PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

A young man may hold great promise in many areas, but if fundamental features are lacking, he cannot work for the Lord, even though his desire to serve the Lord is genuine and even though he has prepared himself for it. He can never carry out a proper work for the Lord. We have never met anyone who cannot control his body, yet who can be a good worker of the Lord. I do not know what these ones make of themselves in other professions, but I have never seen a person who is unable to control and rule over his body prove to be a useful servant of the Lord, nor have I seen a man who does not have a mind to suffer who can serve the Lord. I have never met a person who fails to listen to others who is good at serving. All servants of the Lord have to have certain basic character traits. In other words, they must possess such qualifications; they must receive mercy from the Lord to possess these qualities before they can serve the Lord in a proper way.

Serving the Lord is not simple. A breaking-down and building-up process is necessary for the outer man. If you are wrong, loose, and undisciplined in many things, you are not qualified to do the Lord's work. Many are not qualified to do the Lord's work because of flaws in their character and personality, not because of a lack of technique, knowledge, or doctrine.

This frustration has delayed the Lord's work in many instances. We have to learn to listen to the brothers, to humble ourselves before the Lord, to seek after Him, and to deal with Him in many aspects. We should never despise the training of our character.

If our character and disposition do not go through some severe constituting work of the Spirit, we cannot expect much result from our work. None of the basic training in our character can be overlooked. If we are constituted in our character, we can work for the Lord. Without such a character, we cannot work for Him. Let us spend time before Him to deal with these character issues one by one.

In this chapter we come to another character issue - diligence.

ONE

Matthew 25:18, 24-28, 30 says, "But he who had received the one went off and dug in the earth and hid his master's money...Then he who had received the one talent also came and said, Master, I knew about you, that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow And I, was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the earth; behold, you have what is yours. And his master answered and said to him, Evil and slothful slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not winnow. Therefore you should have deposited my money with the money changers; and when I came, I would have recovered what is mine with interest. Take away therefore the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents... And cast out the useless slave into the outer darkness." This passage shows us that one of the basic requirements of a worker of the Lord is diligence. It clearly portrays the fundamental trouble in the life of a servant.

The trouble was twofold: He was both "evil" and "slothful." His evil was manifested in his calling his master "a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow." We shall not dwell on this aspect of his character, but we shall speak of the other, that is, his sloth. He hid his talent in the earth because his heart was evil and his hands were slothful. In his heart he had certain thoughts about his master. These thoughts were evil. At the same time, he did not do what he should have done, but instead he hid the talent in the earth. This is simply slothfulness. We want to pay attention to this aspect of his character.

Slothful people never look for things to do. If work comes their way, they seek to evade it. Many Christians also adopt this attitude; they view big matters as being small, and small matters as being nothing. They try to reduce a big work to a small work, and they try to make a small work nothing at all. This is their attitude all the time. Based on our experience, we can say that only one kind of person is useful--those who are diligent. A slothful person is detestable. A brother once said that even Satan can do nothing about a slothful person. Proverbs 19:24 says, "A sluggard burieth his hand in the dish, and will not even bring it to his mouth again" (Darby). It is hard for a lazy man to do just about anything. It is hard because he is afraid of becoming tired. He puts his hand in the dish, but cannot even bring it to his mouth again. He has to eat, but he wishes that others would bring the food in the dish to his mouth. If there is ever a useless man on this earth, he has to be one who is slothful. God will not use a slothful person.

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