Matthew 25 - Be ready, trustworthy & practice righteousness

This chapter is a contrast of those who are ready & unprepared, the trustworthy & worthless servant, the sheep & goat which represent the righteous & the evil one.

When a bride & groom is preparing for a wedding in the Middle Eastern culture, the bride doesn’t know the exact time because during the engagement the groom has to prepare & build a house for their marriage, usually nearby their father’s land as they are sons who inherits property from their father. The bride will take this time to prepare herself as well emotionally, mentally & physically to be ready to live with her future husband. If they do not prepare themselves then it would either bring themselves & probably their family disgrace. So the message here is to get ready, but in this context, after the freely given salvation from our Lord Jesus Christ, we have to keep on cleaning up our acts, to keep on repenting on sins that displease the Lord. This is the work after salvation in a sense that we are on the way, but not there yet. It is also important to note that this is what James mentioned “faith without works is dead”, when one is baptised in the Holy Spirit, the person will be strengthened in their spirit to be able to repent from evil deeds leading them to the path of righteousness.

The trustworthy servant presented the traits of diligence & was careful in dealing with the talents or resources given to him, he did not waste it but steward it & produce fruits or returns to the master. However the worthless servant only kept the talents or resources & accused the master of harsh, taking other’s credits & so he was afraid to do anything with it, in a deeper sense, the worthless servant was afraid that whatever that he did, it becomes someone else’s blessing, so he was very much self-centered. Why work when he gain nothing? However if he thought about how the master got the resources, then maybe he would be able to empathize that the master may have worked hard or sacrifice part of his life to gain that resources as well but then again this is all assumption. The point is that when we are given a mission or tasks, appointed with responsibility from God or in our lives, let us be reminded to learn from the trustworthy servant & be diligent in serving.

Now the sheep & goats is a famous reference for those who belong to God & those who belong to the devil. It is shown in their acts & treatment towards others. There are action involved here that can show it which involved the lowest social status in community. Those who did not do it to the least probably was due to there’s nothing in return for them. It’s a reminder for myself to focus on what God desires, be diligent & righteous without expecting any return because the reward is to be exempt from eternal punishment & entered into eternal life. The most important part for me though is that when I’m finally face to face with God, I hope that I can finally be whole with Him & to just be with God forever out of the love for Him because of what He had done for me.