehouse of supply; He is inexhaustible, rich, and sweet, and He is available both for us to enjoy and to minister to others.

May we cooperate with the Lord day by day as we live the Christian life and church life to eat the Lord, partake of His riches, and minister Him to others, so that others may be supplied and go on with the Lord in the church life.

Our attitude today should be one of waiting on the Lord, even eagerly expecting His return.

Yes, we need to take care of so many things in our human life, our family life, and the church life, but our focus is really that we are waiting on the Lord and we want to haste His return.

We want to be in His presence today and to hasten His secret coming so that He may take us to Himself.

We are not merely waiting for a day in the future when the Lord may or may not come; we want Him to return today.

As long as we have today, we should simply love the Lord and love His appearing. Early in the morning, our first priority should be to contact the Lord, enjoy Him, and be filled with Him.

His presence is everything to us. We love to be in His fresh, instant, and sweet presence.

And in our contact with others, we want to bring the Lord’s presence to them so that they would partake of this rich One and be supplied for their going on with the Lord.

May we love the Lord and love His appearing today, and may we await His coming and take His coming as a warning, an encouragement, and an incentive.

On one hand, His imminent coming is an encouragement, for we will see Him, and the body of our humiliation will be transfigured to match the body of His glory.

On the other hand, His coming is a warning, for He will come as a Judge, and judgement is with Him; He will come to judge both the living and the dead.

Oh Lord. May we love the Lord and His appearing today. The more we love Him, the more we will feed His sheep.

The more we love the Lord’s appearing, the more we will live in the light of His appearing, and He will take us when He returns secretly to steal the overcomers.

Not Keeping Company with Worldly People but Fleeing Youthful Lusts and Pursuing Christ to Minister Him to others

The faithful and prudent slave in Matt. 24 is one who gives food to those in God’s household at the proper time.

However, if that slave says in his heart that his master delays, and he beats his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with the drunkards, the Lord will come at a time he does not expect and will chastise him.

We have seen what it means to beat our fellow slaves; may we never criticise, judge, or revile our fellow believers but rather, be life-giving askers who pray so that the Lord would give others life.

What does it mean to eat and drink with the drunken?

It means to keep company with worldly people and be associated with them, spending time with them.

The worldly people are drunk with worldly things; they are part of the world, and the entire world lies in the evil one for him to operate and do whatever he wants to do (1 John 5:19).

We believers in Christ are not of this world. Because of our divine nature and holy standing, we believers in Christ should not be yoked together with the unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14; 1 Cor. 15:33; Prov. 13:20).

This yoking together should be applied to all intimate relationships between believers and unbelievers, not only to marriage and business.

The evil slave says in his heart that the master delays, so he keeps company with the worldly people.

He may even think that, since the Lord delays His coming, he could just enjoy the world now as much as he can, and then when the Lord comes, he will repent and do his best to be an overcomer.

There are many believers who think this way; this is to be an evil slave.

First, the evil slave drifted from feeding the Lord’s people to beating his fellow slaves.

At least in this case he still cared for his fellow slaves, even though he beats them.

Some believers are in the church but they criticize the brothers and sisters, and they judge the leading ones; this is to beat their fellow slaves.

On the positive side, however, at least he is in the church, and he is still interested.

The reason he criticises and judges is that he is still interested in the Lord and in the saints.

But a further fall of the evil slave is that he is no longer interested in God’s things or the church but he just goes to the world to enjoy what the world has to offer, keeping company with the worldly people. Oh Lord!

The worldly people around us are drunk and even drugged with worldly things.

And nowadays with the legalization of all kinds of substances, drugs and things like this are common, and immorality and perverseness prevail.

To keep company with such ones means that we forget about the church and the Lord, and we just enjoy the world with worldly people. Oh Lord Jesus.

Such ones, such evil slaves of the Lord, may think that every day is a happy day and every weekend is a happy weekend, for he is enjoying the stupefying of worldly things.

May the Lord expose the real situation in the world and may we give ourselves to love the Lord and His appearing.

Instead of keeping company with worldly people and being involved in the things that they are involved in, we need to realize we’re holy and divine people, and we should not be yoked with worldly people.

Rather, we should flee youthful lusts and pursue the all-inclusive Christ together with all those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2:22).

Paul wrote to his young co-worker, one who shared in the work of the Lord, that he would flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

How much more we, all believers in Christ, need to flee – not to fight against or try to overcome but flee, run away from – youthful lusts and pursue the all-inclusive Christ with the saints!

May we choose to keep company with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

May our society, our group, and our folks be the Lord’s folks, those who love Him and His appearing. And may we be faithful and prudent slaves who give them food at the proper time.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to just love You and to love Your appearing. Keep appearing to us today. May Your appearing strengthen us within to flee youthful lusts and pursue the all-inclusive Christ with the saints! Amen, Lord, save us from keeping company with the worldly people, those who are drunk with worldly things. May we realize that we are holy and divine, and we cannot and should not be yoked with unbelievers. May the only relationship between us and unbelievers be our speaking of the gospel, not our participation in their things. Save us from being stupefied and drugged by this evil age just as they are. Oh Lord, we want to flee! Amen, Lord, we want to pursue You with the saints! We want to enjoy Christ with the saints and minister Christ to the saints!

Being Faithful and Prudent Slaves to be Rewarded by the Lord, not Evil Slaves to be Cut off from Christ

May we be sober believers in Christ and not indulge ourselves in what the world has to offer today.

We may think in our heart that the Lord delays, so we have time to enjoy the world; so we may just be in the world and keep company with worldly people. Oh Lord.

May we not be such evil slaves, who consider that their master delays, so they beat their fellow slaves and keep company with the worldly people!

The Lord will not accept any excuses from us when He returns; we cannot tell Him that we know He delays, so we did this and that (Matt. 24:48).

At His coming back, the faithful and prudent slaves will be rewarded by the Lord with the authority to rule in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens.

However, the evil slaves will be cut off, or cut asunder (Matt. 24:51). This doesn’t mean that they will perish but that they will be cut off from Christ.

When we believed into the Lord, we were attached to Christ, the anointed One.

We have an organic union with Him, for we have been grafted into Him.

Even when we backslide, we are still attached to Christ.

But if we remain unfaithful to the Lod and slothful in service, at His coming He will cut us off, that is, He will cut us off from the attachment to Christ.

We will be cut off from His glorious presence and we will be in a place that will be the portion of the hypocrites.

In that place there will be weeping (indicating regret) and gnashing of teeth (indicating remorse).

This should not be our portion. Our portion as faithful and prudent slaves is to reign with the Lord in His kingdom.

However, if we are slothful in service and unfaithful to the Lord, if we don’t spread the Lord’s word to feed His people, we will be cut off from Christ.

There will be a period of one thousand years in which the slothful slaves will be disciplined and chastised so that they would be produced to be overcomers.

To be cut off from the manifestation of the kingdom is to be cast into the outer darkness, where there is the weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The outer darkness is the darkness outside the bright glory of the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens (16:28; 25:30).

The fact that there’s weeping there means that those in that place will have many regrets, and the fact that there are gnashing of teeth indicates self-blame.

May we be the sober and prudent slaves of the Lord who today spread the word and give food to the Lord’s people so that, when He returns, we will be rewarded.

To reign with Christ is a reward to the faithful and prudent slaves, and it is to reign over the nations together with Him for one thousand years (Rev. 2:26; Luke 19:17-19).

May we be faithful to the Lord in service by scattering the word of the Lord, which is food to those who are hungry.

To both believers and unbelievers, we need to give them food.

Who will go to feed the hungry, sinful people? We should go.

We must do everything we can to spread the word of God.

And may the Lord have mercy on us that we are not evil slaves who criticise and murmur about our fellow believers.

May we not speak anything negative about the saints, because we don’t have time to do it.

Our mouth is too busy speaking the word of the Lord to speak evil things about others.

Our mouth is not for criticizing but for speaking Christ.

May the Lord have mercy on us that we do not keep company with the worldly people to enjoy ourselves in this world with its stupefying and drugging. Oh Lord.

May we be before the Lord concerning these matters and ask Him,

Lord, by Your mercy and grace, make us the faithful and prudent slaves who give food to those in Your household at the proper time. We do not want to receive a chastisement or punishment at Your return but we want to receive Your reward. Amen, Lord, may we be sober and faithful in our living and service to the Lord. Fill us with Your word and flow through us to others to feed them. We want to stop any judging, reviling, or criticising of our fellow believers. Keep us pure in loving You, Lord, and by Your mercy keep us from being with the worldly people to be yoked with them. Amen, Lord, may our mouth be filled with the word of God and not with reviling, and may our hands be filled with the burdens in God’s house and not with worldly things! May we be the faithful and prudent slaves who will be rewarded by You at Your return with the reign in the kingdom!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” pp. 541-546, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 ICSC), week 4, entitled, Making ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by Being a Faithful and Prudent Slave.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Suffering a loss – the exercise of the kingdom, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 48, by Witness Lee.
  – Making ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, pdf outline for a conference in South Africa.
  – 2 Timothy 2:22: Flee Lusts and Pursue Christ, article via Bibles for America blog.
  – God-Given Companions and the Principle of the Body, article at Living to Him.
  – Pursue now, unto New Jerusalem (2) – article via, New Jerusalem blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – For His servants Christ will come / And reward each faithful one; / Slothful ones will be undone— / Serve in time! / Make your single talent count, / All self’s problems now surmount, / Serve with Christ, the living fount— / Serve in time! (Hymns #1304 stanza 3)
  – O hope of glory, our Christ will return! / Waiting and watching, we faithfully serve, / Running the race, pressing on toward the goal / That we the Kingdom’s reward might deserve. (Hymns #966 stanza 4)
  – Soon our Lord will come His servants to reward; / Those who love Him then the crown will share. / Watchful we must be and treasure not the world, / Love and serve the Lord, His burden bear. / Soon our Lord will come and in His kingdom reign; / Satan will be bound, the world subdued. / We must fight the battle, overcome the foe, / On His throne He then will us include. (Hymns #956 stanzas 3-4)