The Faithful Servant
2 Corinthians 4: 1-18
When Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, there were many people buried in the ruins. Some were found in cellars, as if they had gone there for security. Some were found in the upper rooms of buildings. But where was the Roman sentinel found? Standing at the city gate where he had been placed by the captain, with his hands still grasping his weapon. There, while the earth shook beneath him—there, while the floods of ashes and cinders covered him—he had stood at his post. And there, after a thousand years, was this faithful man still to be found
The story is told of an eleventh-century German king, King Henry III, who, having grown tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch, applied to a monastery to be accepted for a life of contemplation. The religious superior of the monastery, Prior Richard, is reported to have said, “Your Majesty, do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king.”
Henry replied, “I understand. The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you.”
“Then I will tell you what to do,” said Prior Richard. “Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has placed you.”
When King Henry III died, a statement was written: “The King learned to rule by being obedient.”
Like King Henry, we too often tire of our role and responsibility. Like King Henry, we too need to be reminded that God has placed each of us in a particular place to be faithful there. Be it as a plumber, accountant, mother, father, or whatever, God expects us to be faithful where he has placed us.484
Do you apply the same standards of faithfulness to your Christian activities that you expect from other areas of your life?
If your car starts once every three tries, is it reliable?
If your paperboy skips delivery every Monday and Thursday, is he trustworthy?
If you don’t go to work once or twice a month, are you a loyal employee?
If your refrigerator stops working for a day or two every now and then, do you say, “Oh, well, it works most of the time”?
If your water heater provides an icy-cold shower every now and then, is it dependable?
If you miss a couple of loan payments every year, does the bank say, “Ten out of twelve isn’t bad”?
If you fail to worship God one or two Sundays a month, would you expect to be called a faithful Christian?
We expect faithfulness and reliability from things and other people. Does not God expect the same from us? The problem is that in our religious activities we see ourselves as volunteers rather than as duty bound (1 Cor. 9). For a volunteer, almost anything seems acceptable. For a bondservant who is duty bound, faithfulness is expected (Matt. 25:21)
According to C. H. Spurgeon, “A Bible which is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t!” The key to victory is “It is written.
If we are to endure in times of great stress and difficulty, we must beforehand have put down a depth of character that will sustain the blows of the trial
In a similar way, if you want to live a life that is useful in service to God, you must be willing to allow him to put you on the grindstone of trials and testings so that you may be made sharp through loss.