Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.
“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes. Most certainly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has. But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it, and in an hour when he doesn’t know it, and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv42, 51 An example of the horrible carelessness of men in…
An example of the horrible carelessness of men in those things whereof they ought to be most careful.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv42–51 42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour…
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Ver. 42. Watch therefore, &c.] Laeti simus, non securi Let us be happy, not carefree. (Bernard). While Ishbosheth slept upon his bed at noon, Baanah and Rechab took away his head. "Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown from thee," Rev 3:11. While the crocodile sleepeth with open mouth, the Indian rat gets into him and eateth his entrails. Satan works strongest on the fancy when the soul is drowsy. The spouse therefore promiseth to get up early, Son 7:12, to shake off security, and not to be found henceforth supine and sluggish, but to stand upon her watch; as of Scanderbeg it is said, that from his first coming to Epirus, he never slept over two hours in a night, but with restless labour prosecuted his affairs. Aristotle and some others would not sleep but with brazen balls in their hands, which falling on vessels purposely set on their bedsides, the noise did dissuade immoderate sleep. Our Saviour pronounceth them three times happy that watch, Luk 12:37-38; Luk 12:43. {a} The blessed angels are called watchers, εγρηγοροι, Dan 4:10.
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For ye know not what hour your Lord, &c.] He may haply come upon you, as Epaminondas did upon his sentinel, whom finding asleep, he thrust through with his sword, and being chidden for so severe a fact, he replied, I left him but as I found him, Talem eum reliqui, qualem inveni.
{a} Terque quaterque beati. Virg. Faelices ter et amplius, Horat.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv42, 45, 47 Mark saith, Mar 13:33, Take ye heed, watch and…
Mark saith, Mar 13:33, Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. What our Lord here meaneth by watching is easily gathered, as well by what went before, where our Saviour had been speaking of the security and luxury of the old world, as by what followeth, Mat 24:44, where he biddeth them be always ready; and therefore Luk 21:34-36, expounds this thus: And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Our Saviour in these verses, from the uncertainty of the particular time when the day of judgment shall be, presseth upon his disciples a sober, heavenly, and holy life; intimating that by such a life only they can make themselves ready for the coming of Christ, and to stand before the Son of man, when he shall appear in his power and glory. He presseth this from that which common prudence would teach any householder, viz. if he knew in what watch of the night a thief would come, to watch, and not suffer his house to be broken open; that is, in what time of the night, for the Jews divided the night into the first, second, third, and fourth watch, as the Romans divided it for relief of their military guards. Now, saith our Saviour, you, knowing that there will come such a time, and not certainly knowing at what time, stand concerned to be always watching and praying.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv42, 45, 48 Here we have the application made by our Saviour,…
Here we have the application made by our Saviour, of the foregoing doctrine concerning the certainty and suddenness of a future judgment. Watch therefore, always; not without intermission, but without giving over; that ye may be not only in an habitual but actual readiness for my appearance.
Learn hence, That it is the indispensable duty, and ought to be the indefatigable endeavour of every Christian, to stand upon his watch in a prepared readiness for Christ’s appearance, both for his coming to us, and for our going to him.
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Watch always, for ye know not the hour when our Lord cometh!
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv42–50 But know this,.... Or you do know this: this…
But know this,.... Or you do know this: this may be illustrated by supposing a case well known to men, and in which common prudence would direct a man how to behave:
that if the good man of the house, or householder, or master of the family,
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had known in what watch the thief would come; whether at the first, second, third, or fourth watch; for the night was divided into four watches; had he any previous notice given by any of the associates of the thief, or by those that had overheard, or by any means had got intelligence of his design and measures, and the time of his pursuing them,
he would have watched; in every watch either in person, or by employing others, or both:
and would not have suffered his house to be broken up: or "dug through"; see Job 24:16 concerning which, there is a law in Exo 22:2 and is explained by the Jewish canonists thus:
"He that comes in by digging, whether by day or by night, there is no blood for him (i.e. to be shed for him, if he is killed); but if the master of the house, or any other man kill him, they are free; and every man has power to kill him, whether on a weekday, or on a sabbath day; and with whatsoever death he can put him to, as it is said, there is no blood for him, Exo 22:2. And one that comes in, "by digging", or a thief that is found in the midst of a man's roof, or in his court, or within his hedge, whether in the day or in the night, (may be killed;) and wherefore is it called digging? because it is the way of most thieves to come in by digging in the night (x).
Wherefore no doubt since the master of the house had such a law on his side, he would never suffer, if possible, his house to be entered by digging, when he had, especially, any previous notice of it. Now the application of this case, or parabolical way of speaking, is to the coming of Christ, and the watchfulness of every good man who has notice of it, that he may not be surprised with it, but be in a readiness to receive him. The coming of the son of man, is here represented by the coming of the thief in the night: but when he is compared to a thief, this is not to be understood in a bad sense, in which Satan is called one, who comes to kill and to destroy the souls of men; and likewise heretics and false teachers, and everyone that climbs up, and gets into the church of God in a wrong way; but this only respects the manner of Christ's coming, which is like that of a thief, secretly, suddenly, and at unawares. The "good man of the house", or householder, is every Christian, or believer in Christ, who has a house to look after, his own soul, the spiritual affairs and everlasting salvation of it, things of moment and concern unto him: and as the Christians, before the destruction of Jerusalem, had notices of Christ's coming in that way, by our Lord's predictions, by the hints the apostles gave, to refresh their memories with them, and by the signs of the times and voices that were heard; so the saints have of Christ's coming to judgment: wherefore as it became the one, so it does the other, to watch, to be upon their guard, to be in a readiness, to have their loins girt about, and their lights burning, and they like men that wait for their Lord; that so when he comes, their houses may not be broken up, may not be surprised, and the several powers and faculties of their souls may not be thrown into disorder and confusion; wherefore it follows,
(x) Mairmon. Hilch. Genibah, c. 9. sect. 7, 8.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv42, 45, 48, 51 Ye know not what hour your Lord cometh -…
Ye know not what hour your Lord cometh - Either to require your soul of you, or to avenge himself of this nation. Mark xiii, 33; Luke xii, 35; xxi, 34.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51 Verse 42. Watch therefore] Be always on your guard,…
Verse 42. Watch therefore] Be always on your guard, that you may not be taken unawares, and that you may be properly prepared to meet God in the way either of judgment or mercy, whensoever he may come. This advice the followers of Christ took, and therefore they escaped; the miserable Jews rejected it, and were destroyed. Let us learn wisdom by the things which they suffered.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv42, 45 Mat 24:42-44. Watch therefore — Let your mind be…
Mat 24:42-44. Watch therefore — Let your mind be thoroughly awake to a sense of the certainty and importance of these things, and be on your guard that they may not overtake you unawares, but that you may be prepared to meet Christ in the way of judgment or mercy; for ye know not what hour your Lord cometh — Either to avenge himself of this nation, to require your soul of you, or to call you and all mankind to his bar. Be ye also ready — By being assured of God’s favour, and stamped with his image, and by a holy deadness to the objects of this uncertain and transitory world, which you are so soon to leave, and may be called to leave at a moment’s warning; be prepared to receive every event of divine providence with resignation to God’s will, and a perfect acquiescence in the wisdom of all his dispensations, fully persuaded that all things shall work for good to them that love him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv42–45 Watch - Be looking for his coming. Be expecting…
Watch - Be looking for his coming. Be expecting it as near; as a great event; as coming in an unexpected manner. Watch the signs of his coming, and be ready.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v42 Watch ye, therefore. That men might not be attentive…
Watch ye, therefore. That men might not be attentive for a time only, but preserve a continual vigilance, the Almighty conceals from them the hour of dissolution: they ought therefore to be ever expecting it, and ever watchful. But to the eternal infamy of Christians be it said, much more diligence is used by the worldly wise for the preservation of their wealth, than by the former for the salvation of their immortal souls. Though they are fully aware that the Lord will come, and like a thief in the night, when they least expect him, they do not persevere watching, nor guard against irreparable misfortune of quitting the present life without previous preparation. Therefore will the day come to the destruction of such as are reposed in sleep. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. lxxviii. on S. Matt.) --- Of what importance is it then that we should be found watching, and properly attentive to the one thing necessary, the salvation of our immortal souls. For what will it avail us, if we have gained the whole world, which we must then leave, and lose our immortal souls, which, owing to our supine neglect to these admonitions of Jesus Christ, must suffer in hell-flames for all eternity? (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v45
SECOND SECTION
JUDGMENT ON THE RULERS OF THE CHURCH
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Mat_24:45-51
(Luk_12:35-46—The Gospelfor the 27th Sunday after Trinity, Mat_24:37-51)
45Who then is a [the, ὁ] faithful and wise servant, whom his58 lord hath made ruler the lord set, κατέστησεν59 over his household60, to give them meat [food, τὴν τροφήν] in 46due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler [set him] over all his goods. 48But and if [But if, ἐὰν δέ] that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; 49And shall begin to smite [beat] his fellow servants, and to eat and drink [and shall eat and drink]61with the drunken; 50The lord of that servant shall [will] come in a day when he looketh not for him [it], and in an hour that he is not aware of 51[when he is not aware, ἡ οὐ γινὠσκει], And shall [will] cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Mat_24:45. Who then is?—That is, in conformity with the previous instructions. The Lord shows in a parable that the judgment will begin upon those in office in the Church. He shows the contrast between the faithful and the unfaithful servant, but dwelling finally upon the latter. The τίς is not instead of εί̔ τις. According to Bengel and de Wette, it is encouraging: May every one be such a servant. According to Meyer, there is a change of construction: the characteristics of the servant ought to follow; but in the vivacity of the discourse the commendation and the characteristics go together. But the description of the servant which has gone before—faithful and wise—is in favor of de Wette.
Whom the lord hath made ruler.—This being appointed of the Lord has stress laid upon it in the case of the faithful servant. In the case of κακὸς δοῦλος ἐκεῖνος it is omitted, and the σύνδουλοι are made prominent.—Over his household.—We read θεραπεια, which makes it more definite that the office of rulership has for its end only to provide nourishment for the house. The office is the office of ruler, only so far as it actually imparts spiritual food in the office of teacher. Watching is here indicated in its concrete form, as fidelity to the calling. It is connected with faith, as not watching is connected with unbelief.
Mat_24:47. Verily I say unto you, ... ruler over all.—The description of the perfect κληρονομία. Comp. Rom_8:17.
Mat_24:48. But and if that evil servant shall say.—The ἐκεῖνος is not only δεικτικῶς, but also prophetically significant. The faithful servant was hypothetically mentioned in the form of exhortation; the wicked servant is exhibited as a very definite form in the future, and brought near to present view. The evil conduct of the wicked servant springs from unbelief, which, however, in his official position, he can utter only in his heart. But his unbelief is specifically unbelief in regard to the coming of the Lord and His award.—My lord delayeth.—The expression marks an internal mocking frivolity. But his bad conduct is evidently exhibited in two aspects: first, as a despotic and proud bearing to his fellow- servants, whom he abuses instead of giving them nourishment; and secondly, as laxity of conduct toward the wicked members of the household and the uninvited guests, with whom he commits all kinds of riot and debauchery. Meyer: First, we have his conduct toward his fellow-servants, and then his conduct outside62 the οὶκετεία; and, under the rule of such a steward, the household generally is to some extent given over to wickedness. Such a dissolute hospitality, also, is signified, as makes all drunkards from without welcome. The fellow-servants here must be understood of such as are faithful servants of their absent master.—The great historical contrast between the Inquisition and Indulgences will easily occur to the reader.
Mat_24:51. And cut him asunder: διχοτομήσει.—The expression is so significant that Meyer properly holds fast the literal rendering, “to cut into two parts,” and rejects all generalizing interpretations, such as scourging (Paulus, de Wette, etc.), mutilation (Michaelis), exclusion from service (Beza), and extreme punishment (Chrysostom). It is emphatically the punishment of the theocracy, cutting in two, sawing asunder,—1Sa_15:33; 2Sa_12:31 (Heb_11:37),—which here figuratively expresses a sudden and annihilating destruction, and possibly not without reference to the double-mindedness of the condemned, or even to the duplicity of the Anti-Christianity which will finally bring spiritual despotism to its doom (see Rev_13:1; Rev_13:11).
With the hypocrites.—The further doom of the wicked servant after the judgment of the great day of Christ’s coming. “Even the Rabbins send the hypocrites to Gehenna.” The wicked servant is a hypocrite, not only because he thinks to present himself at last under the guise of fidelity, and must have showed false colors from the beginning (Meyer), but especially because, in his ill-treatment of the fellow-servants, he assumes the semblance of official zeal.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The parable of the good and wicked servants applies specially to the disciples, and with them to spiritual officers in the Church, although not without application to Christians generally. It is to be observed, that, according to Luke, Peter gave the Lord occasion to utter it. Yet the whole context shows that it belongs to the general eschatological instruction which we find in Matthew; that is, it naturally connects itself with the discourse concerning the last things, and opens the series of parables and declarations which introduce the judgment of the end of the world, the day that winds up the present age. This connection makes the contrast between the good and wicked servant more than a mere exhortation; it assumes a prophetic aspect, as indeed is seen in the definite expressions which pervade it.
2. In regard to the rulership of the two servants, it is observable that he who humbly serves his fellow servants, faithfully giving them their food (the word and spiritual nourishment generally), is represented as being set over the household by his lord, and that it is promised that he should be set over all his lord’s goods. But the wicked servant, who despotically set himself over the household and house, is not represented as having been appointed; in his supposed official correction of his subordinates, he appears to be a reckless injurer of his equal fellow servants.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The faithful servant and the wicked servant in the Church: 1. Their opposite spirit: the one waits for the coming of the Lord, the other puts no faith in that coming. 2. Their acts: the one takes care of the household’s nourishment, the other makes himself a despotic lord, who abuses the faithful, and wastes the goods of the house in riotous living. 3. Their recompense: blessed and miserable surprise at the advent of the Lord. The one is elevated to the highest dignity, the other is condemned and destroyed on the spot.—The faithful servant waits for his Lord, while he waits upon the Church with the Lord’s word.—The contradiction in the life of the wicked servant: 1. In his spirit: mocking unbelief of the self deception, which supposes that in his lord’s long absence he must take the whole government, instead of the mere provision of food. 2. In his deportment: fearful severity against the better of the household; perfect laxity toward the wicked, and fellowship with their wickedness.—That servant who assumes the highest place in hypocrisy will encounter the sharpest doom.—The divided heart will be punished by a perfect dividing asunder of the life.—The great schism of the Greek and Latin Church, an earn est sign of judgment.—The great schisms in the Occidental, and in the Protestant Church, and their bearing upon the end of ecclesiasticism on earth.—The twofold judgment over perfected unfaithfulness: 1. A sudden surprise; 2. an endless punishment.—The punishment of unfaithfulness in office the punishment of the hypocrite.
Footnotes:
[58]Mat_24:45.—Αὑτοῦ is missing In B., D, L., at, [Cod. Sinait], and thrown out by Lachmann and Tischendorf.
[59]Mat_24:45.—[Cod. Sinait. reads here: καταστησει, shall set, for κατέστησεν. Anticipated from Mat_24:47.—P. S.]
[60]Mat_24:45 —Lachmann and Tischendorf: οἰκετεία, following B., L., al. It likewise means household, the body of servants. But for internal reasons the text, rec: θεραπεία, which has sufficient witnesses, is preferable. [Cod. sinait. reads: οικια.—P.S]
[61] Mat_24:49.—Codd. B., C.,D [and the critical editions], read: ἐσθίῃ δὲ καὶ πίνῃ [instead of the infinitives ἐσθίειν καὶ πίνειν, depending on ἄρξηται.—P.S.]
[62][The Edinb. trsl. has just the reverse: within. The servants constitute the household, the guests are the outsiders.—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51 42-51. As the image of the flood illustrates the…
42-51. As the image of the flood illustrates the suddenness of the second coming to the careless world, so the image of the householder and the waiting servant illustrates its suddenness to the careless individual. Dr. Owen remarks that “here is an easy transition from the destruction of Jerusalem to the judgment day.” It would certainly puzzle any commentator to do, what he does not attempt, namely, show that the coming of the Lord in Mat_24:42 was not the same as in Mat_24:44, or to show that both were not the same as in Mat_24:39; Mat_24:37; Mat_24:30; Mat_24:27. It would puzzle him to show what common sense there is in making our Lord’s answer talk about a different coming from the disciples’ question.
42. Watch therefore… Lord doth come — The same coming as in Mat_24:39. They must not be like the world in the time of the flood, slumbering and revelling; but watch, for it will be a sudden event.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv43, 45, 51 43–45. The Lord cometh as a Thief in the…
43–45. The Lord cometh as a Thief in the Night
Luk_12:39-40
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43. know this] The same word as in Mat_24:33, see note. The word is probably indicative, “ye know this,” not imperative.
the goodman of the house] “The master of the house.” “Goodman” is probably a corruption for gummann or A. S. guma, a man (Bible Word Book).
in what watch] See ch. Mat_14:25.
the thief would come] Cp. “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night,” 1Th_5:2; see also 2Pe_3:10.
would come] Rather, doth come, as in the preceding verse.
to be broken up] Rather, dug through; see ch. Mat_6:19-20.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51 (43) But know this.—The verses from Mat_24:42 to Mat_24:51…
(43) But know this.—The verses from Mat_24:42 to Mat_24:51 have nothing corresponding to them in the reports of the discourse given by St. Mark and St. Luke, but are found almost verbatim in another discourse reported by St. Luk_12:42, et seq. Here, as elsewhere, we have to choose between the assumption of a repetition of the same words, or of a transfer of what was spoken on one occasion to another; and of the two, the former hypothesis seems the more probable. It may be noted, however, that the variations in the three reports of this discourse indicate a comparatively free treatment of it, the natural result, probably, of its having been often reproduced, wholly or in part, orally before it was committed to writing. On ordinary grounds of evidence, St. Mark’s report, assuming his connection with St. Peter, would seem likely to come nearest to the very words spoken by our Lord.
The goodman of the house.—Better, as in Mat_20:1., householder.
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In what watch.—The night-watches were four in number, of three hours each. So in Luk_12:38, we have “the second or the third watch” specified. The allusion to the “thief coming” would seem to have passed into the proverbial saying, that the day of the Lord would come “as a thief in the night,” quoted by St. Paul in 1Th_5:2.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv42–51 Vers. 42-51. Practical exhortation drawn from the uncertainty of…
Vers. 42-51. Practical exhortation drawn from the uncertainty of the last day: Watch.
Watch therefore. The end will be sudden, the final separation will be then completed; be ye therefore always prepared. Few exhortations are more frequently and impressively given than this of the duty and necessity of watchfulness. Of course, the Christian has to watch against many things his own evil heart, temptation, the world, but most of all he must watch and be always looking for the coming of his Lord; for whether he be regarded as Redeemer, Deliverer, or Judge, he will come as a thief in the night. What hour. Very many good manuscripts and some late editors read "on what day." This is probably the genuine reading, "hour" being an alteration derived from ver. 44. What (poia ) means of what kind or quality whether sudden, immediate, or remote.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv42, 44, 45, 51 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your…
Mat_24:42
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come:
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The coming of the Son of Man
I.
The warning. Christs coming is compared to that of a thief in the night. Seems disparaging, but is remarkably apt (1Th_5:2-4). The dispensation under which we live is emphatically that of night, in comparison with the dispensation which is to be introduced at the day of the Lord, etc. The plans of the housebreaker are all laid beforehand, and yet studiously concealed. So the coming of the Lord and the day of His appearing are fixed with infinite wisdom, but kept secret with a profound reserve. That mystery wears a pleasing or repulsive aspect, according to the preparedness of those to whom the Master comes.
II. The caution. It is remarkable that the Evangelist Luke, while emitting the parable, gives us the most lucid account of its application (Luk_21:34).
III. The precept. A personal preparation for the coming of our Lord is to be regarded as a matter of imminent motive with us all. You may be deceived as to the signs; but you are not to be negligent of the event. Watch and pray. Watchfulness is the habit of keeping the eye constantly alive to events; prayer is the habit of keeping the heart constantly lifted up to God. Taking into account the conditions under which we are admonished to watch and pray, the intent becomes palpable that things we are not permitted to know beforehand will be gradually unfolded to us as the events are about to transpire. But the chief motive defies analysis. The holy instinct of loving hearts prompts that ardent expectancy with which hope anticipates the appearing of the Lord. (B. W. Carr.)
Watchfulness
I. The unexpected arrival.
1. Of what person?
2. In what manner?
3. For what purpose?
4. At what time? Date unknown (verse 36), knowledge might induce carelessness, etc.
II. The unforeseen disclosure.
1. To many, of the character of others. It will be a day of great surprises. We only judge by appearances. God knows thought, intention, character.
2. To many, of their own destiny. Judge not. Leave the judgment with God.
III. The needful watching.
1. With increasing prayer.
2. With unfaltering diligence.
3. With unfailing patience. Biding the Lords time submissively, lie will not always tarry. (J. C. Gray.)
Temptations demand watchfulness
I. Temptations may enter the senses without sin, for to behold the object, to touch, or taste, is not to commit sin, because God Himself hath thus ordered and framed the senses by their several instruments and organs. He hath kindled up light in the eyes, He hath digged the hollow of the ear, for hearing, and hath shut up the taste in the mouth or palate, and hath given man his senses very fit for the trial and reward of virtue. Therefore, we may make a covenant with our eye, bridle our taste, bind our touch, purge our ears, and so sanctify and consecrate every sense unto the Lord, which is indeed to watch.
II. They may enter the thoughts, and be received into the imagination, and yet, if we set our watch, not overcome us; for as yet they are but, as it were, in their march, bringing up their forces; but have made no battery or breach into the soul.
III. The sense and fancy may receive the object with some delight and natural complacency, and yet without sin; if we stand upon our guard, and then oppose it most, when it most pleads for admittance. (Anthony Farindon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51 42. Watch therefore. Because the coming will be unexpected.…
42. Watch therefore. Because the coming will be unexpected. Mark adds, “pray.”
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v45 Subdivision 2. (Mat 24:45-51; Mat 25:1-30.)
Subdivision 2. (Mat 24:45-51; Mat 25:1-30.)
Separative judgment between true and false in the fellowship of faith - the Church.
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Here He introduces the parables which show us, by way of appendix to the Jewish aspect, the relation of His coming to the Church, but in a veiled manner. It was, in fact, what as yet they would not be able to enter into. The three parables which follow all remind us that in the Kingdom as committed in His absence to the hands of men, the true and the false would be mingled together, and at His coming only would the evil be purged out. Here we have therefore that separative judgment seen in relationship to what is professedly a fellowship of faith. The three parables have to do with - 1st. the use and abuse of authority; 2nd. the Christian expectation of the Lord, the going forth to meet Him; and 3rd. the special deposit committed to each, and the heart towards Him as shown by the way the trust is discharged. We may notice that in all this part we have no reference to Daniel or to Old Testament prophecy any more. All in it belongs to the mysteries of the Kingdom unknown to the prophets of old, and which the very form of the parable expresses (Mat 13:34-35). In what is commonly called the "parable" of the sheep and goats which follows, we have what is no longer that, but plain speech enough, the sheep and goats being only used by way of figurative illustration.
1. The coming of the Lord is, throughout these parables, the governing object. He is leaving the world as rejected by it; and it is characterized for the Christian as the place of that rejection. But He leaves it to prepare for His people a place in heaven, and He comes again to introduce them there, where He is. Israel has still the earthly promises; but the Church is a stranger here; for her portion and her heart are with Christ in another scene. In the meanwhile she is the representative of her Lord however upon earth, put in charge of His interests on it, and responsible to serve and glorify Him.
(1) In the first parable here it is of ministry that the Lord speaks, pressing the responsibility of him whom his Lord has set over His household, to give them food in due season. The value He puts upon such service is emphatically declared. Blessed shall he be whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find doing this in faithfulness and wisdom. He will even set him over all that He has.
It is service, as the same blessed Speaker has taught us not long since, that not only leads on to rule, but qualifies for it: just because all rule with God is service. "Love seeketh not her own." To seek one’s own is the misery of a fallen creature, and in heaven no such beggar’s badge can anywhere be found. Its places of trust are places of service therefore, new ability to serve, - to satisfy love’s desire, and pour out of fulness which shall find even there some room for happy overflow, if yet we know little what. Thus, then, the Lord looks at service here as qualifying for service, higher and fuller there - reaping in the same sort as that which has been sown: and that is the law of harvest.
(2) But there is another side which we are to consider: for "if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in an hour when he looketh not for him, and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites." Plainly the man is a hypocrite: it is no case of ignorance merely as to prophetic teaching; it is what his heart says, whether his prophetic views are right or wrong. He, too, like Israel when the Lord came, wants the vineyard for himself, and this he shows by his conduct: he usurps authority over his fellow-servants, and associates himself with loose livers; it does not say that he becomes drunken, but a man is known by the company he keeps; and he is perhaps worse than his company because of the profession he makes. He is a hypocrite, and his doctrine (whether publicly professed or not) comes from his heart, as so much false doctrine does. We are apt to be easily persuaded of that which we want to be true; and so in this case.
Primarily, it is the individual of whom the Lord speaks, but we cannot be aware of the history of the Church without realizing that there is a wider significance; and that along with the decline of the expectation of the Lord’s speedy return; and with the coincident assertion of the Church’s heirship to Israel’s promises, there did in fact ensue that hierarchical transformation of ministry into lordship which culminated at last in papal domination and the necessarily lax manners of the growing world-church. The grain of mustard-seed, enlarged into a tree, sent down its roots proportionately into the earth; and the parable of the transformation soon became its justification also. But this brings the judgment of the world upon the professing church itself: "upon thee goodness, if thou continue in His goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off" (Rom 11:22). The true saints being removed to be with their Lord in heaven, there is left upon earth nothing but a decaying carcase, to which the eagles will presently gather. Upon every one so left, the awful doom will come which the Lord announces: "the Lord of that servant shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
2. The second parable deals still more directly with the Church’s expectancy of Christ, which is indeed the very point of it; the figure of a marriage has been already used by the Lord in a parable of the Kingdom (Mat 22:1-46) but there neither bridegroom nor bride is actually brought in; although the bridegroom is named as the King’s son. The gathering of the guests is there the central feature of the parable; here it is the going forth to meet the bridegroom; and the Bridegroom Himself takes the most important place in it.
The bride is still not seen;* but not surely because the virgins are the bride in another aspect, as so many think. This is not more against the unity of thought than it is against the connection; or the orderly development of the revelation. For the heavenly bride has not yet been revealed; and the prophecy as a whole is evidently from the Jewish standpoint, from which the Baptist speaks when he says, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom" (Joh 3:23) Israel is the bride, as with the Old Testament prophets, and it is when Christ comes to take Israel into relationship to Himself, that on the way Christians are called out to meet Him and come with Him to the marriage. The very fact of being called out to meet Him shows who they are. Jewish disciples could not be called out to meet Him; and it is a New Testament truth altogether that "when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory."** Thus the bride is Jewish and the virgins are Christian; and if we will remember this, every feature of the parable becomes harmonious.
{*There is, however, a reading "and the bride" at the end of the first verse, which Westcott and Hort insert in their margin, and which Trench (Notes on the Parables) approves as to the sense, as conformed to the Jewish customs. Probably it is this conformity that has led to the interpolation, which is certainly opposed to the plain meaning of the parable. The marriage could not have taken place before the virgins are called out to meet the bridegroom.
**In Zec 14:5 "the Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones with Thee" does not necessarily imply more than "angels"; and so with Enoch’s prophecy which Jude quotes: "The Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints," or "holy ones."}
(1) "Then shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom."
The connective "then" has certainly a meaning, and as certainly connects this parable with that which has gone before; nay, even with the judgment upon the evil servant. But that will not suffice to make it mean all that interpreters have taken from it. But it is when the end is reached that the "likeness" of the Kingdom to what is here before us will be fully complete. Nevertheless the parable takes us back to the beginning of the Church’s history - to the time of first freshness, when the heathen world around was witness not only that they had "turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God," but also "to wait for His Son from heaven; even Jesus, who delivered them from the wrath to come" (1Th 1:9-10). What is referred to here is certainly not the fact of what at last took place when the midnight cry had aroused the sleepers, and when in fact the unpreparedness to go forth together immediately manifested itself. As yet the virgins are one, as it would seem, in heart and hope. Afterwards we find the tarrying of the bridegroom, the falling asleep, the startling cry; but not as yet.
The being "virgins" must not be pressed too far, nor yet lost sight of. Hebrew customs are illustrated in it all, even in the number, for "ten lamps or torches were the usual number in marriage processions"; still that does not in the least prevent there being a deeper meaning, for Scripture selects what it can turn to spiritual profit. Thus, though the virgins are not (from the point of view taken here) the bride, or the espoused, yet we are not to refuse the conception naturally attaching to such, of purity, of separation from the world; while the number ten; as well as five, show that this is their responsibility rather than necessarily the reality of their condition. And this comes out clearly in the sequel, though it has been lost sight of by many, in a way that has not only led to misconstruction of the parable but has perverted important truth. The going out to meet the bridegroom is, in the first place and essentially, in desire and expectation of heart, though it results in a positive "going forth" from the world and its associations. A heart in heaven can be fairly measured by the reality of pilgrim- and stranger-ship on earth.
(2) A great and fundamental contrast is found to exist between two classes of these virgins: "five of them were foolish and five were wise." And their folly or wisdom is shown in regard to that for which they had come out: "the foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps."
Here naturally the difference between those of whom I have just spoken and other interpreters comes out. We are told that in this parable all are spoken of as "virgins;" while in those that precede and follow it, all are spoken of as "servants." They are therefore all alike true Christians - "Christians with no stain upon the genuineness of their profession, but whose Christianity lacks that maturity of growth, depth of consecration, and perfection of development which can alone entitle to the highest honors and joys of the kingdom." And this is supposed to be shown in the fact that their lack in the case spoken of here "is not of oil in their lamps, but of oil in their vessels with their lamps" - an extra supply of grace, which the wise virgins carried with them.
A lamp without any oil is, no doubt, a foolish thing enough; too foolish, it might be supposed, for any to think of. Spiritually, however, alas! there is no difficulty at all in the conception of what is seen continually, men satisfied with the form without the power; and this is even the special characteristic of the last days (2Ti 3:1; 2Ti 3:5). "The lamps consisted of a round receptacle for pitch or oil for the wick. This was placed in a hollow cup or deep saucer which was fastened by a pointed end into a long wooden pole, on which it was borne aloft." It is distinctly said that the "foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them"; but we cannot definitely say whether the "vessels" in which the wise took their oil were just the receptacles on the top of the poles or something separate altogether from the lamps. The foolish have no oil, no power of the Spirit to make "a burning and a shining light" for Christ; and this their end demonstrates absolutely.
(3) The bridegroom tarries, and this has its effect upon them all. Wise and foolish alike, they become drowsy and sleep. So in the history of the professing church the expectation of the Lord grew languid and ceased. The expectation of the conversion of the world came in to replace the true Christian hope of being taken out of it, the millennial reign being finally interpreted by the event, of the overthrow of paganism in the Roman empire. After Constantine, but one prominent teacher is known to have favored what was then called "chiliasm"; and he an unsound man.* There was no longer a watcher to disturb the slumberers.
{*Apollinaris the Younger, bishop of Laodicea (died A.D. 390).}
In the middle of the night, however, a cry is heard, "Behold the Bridegroom; come ye out to meet Him;" and this rouses all the virgins. It is more, surely, than a revival of the doctrine of the Lord’s coming which is indicated by this: it is a definite announcement, rather, of His being at hand, which is followed so promptly by His actual arrival that there is no time for those who are awakened unprepared to remedy their condition.
(4) All are aroused; and then comes the conviction on the part of the foolish, "Our lamps are going out." It is urged therefore that they had been lighted up to this time, and that they must have had oil in them, for this to be; but the parables appeal so constantly to the thoughts and feelings of men; that the argument is an unsafe one. The words are their cry only, not necessarily fact at all. And the "ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance" in the well-known fifteenth of Luke, are they in fact such, or in their own thoughts? Surely in their own thoughts only; they are in fact the Pharisees whom the Lord has before Him. So here, it is not necessarily the fact that the lamps were ever lit; and the warning is a solemn one, that one may have a good enough light to welcome the Bridegroom, when He is not there, and find, when faced with the reality, that the light reckoned on expires at once!
The foolish show their folly by their appeal to the wise. In the spiritual application of these things, none but fools could make it; for while a true soul, with the eyes on the wrong object, might fall almost into despair, yet none surely could expect to borrow from another of the grace that was in him to make a light wherewith to meet the Bridegroom. The wise virgins direct them to those that sell, to buy for themselves; and in fact Scripture exhorts men elsewhere to "buy," though "without money and without price" (Isa 55:1). Such "selling" speaks of fixed terms upon which alone the one who seeks may obtain what he desires; and in this way, paradoxical as it may seem, we may buy without money. Nay, the very terms of the gospel are that "the gift of God" cannot be "purchased with money," or with anything that religiously might be its equivalent. The pride that will not take a free gift as such must be sent empty away.
5 They are too late, these foolish ones; for "while they were gone away to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterwards came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us." But they are shut out; shut out, if (as all seems to indicate) it is the earthly marriage, from the earthly joy and blessing, as well as the heavenly; and in any case this is the truth of it. The Lord disowns any knowledge of them; and this He could not do of His own. All that is said of them too sadly agrees with this.*
{* Alford, Olshausen, and others deny the finality of the judgment here but Schaff is wrong in asserting that millenarian commentators in general take this view. He should at least own that there are many exceptions.}
3. (1) The parable which now follows speaks of the special trusts committed to the servants of the Lord in the time of His absence from them. They are left to care for His interests, and the "talents" are not what is ordinarily taken to be that, - some natural endowment or capacity, - but something added to this, while taking it fully into account: to each one is given "according to his own ability." It cannot be further defined than as being like money in different amounts, possibilities of gain for Christ, what in His love to God and man He counts such. The deposit itself increases by wise use of it; the sphere of service grows larger, as we serve; and this is a point insisted on. The five talents grow to ten; the two to four: capacity necessarily growing also by experience, as we know so well. How little in spiritual things are we any of us shut up to mediocrity, as we are prone to imagine, and suffer seriously by the imagination too.
(2) This is presently seen in the conduct of the three depicted here, though it is not, of course, at all a sufficient account of it. Yet it is worthy of note that the man who hides his lord’s money in the ground, is not the one who has received five talents, or even the man who has received but two. And we understand well how natural this is, that it should be the receiver of the smallest gift who makes no use of it. It need not be so: the man of splendid natural ability, and who has corresponding opportunities and super-added endowments may be the very one to forfeit all by his neglect or perversion of them. Still the appropriateness and power of exhortation for us in this circumstance of the parable must not be on this account overlooked. It is the little gift which tends to be despised as little; to the great injury of the people and the cause of Christ. For thus the mass of Christians almost drop out of responsibility, drop into inactivity, more or less complete, - practically give up their talent into the hands of those they esteem better qualified than themselves; who, however, cannot do the work thus imposed upon them, and it remains undone; but this is the largest part of all the Church’s work! How necessary to remember that "much more they that are feeble are necessary," and to give a right answer to the prophet’s question; "Who has despised the day of small things?"
Suppose we have but one talent, every day’s believing use of it will carry us on some way towards two. We are not shut up within the limits of God’s first gift. We may shut ourselves up; and by hiding our talent in the earth, both lose what we have and the capacity for gaining more. For the rule is, "to him that hath" - in the way of increase - "shall more be given; but from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away."
(3) Another thing becomes manifest in result: that it is not the amount with which we are entrusted that ensures the reward, but the faithfulness shown as to it. The servant who had the five talents has gained five talents; but he who has gained but two has as much doubled his capital as the other has, and is received with the same approval into the joy of his lord. It would be possible for the one with the smaller trust, to win even the higher approbation; and it is something for the Lord to find one of His own willing to serve as cheerfully in a humbler as in a higher position. To a love that "seeketh not her own," all would be equal here, though love itself may "covet earnestly the best gifts," these meaning fuller capacity for love’s sweet service.
(4) As principles all these things apply to every Christian; yet we are not allowed to suppose that the man who hides his lord’s money in the absolute way here described is possibly, after all, a Christian. His plea for it here is total unbelief, and expressed in such a way as would be impossible to the stoutest-hearted in the day which is referred to. But the Lord puts into language of the most out-spoken character what the conduct supposed would really mean. Faith would argue as to every gift of God that He who gave it had made no mistake, and that the possession of anything wherewith to serve was sufficient warrant for service; and love would prize the opportunity for this as blessing from the divine Source of blessing. The man before us is a mere accuser of his Lord; but so would He teach us to judge the legal spirit which, even in a believer, would render one incapable of using frankly and fully whatever he is possessed of, in the service of Him who has bestowed it. If we abhor the awful blasphemy which this man utters, let us abhor the unfaithful and cowardly refusal of our responsibilities which means the entertainment (however disguised) of traitorous thoughts like these. "Faith worketh by love"; and love is the free spirit of service. Lack of the one is, therefore, lack of the other; while we may be sure, and for that reason; that no true believer could be found as this man, with his Lord’s talent lying entirely unused.
5 Accordingly the judgment here is absolute condemnation. He is condemned out of his own mouth, for if his master were what he thought him, he should have given his money to the bankers, that he might have received his own with interest. He is cast out into the outer darkness, which speaks of the awful darkness, away from God who is light, and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v42 Mat 24:42 - Mat 24:51.
Matthew
WATCHING FOR THE KING
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Mat 24:42 - Mat 24:51.
The long day’s work was nearly done. Christ had left the temple, never to return. He took His way across the Mount of Olives to Bethany, and was stayed by the disciples’ question as to the date of the destruction of the temple, which He had foretold, and of the ‘end of the world,’ which they attached to it. They could not fancy the world lasting without the temple! We often make a like mistake. So there, on the hillside, looking across to the city lying in the sad, fading evening light, He spoke the prophecies of this chapter, which begin with the destruction of Jerusalem, and insensibly merge into the final coming of the Son of Man, of which that was a prelude and a type. The difficulty of accurately apportioning the details of this prophecy to the future events which fulfil them is common to it with all prophecy, of which it is a characteristic to blend events which, in the fulfilment, are far apart. From the mountain top, the eye travels over great stretches of country, but does not see the gorges, separating points which seem close together, foreshortened by distance.
There are many comings of the Son of Man before His final coming for final judgment, and the nearer and smaller ones are themselves prophecies. So, we do not need to settle the chronology of unfulfilled prophecy in order to get the full benefit of Christ’s teachings here. In its moral and spiritual effect on us, the uncertainty of the time of our going to Christ is nearly identical with the uncertainty of the time of His coming to us.
I. The command of watchfulness enforced by our ignorance of the time of His coming {Mat 24:42 - Mat 24:44}.
The two commands at the beginning and end of the paragraph are not quite the same. ‘Be ye ready’ is the consequence of watchfulness. Nor are the two appended reasons the same; for the first command is grounded on His coming at a day when ‘ye know not,’ and the second on His coming ‘in an hour that ye think not,’ that is to say, it not only is uncertain, but unexpected and surprising. There may also be a difference worth noting in the different designations of Christ as ‘your Lord,’ standing in a special relation to you, and as ‘the Son of Man,’ of kindred with all men, and their Judge. What is this ‘watchfulness’? It is literally wakefulness. We are beset by perpetual temptations to sleep, to spiritual drowsiness and torpor. ‘An opium sky rains down soporifics.’ And without continual effort, our perception of the unseen realities and our alertness for service will be lulled to sleep. The religion of multitudes is a sleepy religion. Further, it is a vivid and ever-present conviction of His certain coming, and consequently a habitual realising of the transience of the existing order of things, and of the fast-approaching realities of the future. Further, it is the keeping of our minds in an attitude of expectation and desire, our eyes ever travelling to the dim distance to mark the far-off shining of His coming. What a miserable contrast to this is the temper of professing Christendom as a whole! It is swallowed up in the present, wide awake to interests and hopes belonging to this ‘bank and shoal of time,’ but sunk in slumber as to that great future, or, if ever the thought of it intrudes, shrinking, rather than desire, accompanies it, and it is soon hustled out of mind.
Christ bases His command on our ignorance of the time of His coming. It was no part of His purpose in this prophecy to remove that ignorance, and no calculations of the chronology of unfulfilled predictions have pierced the darkness. It was His purpose that from generation to generation His servants should be kept in the attitude of expectation, as of an event that may come at any time and must come at some time. The parallel uncertainty of the time of death, though not what is meant here, serves the same moral end if rightly used, and the fact of death is exposed to the same danger of being neglected because of the very uncertainty, which ought to be one chief reason for keeping it ever in view. Any future event, which combines these two things, absolute certainty that it will happen, and utter uncertainty when it will happen, ought to have power to insist on being remembered, at least, till it was prepared for, and would have it, if men were not such fools. Christ’s coming would be oftener contemplated if it were more welcome. But what sort of a servant is he, who has no glow of gladness at the thought of meeting his lord? True Christians are ‘all them that have loved His appearing.’
The illustrative example which separates these two commands is remarkable. The householder’s ignorance of the time when the thief would come is the reason why he does not watch. He cannot keep awake all night, and every night, to be ready for him; so he has to go to sleep, and is robbed. But our ignorance is a reason for wakefulness, because we can keep awake all the night of life. The householder watches to prevent, but we to share in, that for which the watch is kept. The figure of the thief is chosen to illustrate the one point of the unexpected stealthy approach. But is there not deep truth in it, to the effect that Christ’s coming is like that of a robber to those who are asleep, depriving them of earthly treasures? The word rendered ‘broken up’ means literally ‘dug through,’ and points to a clay or mud house, common in the East, which is entered, not by bursting open doors or windows, but by digging through the wall. Death comes to men sunk in spiritual slumber, to strip them of good which they would fain keep, and makes his entrance by a breach in the earthly house of this tabernacle. So St. Paul, in his earliest Epistle, refers to this saying {a proof of the early diffusion of the gospel narrative}, and says, ‘Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.’
II. The picture and reward of watchfulness.
The general exhortation to watch is followed by a pair of contrasted parable portraits, primarily applicable to the apostles and to those ‘set over His household.’ But if we remember what Christ taught as the condition of pre-eminence in His kingdom, we shall not confine their application to an order.
‘The least flower with a brimming cup may stand,
And share its dew-drop with another near,’
and the most slenderly endowed Christian has some crumb of the bread of life intrusted to him to dispense. It is to be observed that watchfulness is not mentioned in this portraiture of the faithful servant. It is presupposed as the basis and motive of his service. So we learn the double lesson that the attitude of continual outlook for the Lord is needed, if we are to discharge the tasks which He has set us, and that the true effect of watchfulness is to harness us to the car of duty. Many other motives actuate Christian faithfulness, but all are reinforced by this, and where it is feeble they are more or less inoperative. We cannot afford to lose its influence. A Church or a soul which has ceased to be looking for Him will have let all its tasks drop from its drowsy hands, and will feel the power of other constraining motives of Christian service but faintly, as in a half-dream.
On the other hand, true waiting for Him is best expressed in the quiet discharge of accustomed and appointed tasks. The right place for the servant to be found, when the Lord comes, is ‘so doing’ as He commands, however secular the task may be. That was a wise judge who, when sudden darkness came on, and people thought the end of the world was at hand, said, ‘Bring lights, and let us go on with the case. We cannot be better employed, if the end has come, than in doing our duty.’ Flighty impatience of common tasks is not watching for the King, as Paul had to teach the Thessalonians, who were ‘shaken’ in mind by the thought of the day of the Lord; but the proper attitude of the watchers is ‘that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business.’
Observe, further, the interrogative form of the parable. The question is the sharp point which gives penetrating power, and suggests Christ’s high estimate of the worth and difficulty of such conduct, and sets us to ask for ourselves, ‘Lord, is it I?’ The servant is ‘faithful’ inasmuch as he does his Lord’s will, and rightly uses the goods intrusted to him, and ‘wise’ inasmuch as he is ‘faithful.’ For a single-hearted devotion to Christ is the parent of insight into duty, and the best guide to conduct; and whoever seeks only to be true to his Lord in the use of his gifts and possessions, will not lack prudence to guide him in giving to each his food, and that in due season. The two characteristics are connected in another way also; for, if the outcome of faithfulness be taken into account, its wisdom is plain, and he who has been faithful even unto death will be seen to have been wise though he gave up all, when the crown of eternal life sparkles on his forehead. Such faithfulness and wisdom {which are at bottom but two names for one course of conduct} find their motive in that watchfulness, which works as ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye, and as ever keeping in view His coming, and the rendering of account to Him.
The reward of the faithful servant is stated in language similar to that of the parable of the talents. Faithfulness in a narrower sphere leads to a wider. The reward for true work is more work, of nobler sort and on a grander scale. That is true for earth and for heaven. If we do His will here, we shall one day exchange the subordinate place of the steward for the authority of the ruler, and the toil of the servant for the ‘joy of the Lord.’ The soul that is joined to Christ and is one in will with Him has all things for its servants; and he who uses all things for his own and his brethren’s highest good is lord of them all, while he walks amid the shadows of time, and will be lifted to loftier dominion over a grander world when he passes hence.
III. The picture and doom of the unwatchful servant.
This portrait presupposes that a long period will elapse before Christ comes. The secret thought of the evil servant is the thought of a time far down the ages from the moment of our Lord’s speaking. It would take centuries for such a temper to be developed in the Church. What is the temper? A secret dismissal of the anticipation of the Lord’s return, and that not merely because He has been long in coming, but as thinking that He has broken His word, and has not come when He said that He would. This unspoken dimming over of the expectation and unconfessed doubt of the firmness of the promise, is the natural product of the long time of apparent delay which the Church has had to encounter. It will cloud and depress the religion of later ages, unless there be constant effort to resist the tendency and to keep awake. The first generations were all aflame with the glad hope ‘Maranatha’-’The Lord is at hand.’ Their successors gradually lost that keenness of expectation, and at most cried, ‘Will not He come soon?’ Their successors saw the starry hope through thickening mists of years; and now it scarcely shines for many, or at least is but a dim point, when it should blaze as a sun.
He was an ‘evil’ servant who said so in his heart. He was evil because he said it, and he said it because he was evil; for the yielding to sin and the withdrawal of love from Jesus dim the desire for His coming, and make the whisper that He delays, a hope; while, on the other hand, the hope that He delays helps to open the sluices, and let sin flood the life. So an outburst of cruel masterfulness and of riotous sensuality is the consequence of the dimmed expectation. There would have been no usurpation of authority over Christ’s heritage by priest or pope, or any other, if that hope had not become faint. If professing Christians lived with the great white throne and the heavens and earth fleeing away before Him that sits on it, ever burning before their inward eye, how could they wallow amid the mire of animal indulgence? The corruptions of the Church, especially of its official members, are traced with sad and prescient hand in these foreboding words, which are none the less a prophecy because cast by His forbearing gentleness into the milder form of a supposition.
The dreadful doom of the unwatchful servant is couched in terms of awful severity. The cruel punishment of sawing asunder, which, tradition says, was suffered by Isaiah and was not unfamiliar in old times, is his. What concealed terror of retribution it signifies we do not know. Perhaps it points to a fate in which a man shall be, as it were, parted into two, each at enmity with the other. Perhaps it implies a retribution in kind for his sin, which consisted, as the next clause implies, in hypocrisy, which is the sundering in twain of inward conviction and practice, and is to be avenged by a like but worse rending apart of conscience and will. At all events, it shadows a fearful retribution, which is not extinction, inasmuch as, in the next clause, we read that his portion-his lot, or that condition which belongs to him by virtue of his character-is with ‘the hypocrites.’ He was one of them, because, while he said ‘my lord,’ he had ceased to love and obey, having ceased to desire and expect; and therefore whatever is their fate shall be his, even to the ‘dividing asunder of soul and spirit,’ and setting eternal discord among the thoughts and intents of the heart. That is not the punishment of unwatchfulness, but of what unwatchfulness leads to, if unawakened. Let these words of the King ring an alarum for us all, and rouse our sleepy souls to watch, as becomes the children of the day.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv44–45 Son of man
Son of man
(See Scofield "Mat 8:20")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv42, 45, 48 The Need of Watchfulness.
The Need of Watchfulness.
A summary:
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v. 42. Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
v. 43. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
v. 44. Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.
Therefore: Since the exact time is unknown and since faithfulness is required, watch, be on your guard, do not even for a day, an hour, a moment, relax your vigilance. Like a thief in the night His day is coming. The housefather, knowing that a thief is coming some time during the night, will far rather watch all night than take chances, with the result that his house is searched through, as if with his permission. Thus the believers of the last days cannot afford to take chances, there is too much at stake. A state of unremitting watchfulness is required of the followers of Christ, in which they are aware every minute of the seriousness of the situation, one fact always standing out in their minds and being brought out in their lives: The Son of Man is coming, a stern and implacable Judge upon the unbelievers that left His warning unheeded, a merciful and kind Judge upon the believers that were always ready for His coming.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv43, 45, 48 that if the master of the house ... broken…
that if the master of the house ... broken into
Jesus uses a parable of a master and servants to illustrate that his disciples should be prepared for his return. (See: Parables)
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the thief
Jesus is saying he will come when people are not expecting him, not that he will come to steal. (See: Metaphor)
he would have been on guard
"he would have guarded his house"
would not have allowed his house to be broken into
This can be stated in active form. AT: "would not have allowed anyone to get into his house to steal things" (See: Active or Passive)
the Son of Man
Jesus is speaking about himself in the third person. (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
translationWords
lord
Son of Man
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv42, 45 24:42 To keep watch is to maintain active, energetic,…
24:42 To keep watch is to maintain active, energetic, single-minded obedience to the Lord (see 25:13; 26:38-41).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.