We all should feed the Lord’s people at the proper time and use the Lord’s talents in full, for we are faithful and prudent slaves of our Master, Lord Jesus (Matt. 24:45; 25:20, 22).
In particular, we need to care for people – whether believers or unbelievers – with the loving and forgiving heart of our Father god and the shepherding and seeking spirit of our Savior Christ.
The way we care for others is by having the Lord’s seeking and shepherding spirit and by having the Father’s loving and forgiving heart. If we love the Lord, we are commissioned by Him to shepherd His sheep; if we follow the Lord and love Him from all our heart, He commissions us to feed His sheep and feed His lambs.
The most excellent way for us to be anything and do anything is love; we need to love those who are not so lovable and those who seem to be lovable, just as the Lord loved us and cared for us. When we care for others, we need to cherish them in the humanity of Jesus and nourish them in the divinity of Christ.
When He was on earth, the Lord Jesus loved the most sinful persons; He went to the tax collectors and sinners, and He didn’t judge them, condemn them, or criticise them, but He simply was with them, and where He was, salvation was there.
May we be saved from a spirit of legality, a spirit of judging, condemning, or criticising others; may we go in the Lord’s going, and may we visit others to just be with them where they are, so that we may bring them to climb up the heavenly ladder.
May we not classify people, considering that some are more “promising” and “good” while others are not so good; in the long run, those we consider “not so good” are the ones who remain, and it is the “bad ones” that the Lord works with and can use.
Some may gamble today, they may be into sports or fully involved in worldly activities, but if we feed them and use the Lord’s talents in full to give others food at the proper time, they may be saved and become useful in the Lord’s hands.
The God-man concept is that Christ came to save sinners, especially the top sinners; He saves the gangsters, and even the leader of the gangsters – Saul of Tarsus.
If we lose such a spirit, a loving and forgiving heart toward all men, and a seeking and shepherding spirit toward others, then we are finished; we are barren, and we do not use the Lord’s talents in full.
Laboring for the Lord by the Lord’s Resurrection Life and Power for the fulfillment of His Purpose
Our work and labor for the Lord in the gospel should be not by our natural life or natural ability but by the Lord’s resurrection life and power.
The Lord has commissioned us to be His slaves, those who feed the Lord’s people at the proper time and use the talents He gave us in full, but our service to Him should be by the Lord’s resurrection life and power (Num. 17:8; 1 Cor. 15:10, 58; 16:10).
Resurrection is the eternal principle in our service to God. The life-giving Spirit is the reality of the Triune God, the reality of resurrection, and the reality of the Body of Christ (John 16:13-15; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Eph. 4:4).
This means that, whenever we serve God and minister Christ to others we should exercise our spirit, for the life-giving Spirit is one with our spirit; when we exercise our spirit, we do not work or labor in our natural life and power but by the resurrection life.
As those who know resurrection and do everything in the resurrection life, we have given up hope in ourselves; we know that we can’t make it, but the Lord in us can!
Everything that is of death belongs to us, and everything that is of life belongs to the Lord (Num. 17:8; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; cf. Eccl. 9:4). Oh Lord Jesus!
May we be saved from serving merely in our natural zeal or enthusiasm, and may we be those who do not serve in our natural ability and power. We must acknowledge that we are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing; in ourselves we can’t do anything for the Lord.
We must come to the end of ourselves and be convinced of our utter uselessness (Exo. 2:14-15; 3:14-15; Luke 22:32-33; 1 Pet. 5:5-6).
But hallelujah, the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit lives in us, enabling us to do what we could never do in ourselves (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12; 4:7-18). This is such an encouraging word!
Our service for the Lord should be out of Him, through Him, and unto Him, and we should exercise our spirit whenever we minister Christ to others and use the Lord’s talents in our service to God.
Amen, we should always abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor for the Lord is not in vain (1 Cor. 15:58).
Hallelujah, our labor for the Lord in His resurrection life with His resurrection power will never be in vain, but rather, it will result in the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose! Hallelujah!
Whenever we are laboring for the Lord by the Lord’s resurrection life and power, we will fulfill God’s eternal purpose, and we will minister the riches of Christ to those in His house!
Lord Jesus, may our labor for God be by the Lord’s resurrection life and power for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Oh Lord, we have no hope in ourselves; in ourselves we are nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing, for we are utterly useless to You and in Your work. We exercise our spirit, Lord, that we may allow the life-giving Spirit to enable us to do what we could never do in ourselves. Amen, Lord, may we abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor in the Lord in His resurrection life with His resurrection power will never be in vain but will result in the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose!
Feeding the Lord’s People at the Proper Time and Using the Lord’s Talents in Full
![...[An evil slave] begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with the drunken. Matt. 24:49 But he who had received the one went off and dug in the earth and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Matt. 25:18-19](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/An-evil-slave-begins-to-beat-his-fellow-slaves-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C674&ssl=1 "...[An evil slave] begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with the drunken. Matt. 24:49 But he who had received the one went off and dug in the earth and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Matt. 25:18-19")
The parable of the servants in Matt. 25 is quite sobering to all of God’s people; on the positive side, we need to feed the Lord’s people at the proper time and use the talents in full, and on the negative side, we need to not beat our fellow slaves.
If we do not perform our duty or service, we may criticize and sometimes even strongly oppose others. Those who do not seek the Lord, use the Lord’s talents in full, and feed the Lord’s people at the proper time, they “beat their fellow slaves”, that is, we will criticize others.
We have to stop our criticizing, judging, opposing, and murmuring as a kind of “beating our fellow slaves”. Instead of criticizing others, we should spend our time, energy, and everything we have to do a positive service for the Lord’s interest.
In Matt. 24 we see that the slothful slave eats and drinks with the drunken (Matt. 24:49); he drifts away even further from beating the fellow slaves to fall into the world and become a world lover.
The worldly people are drunk and even drugged with worldly things; they are stupefied with the present age, and when we keep company with such ones, we enjoy what they enjoy. Oh Lord Jesus!
In this parable the Lord doesn’t say exactly how to invest the talent He gave us, but He gives us warnings concerning what not to do.
We should not dig in the earth to hide the Lord’s talent (Matt. 25:18); this means that we should not associate ourselves and be involved with the world to the extent that our talent is buried in the world and it is not useful to the Lord.
What we should do is be faithful to scatter the Lord’s word, which is food to every hungry one; when we meet sinners or believers, we should give them food at the proper time.
The Lord wants to have many servants who feed the hungry ones; He has entrusted us with the gospel and the riches in His word, and He wants us to spread the word of God.
We need to be constituted and filled with the Lord, allowing the word of God to dwell in us richly, and as we meet others, we need to speak the word of God to them – in season and not in season.
We have the Bible in our hands; we have the spiritual publications, the divine riches – why not go out to spread them to others and feed God’s people? Amen, Lord, make us such ones, and send us!
We all have been given talents by the Lord, and we all are required to trade, to do business, to make money for the Lord’s kingdom. For us to do this, we need to feed His people at the proper time.
What is this proper time? Every day is a proper time; every day people need to eat, so every day we need to be those feeding the Lord’s people at the proper time. There’s someone ready to eat anywhere; we just need to be those using the Lord’s talents in full, and give them food at the proper time.
On the positive side, we need to give others food and not bury but use our talent; on the negative side, by the Lord’s mercy and through His grace we must do the best not to beat the fellows slaves, the fellow believers.
We shouldn’t criticize them, murmur about them, or speak anything negative about them, because we simply don’t have the time to do this – we are too busy to feed others with the divine riches!
Our mouth was made not to criticize others but to feed them with the riches of Christ. When we criticize others, we will be punished by the Lord. Also, we should be the sober ones, those who don’t dig into the earth to bury or hide our talent.
What does it mean to do this? This means that we should only study and have a job for our living, but not make a career in the world, that is, we should not live for our job or career.
Yes, we need to study, and yes, we need to work, but we need to do our best to get the highest education and the best job, but we should not bury our talent in our job or in the world.
We should not mistreat our fellow believers by criticizing, judging, or exposing them; instead, we should admonish the disorderly, console the fainthearted, the “little-souled,” sustain those who are weak in spirit, soul, or body, or weak in the faith, and be long-suffering toward all (Matt. 24:49; 1 Thes. 5:14).
Lord Jesus, we want to be the faithful slaves feeding the Lord’s people at the proper time and using the Lord’s talents in full! Amen, Lord, save us from “burying our talent” in the earth by being so much associated with the world that we cannot be distinguished from them. Save us from drifting into the world and from beating our fellow slaves by criticizing them and condemning them. Oh Lord, may we be filled with Your Word and minister the riches of Christ to men, giving them food at the proper time!
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, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” chs. 8, 10, 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:
# Rise up! Grow in life! / Minister Christ to the nations, / Arrive at oneness— / Lord, have mercy, / We would see Your eternal purpose. / Keep us faithful / To recover and build up Your church. (Song on, The church is the building up)
# Built up in love together, / Not one would criticize; / To perfect one another, / We all would exercise. / Each one from self delivered, / The natural life forsakes; / In grace each trained in spirit / The Body-life partakes. (Hymns #867)
# Make your single talent count, All self’s problems now surmount, / Serve with Christ, the living fount— / Serve in time! (Hymns #1304)
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