Who then is the faithful and prudent bondman whom his lord has set over his household, to give them food in season?
The Lord has just warned His followers to keep watch, because they do not know the day their Lord comes. Now He asks a question, and it turns on who the servant is and why the food must come at the right time.
This question marks a turn in the Lord's prophecy on the Mount of Olives. So far He has been speaking about the Jews. From here the subject changes.
Matthew 24 and 25 are His great prophecy on the mount. They begin with the Jews and end with the Gentiles in Matthew 25:31 to the end. Between these two (from Matthew 24:45 to 25:30) is the part that deals with the Christian profession. So it takes the broad, unrestricted form of three parables, because the link is with Christ Himself, not with the land or the people of Israel.
The servant is not sent out to the world. His work is in the house, among the Master's own people.
It is not a question of evangelising here, but of care for the household. The principle of trading outside with the Master's gifts will come later (Matthew 25:14 onwards). But here the great thing is this: the Lord loves His saints ("whose house are we"), and so He makes much of faithful or faithless service within that sphere. Instead of serving Christ in His household, many become the agents of a particular group. Real ministry is from Christ and Him alone. It is not title or position, but doing the work the Lord wishes to be done.
The Lord names no one in particular. His question reaches wider than a special class of workers.
First, then, we have a servant — a faithful and wise servant. All Christians are called to be so, though some specially so. A servant in the house is called to provide good and suitable food for the house. Every Christian shares that in a way, though some are more suited for that work than others. Responsibility is according to privilege.
Two words describe him, and each carries its own weight.
The servant who is "faithful" to his lord's interests is reliable and worthy of trust. The one who is "wise" is obedient and intelligent. These are surely the two qualities most looked for in a servant.
Set these two qualities beside the things people usually count as success.
Faithfulness is worth more than outward, visible success. Wisdom is worth more than the most brilliant gift, as 1 Corinthians 13 shows. There may be much of what passes as success where there is little heart-faithfulness to God. There may be little self-denial, little personal communion with the Lord, little separation from the world and its ways, little true submission to the word of God, and little prayer.
The food must also come "at the proper time" — older translations read "meat in due season." That asks more of the servant than correct content, as this comment on the parallel words in Luke 12 shows:
It is not enough to speak correctly from Scripture, or to present a subject with eloquence. The Lord wants ministry that is "meat in due season" — the suitable word, given at the right time, for the needs of those gathered. This is living ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, meeting present needs.
The servant does not supply the food himself. He passes on what the Master has put into his hands.
He cares for His household. He has provided plenty of food for their spiritual health and strength, and He has committed this food to His stewards. No servant of His could commit a greater sin than withholding this food from those who need it. And none could do the Lord a greater service than handing it out with diligence.
The master "has set" the servant over his household. Older translations read "made ruler," and the word behind it is used elsewhere for official appointment.
The word translated "ordain" in Titus 1:5 is kathistemi, meaning to establish, or set up. The same word is translated in different ways elsewhere: in Matthew 24:45 — made ruler; in Luke 12:14 — made judge; in Acts 6:3 — appoint over this matter. It is the word mostly used in connection with appointment to authority. It is interesting to note that every one of these passages refers to God's act.
- Placed — the verse opens the part of the prophecy that deals with Christian profession. It runs to Matthew 25:30 and is tied to Christ Himself, not to Israel.
- Appointed — the servant does not promote himself. Elsewhere in Scripture the same word marks God's own act of setting someone in place.
- Entrusted — the work is inside the house, not outside it. The food is the Master's, already provided; the servant only hands it on, and withholding it would be his greatest sin.
- Timely — food "at the proper time" means the suitable word for the moment, not just a correct or eloquent one.
- Tested — the two marks are faithfulness and wisdom, not gift or visible success. The Lord names no one, so the question comes to every Christian.
Blessed is that bondman whom his lord on coming shall find doing thus.
Jesus pictures a household whose master is away, with one servant left in charge of feeding it. Verse 46 gives the verdict on that servant: the blessing rests on what the master finds him doing at the hour of arrival.
The parable turns on a household, its food, and a servant left to supply it. One writer says this is new ground.
The thought in this parable is service over the household. The household is made up of those who belong to Christ. They are to receive food at the right time, and the servant, faithful and wise, supplies it. He does it faithfully. When the Lord comes, He sets this faithful and wise servant over all his master's goods. It takes us at once onto entirely new ground. Judaism knows nothing of the ministry spoken of here. It belongs to Christianity.
The blessing is tied to one activity: handing out the household's food at the right time.
The Lord clearly looks for faithful and wise stewardship while He is away. He gives one servant the charge of His household. When He comes, He will deal with how that servant handled the trust. Did the servant hand out food at the right time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes! It is His mind and will and grace about His own... Faith and love alone make anyone faithful and wise; they attach the heart to the household through devotion to the Lord. Loving Him leads out to feeding His sheep and His lambs, as the Lord puts it to Peter, restored and reinstated after his fall.
Two things in the parable are worth separating. One writer draws them out from the wording of the previous verse:
Here, then, we have at once the source and object of all ministry in the house of God. "Whom his lord has made ruler" — this is the source. "To give them meat in due season" — this is the object.
The next verse tells what the blessing amounts to. One writer says it means far more than a happy place in heaven.
He adds another thing: "Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes." Here we have the service of Christians. We have had the state; now it is the service. We have just to fill up the little place He has put us into. So the promise here is different: "He will make him ruler over all that he has." This is not simply the best of heaven given to us by Christ. It is the kingdom: "you must come and reign with Me." The perfect love of Christ is not satisfied with only ministering to our happiness. All that is His own He makes ours.
Another writer looks at where the promotion leads:
Every true believer has a service. The reward of the faithful and wise servant is a higher service, a service over all that belongs to his Lord. Service does not end with this earthly life. There is a service above, and faithful service here fits us for it.
In the verses that follow, a second servant decides his lord is delaying. One writer names what ruined him.
Here is the general principle. Those who are blessed when the Lord comes are marked by constant waiting for Him as something present. They are the ones who reign over all things. What leads the wicked servant into all the mischief is not the denial of the Lord's coming. It is the loss of the sense and present expectation of it.
Commentators place this parable slightly below the earlier call to watch — service is real and rewarded, but affection for the Master comes first.
Here it is working, as distinct from waiting or watching. It is doing Him service, rather than fixing the eyes of the heart on His coming... The Lord does not overlook the service, and God is not unrighteous to forget the work. For that servant whom the Lord on coming shall find so doing, He will set over all that He has. And has He not pledged Himself to act so, He who is Heir of all things? The servant will share in the display of his Lord's glory, if he serves faithfully now, while people slight Him.
The verse looks at a work still in progress when the Lord comes.
The instruction is that there will be some servants actively serving when the Lord comes. It may be our privilege to be here when that moment arrives, and if so, how happy to be found "so doing" at the very moment when He comes to take us to be with Himself. When He comes for us, all opportunities for service here will cease.
- Trust — the servant did not appoint himself. His master gave him the place over the household, with one task: food at the right time.
- Expectation — what keeps him working is the live sense that his Lord may come now. Losing that sense is what ruins the other servant.
- Love — faith and love alone make a servant faithful and wise. They tie his heart to the household, because it belongs to Christ.
- Moment — the blessing falls on work in progress at the hour of arrival, not on a record of past service.
- Reign — the reward matches the trust. His master sets him over all his goods, and he shares the glory of the One he served.
Verily I say unto you, that he will set him over all his substance.
The Lord's teaching on the Mount of Olives turns from signs in the world to one servant inside a house. Here He says what the Master gives the servant He finds faithful when He comes back.
This servant is not sent out to the world. He works inside the house, feeding the Master's own people. And his job comes from one source only.
It is not a question of evangelizing here, but of care for the household. The principle of trading outside with the Master's gifts will come later (Matthew 25:14 onwards). But here the great thing is this. The Lord loves His saints ("whose house are we"), so He makes much of faithful or faithless service within that sphere... Instead of being Christ's servants in His household, many sink into being agents of a particular body. In such a case it always flows from the church or denomination. Real ministry is from Christ and Him alone.
The servant's pay is not more of the same work. The one who gives out food ends up reigning.
From verse 45 we have another scene. It is the place where the disciples of that day were really going to be set. It puts them on the ground of responsibility where anyone in that place would stand when the Lord came — Who then is a faithful and wise servant? Their lord made them rulers over his household. We are the household of God, the Son's house. They were to give out food. The result of faithfulness in this is reigning with Christ when He comes: "he will set him over all his possessions" (v. 47).
One writer separates two gifts. There is what Christ gives us for our happiness, and there is what He gives us of His own.
Here we have the service of Christians... We have just to fill up the little niche He has put us into... This is not Christ serving us the best of heaven. It is the kingdom — "you must come and reign with me." The perfect love of Christ is not satisfied with only serving our happiness. All that is His own He makes ours.
One writer sets two rewards side by side. Christ serves His watching servants in private; He honours this servant in public.
The service of love given to His watching servants seems to be inside the house. It is a private festival that the world won't see. It is love answering to love... But making him ruler of all that he has is a public honour for public service. The master rewards him openly for his faithful service with a place of trust in the kingdom. Both are blessed, but no one would value the second much without the first.
This promise answers what the servant was found doing. So it belongs to God's righteous government, and the rewards are not all the same.
The moment you come to our "doing," you bring in righteous government. That government weighs conduct as it shows in practical facts. Of course there are differences there, and there the lord makes the faithful servant ruler over his household. He gives one a position of rule here, another of rule there, and these are not the same. In Luke 19 the master makes one servant ruler over five cities and another ruler over ten cities.
One writer links this reward to a promise given to those who hold out in a failing church.
He will be blessed at the coming of his Master, if found so doing. But there is more. The Lord adds that "he will set him over all his possessions." We get further light here by comparing this with Revelation 2:26. The promise to the one who overcomes in Thyatira was power over the nations. The falling away in Thyatira will mark the time of the coming. His master will promote the servant who stayed true to him in a time of danger, giving him power in kingdom glory.
- Commission. Christ gives the place over His household; no one takes it. Real ministry comes from Christ alone, not from a church or a denomination.
- Care. The job is feeding the Master's people inside the house, not trading outside. That comes in the next parable.
- Coming. The whole promise hangs on what the returning Lord finds the servant still doing.
- Crown. Faithfulness in feeding is repaid with reigning — a public honour answering public service.
- Compass. The reward has no limit — all that is His own He makes ours. But the measure of rule differs from servant to servant.