Signs of the Times (38)

In my last article, I began a discussion of the parable of the talents that is found in Matthew 25:14-30. I made the point that the “talents” of the parable cannot refer to gifts and abilities (as we commonly use the term), for all men are not given these talents; they are limited to those who have a place in the church. They refer, therefore, to our God-given place in the church of Christ. Each one has such a place, some more responsible a place than others, but all a place.

 

Nor must we forget the main point of the parable. The parable answers the question of what we must do here on earth while we wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to take us to heaven. Christ is now in heaven, but history continues as Christ, from heaven, gathers His church. Christ will not come back until every elect is born and brought to faith in Christ. So the point of the parable is that each member of the church, in his own place, must work on behalf of the church, for the welfare of the church, and to the glory of Christ to Whom the church belongs. The church belongs to Christ Who bought it with His blood and we all are servants of Christ in His church.

 

There are two kinds of servants in the church: those who are faithful servants and those who are unfaithful. The former are the true people of God who are regenerated and converted and who love the church. The latter are not true members of the church, but are members only outwardly. Their main interest in life is not the church, but something that belongs to the world. They do not use their place in Christ’s church for the welfare of the church.

 

The unfaithful servant, when the Lord returns, makes his excuse for not using his place in the church for its welfare: “I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: Lo, there thou hast that is thine.”

 

It was a clever excuse. He said to the Lord: “Lord, I confess that Thou art the sovereign King of Thy church. Thou art able to save Thy church by Thy own power. Thou hast no need of us, for Thou art able to do it all. I was afraid that my puny and weak efforts would do more harm than good to the church. But I did take care of Your talent. I hid it in the earth. Here it is; take what is Thine.”

 

That was an outwardly pious but hypocritical answer to hide his own sin, for what he said about the sovereignty of Christ was true. Christ can do it all if that is His will. But Christ’s will is also that we who belong to His church must work in it. If we do not work in and for His church, we are hypocrites, and the text makes clear that hypocrites go to hell.

 

I think this wicked servant’s excuse hid other sins. I think the most important one was that the wicked servant was not satisfied with only one talent – an apparently small and insignificant place in the church. He was a janitor and he wanted to be an elder. He was asked to do very little of the church’s Sunday worship, and he wanted to be chairman of the worship committee – if there is such a thing. He was crabby and a complaining member who always found something wrong with those who worked hard. And so he said, “I am ignored. No one recognizes my abilities. I sit here in my pew with nothing worthwhile to do. I’ll show them; I won’t do anything.” And so, when he is asked to lead a Bible study, he refuses and says, “Let someone else do it.” In other words, he thinks he is more important than the church, and his criticism is not of the church, but of Christ who gives to each his place; and does so with a wisdom we do not have.

   

Underneath it all, of course, is a desire to accomplish big things in the world that prompts him to set above the church his earthly pursuits and interests. He, as it were, says, “If the church does not recognize my abilities, I’ll show them what I can do by being successful in my job and business.”

 

The sin is terrible enough to warrant the punishment of hell.

 

But the faithful servant recognizes that his place in the church, no matter how unimportant by the standards of men’s measurements, makes him humbly thankful for a place in the church given him by unmerited favor (grace) and even though he is undeserving. And so, with joyful thanksgiving, he puts the church first in his life and does everything else in his daily occupation to seek the welfare of the church. He loves the church, sacrifices for it, gives of his bounties, prays for the church, does whatever he is called to do, and does it joyfully and thankfully knowing that Christ will presently come again to take His own church to heaven. In heaven we shall serve Christ in the glorified church and in the new creation perfectly.

 

I can think of nothing I prefer more than hearing my Lord say to me when He comes again, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

Prof. Herman Hanko

Qualified for Service

12 MARCH

He sent Moses His servant; and Aaron whom He had chosen. Psalm 105:26

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 77:11-20

Here the prophet briefly refers to the deliverance of God's people. If the Egyptians of their own accord had allowed the people of Israel to leave Egypt, neither the service of Moses nor miracles of God would have been required.

But God determined that His people should be delivered in such a way that denial of its author would be impossible. Moses is called His servant to teach us that he was not self-appointed to his office and that he attempted nothing by his own authority. Rather, as the minister of God, Moses executed the office with which he was entrusted. The same is true of Aaron, who is said to have been chosen. What is attributed in particular to each of these eminent men applies equally to both. Therefore Psalm 105:26 is basically saying: God sent Moses and Aaron, His servants, not because of their intrinsic fitness or because they spontaneously offered their service to God, but because God chose them. 

This passage teaches us that those who are engaged in active and useful service for the church are not exclusively qualified for it by their on exertions or by their own talents, but are stirred by God to serve. Moses was a man of heroic virtue, but in himself, he was nothing. Accordingly, the psalmist would say all that is accounted worthy of remembering Moses as well as Aaron is to be ascribed to God alone. Whatever men do for the welfare of the church, they owe the power of doing so to God, who, of His free goodness, has been pleased thus to honor them.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: This teaching goes against every natural inclination of our hearts. How easily we take pride in ourselves when God blesses our work, as if we were somehow ultimately responsible! The honor, Calvin says, belongs to God alone. How does this both humble us and fill us with gratitude?

365 Days With Calvin 

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

A Doorkeeper in God’s House

3 MARCH

For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. Psalm 84:10

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 3 John

Unlike many people who want to live without knowing why, wishing simply that their life may be prolonged, David says that his purpose for living is to serve God. He sets higher value on one day that is spent in God’s service than a long time that is spent among worldly people from whom true religion is banished. Because it is lawful for only priests to enter into the innermost courts of the temple, David declares that, if he were simply permitted to have a place at the porch, he would be content with the humble station of acting as a doorkeeper.

The value that David sets upon being in the sanctuary of God is striking in his comparison that he would be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. David would rather be cast into a common and unhonored place, providing that is among the people of God, than to be exalted to the highest rank of honor among unbelievers. That is a rare example of godliness indeed! Many people want to occupy a place in the church, but ambition has such sway over their minds tat few are content to be numbered among the common and the undistinguished class.

Almost all of us are carried away with the frantic desire of rising to distinction and cannot think of being at ease until we have attained some state of eminence.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: When personal ambition takes over in our lives, we often succeed in turning the house of God into a “tent of wickedness.” If it is better for us to dwell in God’s house, even as a nobody, than to achieve recognition among the ungodly of this world, how then should we live? What changes should we make in our lives?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Seeking Peace

18 FEBRUARY

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. Psalm 34:14

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Jeremiah 29:4-7

The children of God are to abstain from all evil, the psalmist says, as well as devote themselves to doing good to their neighbors. As it often happens, the man who is liberal toward some is also prodigal toward some, or at least helps many by acts of kindness and wrongs others by defrauding and injuring them.

With much propriety, David begins by saying those who want their lives to be approved before God should abstain from doing evil. On the other hand, many think that, since they have neither defrauded, nor wronged, nor injured any man, they have discharged the duty God requires of them. But with equal propriety is the precept given to also do good to our neighbor. It is not the will of God that His servants should be idle but rather that they should aid one another, desiring each other's welfare and prosperity, and promoting it as much as they can.

David next commands us to maintain peace: Seek peace, and pursue it. We know that peace is maintained by gentleness and forbearance. But we have often dealt with men of a fretful, or factious, or stubborn spirit, or with those who always seem ready to stir up strife upon the slightest occasion. Some wicked people irritate us and alienate themselves from the minds of good men, while others industriously strive to find grounds of contention. So the psalmist teaches us that we ought not only to seek peace, but if at any time it seems to flee from us, we must use every effort to pursue it.

In our personal affairs we should be meek and condescending and endeavor as much as possible to maintain peace, even though maintaining it causes us much trouble and inconvenience.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: At times we are tempted to focus so completely on our battles with sin and avoiding evil that we neglect the other part of our Christian duty: the Christian life must also be active. David reminds us of that in this verse. Ask for grace today to both avoid evil and to do good.

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and edited by Joel R. Beeke

Ministering to the Saints

4 FEBRUARY

But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Psalm 16:3

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Matthew 25:31-46

One way of rightly serving God is to endeavor to do good to His holy servants. Because our good deeds cannot extend to God, it is to the saints in His place that we are to exercise charity. When people mutually exert themselves in doing good to one another, they yield right and acceptable service to God. We doubtless ought to extend charity even to those who are unworthy of it, as our heavenly Father “maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good” (Matt. 5:45), but David justly favors the saints over others and places them in a higher rank.

Though I do not deny that this doctrine is comprehended in the words of David, I think he goes somewhere farther, intimating that he will unite himself with the devout worshipers of God and be their associate or companion. Likewise the children of God ought to be joined together by the bond of fraternal unity, so they may serve and call upon their Father with the same affection and zeal.

After confessing that he can find nothing in himself to bring to God and is indebted to God for everything he has, David sets his affections upon the saints. God wills that He should be magnified and exalted in the assembly of the just, whom He has adopted into his family, that they may live together with one accord under His authority and under the guidance of His Holy Spirit.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: Exercising charity toward saints on behalf of God adds a whole new perspective to holy living. In what ways can our treatment of fellow believers be a reflection of how we esteem God Himself?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke