In Matt 24/25, our Lord’s disciples asked Him what would be the sign of His coming and of the end of age. He gave 4 consecutive parables in the parable of the faithful servant, the parable of the talents, the parable of the wise and foolish virgins and the parable of the sheep and goats. The parables gave instruction and responsibility to His disciples as stewards to care for His Kingdom. The main instruction of the first and the last parable was to care for His people, especially the least of the brothers. All four parables expect faithfulness from the stewards.
In the parable of the talents, our Lord expected the disciples to understand both the spirit and the letter of His instruction to invest in His Kingdom while He would be away for a considerable period of time. The first and second servant understood perfectly and invested with the resources given as faithful stewards. These two servants fully knew their Master well that He expected them to be faithful in fulfilling His instruction. The third servant failed to know the character of His Master well and avoided any risk AT ALL COSTS. Thus he was not faithful in fulfilling the instruction of His Master.
If our Lord expects us to bear fruit in every good work (Col 1:10), how often will we avoid sharing with the least of the brothers by hoarding our wealth – choosing to believe that giving is loss and not gain ? If our Lord expects us to bear fruit as in sharing the gospel with all, how often will we avoid all risks to our jobs and career as not to share the gospel so that we do not step on toes in a woke and all inclusive society today ? Besides, how often are we rich towards ourselves first without being rich to God when we are given material blessings ? The landowner in the parable of the rich fool was not greedy. He had an unexpected abundant harvest that his present barns could not hold. His first thought was to build bigger barns instead of caring for God’s people with the excess abundance. How often do we think of upgrading our standard of living FIRST when we receive a promotion, salary raise, big bonuses or unexpected abundant business profits ? If we are not obeying His 3 demands of discipleship in the first place (Luke 14:26,27,33), how can we be faithful servants till the end ?
As our Lord’s disciples, we have no excuse if we do not invest in His Kingdom of the highest priority and we should be content with just food and lodging. 1 Tim 6:6-10. But sadly the majority of Christendom in the western capitalism states tend to live with indifference to our Lord’s warning and instruction in these end times as goats rather than sheep. And not being faithful to investing in His Kingdom at all.
