"After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them" (Matthew 25:19).
There are a number of days that people regard as special or significant, and I am no different. Even now, swirling about in my head like many flocks of geese, are the due dates of bills I owe, the birthdays of family members, holidays, and the like. For those men reading this who are married, we know the terrible fate that would befall us were we to forget our wives' birthday, or Valentine's Day--the ramifications would be far from pleasant (and I know because I have forgotten Valentine's Day once). Consider your average mortgage payment; debt obligations dealing with real estate or car payments hold a little more weight than a phone, or cable bill because of the greater consequences that could ensue if said payments are missed, and unfortunately, untold millions of Americans know the bitter reality of one-too-many mortgage payments missed.
I digress somewhat, but I think that we all can agree that the dates of the months on the calendar are not just neat squares with numbers in them--they have the daily potential to be life-changing slices of time on any given day. How much more the day when the Lord Jesus Christ suddenly, like lightning, comes for those who have been faithful to Him, who have loved His appearing, who have "walked in the light as He is in the light" (I John 1:7)?
This post is not meant to argue the feasibility of Christ's return based on Bible prophecy (which I could easily do), or to even convince anyone that He is coming soon, but rather to enthusiastically yet soberly charge those who are in Christ to make certain that they are ready for the accounting that is inseparable from the inevitability of His soon return (Matt 25:19). The expectation of seeing the One who bought the Christian out of bitter slavery to sin, death, and Satan with His own blood should overshadow every thought we think, every word we speak, and every deed we do; it should outshine, by an infinite brightness, every great or special day we have ever known or anticipate and our anticipation of that day should be all the motivation we need to live lives pleasing to Him.
Far too many Christians are worthless, lazy, selfish servants of their King and I would dare say that all such Christians commonly share an inaccurate or skewed understanding of what the return of Christ really means. There is a reason why God in His limitless wisdom chose not to share with man the exact time of the Lord's return for His own. Consider how we procrastinate. Consider how we put ourselves above the needs of others. Consider how nauseatingly slothful we can be. God knew that if we precisely knew when Christ would return we wouldn't get serious until right before His return--and if we're honest, some of us wouldn't start getting until as little as ten minutes remaining before His arrival.
Christ is coming as a loving King for His blood-bought Church, but also He comes to settle all accounts, to demand a return on His investment of His Spirit whom He gave to all truly born again. And this is not to cause anyone to question their salvation, but rather for us all to get brutally honest with God and ourselves concerning our service. Christ gave us gifts to exercise in this short life to reach others with the only thing that can deliver from hell and save from sin: the Gospel. To some He has given the gift of teaching, and to some He has given the gift of administrations but to us all He expects us to love one another; He expects us to love Him and our neighbor without equivocation; He expects us to eschew sin and deny ourselves daily; He expects us to trust Him for everything; He expects us to be holy.
In Matthew 26, Jesus tells the Parable of the Talents. On the surface, we can clearly observe the context of a master, or an employer entrusting to his servants certain sums of money, to not spend on themselves but for the sole purpose of advancing the master's agenda, to enrich the master and not themselves. It's important to realize that the master had given each servant money each according to their respective abilities and none of the servants were measured against another. All that mattered was for the master to have gained a return on his investment.
Plainly, Christ is depicted as the master in this parable and He expects a return on the investment of Spirit and power into His own, each according to their ability. Not all can preach, but all can pray; not all can teach, but all can love; not all can heal disease, but all can serve his neighbor with humility. Too often we think serving Him is best shown in some monumental act of moving mountains into the sea, or by preaching to thousands, but we honor Him most with love for Him and for each other.
Unfortunately, we are too busy posting to Facebook and Twitter and mindlessly mashing remote control buttons scanning endless channels filled with godless, ignorant drivel to understand how we should use the talent(s) He placed in our hands. Some of us are living lives so compromised, so wicked that we are incapable of hearing Him tell us what He would have us do with His talent(s). Many of us are in sex-crazed, alcohol-induced stupors, once again enslaved to the smut and slime of this world, spiritually anemic and paralyzed. Some of us are so church activities-involved to see our vanity, our profound spiritual emptiness, thinking our church busyness will save us.
The good news is should we maintain the proper view of Christ's return we will most certainly be found doing His will, behaving as we should, having no reason to be ashamed at His appearing. We must understand that His return is sure to occur, and that He is coming to demand a full and absolutely complete accounting of how we have served Him. Christ loves us, and wants to find us honoring Him in our hearts and in service, and whatever He commands His people to do, He empowers them to do. When we fail, we must look in the mirror, measure our conduct by the Word of God (Heb 4:12-13) and get back to waging a good warfare against the god of this world (I Tim 1:18).
No comments:
Post a Comment