Feeding and Being Fed

So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.

Matthew 24:44-46

Here is a household whose master is away and the household is waiting for him to return. The master has appointed certain servants and given them responsibility during the time of his absence. These servants have the primary and important task of feeding the household at the proper time.

The household is the church, the house of God. The servants are those appointed to teach within the church. This includes anyone who is in the position of teaching another within the body of Christ. Notice how the Lord puts it? Who then is the faithful and wise servant? He invites us to put our own name there. Are you that kind of a servant? That is what Jesus is asking.

The food is the Word of God, which is intended to feed the people of God. Jesus said so himself. When the devil came and tempted him to turn the stones into bread, he said, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). The Word of God is truth. It is the revelation of the way things really are. Thus if you are going to live you have got to know what life is all about, to know the way things really are. That is why the word of truth is also food.

That is the first essential in being ready for the Lord's return — to feed and be fed by the Word of God. The household must eat or they can do nothing else. If they do not eat, they will not survive. A Christian who learns to feed on the Word becomes stable, alive, vital, an exciting person. Whenever a church takes the Word of God seriously you will always find it to be alive, vital, changing society around it. The church in many places has grown weak. Many are made up of people who are constantly at one another's throats, quarreling, self-indulgent, immoral. Why? The Lord puts his finger right on it! It is because they are not properly fed. They are not satisfied by the Word of God. And why do they have no food? Because those responsible have lost the hope of the coming of the Lord! That is what Jesus says later in the parable. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, My master is staying away a long time, and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.

If you are going to watch for his coming, the first essential is that you must know the Word of God. You must read and learn and study and seek to know him. How well do you know the Word of God?

Thank you, Father, for your word, which feeds and nourishes me. Teach me to be more diligent in taking in the food you have provided.