(Luke 19:1-27.)
SHORT but weighty words 1 Important in their significance and in their setting. Verses 1-10 tell of the salvation the Lord Jesus brought at His first coming; and what a great salvation it is, that could put the despised publican into the place of a son of Abraham, and which still puts “as many as receive Him” into the place of “sons of God.”
How necessary it is for each saved one to be deepening in the knowledge of “the grace of Christ”!
But we read that our Lord added and spake a parable for those who thought the kingdom of God should immediately appear, and the teaching of this parable should greatly affect our hearts. The Lord Himself is the nobleman who has gone away into a far country to receive for Himself a kingdom, and He will presently return. Before He went He called unto Him His ten servants and entrusted them with ten pounds, saying to them, “Occupy till I come,” or, “make use of them for My service.”
Have you, reader, ever asked yourself for what purpose God saved you, gave you eternal life, sealed you with His Spirit, and filled you with joy and peace in believing? Surely it is that you may serve the Lord now in His absence. It has been thought that the pounds in our chapters and the talents in Matt. 25 represent the gifts of the Spirit, with which each saint is graced in his measure. In Matthew the point would seem to be that some are, by the sovereignty of the Master, more richly endowed than others, while in Luke all the servants are gifted alike, and their responsibility is more in view.
It is a decisive day in your christian life when you own, with joy, the Lord’s claim on you, and when, yielding yourself to Him, you say, “I am not only a dear child of God, but He has given me the great privilege of being His servant.” Henceforth, by His gracious help your one object and interest in this world, whether in His service, or in life’s daily round, will be to occupy till He come, and to use whatever gift He has given you, with a fervent and holy zeal; knowing that very soon your Lord will return, and that then He will take account with His servants.
Before He sets up His kingdom in this world, He will ask each one, How much has been gained by trading with His pound? How blessed then to hear from His lips “Well done thou good servant; because thou hast been faithful [not successful] in a very little” —in Luke the reward is, authority over cities, and in Matthew, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
Be encouraged dear brother or sister to use His pound faithfully. Remember grace alone will put you in heaven, but for faithfulness in His service He will confer a reward in His kingdom.
“Of What Sort.”
(1 Cor. 3:13.)
This is another matter and a very serious one. Some earnest servants apparently mistake quantity, “how much,” for quality “of what sort;” but both must be considered. We read of builders who use wood, hay, stubble, instead of gold, silver and precious stones.
Without going deeply into it, we may say that gold typifies Divine righteousness, silver the truth of redemption, and precious stones have each their significance of that which is beautiful in the sight of the Lord. We need to be constantly in His presence in order to receive His direction in all the service we attempt for Him, so that it may be such as shall abide when tried by fire, for “the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.”
May our service be, as the Apostle Peter tells us the trying of our faith shall be, “found unto praise and Honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). J.R.