WAS HE WICKED? by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1880

WAS HE WICKED?

By Charles Haddon Spurgeon

His lord called this unprofitable servant "wicked." Is it, then, a wicked thing to be unprofitable? Surely wickedness must mean some positive action. No. Not to do right is to be wicked; not to live for Christ is to be wicked; not to be of use in the world is to be wicked; not to bring glory to the name of the Lord is to be wicked; to be slothful is to be wicked. It is clear there are many wicked people in the world who would not like to be called so. "Wicked and slothful;" these are the two words which are riveted together by the Lord Jesus, whose speech is always wise. A schoolboy was asked by his master, "What are you doing, John?" He was called up, and thought to be quite clear by saying, "I was doing nothing, sir;" but his master answered, "That is the very thing for which I called you out, for you ought to have been doing the lesson which I set you." It will be no excuse at the last for you to cry, "I was doing nothing, sir!" Were not those on the left hand made to depart with a curse upon them because they did nothing? Is it not written: "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." He who does nothing is a "wicked and slothful servant."

This man was condemned to outer darkness. Notice this: he was condemned to be as he was, for hell, in one light, may be described as the Great Captain's saying, "As you were." "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still." In another world there is permanence of character; enduring holiness is Heaven, continual evil is hell. This man was outside of the family of his lord. He thought his lord a hard master, and so proved that he had no love to him, and that he was not really one of his household. He was outside in heart, and so his lord said to him, Remain outside. Besides that, he was in the dark: he had wrong notions of his master; for his lord was not an austere and hard man; he did not gather where he had not stowed, nor reap where he had not sown. Therefore his lord said, You are willfully in the dark; abide there in the darkness which is outside. This man was envious: he could not endure his master's prosperity; he gnashed his teeth at the thought of it, and was sentenced to continue in that mind.—Spurgeon.