Wise and Faithful

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

WISE AND FAITHFUL

Matt 24:45-51

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 I tell you the truth, 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.

NIV                                                                                                                                                                    

We cannot help to think of the time Jesus asked Peter if he loved him and Peter said yes. Then Jesus told him to feed his sheep or feed his lambs. This is who Jesus is calling a wise and faithful servant because he is feeding his lambs. Of course, this has nothing to do with physical food, but everything to do with spiritual food. However, it could be real food in a metaphorical sense, as serving one another. Still, it would seem Jesus is saying that we all need to be wise and faithful in whatever task he has assigned us as his servant. This is about staying the course, remaining in Christ, keeping the faith, and living the faith. This is also a warning about being a hypocrite much like how Jesus spoke to the Pharisees when he told them how they made sure the outside of the cup was clean, but it was dirty inside or when he told them they were like whitewashed tombs, looking good on the outside, but were dead man's bones inside. If we think because Jesus has not come back over the last two thousand years or so, that he isn’t going to show up for some time to come and we have a little time to get involved in our own self-interest, self-gratification, and self-fulfillment, which Jesus says is eating and drinking with the drunkards, and when we get a little older we will then come and feed the household, we might well be deceiving ourselves. This brings up the question of whether we have become too much like them and are not staying as much like Jesus as we should. Again, it does not appear we can ride the yellow line here, we need to be on one side of the road of the other, and only one side, one direction leads to heaven. The faithful travel one way and the wicked travel another, but what does Jesus consider as wicked here? It would seem he is not calling the wicked as evil depraved individuals that are always bent toward sin, but rather he could be meaning a believer who does not stay the course, wanders into the other lane, or even tries to ride the yellow line. We have seen some of those yellow line yummies, either smashed or all swollen up, filled with pus, as they have been run over in the road, cut to pieces, and assigned a place with hypocrites. No, no, we cannot afford to become lazy in our faithfulness. We cannot accept mediocrity in our walk with Jesus. If we are not wise and faithful and always about doing our calling, not thinking Jesus is going to come tonight, we might be in somewhat of a troublesome spot. No, we must remain wise and faithful.