4 Types of Servants
Today, I’m going to cover ONE of the places in Scripture where Jesus made it clear that He has an expectation that His followers actually walk in obedience to His Word.
Continually obeying…
Continually abiding…
Continually walking as He did…
Enduring…
…are necessary for salvation.
Now, you might wonder why I’d bother to write about this topic, so let me be explicit as to why.
There are professing Christians who have secret sins. They love their sin and have no intention of repenting or turning away from it. These may be hidden from others or just hidden within their hearts.
There are professing Christians who are enamored with the things of this world, and have refused to leave its trappings behind for the Kingdom’s sake. They are building their own kingdoms instead of the Kingdom of God.
There are professing Christians who abuse the doctrine of grace, and live as they please following their own desires and plans. They are their own gods.
There are professing Christians who have hateful attitudes toward other human beings who are also created in God’s image, and beloved of God. They hate the sin AND the sinner.
So, that’s why.
Over the past year or so, I had to awaken to the fact that there were MANY teachings of man that did not align with God’s word that I had adopted wholesale.
This caused great suffering in my life.
I do not want anyone else to suffer as a result of their ignorance or unbelief.
Now, I am NOT speaking of Christ followers who are taking up their crosses daily, actively engaged in spiritual warfare and are in the process of becoming overcomers.
That is a normal part of the Christian journey, and an essential part of salvation. It’s called sanctification.
One can only be sanctified by the work of Holy Spirit.
This is why I’ve spent considerable time teaching about the Him.
Professing Christians better be certain that they’re actually IN CHRIST and not trying to live the Christian life out of their flesh.
Because if you don’t have the Spirit of Christ then you don’t belong to Him.
So let’s dig in.
The text is Luke 12:35-48.
35 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36 And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. 41 Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? 42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 44 Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. 45 But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; 46 The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47 And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
In this passage, Jesus depicts 4 types of servants.
Now, keep in mind Jesus spoke of servants. He was explicitly referring to those in relationship to the Master. In other words, He is speaking of His disciples. Those we refer to today as Christians.
The Greek word for servant is “Doulos”. It means a slave, bondman, one in service to another; one who gives himself up to another’s will; devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests.
He is not talking about unbelievers and I’ll show you how I know that for certain shortly.
Of the four kinds of servants, only one is described as having a good outcome. The ones found watching, who are faithful, and who have been wise stewards over God’s gifts and provisions (see verses 37-38; 43).
Please pay close attention to what he said about the second type, folks.
The one who beats up other people. The one who is only concerned with feeding the flesh. The one who has given himself over to sin (verse 45).
What happens to this servant when the Lord returns and catches him doing these things?
This SERVANT gets assigned his portion with UNBELIEVERS!!!
This is how we know without a shadow of a doubt that when Jesus spoke of servants he was speaking of believers NOT unbelievers. He uses different words to differentiate the two!
The Greek word for unbelievers is “apistos”. It means unfaithful, faithless, and the unbelieving.
Do you understand what that means?
Let me show you a few places elsewhere in Scripture where the Bible corroborates this truth.
On the mistreatment of others:
1 John 2:9-11 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
On those who feed the flesh:
1 Corinthians 6:9-20 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The letters of Corinthians, Revelation and Galatians were all addressed to BELIEVERS.
On those who do not obey:
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Please do not try to explain away what is CLEARLY spelled out in scripture.
If you fit this bill, you can repent today.
RIGHT NOW.
God will welcome you back with open arms.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to continue to treat others poorly, focus only on feeding your flesh and continuing to walk in darkness, you WILL be treated exactly as unbelievers!
Hell is a real place. And it’s not the location of a grand party. It’s the absence of everything good, and those that end up there will be trapped eternally in torment.
Please don’t let that be you.
Jesus goes on to describe two other types of servants.
The third type gets a severe beating (verse 47).
This seems to be describing not someone who is walking in darkness per se, but someone who is called to some ministry or work by God, but doesn’t prepare themselves for it, and doesn’t do it. It appears to be a sin of omission rather than commission.
Now, I don’t have the slightest idea what a severe beating entails but I do know that I would not want to get whatever it is from the Almighty God.
Notice that the severity of the punishment is based on how much of God’s will the servant knew and whether or not they had prepared themselves, and carried His will out.
So, here’s another wake up call.
A whole bunch of you are practical Bible scholars.
You know your Word. That’s AWESOME. 👏
But are you DOING the Word?
Because if you’re not doing what it says, the more you know will actually work against you!
That is NOT a winning strategy.
The last servant type gets a light beating.
I still wouldn’t want a whooping from God - even a light one.
Beating. Whooping. Whatever it entails, it’s guaranteed to be an unpleasant experience.
But at least for this servant, the punishment is proportional to what that person understood.
God is just.
Finally, Jesus ends the parable with this statement: “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more”.
There is MUCH more to the Christian walk than a profession of faith. That’s only the very first stage gate.
I cannot stress enough how quickly we’re approaching the end of this age.
It’s time to get totally honest with yourself.
Which of the four servant types are you?
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