Title Counting Master/Matthew 25:14-30
Contents
counting master
Text: Matthew 25:14-30
You can feel that our social and cultural structure today is very different from that of traditional Korea. Moreover, the rapid change from agricultural culture to urbanization and mechanization has halved the feeling of harvest, and the present reality is that much of the significance of Thanksgiving Day is being lost. Since Thanksgiving is not a biblical festival title, there have been voices of reconsideration, and there are churches that offer thanksgiving services on Chuseok.
However, the problem is that thanksgiving for the fruits has disappeared and Thanksgiving Sunday is being reduced to a festival of giving thanks. The first Thanksgiving service held by the Cheonggodos in 1621 was
1) It was a thanksgiving service to God who kept and protected us.
2) We invited local Indians to worship and give thanks, and it was an event of sharing and reconciliation with them. This is the original meaning of the thanksgiving service. Giving thanks for God's protection and love and sharing it with our neighbors are the true contents of worship that the church should offer then, now and in the future.
1. The owner of the opportunity
The owner gives the worker the opportunity to venture, toil, and to be loyal according to the talents and circumstances possessed by the worker. From the time when Christians decided to believe in Jesus and registered with the church, they must become runners in the racetrack and become victors in the good fight, 'because they are wise in goodness and foolishness in evil'. In the text, the master distributes five talents, two talents, and one talent differentially, without mentioning the condition of the workers or the nature and method of their actions. There are). Two of them use it to propagate in various ways. However, the servant who received the one talent shows an unbelieving appearance by adopting an attitude of complacency, passiveness, follow-up and preservation of the status quo.
2. The trader (verse 16)
There are several ways to obtain wealth. In the text, 'business' can be seen as an expression of the overall method of enriching the lives of the saints. Strictly speaking, the behavior of these two workers is not a character of service, but a sincere attitude to be possessed as a worker. The phrase "a good and faithful servant" shows that the master highly valued the worker's actions. Because the master was far away, he could not supervise or restrict the actions of the workers. The worker's actions are arbitrary.
In the Christian business ethics, sincerity and diligence should be prioritized rather than prioritizing means and methods, and rather than many gains, 'to be eaten with hard work' and 'income worthy of one's actions' should be pursued. Through constant effort and perseverance, they were able to make a profit worthy of it.
3. Accounting with us (verse 19)
Results are the only means of evaluating processes, and processes exist for good results. A common concern of pregnant women is easy delivery, a common concern of a divorced couple is proper nurture of children, and a common concern of a person is how to die.
In the text, the evaluation of the worker through the master (the bird to be accounted for) is the evaluation of the hard work and results for a certain period of time. But God's evaluation of believers is a moment-by-moment event. Each of our actions reveals or hides the glory of Jesus Christ. Because every moment we face a moment of judgment, and at that moment we are greeted with a new time. The past becomes a moment of irreversible judgment, and the coming time comes again as a new possibility and opportunity for me. Therefore, our daily life, every moment of action, is not just a simple human action, but an eschatological action.
Therefore, we must always be awake and do our best to pray, keep the word of God in our hearts, and discern the times to accomplish God's will by putting on the full armor of the Holy Spirit and overcoming evil with good. Also, we should testify of the will of Christ to our neighbors by revealing the glory of Christ through good deeds and virtues.