“And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt. 25:30)
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)
Desiring to, expected to, or commanded to. There is only one option left that I am aware of, forced to.
Which of these describes your life, not only in your service to the Almighty, as profitable to His Kingdom, but in your secular life as well?
I met a man yesterday who said that the company he worked for required him to wear a mask during the supposed pandemic, but after only a few short sentences from me, he understood it was his choice, place the face covering on or find another job.
He also stated that he and his family received the injection, they had to, he said, if they wanted to go on a vacation. He no longer wanted to converse with me after I explained the difference between “having to” and “desiring to.”
We who have been born-again are commanded to perform certain tasks and we are expected to obey those commands, yet we are not Israel, we are not under the Law, but under grace, under the Law of Christ.
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2) And “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34)
None can be forced to obey these commandments, it is not that the Almighty cannot force us to, nothing is impossible for Him, but because of the free will He has blessed us with, choices are always available to us.
The action of love is a choice, and since 1st Samuel 16:7 is a truth, the Lord knows whether we are performing those tasks because we are desirous to, or if they are done because we believe we are expected to.
“But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
The profitable servant is zealous of good works, he desires to be a son in whom the Father is well pleased, we obey because of love, because of who He is, and always so that the Lord Jesus Christ will be lifted up to the glory of the Lord our God.
I place a question before you here, one I pray you will contemplate in-depth, when the Lord said to those present that day, “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:10) which commandments was He speaking of? Was it the laws given to Israel at Mount Sinai by Moses, or the laws of bearing each other’s burdens and loving one another?
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” (Gal. 4:4)
“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1st John 2:2)
At the cross, when the blood of our Savior was shed, the Law was finally fulfilled by the only One who could do so. Those who say they are saved yet attempt to adhere to the Law are putting the Lord Jesus Christ to an open shame, and they do not serve Him because they desire to, but because they believe they are expected to, and those expectations come from a false knowledge that they have been commanded to by a Law that has been accomplished in full.
They will not accept the truth of Ephesians 2:8-9.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
And as it was just as much a truth when the Lord spoke it to those present that day, it is a truth today.
“Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” (Matt. 15:7-8)
The unprofitable servant does all that he has been commanded to do; sons and daughters do so out of a desirous heart because of love born by faith.
“Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (Gal. 4:7)
We who have been crucified with Christ are not Israel, even if you were born of the seed of Abraham, we are not under the Mosaic Law, but under the Law of Christ, what we have been commanded to do we can only do by the free will of our own desires, and only then because of faith that produces good works in love to Him who first loved us.
