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Unprofitable Servants
Phil Maxwell
June 14, 2002
According to the parable of the talents and many other passages,
we have all been given a portion of the Lord’s goods and will be judged
according to the gain we realize on His behalf therewith. The “works” that
we will be judged on are not the things we do, but the gain we earn. Given that
the Lord guarantees the harvest to those who hear and do according to His word,
this is as an absolutely irrefutable measure of a servant’s faithfulness. Only
irresponsible and unprofitable “servants” would seek to justify themselves
on the basis of what they’ve done in the absence of any true gain.
Given this, the Parable of the Sower speaks to the measuring rod that should be
applied in our handling of the things of God placed in our hands. If we are
accountable for the fruit we bear, then we should be wise investors and sowers,
not wasting the seed we’ve been given on soil that won’t produce fruit. The
soil represents the hearts of those we allow to partake of the fruits of the
Spirit from us. If all they do is consume it or otherwise don’t produce fruit,
why sow more? Why not, rather, sow a little and see what comes of it? It
doesn’t take much seed to determine the quality of soil. Soil that fails to
produce with a little seed will fail even more with more seed.
The kingdom of heaven is as a field that receives good seed and both returns
good fruit and perpetually regenerates itself. It is a treasure hid in a field
that continually produces good fruit after the kind of seed sown in it. That is
why once a man finds such a field, he sells all he has to have it. No sensible
person would continue struggling to survive off the produce of poor soil when
given an option to sow in and reap from good soil. The kingdom of heaven is
amongst the true children of Yahweh who reproduce fruits in abundance, always
returning more than given.
Having been pretty well robbed, beaten, and/or abandoned by those we’ve sown
in over the years, Brenda and I have found one glimmering hope between us –
each other. There is nothing between us that seeks to profit at the other’s
expense. Rather, we have always accepted the Lord’s way between a husband and
wife, and He has blessed our labors accordingly. Brenda is a branch of the tree
of life for me, supplying to me according to all I have sown in her and
satisfying all my wants and needs from the abundance of spiritual fruit she
bears. We may have lost much of what the Lord has given us in well intentioned,
but ill-fated investments in others, but the yield from what we have given each
other in Christ at least matches what we were given in the first place. What we
have lost through our own and others foolishness is being restored to us through
each other.
Recognizing the times we live in and seeing the contrast between good and bad
soil so clearly, our attitudes have changed somewhat. The fact that someone has
a want or need that we could meet doesn’t directly translate into a reason to
do so. As Yahshua’s servants, we are expected to exercise wisdom and
discretion as well as diligence in how we dispense His goods, of which we only
have what we’ve been given plus what we earn to work with. There must be a
reasonable prospect for return. We aren’t interested in sowing amongst rocks,
sand, or thorns. If there isn’t profit for Christ in something or someone, we
aren’t interested.
This isn’t exactly a recipe for making friends and influencing people, though,
especially those who’ve come to expect us to freely share of our abundance.
Like the foolish virgins, they think they have a right to profit from others’
just because they have more. Such are liars and thieves who do nothing but
consume the good things of the Spirit and expect more whether they work the
garden themselves or not. They get angry when they are locked out of partaking
of the blessings given to the faithful, as though obstructing their thievery is
itself theft. So be it. Let the sword of truth fall where it may, and let each
person determine for themselves whether to be a profitable servant themselves or
merely freeloading partakers of the profits of others.
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