Context No. 2658 of 4322 · Matthew

Matthew 24:45-51: in context

45“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season? 46Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes. 47Most certainly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has. 48But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’ 49and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards, 50the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it and in an hour when he doesn’t know it, 51and will cut him in pieces and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.

Jesus contrasts two servants left in charge while the master is away. The faithful and wise servant keeps doing his job, feeding the household on time, and is blessed when the master returns to find him at it. But the wicked servant says in his heart, my master is delayed, and on the strength of that thought begins to beat his fellow servants and carouse with drunkards. Then the master comes on a day he does not expect, and it goes badly for him.

The whole difference turns on what each servant does during the delay, when the master is away and seems slow to return. The faithful one serves as if the master could walk in at any moment; the wicked one uses the delay as license, presuming on the absence to indulge himself and mistreat others. My master is delayed is the thought that unravels him. It is easy to be faithful when we feel watched; the test is how we live when God seems distant and the accounting seems far off. The delay is not permission. How I live in the stretch when God feels absent reveals what kind of servant I actually am.

In the delay, when God seems distant and the reckoning far off, do I keep serving faithfully, or presume on his absence to slack off and indulge?

Sources

Matthew 24:46: Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes.
Matthew 24:48: But if that evil servant should say in his heart, My lord is delaying his coming.
Matthew 24:50: the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn't expect it and in an hour when he doesn't know it.