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July 19, 2025 |
| Three Kinds of Servants | ||
The verses we're going to look at in this study come from a parable in Luke 12. Jesus is talking about three levels of servants: stewards, the knowledgeable, and those who do not have full knowledge. But the story isn't so much about the servants as the outcomes for the servants. There are going to be six outcomes for these servants, two for each level of servant.
This parable is about what the servants are doing when their master returns, whether they are doing the will of the master or not. The consequences of not doing the will of the master are also described.
Like all parables, this is another metaphor, one about spiritual things. The characters represent groups of people. The events represent different events. The master represents Jesus, and his return represents the Second Coming. The servants represent the different levels within the church, the spiritual body of Jesus.
The phrase "doing the will of the master" represents living the way Jesus said to live. The opposite of that is sin.
Yeshua said to him, "Who is the faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord will appoint over his servants to give a portion in his time? 43 Blessed is that servant whom, when his Lord will come, he will find doing so. 44 Truly, I say to you, that he will appoint him over all his possessions.
45 But if that servant will say in his heart, 'My Lord delays to come', and he should begin to strike the servants and the maids of his Lord and he should begin to eat and to drink and to get drunk. 46 The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he does not expect and in an hour when he does not know; he shall cut him off and he shall appoint his portion with those who are unbelievers.
47 The servant who knew the will of his master and did not prepare for him according to his will, he shall be beaten many times.
48 But he who did not know and did something worthy of blows shall be beaten with few blows,
for from everyone to whom much is given, much shall be required, and of him to whom they commit much, they shall require more." (Luke 12:42-48)
The first kind of servant described is a steward. The steward was often a slave, as he is here, who was given authority over other slaves. One of his jobs was to feed and care for them, "give them a portion." That portion could also be any kind of care or help that they need. The steward was also the person who was in charge of making sure things got done in the house. The servants did the work.
Spiritually, the steward is a leader of the flock. He represents the leaders of the church: ministers, teachers, preachers, etc. They have an additional responsibility, which is more than the average person.
The steward who was faithful and acted wisely is described first in the verses.
The parable says that when the master returns, the wise steward will be found doing what he should be doing, that is, caring for the flock. The consequence is that he will be given greater responsibility.
The next kind of servant is also a steward, but he has a bad heart. The verse says "he says in his heart", which means he desires to do wrong and that causes him to reason this way, "My lord is taking a long time and may take even longer." That means his bad heart causes him to think he can do wrong and get away with it. His plan is to do wrong, and when he figures the master is about to come back, he will start doing what he should be doing.
This is also a hint from Jesus to his audience, including us, that it's going to be some length of time before he's going to come back.
If the steward reasons this way and begins to misbehave and mistreat the servants of the Lord, the Lord of that steward will come when he isn't expecting him and will "cut him off."
This "cut off" phrase is used in many places in the Bible. It can refer to a wide range of punishments from demotion to execution.
This steward hasn't been taking care of the staff in the household. Instead he has been pleasing himself, eating, drinking, and getting drunk. The spiritual meaning of "drunk" is spiritual confusion. Everyone eats and drinks so it seems odd this would be listed as part of his offences. It isn't.
Remember that the steward was in charge of feeding the other servants, and this feeding was described as giving them a "portion", not giving them food to eat and drink. The steward gives them a portion of what he has from the master. So, in this parable, the eating and drinking the bad steward is doing is the taking in of things other than what the master gave him, opening himself up to many kinds of ideas. These are the bad ideas of the world.
Not only does the bad steward become drunk on these things, but he starts to "strike the servants and maids." The spiritual meaning of this is to injure them spiritually. This could be by being a bad example of the master's instructions or by teaching them things that are different than what the master said.
The bad steward becomes drunk from the things he has been eating and drinking, and is not aware that his master's return is close. His master returns and finds him not doing what he should have been doing.
Jesus steps out of the symbolism of the parable for a moment. The parable has been about servants in a household, and now he says "unbelievers". He speaks plainly here, without the symbolism of the parable. He says that Steward will be treated as an unbeliever. Jesus could have stayed inside the parable by saying something else, like, "The master threw him out of the house," so this seems intentional. Therefore he must be doing it to make the meaning of the parable clear to his audience so no one can or will misinterpret it.
The next servant is not a steward. He is an ordinary servant. Spiritually, this would be a person in a church who isn't a leader.
This servant knew what he should be doing, but wasn't doing it. Spiritually, he knew Jesus' will, but was not doing it. This servant will be beaten many times.
The text of the translation I'm quoting uses the word "servant," but we are really talking about slaves. Slaves were sometimes beaten for not doing their work. Spiritually, this beating results in a smaller reward in the kingdom. Some of what he had was taken away from him. This is the reverse of the wise servant, who was given more.
In a household, it would have been the job of the steward to make sure he did his work, so we assume that the steward is also not doing his job. The steward may have caused this or allowed this, but the servant knows his master's will, so he is responsible and is being beaten.
This is also true of us. We have the words of the master, Jesus. If someone tells us something different and deceives us, it is still our fault. He will be punished as well, but we are accountable for what we understood and turned away from. That leads us to the next servant.
The next person is a servant who has incomplete knowledge of what he should do. He knows some things but not others. Spiritually, this person does not know his master's will in all cases.
The consequence for this servant is that, where he unknowingly did things that were wrong, he will be beaten with a few blows. The spiritual meaning is that his reward will be reduced in a small way.
This may seem unfair. If he didn't know he was doing wrong, why should he be punished? He isn't completely without knowledge. We all have a basic understanding of what is right built into our consciences. He has that to guide him. He also has others he could consult.
Also bear in mind that the verse about this servant uses the phrase "worthy of blows," which it doesn't use elsewhere in this passage. This can only mean that, where he should have known what was right, he didn't do it. This would mean that there were some things he just couldn't have known about. For those, he is not punished.
The passage concludes by summarizing itself. Those who are given many skills, much understanding, or great responsibility are expected to produce much. God gives much to people who are proving themselves worthy. If they prove themselves unworthy, although much was given to them, little was returned from them, they are punished because of what they didn't do
Jesus never exactly says what this punishment would be. We know that our reward will be in the glorious bodies we will receive when Jesus returns. So the beatings that reduce the rewards would be reducing the glory of those bodies, but we don't really understand glory. I won't go into any depth on that here.
* He will cut him off, and he will set his portion with the phonies. There will be weeping and gnashing teeth. (Matthew 24:51)
I've described our passage in the form of a table. That helps me organize and understand things. That may or may not help you.
There are three levels, or kinds, of servants:
For each kind of servant, the second column shows what the verses said about what that servant was found doing when the master returned, whether doing or not doing the will of the master.
The third column shows the consequence for doing or not doing the will of the master for each kind of servant.
The first servant was the steward. He was appointed to feed the people. He represents a leader in the church.
The verses told us about two of them. The wise steward is found doing the will of the master, feeding the people, and taking care of them. All his staff are in good shape when the master returns. The house is orderly, and everything's working great. Therefore he's rewarded for all the great things that he's done. He's put in charge of everything.
In the second row, we see a steward who has been found striking the servants, eating, drinking, and getting drunk.
I've seen people who have had too much non-biblical knowledge. They start mixing in some Aristotle, some liberalism, some mysticism, or other ideas into Christianity. That gets messed up in their heads, and they come up with wrong ideas. They've become confused.
We need to be careful what we take in. That's not just about teachings. It's about everything in the world, the commercials that we listen to on TV, the shows we listen to, the videos we watch on YouTube, and similar services, all of that stuff. We need to be careful what we're taking in because that stuff can confuse us, and it can result in the master finding us doing wrong things when he returns.
This foolish steward is found doing wrong. The consequence is that he is treated as an "unbeliever". We mentioned earlier that "unbeliever" is a word that isn't inside the parable's context.
The parable says he will be treated as an unbeliever. That means no salvation. The hours this person spent writing and delivering his confused messages were wasted time. Eternal torment is his destiny.
The next servant was a regular servant who knew the will of his master. Not only did he know it, but he did it. This servant isn't mentioned in the parable, but it is one of the possibilities in this household.
He may have had an evil steward over him who was telling him to do wrong. Despite that, he did the will of his master. Though Jesus didn't say what the consequence would be, we know he is going to be rewarded.
Next the parable talks about the case where this servant did not do what he was supposed to be doing. He knew his master's will, but perhaps the evil steward managed to convince him to do what was wrong. He is punished with many blows. Spiritually his reward is beaten down very much.
Many places in the Bible make the point that we are always responsible for our decisions when we know Jesus' will. We are even responsible, to some extent, for the things we do not know.
The fifth row is a servant who is also a regular servant, but he doesn't know so much about the will of the master. Maybe he's a new servant and doesn't yet know what the master wants done or how he wants it done. Maybe he is just a slow learner.
Nonetheless, if he does his master's will, we know that he will be rewarded. This case is also not mentioned in the parable.
The last row in the table is the case where this person with imperfect knowledge of his master's will does things that are worthy of blows, then he will be struck with a few blows. This is different from the second servant, who would receive many blows.
Even though he didn't know the complete will of his master, he still had a basic understanding of what was right and was responsible for that.
This parable doesn't directly address repentance. It deals with it by saying the servants are judged by what they were doing when the master returned. Looked at that way, the parable assumes the servant has repented for everything wrong that was done before. For example, it assumes the wise steward had repented of anything wrong that he had done prior to the master going away.
The parable also doesn't deal with those who had died while the master was away. For them, after their death, they could no longer do anything, right or wrong. In time, the master would return, and they would be judged by what they were doing when they died.
This parable also doesn't address the possibility that a servant could, on his own, leave the family. Spiritually, this would be a person who turned away from God. That idea wouldn't fit into the parable. Servants, slaves, as we mentioned, could not leave a household. They were owned property, and if they ran away, the master would likely search for and find them and beat them for running away. Though the parable can't handle this, we know that leaving the household would make him an unbeliever, with the same destiny as all unbelievers.
This parable mostly uses the phrase "doing the will of the master." Less often, it uses the phrase "worthy of beatings." It doesn't address the idea of mortal sins, those that, in the context of the parable, would immediately see you kicked out of the house. It is only referring to unintentional sins.
Matthew 24 has this same parable with pretty much the same words, but there is a difference that I think is interesting. When that parable talks about the consequence for the evil steward, it says:
He will cut him off, and he will set his portion with the phonies. There will be weeping and gnashing teeth. (Matthew 24:51)
The phonies are those who pretend to be something, but they aren't that something. In this parable, that would be having the title of steward but not doing what stewards do, running the house the way the master wants.
The implication behind one saying "phony" and the other "unbeliever" is that being an unbeliever and a phony are the same thing. That does make sense when you think about it.
That version of the parable also extends that consequence to say there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This phrase appears elsewhere in Matthew and represents the eternal torment and regret that is the destined treatment of unbelievers.
We have seen that there are different levels in the body of Christ.