Living Faithful Is For Bearing Fruit

From: TFTW Bible College

In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like a man who traveled into a far country and delivered goods unto his servants.  To one he gave five talents (amounts of money), to another two, and to another one.  After a while, he came back and asked them what they had done with what they had been given.  The ones with the five and two talents had taken the money and used it to earn more.  The master spoke to each one of them.  “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”  (Matthew 25:21)  A couple of things to note here: 1) the servants were called faithful, and 2) the servants had been busy working for the master in order to make a profit.  In contrast, the one who had been given one talent said, “And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:... And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:25-26,30) The man with the one talent who did nothing with what he was given was called “unfaithful,” “wicked,” and “slothful,” or lazy. His punishment was to be cast away instead of rewarded.

As we are Christians, followers of Christ, we do what Christ did.  We look at His life as the perfect example and start imitating it.  We love others, we serve others, we teach others about the word of God.  We follow our leader and “bear fruit.”  By living like Jesus, others will learn about Jesus and God and see Christ living in us.  That will make some others want to be like us, and have the joy we have and have the salvation we have.  When they decide to become Christians, too, that will be the fruit and the prosperous thing we can show to our Lord when He returns.  We can say, “Master, you gave me time and health and abilities, and I have told others about your word and shown them a good life like Christ lived.  Others have decided to obey and become Christians, too.  Here is the increase in your family because they have obeyed!”  Since we have been fruitful, we expect Jesus to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant!”