joelstrumpet

Wondering what you think the proper interpretation of Matthew 24:45-51 should be?

45"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed [is] that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' 49 and begins to beat [his] fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for [him] and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint [him] his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (NKJV)

The parallel story is found in Luke 12:42-46.

Seems that most traditional bible teachers say that the faithful servant represents christians, the master represents Jesus, and the evil servant represents unsaved or non-christians who of course are met with weeping and gnashing of teeth. They usually leave out an interpretation of the hypocrites or say the hypocrites are unsaved or non-christians.

I agree with the interpretation of the faithful servant and the master. However, it doesn't appear to me that the evil servant could be unsaved or non-christians because of the following reasons:

1. The master (Jesus) calls the evil servant...his servant in verse 48. The servant may be evil, but I can't find any other place in scripture where Jesus calls unsaved people his servant.

2. The evil servant calls the master (Jesus) his own master. I don't know of any unsaved or non-christians who call Jesus his master or Lord. Unsaved people tend to have nothing to do with Jesus let alone call Jesus Lord of their life or master.

3. This evil servant says in his heart or thinks to himself that his master (Jesus) will not be back for a while. Again I don't know of any unsaved or non-christians that talk about Jesus not coming back for a while. Their typical response to Jesus is usually that he doesn't exist or never existed, or isn't God and therefore can't return because he died 2000 years ago. Which goes to show that non-christians aren't saying Jesus delays his coming. They either don't talk about Jesus at all, or are saying he can't come at all.

4. If the evil servant does represent unsaved or non-christians. Then who are the hypocrites? Are the hypocrites also unsaved or non-christians? Verse 51 seems redundant for Jesus to say, "and will cut non-christians in two and appoint non-christians their portion with the non-christians." Verse 51 only seems to make sense if the evil servant and the hypocrites are two different people.

Wondering who you think the following people are in this parable...and how it relates to us today?

The faithful servant?
The master of the faithful and evil servant?
The evil servant?
The hypocrites?

Thanks for your help in rightly dividing the truth!

Aaron

aaronpa1 wrote:1. The master (Jesus) calls the evil servant...his servant in verse 48. The servant may be evil, but I can't find any other place in scripture where Jesus calls unsaved people his servant.

2. The evil servant calls the master (Jesus) his own master. I don't know of any unsaved or non-christians who call Jesus his master or Lord. Unsaved people tend to have nothing to do with Jesus let alone call Jesus Lord of their life or master.

3. This evil servant says in his heart or thinks to himself that his master (Jesus) will not be back for a while. Again I don't know of any unsaved or non-christians that talk about Jesus not coming back for a while. Their typical response to Jesus is usually that he doesn't exist or never existed, or isn't God and therefore can't return because he died 2000 years ago. Which goes to show that non-christians aren't saying Jesus delays his coming. They either don't talk about Jesus at all, or are saying he can't come at all.

4. If the evil servant does represent unsaved or non-christians. Then who are the hypocrites? Are the hypocrites also unsaved or non-christians? Verse 51 seems redundant for Jesus to say, "and will cut non-christians in two and appoint non-christians their portion with the non-christians." Verse 51 only seems to make sense if the evil servant and the hypocrites are two different people.

Wondering who you think the following people are in this parable...and how it relates to us today?

I am not Bible scholar and I am not saying I have the right answers, but here goes.

First, remember that this is a parable. The parable of the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins is similar, wouldn't you agree? All 10 were waiting for their Master, half were prepared, the other half were not. All 10 consider themselves property of the Master.

We also know that during the final judgment there will be many who the Lord rejects, but they will say, 'Lord, we did this and that in your name, we did good works, etc.' Jesus replies that he never knew them.

The lesson I take from that parable you are studying is that if you are saved, then you act like it. Sure, we all stumble, we all have weakness, but we always get back up and keep walking with Him.

A person who is living their life full of sin thinking, 'I have time, the Lord won't be coming soon...' has not really made a decision to follow the Lord at all. In fact, any one of us could flop over dead at any instant from any number of health or accidental issues. To play this game with the Lord is eternally dangerous. Sure, the Lord may not come back for another 150 years, but you might pass on to eternity in 13 seconds, then it is too late.

I think this parable also has something in common with the story about a man who constantly looks in the mirror because he forgets what he looks like. I think that story is about people who are saved, but don't follow the Lord closely, the live on the edge of their salvation (not that it can be lost), but not setting their treasure in Heaven. These are the people that get into Heaven by the skin of their teeth (not that you can earn salvation), meaning the trusted Jesus for their salvation, but none of their work on Earth was worthy of anything in Heaven...sort of the 'homeless in Heaven' if you want to think of it that way (probably bad example).

Anyhow, don't look too much to others for the answers. It is good to seek wisdom from your brothers and elders, but it is better to keep asking the Lord for it. Read up on how the Lord deals with persistence, it is a good study.

Thank-you Water for your reply!

I agree with everything that you wrote...good stuff.

I have been studying and praying about this last parable in Matthew 24 for a few years now because I know Matthew 24 is hot button for prophecy students and it seems to me that for some reason this parable of the evil and faithful servant is the least talked about portion of Matthew 24 no matter what your point of view is on prophecy, and rapture timing.

This point has always struck me as interesting.

Why is this last parable of Matthew 24 almost always glossed over and passed through more quickly by bible commentators?

Bible commentators seem to talk and talk about the rest of Matthew 24 but breeze through the end. When bible commentators do talk about the last parable in Matthew 24 they seem less likely to equate it to end times, prophecy, or rapture timing.

Even people who are not bible commentators who are just trying to push their rapture theology don't talk about this last parable of Matthew 24. They also seem to spend most of their time talking about the first 90% of Matthew 24.

When I read this last parable it seems clear to me that this is a parable about prophecy, end times, rapture, and/or the second coming of Jesus for two main reasons:

1. The parable is located smack dab in the middle of two big prophecy chapters. Matthew 24 and 25. Almost like it has been hidden there. I mean the Sheep and Goats and the Ten Virgins get more prophecy hype that the parable of the evil servant.

2. This parable is talking about the return of the master who most would agree is Jesus. So by definition a 'return' would imply this is not talking about the first coming of Jesus but a second coming of Jesus. I think most of us who frequent this forum are not au-mill or preterist so we would see the return of Jesus as a future event thus a prophetic parable that has not happened yet.

In my research it seems to me that no matter what your rapture timing opinion is most folks agree the evil servant represents unsaved/non-christians who don't follow Jesus at all and don't even claim to be Christian. I have a hard time agreeing with such a deduction for the four reasons I listed above in my original post.

I tend to agree with Water that the evil servant probably represents more of a goat or tare or false Christian, or self-professing Christian who claims they are a Christian but really doesn't follow the Lord and bears none of the fruit of the Spirit. One who is not really saved in the first place, but goes through the motions. Perhaps has a head knowledge of the Lord but no heart knowledge of the Lord.

However, I still think this parable runs deeper and may help to place the timing of the rapture and/or unlock keys to further understanding of prophecy. As Daniel says our understanding of prophecy will increase in the last days. For some reason I am drawn more to prophetic passages of the Bible that don't get as much press, compared to the most common battle grounds. I think the common battle grounds have been dug through fairly deeply, but the passed over passages may still yield new fruit and may have remained hidden or passed over on purpose until the last days. Thus I find these less frequented passages more exciting. Nonetheless I do study up on all of the frequent battle grounds as well; I just tend to find more dead bodies along the way which makes it more painful to tread through.

When I read or listen to Christians argue and discuss their rapture theology, or au-mill, pre-mill, or saw-mill (pun intended) it gets so ugly and hated that I am so glad that most non-christians have no idea how much we Christians can't agree on prophecy. I am so glad that most non-christians don't get to see how ugly we treat each other over prophecy stuff. I mean if I were a non-christian and stumbled across a rapture or prophecy forum and read how ugly Christians treat each other, I am pretty sure I wouldn't want anything to do with those kinds of people. "Hey come be a Christian so you to can argue prophecy tell your blue in the face with other Christians." I would say, "No thanks. I have enough arguments on my plate already as a non-christian." It weighs heavy on my heart to see how we Christians treat each other. I wish we had more Christians who cared about actually trying to reach a more common ground on prophecy and could provide a more unified front on the topic of prophecy. I mean I have heard or read about Christians who will say almost in prideful way, "Ha, those crazy Muslims are always arguing, fighting, killing each other. They are so divided with their Shiites and Sunnis. They never seem to agree and are always at odds with each other. Just goes to show how false their religion is." But in reality are we Christians really that much different with our many denominations and arguments about prophecy? What kind of image do we present to the world about getting along with each other in our own faith?

1 Cor 8:1 tells us that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

I think the problem with a steady diet of too much prophecy is that prophecy is like knowledge and it puffs up. Makes us walk around with pride.

Yet Revelation 19:10 tells us that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy! If the Bible tells us that Jesus and prophecy are the same spirit then why do so many prophecy students stinketh of pride? No wonder so many Christians avoid prophecy and run from Christians who talk a lot of prophecy! We prophecy students are filled with pride and we can't even see it. I don't like prideful people either and I run from them frequently. Is it really that hard to blame Christians who don't like prophecy and run from Christians who do like prophecy?

I like the way the NLT says 1 Cor 13:2 "If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge...but didn't love others, I would be nothing."

My paraphrase would be...'prophecy is tiny, puny, pathetic, and worthless compared to love'. Yet somehow we prophecy students seem to get this backwards. Oh how I wish that were different, because if it were I believe we could draw in many more to the study of prophecy. And I believe this is important because Rev 19:10 tells us to study prophecy is to study Jesus. But most outsiders looking in believe that to study prophecy is to study how to be a prideful jerk. That makes my heart sink, because I know that my own study of prophecy has greatly increased my love for Jesus and my personal relationship with Jesus and I would wish that upon any person—Christian or non-Christian alike.

I strongly believe that if Revelation 19:10 is accurate, and I believe the entire Bible to be accurate, then your end times/prophecy/rapture timing beliefs must be consistent with the very nature of who Jesus is.

Let me restate this another way. I think the best thing a lot of prophecy students should do is stop studying prophecy for six months and only study on the nature of who Jesus is, what Jesus did do (not what Jesus would do), the characteristics of Jesus, the attributes of Jesus because that kind of a study would reveal to all of us whether or not our prophecy beliefs are really accurate or not.

A pastor whom I greatly respect said that his church was once a microcosm of all church theology both the good and the bad. He had many different people in his church that believed just about every kind of bad theology out there. He was sick of the arguing and bickering amongst his church. His first reaction was to argue them into submission to correct their theology, because after all he knew that he was good at arguing and changing people’s mind. But luckily the Lord got a hold of him first and told him that his job wasn't to fleece his sheep but to feed his sheep. So this pastor only preached on the nature of Jesus for six months. The result was people would come up to him after his sermons over the next six months and say things like, "Since you've been preaching on the nature of Jesus I have realized that these things I have always believed in do not fit with the nature of Jesus and therefore must be incorrect beliefs." The pastor just smiled and agreed.

What say ye my brothers and sisters?