How Faithful Are You?

KEY VERSE: “Well, thou good servant: because thou host been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” —Luke 19:17

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Luke 19:11-27

IN THE PARABLE of the pounds, each servant received the same amount of money—one ‘pound’. This Illustrates blessings received from the Lord which are common to all his servants—assets which enable them to render acceptable service in his cause.

The pound represents something which is furnished by the nobleman—the Lord—to his people. We were first drawn to the point of full consecration by the power of the truth, and after this we received the begetting and anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is this anointing which authorizes us to take part in the work of the Lord. To make our labors acceptable despite the imperfections of our flesh, we receive for our justification the robe of Christ’s righteousness.

Through the proclamation of the truth, God’s work is accomplished in the earth during the Gospel Age. What is that work? Paul wrote, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”—II Cor. 5:19,20

When Jesus appeared to his disciples before his ascension, he said to them, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Previously Jesus had promised to send the Holy Spirit, which, he said, would guide his disciples into all truth.—John 16:12-15

Jesus’ reference to the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of truth,” was indeed correct. We cannot receive the truth into our hearts or be guided and strengthened by it without the aid of the Holy Spirit. Nor can we possess the Holy Spirit apart from the truth. Because of this, when the gift of the Holy Spirit was bestowed upon the waiting disciples at Pentecost, it enabled them to understand the marvelous teachings of Jesus which previously they could not ‘bear’. It was through the Holy Spirit that the mysteries of God became theirs to use as the Lord’s stewards.

Throughout the Gospel Age those who are endowed with the Spirit of truth to the extent that their service has contributed to the implanting of the same Spirit of truth in the minds and hearts of others, could be considered as having made an ‘increase’.

We notice the rewards administered to the faithful ones of the parable: the one who gained ten pounds was given authority over ten cities; the one who gained five pounds was given authority over five cities. These are promises of rulership, symbolized in the Scriptures by a ‘crown’.

Let us note what Paul wrote to the brethren at Philippi: “Do all things without murmurings and disputing: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, among a crooked and perverse nation, … holding forth the Word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.”—Phil. 2:14-16

The Apostle Peter confirms Paul’s view of Christian stewardship, and also exhorts to faithfulness in the use of the gifts with which we have been endowed by the Holy Spirit. He said: “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever.”—I Pet. 4:10,11

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