“His Master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master.'”
– Matthew 25:21
What a great verse. In the middle of this Parable of the Talents that Jesus tells, about a Master who goes away and leaves talents to His servants to be faithful with what’s been entrusted to them.
Matthew 25:21 Narrates the Fate of the Faithful Servant
This servant is faithful over a little. And as a result the Master says, listen to the language here, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master”. A great description of how we want to live our lives as followers of Jesus, as servants of God. “Well done, good and faithful servant.” This is what we live to hear, our Master Jesus say. We want to be faithful with the goodness, and grace, talents, resources, time, everything that he has entrusted to us.
When we do, we find joy in relationship with Jesus, our Lord, our Master. I just want you to think about what this looks like today, in your life, in my life. How can we live today in such a way that we lay our head on our pillow tonight, and Jesus is saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with the opportunities, with the responsibilities, with the resources, including your time, and your money, and your attention. You are faithful with what I entrusted you with today.”
To lay on your pillow at night, and experience the joy of your Master, and then rise the next day. All of this, based on God’s grace, that’s part of the point of the Parable, is that we’re being faithful with what’s been entrusted to us. Just think about all the grace in your life. When you wake up in the morning, you’ve been entrusted with much, and say, “God, by your grace, I want to be faithful. I want to be a good servant today. I want to steward well, all the grace you’ve given me for your glory in my life”. And to live like that all day long. As you do to experience joy with your Master, enjoying His grace and stewarding it for His glory.
Matthew 25:21 Encourages us to imitate the Faithful Servant
God, may that be the story of our lives each and every day. May that be the story of my life. Each person who’s listening to this right now, praying this together with me, may we be faithful with the grace you’ve entrusted to us today. God, we pray that you would use our time, our energy, our attention, our affections, our resources, our money, to glorify you today, to love you with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and to love others as ourselves.
God, we long for the day when we will stand before you by your grace. We say together today, “We want to hear these words on that day, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.'” We know that, left to ourselves, there’s no way that will be the commentary on our lives. So we pray for your grace today, to be faithful servants of yours, knowing that this will be good for others. This will be glorifying to you, and this will bring joy to us.
Praying for the Baloch People
God, we pray, as we do most every one of these podcasts, for the spread of the gospel to people who’ve never heard it in the world today, for unreached people like the Baloch in Pakistan. God, we pray that you would take the resources you’ve given us, and help us to steward them faithfully for the spread of the gospel among the nations. Help the nations enter into the joy of knowing you as their Master. We pray that over the Baloch and 7,000 other people groups who are unreached by the gospel right now. God, help us to be good and faithful servants with the gospel you’ve given us in the time and place in which you’ve put us. In Jesus name, we pray, according to Matthew 25:21. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
