YOU ARE GIVEN, SO YOU CAN GIVE

DAY 260

Reference text: Matthew 18:21-35

Matthew 18:32,33 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

The truth is ‘he owed a debt he could not pay'(18 vs 25). Unless by some stroke of fortune, the servant in today’s parable came into an inheritance, no amount of labour had the potential to earn him enough to pay back the ten thousand talents he owed. At least, not while he was a servant. It is unfortunate then that this servant had to be summoned again into his master’s presence to revisit a matter that had been closed off in his own interest.

However, this is true also of us. There are times when our responses to the things we receive cause those who gave them to us to question if they have made the right choice. When things are committed to us, not just material, but also spiritual- whether gifts or virtues such as love, trust, patience, mercy and forgiveness, we are required to be diligent custodians of them.

This servant lost sight of this reality and so did not met out the same measure of what he had received. When he heard from a fellow servant the very same words that won him a debt cancellation with his master, he threw his counterpart into prison (18:30).

Beloved, this is true of both material and spiritual resources:

‘we aren’t always given just so we can have for ourselves, we are sometimes given so we can render same unto others.’

#sly