May we be the faithful and prudent slaves in the things of our master so that we may enter into His joy!
As believers in Christ we have a dual status: in life we are virgins toward the Lord and we need to have oil in our vessel, not only in our lamp, and in service we are good slaves to accomplish what He intends to accomplish, and we need to be faithful slaves.
So on the one hand we need to be those who buy the oil, that is, we need to pay the price to gain more of the Spirit in our vessel, in our soul. On the other hand, we need to invest the spiritual gifts that the Lord has given us so that we may “do business” for the Lord until He comes.
Every day we need to gain more of the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit; we need to ask the Lord to fill us and saturate us every day, and we need to pay the price of losing our soul-life and denying the self so that we may enjoy the Lord and let the Spirit saturate us.
At the same time, we need to be those who give the Lord’s people food; we need to be good and faithful slaves, those who minister the riches of Christ to God’s people and care for those in God’s house until the Lord returns.
We need to be prudent slaves, those who use our spiritual gift; we should not be an evil and slothful slave.
We want that, when the Lord returns, we would on one hand enter into the wedding feast because we have oil in our vessel (not only in our lamp), and we would also enter into the joy of our master because we have been faithful and prudent over a few things.
We want to enter into the wedding feast and into the joy of our Master. But if we are not a good slave, a faithful and prudent slave, we will be called by the Lord an evil and slothful slave, and we will be cast into the outer darkness, where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. Oh Lord Jesus!
May we be saved from this discipline in the coming age and may we hear the Lord’s voice telling us, Well-done, good and faithful slave, enter into the joy of your Master! The Lord has given each one of us talents, spiritual gifts, and we need to invest them.
For example, each member of our physical body is a gift to our body, though some are larger and some are smaller. In the Body of Christ there are some who are five-talented, some two-talented, and most of us are one-talented members.
There are not too many five-talented ones, but throughout church history we have seen such as Count Zinzendorf, John Nelson Darby, Watchman Nee, Witness Lee, and some others that are five-talented.
But we need to realise that, even though we may not be a five-talented member, five one talented members – when they exercise their function – equal one five-talented member.
Being Watchful in Life and Prudent in Service as Virgins and Slaves to the Lord
On one hand we believers in Christ are virgins before the Lord, and there’s the aspect of being watchful and ready; on the other hand, we are slaves to Him, and we need to be faithful and prudent.
In our status related to life, we are virgins, and in the status related to service, we are slaves. We may like to be virgins, but we may not want to hear that we are slaves; nevertheless, we are not only virgins but also slaves, and to us the Lord is both the Bridegroom and the Master.
On one hand the Lord is so sweet, pleasant, lovely, and lovable as our coming Bridegroom; on the other hand, He is our strict Master, and sometimes He deals with us in a strict way.
As virgins, we need to gain the oil to fill our vessel; we need to pay the price daily to buy the Spirit as the golden oil in our vessel. As slaves, we have a spiritual talent which we need to use and “do business with” for the Lord so that we may be faithful and prudent slaves.
When we pay the price to buy the oil, this oil as the Spirit reaches the very bottom of our vessel, and He renews us from within to transform us.
Many today in Christianity are not concerned with the inward renewing and transformation; they only want to look good outwardly before others – this is religion, being concerned with the outward appearance, outward show.
But as virgins to the Lord, we need to seek to have the inward infilling of the Spirit, and this Spirit will get into our inward parts and renew us to transform us from within.
The result of this renewing and transformation is that we spontaneously live out Christ, we express Christ, and we are healthy spiritually; it is different than putting on a show, a “make-up” on our face when we meet others.
However, the fact that we need to be renewed and transformed doesn’t mean that we don’t need outward activities; on one hand we need to be renewed, and on the other, we need to use our spiritual talents for the Lord.
Regarding the aspect of life, we need to be renewed from within, and regarding the aspect of service, we need to be very active outwardly.
But we tend to go too much either in one or the other direction; sometimes we are so active inwardly that we neglect the inward renewing, while at other times we care so much for the inner life that we don’t work adequately.
The Lord calls such a one “an unturned cake” (Hosea 7:8), a cake that is burned to charcoal on one side while on the other he is raw. We need to be a “turned cake”, so when we work too much, the Lord tells us to rest and enjoy Him, and if we rest too much, the Lord will tell us to work.
May we be those who are watchful in life as virgins to the Lord and prudent in service as slaves to the Lord.
Lord Jesus, we want to be watchful in life and faithful in service to You. Amen, Lord, we seek the inward filling of the oil in our vessel, and we also want to use our spiritual gift to work for You. Fill us with the Spirit, Lord, and renew us and transform us from within! Strengthen us into our inner man so that we may allow You to make Your home deep down in our heart. Amen, Lord, we want both the inward growth of life and the outward actions, being both watchful in life and faithful and prudent in our service to You.
Being Faithful and Prudent Slaves in the things of our Master to Enter into His Joy
The Lord wants to intend to accomplish something, so for our service, for our work, we need the talent, the spiritual gift, so that we may be equipped as a good slave to accomplish what He desires (see Matt. 25:20-23; cf. 24:45-51).
The kingdom of the heavens is just like a man about to go abroad and called his slaves and delivered to them his possessions; to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his own ability, and then he went abroad (Matt. 25:14-15).
From the aspect of our service to the Lord, we believers are slaves; Paul introduced himself as Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus (see Rom. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:1; 1 Cor. 7:22-23).
In His house and enterprise, the Lord has slaves, which are His believers; His possessions signify the church (Eph. 1:18) with all the believers, who constitute God’s household (Matt. 24:45).
But who is the faithful and prudent slave who uses his talent to gain benefit and increase for the master?
The slothful and evil slave said in his heart, My master delays His coming… May we never do that; may we never have the thought that the Lord delays His return, but may we love His appearing!
May we not keep company with the worldly people and in worldly ways, being infected by the world (“he ate and drank with the drunken”), and may we not mistreat our fellow believers (“he beats his fellow slaves”).
May we be the Lord’s faithful and prudent slaves, who do business until the Lord comes and gain a benefit for Him; may we be those who give the Lord’s people food until He comes, giving them food at the proper time.
Amen, may we give others food – may we be filled with the riches of Christ, and may we dispense these riches into others in the house of God.
Talents signify spiritual gifts (25:15-23; Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4; 1 Pet. 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:6-7); the filling of the Spirit in life enables us to use the spiritual gift in service (work), and the spiritual gift in service matches the filling of the Spirit in life, that we may be a perfect member of Christ.
Each one of us, as we have received a gift from the Lord, ministering it among ourselves as good stewards of the varied grace of God (1 Pet. 4:10).
We need to enjoy the Lord and also minister the many various aspects of the enjoyment of God to others.
To do this, we need to fan into flame the gift of God which is in us, and this gift is our spirit (2 Tim. 1:6-7), for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.
Our God-given spirit is a gift from God that we need to fan into flame every day. If we are the faithful and prudent slaves in the things of our master today, we will enter into the joy of our master; this refers to the enjoyment of the Lord in the coming kingdom as a reward for our faithful service to Him (Matt. 25:21, 23).
This reward refers to inward satisfaction, not to outward position; to participate in the Lord’s joy is the greatest reward, better than the glory and position in the coming kingdom.
Nothing is higher than the genuine enjoyment of Christ; we need to go to the altar of God, to God, our exceeding joy (Psa. 43:4), and we need to be the faithful and prudent slaves in the things of our master today so that we may enter into His joy at His return.
As we function and work as faithful and prudent slaves, we are faithful over a few things; the more we go on, the more we get zero-ed in on our true function, and when the Lord returns, He will set us over many things, and He will bring us into the joy of our Master.
In this age we must use the Lord’s gift to save people and to minister His riches to them.
May we not bury our talent into the earth, thinking that the Lord is a strict Master and so we should keep what He gave us and return it to Him; rather, we should invest our spiritual gifts and be faithful and prudent slaves, increasing what the Lord has given us and using our gift to save people and minister the Lord’s riches to them.
To save people we don’t have to be a five-talented member like a great evangelist, but we can speak the gospel to others, we can give them a gospel tract, or we may simply leave a gospel tract where people would come. We never know, giving someone a gospel tract may change the course of his life and bring him into the kingdom of God.
Lord Jesus, we want to be the faithful and prudent slaves who use the spiritual gifts You have given us to save people and minister Your riches to them. Amen, Lord, fill us with the Spirit so that we may be enabled to use our spiritual gift in our service to You. We want to not bury our talent but use it in Your service for You to gain benefit and for Your house to increase and be built up. Lord, we want to enter into the joy of our master, the enjoyment of the Lord in the coming kingdom as a reward for our faithful service to Him! Amen, Lord, our desire is to participate in the Lord’s joy as our greatest reward!
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References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msgs. 65-66 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 7, Being Watchful in Life and Faithful in Service.
Hymns on this topic:
# But our vessels need oil for Thy coming; / We must gain a reserve supply. / So our vessels we give for the filling / That our lamps may never, never die. (Hymns #1308)
# 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)
# Pay the price and come, be filled with life! / Not just filled! / Life must multiply! / Bury not your talent in the ground! / Bear much fruit! / Increase all around! / Life, from God to me; / Life, through me for you. / With this balance, God will surely move. (Song on, God Has Chosen You and Me)
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