The Daily Word of Righteousness

Carelessness, #15

His master replied, "You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?" (Matthew 25:26)

Did Jesus love the man all the while and then suddenly turn on him and call him wicked and lazy; or did the Lord feel that way about him while he was wasting the Lord's money?

If the Lord was disgusted with him because he was being wicked and lazy, why are we telling him Jesus loves him?

Maybe we ought to check with the Lord before we tell someone Jesus loves him or her.

According to the New Testament, did Jesus' Apostles go about telling everyone Jesus loved them? Or did they warn people to repent because of judgment to come?

Did Paul tell Felix that Jesus loved him? I don't think would make Felix tremble, do you?

All right, so Jesus loves the man. Just look at how the Lord expressed that love:

Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:28-30)

You want to know something? I think this sort of thing happens today.

When Christians do not use what they have, the Lord waits patiently to see if they are going to repent. If they do not, the Lord removes what they have been given and entrusts these Kingdom resources to someone else.

Then the wicked, lazy believer enters spiritual darkness.

He may not realize at the time the gifts God has given him have been given to another. Also, he may not realize he has been put into spiritual darkness. He no longer can see what the Lord is doing or hear the voice of the Spirit of God.

Instead he becomes critical of other Christians. Why? Because he is dwelling in the darkness with Satan.

Carelessness, indifference, lukewarmness, foolishness, laziness, neglect, complacency, are forms of wickedness. They are not accepted in the Kingdom of God.

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. (Ezekiel 16:49)

What was the sin of Sodom? Arrogance, too much food, and indifference.

What characterizes American believers today? Arrogance, too much food, and indifference. This does not mean every American Christian is arrogant, overweight, and indifferent. But it does mean the wickedness we must be careful to avoid does not consist only or even primarily of drugs, alcohol, and adultery.

Our problem is business as usual. We are too occupied with the American materialistic way of life. Materialism causes us to not be diligent with the work of building the Kingdom of God, with feeding the Lord's sheep. When we are rushing about, trying to keep up with our culture, we simply cannot hear the Lord. We are too busy!

Nothing more sinister than occupying ourselves with eating, working, playing, sleeping, and reproducing can result in our being carried away in the river of destruction in the Day of Christ. (from Carelessness)