And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
Christ's warning pictures an unfaithful servant who inwardly concludes his master will not return soon and then lives out that belief in abuse and indulgence. To strike fellow servants is to turn against those watching faithfully, oppressing them harshly and wounding them by suspicion, censure, evil speaking and sowing of doubt and discord. To eat and drink with the drunken is to join the world in self-indulgence, pleasure-seeking and grasping for gain, a spiritual intoxication in which reason is controlled and judgment clouded even without literal wine. This stands in direct contrast to the faithful steward who watches, denies self and feeds the household at the right time, and will be exalted when the master returns. Because the saying belongs to Christ's great prophecy of the last days now being fulfilled, the unfaithful servant will be overtaken unexpectedly and cut asunder with hypocrites, calling every entrusted worker to watchfulness, repentance and faithful service.
Discourse Setting and Context
Matthew 24:49 belongs to Christ's discourse about the destruction of Jerusalem and His coming at the end of the world, with the two events described together, and it also addresses people living in the final scenes of earth's history. That discourse includes prophecy about events before His coming, and the destruction of Jerusalem discussed in it serves as a type of the world's final destruction by fire. The discourse recorded in Matthew 24 and 25 was given shortly before He entered Gethsemane, after a day of teaching and warning.
It is part of the great prophecy that sketches the history of the present dispensation to the complete restitution of all things. That prophecy more particularly sets forth the closing scenes of this world's history, following the church in her warfare and her sufferings on to her promised redemption. It extends to the final triumph of God's people, the destruction of Satan and all his followers, the total and eternal extirpation of evil from the universe, and the renovation of the earth as the everlasting inheritance of the saints when the great controversy is concluded.
The verse belongs to Christ's account of two classes of servants waiting and looking for His appearing, which points to the church living in the last days. The surrounding passage, Matthew 24:45-51, presents Christ's followers as stewards left in charge of His household and interests while He is away. They are to watch, wait, and prepare for His return, remaining faithful so that He does not find them sleeping when He comes suddenly.
Saying Lord Delays Coming
The smiting and the eating and drinking begin when the evil servant says in his heart that his lord delays his coming, and what he says in his heart his actions make manifest. His mistreatment of fellow servants and his joining the drunken in eating and drinking are the outward expression of that inward disregard for his master's return. A servant's actions can thus reveal the belief that the Lord is delaying His coming, and those who profess to know God may express that belief of the heart through conduct, words, works, and life.
He does not say that Christ will not come, and he does not openly scoff at the second coming, but in heart and by words and actions he declares the coming delayed. He banishes from the minds of others the conviction that the Lord is coming quickly, and his influence leads men to presumptuous, careless delay and confirms them in worldliness and stupor. That stupor deepens until earthly passions and corrupt thoughts take possession of the mind.
To say the Lord delays and to smite fellow servants is to act the part of the scoffer and ridiculer of the near coming of the Son of man. Believing His coming delayed, such a servant mistreats his fellow servants and lives in indulgence, and his scorn is joined to that mistreatment and worldly excess. That course falls under divine denunciation, and when his master comes unexpectedly he assigns him a place with the hypocrites.
God has given no one light to say that the Lord delays His coming. The speedy appearing of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory must be proclaimed without putting off the day. This stands in contrast to watching and teaching His coming, and warns against using delay as a reason for unfaithfulness instead of watching and waiting for His personal return.
The verse belongs to the contrast between servants who watch for Christ's coming and teach it and those who deny or disregard it and are not ready. Instead of watching and teaching, the unfaithful servant acts as though his lord's return is delayed, acts violently toward his fellow servants, and joins in drunken excess and indulgent living. When Christ comes He will judge and reward His servants according to whether He finds them watching or denying His coming, regarding those who watch and teach His coming differently from those who deny it and appointing the unfaithful their doom. The warning reaches those who do not want Christ to come and judge the world, because their unfaithfulness will not bear God's inspection and they fear to meet Him.
Smiting Fellow Servants
To smite fellow servants is to turn against them with harsh, violent and oppressive treatment, striking at fellow servants, fellow workers and those placed under his care, especially those who remain watching and giving spiritual food at the right time. This conduct follows the inward decision that the master's return is delayed, and putting off the Lord's coming leads to this oppressive, self-indulgent behavior in which the servant abuses fellow servants and joins the drunken. His eating and drinking with the drunken is absorbing mind and time in worldly enterprises and turning away from God's service, a careless self-indulgence instead of faithful service while waiting for the Son of man's return at an unknown time. Professed workers who neglect Christ's coming in this way become oppressive and morally reckless, and their mistreatment of fellow servants joined to indulgence exposes the effect of error, contradicts the light received, and turns the foretold delay into an excuse for unfaithfulness.
The smiting is done by words, by expressing suspicion, and by evil thinking and evil speaking, whereby confidence of brother in brother is weakened and changed to doubt and unbelief. It means accusing and condemning those who are faithful to their Master, censuring fellow servants especially those better than himself, disparaging their efforts and questioning their motives. By planting suspicion, weakening trust, and turning confidence into doubt and unbelief, it sows discord among those who profess to believe the truth. When the servant loses the spirit and power of the message his unbelief appears in this treatment of others, and then his course declines until he joins worldlings in their pleasure gatherings and worldly spirit and practices, becoming in practice one with them. He banishes from the minds of others the conviction that the Lord is coming quickly, and his influence leads to presumptuous, careless delay and confirms men in worldliness and stupor until earthly passions and corrupt thoughts take possession of the mind. Those who in mind and heart turn away from the Lord's special work for this time and do not cooperate with Him in establishing souls in the faith by leading them to heed His words of warning are doing the work of the enemy of Christ, in unconscious co-partnership with the enemy of righteousness instead of being linked with Christ in His work of establishing souls more firmly in the truth.
Beating fellow servants is oppressing fellow workers through unbelief and doubt, done by those who have outgrown advent faith and live for the world while iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold. It is done for the same reason Cain killed Abel, because Abel was determined to worship God according to God's direction while Cain held to his own plans and hated the favor shown to obedience. This violence against fellow servants joined to indulgence among the drunken reflects the principles of Satan's agents, not the life of Christ's followers.
After the expected time passed, this smiting was fulfilled when Advent ministers abandoned confidence in the movement and attacked those who continued strengthening believers with Scripture and messages of encouragement, a spiritual conflict within the Advent movement. In a publishing office the same smiting and joining the drunken is to harm coworkers by influence and worldly companionship, living in irreligion and unbelief felt by fellow workers and becoming a channel for evil angels to mislead younger apprentices. It leavens promising youth who love God with the influence of those never brought under God's control, revealing a disloyal and untrue worker with no relish and no love for the truth and no love for God, who fails to be a light amid moral darkness and to advance in knowledge of God and the truth. After sufficient trial those without love for truth should be separated from the work.
Eating Drinking with Drunken
To eat and drink with the drunken is to join the drunken in indulgent, ungodly and intemperate living, giving the self to appetite and passion and to careless self-indulgence instead of faithful service while awaiting the Master's return. It is the course of the evil servant who treats delay as permission to abuse fellow servants and to feast in excess, turning from watchfulness and from the self-denial and self-sacrifice required of those entrusted with responsibility. Appetites and passions must be brought under the Word, for selfish indulgence weakens physical, mental and moral power and blurs the distinction between the sacred and the common, leaving the servant unready for Christ's unexpected return.
It means uniting with the world in pleasure-seeking, mingling with it in its spirit and practices and pleasure gatherings, where like grows with like in transgression in fearful assimilation. It is linking in sympathy with the world and becoming in practice one with worldlings, joining the ungodly and sharing their careless indifference that follows neglect of watchfulness and prayer. The servant who treats the coming as distant loses the spirit and power of the message, becomes careless, censures those better than himself, disparages their efforts and questions their motives, and then in practice becomes one with those he joins.
The drunkenness is not necessarily with wine and the staggering is not with strong drink. It is working from the very same principle as the drunken, being spiritually intoxicated with Satan controlling reason so that they know not at what they stumble. Those who have outgrown advent faith and live for the world while iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold oppress fellow workers through unbelief and doubt and deny the speedy appearing in spirit and works and words by saying peace and safety and that all things continue as from the beginning.
It means absorbing mind and time in worldly enterprises, counting earthly things the chief good, spending life to gain worldly riches and spending in self-gratification money lent by the Lord. That money should sustain faithful workers, open doors for gospel work, give the world the last message of mercy and let light shine to those in darkness, but turned to self it makes a poor investment that crumbles to dust and brings eternal loss. Eagerness for buying, selling and gain clouds spiritual judgment and vision, even of those who know the truth but are not sanctified by it, and brings into the churches a spirit acting on delay and turning away from God's service.
It includes indulgence of perverted appetite carried to the greatest excess, with tobacco, wine, liquor, opium and feverish stimulating diet added to indulgence at the expense of health and reason, blinding reason to results. This gratification leads directly to indulgence of unholy passions and enslaves to appetite and base passions, with no felt moral obligation to curb them and no living for the future life. Those waiting for their Lord are to practice temperance in all things and to set an example in eating, drinking, dress and speech, and overeating itself is intemperance. It is disobedience to God's laws as in Noah's time and refusal to keep separate from the pollutions of the world despite express forbidding of union with the world, rushing on for this present world regardless that deeds of everyday life cast their shadow forward and retribution will be according to works.
A professed follower who drinks with worldly companions and shares their conduct dishonors God and turns from divine warnings. To link in sympathy with the world and share in its wrongdoing is to head for destruction with evildoers. Those described will not receive the seal placed only on the foreheads of those who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land, and in the day of vengeance just upon us they will surely be destroyed with the workers of iniquity.
Judgment and Faithful Contrast
The master of that servant will arrive on a day when he is not looked for and at an hour of which he is unaware, coming as a thief, and will cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites and unbelievers where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. That coming belongs to the coming of the Son of man in an hour not thought of, when the same state of things that existed in the days of Noah exists again, with eating and drinking and not knowing until destruction comes while pulpit and press proclaim that the law of God is done away. Those who know the truth must therefore lift the voice in warning like Noah that the end of all things is at hand, and each must ask whether he will stand at the right hand or the left hand of the Judge and live in all holy conversation and godliness. Such conduct marks the servant who ridicules the near coming of the Son of man, and God has given no one light to put off the day, for the speedy appearing of the Son of man in the clouds with power and great glory must be proclaimed without delay.
This stands in contrast to the faithful and wise servant who gives the household meat in due season and whom his lord when he comes will find feeding the household at the right time and will make ruler over all his goods. The evil servant instead inwardly concludes his lord delays his coming and fails to give meat in due season, and his evil conduct portraying the condition of the church at Christ's second coming calls true believers to earnest zeal in faithful service and to watch and be ready. The faithful stewardship is to give spiritual food at the proper time and to do personal labor in families and ministry for souls, in place of burying talents in the world and serving Satan.
A steward identifies himself with his master, acts in his master's stead doing as his master would do in presiding over his goods, makes his master's interests his own, and his dignity lies in his master's trust. If he acts selfishly in any way and turns the advantages gained in handling his lord's goods to his own advantage, he perverts the trust reposed in him and can no longer be looked upon as a servant to be trusted and depended upon. To abuse fellow servants and join the intemperate in self-indulgence is that selfish perversion of stewardship.
Those who presume their Lord is delaying His coming become careless and join in wrongdoing instead of preparing for His return. Their impenitence under the light and mercy given to them brings them near the limit of God's forbearance, for forbearance has limits and judgment will come suddenly and swiftly upon them without escape. The evil servant knows his Master's will but does it not, having the light of truth and every advantage yet choosing his own selfish interests and doing nothing to save others until neglect becomes active opposition and worldly association. He will be left with those whom he did not try to save, with all the good he might have done through the atoning sacrifice but did not do charged against him when weighed in the balances and found wanting.
Presuming on delay shows itself in sloth, selfishness, and using the Lord's goods for appetite and pleasure, with words, works, and lives disregarding Christ's coming and denying the truth of His speedy appearing in spirit and works and words by saying peace and safety and that all things continue as they were from the beginning. Beating fellow servants is oppressing fellow workers through unbelief and doubt by those who have outgrown advent faith and live for the world while iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold, for the same reason Cain killed Abel, because Abel worshiped as God directed while Cain held his own plans and hated the favor shown to obedience. Eating and drinking with the drunken means working from the very same principle as the drunken, where the drunkenness is not with wine and the staggering is not with strong drink, but Satan controlling reason so they know not at what they stumble. The Lord has a controversy with all who act thus, and they come under His denunciation that their Lord will come in a day and hour they do not expect and appoint them with the hypocrites and unbelievers.
Last-Days Fulfillment and Warning
The predictions of Matthew 24 are to be studied and brought to the attention of all, and to be presented by ministers and teachers to those they instruct, leaving matters of lesser consequence. We are living in the time when this prediction is being fulfilled, its truth decides the eternal destiny of souls, and its unmistakable fulfillment shows that Christ's coming is at hand and calls the church to arouse.
The verse belongs to the outline of what is to come upon the world and to Christ's prophecy of the signs preceding His second coming, fulfilled amid the perils of the last days now present and in the closing period of earth's history. In those last days disasters, earthquakes, shipwrecks, floods, fires, and judgments upon cities that have greatly dishonored God warn that the end is at hand, are sent to arouse inhabitants from apathy, and give opportunity to warn the world that the end of all things is at hand. The inward saying that the Lord delays His coming is revealed in outward actions of oppressing fellow servants and joining the drunken in self-indulgent eating and drinking, counting earthly things the chief good, spending life to gain worldly riches, and spending in self-gratification money lent by the Lord. That money should instead be invested to open doors for gospel work and give the world the last message of mercy, acting as His helping hand and sustaining faithful workers by giving means to proclaim warning and let light shine to those in darkness, in contrast to the faithful and wise servant who diligently searches the Word, gives meat in due season, speaks words of truth in faithful warning, calls attention to dangers besetting the world, and shows diligent concern for souls in every town and city. Such a self-seeking course makes a poor investment that crumbles to dust and brings eternal loss, for the Lord will come in a day not looked for and an hour not expected and will cut the unfaithful servant asunder and appoint his portion with the hypocrites where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This belongs to the coming of the Son of man, when the very same state of things that existed in Noah's time exists again, with eating and drinking and not knowing until destruction comes, while from pulpit and press goes forth the proclamation that the law of God is done away. Those who know the truth must lift the voice in warning like Noah that the end of all things is at hand.
It portrays the condition of the church at Christ's second coming, a warning that should arouse earnest zeal in the true believer to watch, be ready, and serve faithfully. It warns those who have long expected to see Christ at His second appearing against listless indifference and sleepy indifference to daily events showing His coming is near, and calls everyone to ask if the Scripture refers to himself and to watch and awaken people to their dangerous condition. The servant who assumes delay and then abuses fellow servants and joins in drunken indulgence marks an unfaithful servant unready for the Son of man's unexpected coming and facing judgment with the hypocrites when his lord comes in an unknown day and hour.
As part of Christ's warning in Matthew 24:42-51 that is now being fulfilled and must not be passed by unheeded, all must take heed to themselves, believe and obey, cease deceiving their own souls, lay hold of the hope set before them in the gospel, and make diligent work of repentance, conversion, and forsaking sins that they may be blotted out, while probation still lingers and mercy's gracious voice is still heard.
Stewardship Duty and Application
The verse warns those entrusted with responsibility, including pastors remiss in ministering and in faithfully educating members to work with God, professed teachers neglecting timely spiritual instruction, and servants unfaithful in heart failing to give spiritual food at the proper time. Believing the master delays, the evil servant abuses fellow servants and joins the drunken in indulgent, ungodly living, and indifference, boasting about delay, and abusive control repeat that false profession. A steward identifies himself with his master, acts in his master's stead doing as his master would do, makes his master's interests his own, and his dignity lies in his master's trust. If he acts selfishly and turns advantages from handling his lord's goods to his own advantage he perverts the trust and can no longer be depended upon as trustworthy.
Every Christian, minister and layman, believer and unbeliever, is the Lord's property bought with a price with special stewardship and work in cooperation with God. Burying talents in the world and serving Satan instead of personal labor in families and ministry for souls is this smiting and fellowship with the drunken, marking unfaithfulness in a sacred commission. The lord of that servant will come in a day he does not look for him and in an hour he is not aware of, and will cut him asunder and appoint his portion with the hypocrites where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, with all the good he might have done through the atoning sacrifice but did not do charged against him when weighed and found wanting. Disregard for the returning Lord leads to mistreatment of others and indulgence rather than the self-denial and self-sacrifice required while awaiting return. Appetites and passions must be brought under the Word of God, because selfish indulgence weakens physical, mental, and moral power and blurs the distinction between sacred and common.
Those with great light, including in ministry, must overcome appetite and passion and deny self for Christ, for leaders who do not restrain them can fail to be ready for the unexpected return. People in positions of responsibility who know the truth but will not deny appetite or passion are not ready, while even publicans and sinners rescued from deep sin may accept gospel hope and enter the kingdom before the privileged who walk in darkness and are shut out. The warning applies to medical missionaries, physicians, and workers who fail in this, in contrast to the work of reaching and helping the lost. It means letting ambition reach to the ends of the earth and carrying on for years in numerous commercial enterprises and in whatever calling in a course God forbids. All who do this must repent and watch, for unless they repent they will never see the kingdom of heaven when the Lord comes unexpectedly.
It describes unfaithful Sabbath-school workers who pretend to guide souls to holiness while marked by pleasure-loving, pride, and love of display, with hearts filled with rubbish and no room for ennobling truth. In contrast to workers passed from death to life revealing the Spirit's moving, they need thorough conversion to refine, purify, and cleanse the soul temple. It warns church members and professed servants that by conduct, teaching, and example they can lead others astray into false paths and must consider whether their influence harms or helps. Those who misuse positions and lead others wrong will answer to God and face the consequences of unfaithfulness. In one setting, giving counsel encouraging reverence for Sunday or acting contrary to God's will is being unfaithful to God's purpose and betraying sacred interests like this servant.
The foretold delay calls for patient waiting and continued cooperation with God, not neglect or abuse. People given great light may become inconsistent when the coming has long been foretold, and like those in Noah's day may use the long-foretold coming as reason to doubt. Fading faith in the soon coming, shown in words and actions with spiritual dullness in watching, leaves God's people unable to discern the signs of the times. The warning applies to a steward who neglects repeated calls to repentance and misuses entrusted means and influence, becoming disloyal, untrue, and without love for truth and God in irreligion felt by fellow workers. To smite and join the drunken is to harm coworkers by influence and worldly companionship, becoming a channel for evil angels to mislead younger apprentices and leavening promising youth, so that after sufficient trial those with no relish and no love for truth and no love for God should be separated from the work.
Christ's warning pictures an unfaithful servant who inwardly concludes his master will not return soon and then lives out that belief in abuse and indulgence. To strike fellow servants is to turn against those watching faithfully, oppressing them harshly and wounding them by suspicion, censure, evil speaking and sowing of doubt and discord. To eat and drink with the drunken is to join the world in self-indulgence, pleasure-seeking and grasping for gain, a spiritual intoxication in which reason is controlled and judgment clouded even without literal wine. This stands in direct contrast to the faithful steward who watches, denies self and feeds the household at the right time, and will be exalted when the master returns. Because the saying belongs to Christ's great prophecy of the last days now being fulfilled, the unfaithful servant will be overtaken unexpectedly and cut asunder with hypocrites, calling every entrusted worker to watchfulness, repentance and faithful service.
Discourse Setting and Context
Matthew 24:49 belongs to Christ's discourse about the destruction of Jerusalem and His coming at the end of the world, with the two events described together, and it also addresses people living in the final scenes of earth's history. That discourse includes prophecy about events before His coming, and the destruction of Jerusalem discussed in it serves as a type of the world's final destruction by fire. The discourse recorded in Matthew 24 and 25 was given shortly before He entered Gethsemane, after a day of teaching and warning.
It is part of the great prophecy that sketches the history of the present dispensation to the complete restitution of all things. That prophecy more particularly sets forth the closing scenes of this world's history, following the church in her warfare and her sufferings on to her promised redemption. It extends to the final triumph of God's people, the destruction of Satan and all his followers, the total and eternal extirpation of evil from the universe, and the renovation of the earth as the everlasting inheritance of the saints when the great controversy is concluded.
The verse belongs to Christ's account of two classes of servants waiting and looking for His appearing, which points to the church living in the last days. The surrounding passage, Matthew 24:45-51, presents Christ's followers as stewards left in charge of His household and interests while He is away. They are to watch, wait, and prepare for His return, remaining faithful so that He does not find them sleeping when He comes suddenly.
Saying Lord Delays Coming
The smiting and the eating and drinking begin when the evil servant says in his heart that his lord delays his coming, and what he says in his heart his actions make manifest. His mistreatment of fellow servants and his joining the drunken in eating and drinking are the outward expression of that inward disregard for his master's return. A servant's actions can thus reveal the belief that the Lord is delaying His coming, and those who profess to know God may express that belief of the heart through conduct, words, works, and life.
He does not say that Christ will not come, and he does not openly scoff at the second coming, but in heart and by words and actions he declares the coming delayed. He banishes from the minds of others the conviction that the Lord is coming quickly, and his influence leads men to presumptuous, careless delay and confirms them in worldliness and stupor. That stupor deepens until earthly passions and corrupt thoughts take possession of the mind.
To say the Lord delays and to smite fellow servants is to act the part of the scoffer and ridiculer of the near coming of the Son of man. Believing His coming delayed, such a servant mistreats his fellow servants and lives in indulgence, and his scorn is joined to that mistreatment and worldly excess. That course falls under divine denunciation, and when his master comes unexpectedly he assigns him a place with the hypocrites.
God has given no one light to say that the Lord delays His coming. The speedy appearing of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory must be proclaimed without putting off the day. This stands in contrast to watching and teaching His coming, and warns against using delay as a reason for unfaithfulness instead of watching and waiting for His personal return.
The verse belongs to the contrast between servants who watch for Christ's coming and teach it and those who deny or disregard it and are not ready. Instead of watching and teaching, the unfaithful servant acts as though his lord's return is delayed, acts violently toward his fellow servants, and joins in drunken excess and indulgent living. When Christ comes He will judge and reward His servants according to whether He finds them watching or denying His coming, regarding those who watch and teach His coming differently from those who deny it and appointing the unfaithful their doom. The warning reaches those who do not want Christ to come and judge the world, because their unfaithfulness will not bear God's inspection and they fear to meet Him.
Smiting Fellow Servants
To smite fellow servants is to turn against them with harsh, violent and oppressive treatment, striking at fellow servants, fellow workers and those placed under his care, especially those who remain watching and giving spiritual food at the right time. This conduct follows the inward decision that the master's return is delayed, and putting off the Lord's coming leads to this oppressive, self-indulgent behavior in which the servant abuses fellow servants and joins the drunken. His eating and drinking with the drunken is absorbing mind and time in worldly enterprises and turning away from God's service, a careless self-indulgence instead of faithful service while waiting for the Son of man's return at an unknown time. Professed workers who neglect Christ's coming in this way become oppressive and morally reckless, and their mistreatment of fellow servants joined to indulgence exposes the effect of error, contradicts the light received, and turns the foretold delay into an excuse for unfaithfulness.
The smiting is done by words, by expressing suspicion, and by evil thinking and evil speaking, whereby confidence of brother in brother is weakened and changed to doubt and unbelief. It means accusing and condemning those who are faithful to their Master, censuring fellow servants especially those better than himself, disparaging their efforts and questioning their motives. By planting suspicion, weakening trust, and turning confidence into doubt and unbelief, it sows discord among those who profess to believe the truth. When the servant loses the spirit and power of the message his unbelief appears in this treatment of others, and then his course declines until he joins worldlings in their pleasure gatherings and worldly spirit and practices, becoming in practice one with them. He banishes from the minds of others the conviction that the Lord is coming quickly, and his influence leads to presumptuous, careless delay and confirms men in worldliness and stupor until earthly passions and corrupt thoughts take possession of the mind. Those who in mind and heart turn away from the Lord's special work for this time and do not cooperate with Him in establishing souls in the faith by leading them to heed His words of warning are doing the work of the enemy of Christ, in unconscious co-partnership with the enemy of righteousness instead of being linked with Christ in His work of establishing souls more firmly in the truth.
Beating fellow servants is oppressing fellow workers through unbelief and doubt, done by those who have outgrown advent faith and live for the world while iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold. It is done for the same reason Cain killed Abel, because Abel was determined to worship God according to God's direction while Cain held to his own plans and hated the favor shown to obedience. This violence against fellow servants joined to indulgence among the drunken reflects the principles of Satan's agents, not the life of Christ's followers.
After the expected time passed, this smiting was fulfilled when Advent ministers abandoned confidence in the movement and attacked those who continued strengthening believers with Scripture and messages of encouragement, a spiritual conflict within the Advent movement. In a publishing office the same smiting and joining the drunken is to harm coworkers by influence and worldly companionship, living in irreligion and unbelief felt by fellow workers and becoming a channel for evil angels to mislead younger apprentices. It leavens promising youth who love God with the influence of those never brought under God's control, revealing a disloyal and untrue worker with no relish and no love for the truth and no love for God, who fails to be a light amid moral darkness and to advance in knowledge of God and the truth. After sufficient trial those without love for truth should be separated from the work.
Eating Drinking with Drunken
To eat and drink with the drunken is to join the drunken in indulgent, ungodly and intemperate living, giving the self to appetite and passion and to careless self-indulgence instead of faithful service while awaiting the Master's return. It is the course of the evil servant who treats delay as permission to abuse fellow servants and to feast in excess, turning from watchfulness and from the self-denial and self-sacrifice required of those entrusted with responsibility. Appetites and passions must be brought under the Word, for selfish indulgence weakens physical, mental and moral power and blurs the distinction between the sacred and the common, leaving the servant unready for Christ's unexpected return.
It means uniting with the world in pleasure-seeking, mingling with it in its spirit and practices and pleasure gatherings, where like grows with like in transgression in fearful assimilation. It is linking in sympathy with the world and becoming in practice one with worldlings, joining the ungodly and sharing their careless indifference that follows neglect of watchfulness and prayer. The servant who treats the coming as distant loses the spirit and power of the message, becomes careless, censures those better than himself, disparages their efforts and questions their motives, and then in practice becomes one with those he joins.
The drunkenness is not necessarily with wine and the staggering is not with strong drink. It is working from the very same principle as the drunken, being spiritually intoxicated with Satan controlling reason so that they know not at what they stumble. Those who have outgrown advent faith and live for the world while iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold oppress fellow workers through unbelief and doubt and deny the speedy appearing in spirit and works and words by saying peace and safety and that all things continue as from the beginning.
It means absorbing mind and time in worldly enterprises, counting earthly things the chief good, spending life to gain worldly riches and spending in self-gratification money lent by the Lord. That money should sustain faithful workers, open doors for gospel work, give the world the last message of mercy and let light shine to those in darkness, but turned to self it makes a poor investment that crumbles to dust and brings eternal loss. Eagerness for buying, selling and gain clouds spiritual judgment and vision, even of those who know the truth but are not sanctified by it, and brings into the churches a spirit acting on delay and turning away from God's service.
It includes indulgence of perverted appetite carried to the greatest excess, with tobacco, wine, liquor, opium and feverish stimulating diet added to indulgence at the expense of health and reason, blinding reason to results. This gratification leads directly to indulgence of unholy passions and enslaves to appetite and base passions, with no felt moral obligation to curb them and no living for the future life. Those waiting for their Lord are to practice temperance in all things and to set an example in eating, drinking, dress and speech, and overeating itself is intemperance. It is disobedience to God's laws as in Noah's time and refusal to keep separate from the pollutions of the world despite express forbidding of union with the world, rushing on for this present world regardless that deeds of everyday life cast their shadow forward and retribution will be according to works.
A professed follower who drinks with worldly companions and shares their conduct dishonors God and turns from divine warnings. To link in sympathy with the world and share in its wrongdoing is to head for destruction with evildoers. Those described will not receive the seal placed only on the foreheads of those who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land, and in the day of vengeance just upon us they will surely be destroyed with the workers of iniquity.
Judgment and Faithful Contrast
The master of that servant will arrive on a day when he is not looked for and at an hour of which he is unaware, coming as a thief, and will cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites and unbelievers where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. That coming belongs to the coming of the Son of man in an hour not thought of, when the same state of things that existed in the days of Noah exists again, with eating and drinking and not knowing until destruction comes while pulpit and press proclaim that the law of God is done away. Those who know the truth must therefore lift the voice in warning like Noah that the end of all things is at hand, and each must ask whether he will stand at the right hand or the left hand of the Judge and live in all holy conversation and godliness. Such conduct marks the servant who ridicules the near coming of the Son of man, and God has given no one light to put off the day, for the speedy appearing of the Son of man in the clouds with power and great glory must be proclaimed without delay.
This stands in contrast to the faithful and wise servant who gives the household meat in due season and whom his lord when he comes will find feeding the household at the right time and will make ruler over all his goods. The evil servant instead inwardly concludes his lord delays his coming and fails to give meat in due season, and his evil conduct portraying the condition of the church at Christ's second coming calls true believers to earnest zeal in faithful service and to watch and be ready. The faithful stewardship is to give spiritual food at the proper time and to do personal labor in families and ministry for souls, in place of burying talents in the world and serving Satan.
A steward identifies himself with his master, acts in his master's stead doing as his master would do in presiding over his goods, makes his master's interests his own, and his dignity lies in his master's trust. If he acts selfishly in any way and turns the advantages gained in handling his lord's goods to his own advantage, he perverts the trust reposed in him and can no longer be looked upon as a servant to be trusted and depended upon. To abuse fellow servants and join the intemperate in self-indulgence is that selfish perversion of stewardship.
Those who presume their Lord is delaying His coming become careless and join in wrongdoing instead of preparing for His return. Their impenitence under the light and mercy given to them brings them near the limit of God's forbearance, for forbearance has limits and judgment will come suddenly and swiftly upon them without escape. The evil servant knows his Master's will but does it not, having the light of truth and every advantage yet choosing his own selfish interests and doing nothing to save others until neglect becomes active opposition and worldly association. He will be left with those whom he did not try to save, with all the good he might have done through the atoning sacrifice but did not do charged against him when weighed in the balances and found wanting.
Presuming on delay shows itself in sloth, selfishness, and using the Lord's goods for appetite and pleasure, with words, works, and lives disregarding Christ's coming and denying the truth of His speedy appearing in spirit and works and words by saying peace and safety and that all things continue as they were from the beginning. Beating fellow servants is oppressing fellow workers through unbelief and doubt by those who have outgrown advent faith and live for the world while iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold, for the same reason Cain killed Abel, because Abel worshiped as God directed while Cain held his own plans and hated the favor shown to obedience. Eating and drinking with the drunken means working from the very same principle as the drunken, where the drunkenness is not with wine and the staggering is not with strong drink, but Satan controlling reason so they know not at what they stumble. The Lord has a controversy with all who act thus, and they come under His denunciation that their Lord will come in a day and hour they do not expect and appoint them with the hypocrites and unbelievers.
Last-Days Fulfillment and Warning
The predictions of Matthew 24 are to be studied and brought to the attention of all, and to be presented by ministers and teachers to those they instruct, leaving matters of lesser consequence. We are living in the time when this prediction is being fulfilled, its truth decides the eternal destiny of souls, and its unmistakable fulfillment shows that Christ's coming is at hand and calls the church to arouse.
The verse belongs to the outline of what is to come upon the world and to Christ's prophecy of the signs preceding His second coming, fulfilled amid the perils of the last days now present and in the closing period of earth's history. In those last days disasters, earthquakes, shipwrecks, floods, fires, and judgments upon cities that have greatly dishonored God warn that the end is at hand, are sent to arouse inhabitants from apathy, and give opportunity to warn the world that the end of all things is at hand. The inward saying that the Lord delays His coming is revealed in outward actions of oppressing fellow servants and joining the drunken in self-indulgent eating and drinking, counting earthly things the chief good, spending life to gain worldly riches, and spending in self-gratification money lent by the Lord. That money should instead be invested to open doors for gospel work and give the world the last message of mercy, acting as His helping hand and sustaining faithful workers by giving means to proclaim warning and let light shine to those in darkness, in contrast to the faithful and wise servant who diligently searches the Word, gives meat in due season, speaks words of truth in faithful warning, calls attention to dangers besetting the world, and shows diligent concern for souls in every town and city. Such a self-seeking course makes a poor investment that crumbles to dust and brings eternal loss, for the Lord will come in a day not looked for and an hour not expected and will cut the unfaithful servant asunder and appoint his portion with the hypocrites where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This belongs to the coming of the Son of man, when the very same state of things that existed in Noah's time exists again, with eating and drinking and not knowing until destruction comes, while from pulpit and press goes forth the proclamation that the law of God is done away. Those who know the truth must lift the voice in warning like Noah that the end of all things is at hand.
It portrays the condition of the church at Christ's second coming, a warning that should arouse earnest zeal in the true believer to watch, be ready, and serve faithfully. It warns those who have long expected to see Christ at His second appearing against listless indifference and sleepy indifference to daily events showing His coming is near, and calls everyone to ask if the Scripture refers to himself and to watch and awaken people to their dangerous condition. The servant who assumes delay and then abuses fellow servants and joins in drunken indulgence marks an unfaithful servant unready for the Son of man's unexpected coming and facing judgment with the hypocrites when his lord comes in an unknown day and hour.
As part of Christ's warning in Matthew 24:42-51 that is now being fulfilled and must not be passed by unheeded, all must take heed to themselves, believe and obey, cease deceiving their own souls, lay hold of the hope set before them in the gospel, and make diligent work of repentance, conversion, and forsaking sins that they may be blotted out, while probation still lingers and mercy's gracious voice is still heard.
Stewardship Duty and Application
The verse warns those entrusted with responsibility, including pastors remiss in ministering and in faithfully educating members to work with God, professed teachers neglecting timely spiritual instruction, and servants unfaithful in heart failing to give spiritual food at the proper time. Believing the master delays, the evil servant abuses fellow servants and joins the drunken in indulgent, ungodly living, and indifference, boasting about delay, and abusive control repeat that false profession. A steward identifies himself with his master, acts in his master's stead doing as his master would do, makes his master's interests his own, and his dignity lies in his master's trust. If he acts selfishly and turns advantages from handling his lord's goods to his own advantage he perverts the trust and can no longer be depended upon as trustworthy.
Every Christian, minister and layman, believer and unbeliever, is the Lord's property bought with a price with special stewardship and work in cooperation with God. Burying talents in the world and serving Satan instead of personal labor in families and ministry for souls is this smiting and fellowship with the drunken, marking unfaithfulness in a sacred commission. The lord of that servant will come in a day he does not look for him and in an hour he is not aware of, and will cut him asunder and appoint his portion with the hypocrites where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, with all the good he might have done through the atoning sacrifice but did not do charged against him when weighed and found wanting. Disregard for the returning Lord leads to mistreatment of others and indulgence rather than the self-denial and self-sacrifice required while awaiting return. Appetites and passions must be brought under the Word of God, because selfish indulgence weakens physical, mental, and moral power and blurs the distinction between sacred and common.
Those with great light, including in ministry, must overcome appetite and passion and deny self for Christ, for leaders who do not restrain them can fail to be ready for the unexpected return. People in positions of responsibility who know the truth but will not deny appetite or passion are not ready, while even publicans and sinners rescued from deep sin may accept gospel hope and enter the kingdom before the privileged who walk in darkness and are shut out. The warning applies to medical missionaries, physicians, and workers who fail in this, in contrast to the work of reaching and helping the lost. It means letting ambition reach to the ends of the earth and carrying on for years in numerous commercial enterprises and in whatever calling in a course God forbids. All who do this must repent and watch, for unless they repent they will never see the kingdom of heaven when the Lord comes unexpectedly.
It describes unfaithful Sabbath-school workers who pretend to guide souls to holiness while marked by pleasure-loving, pride, and love of display, with hearts filled with rubbish and no room for ennobling truth. In contrast to workers passed from death to life revealing the Spirit's moving, they need thorough conversion to refine, purify, and cleanse the soul temple. It warns church members and professed servants that by conduct, teaching, and example they can lead others astray into false paths and must consider whether their influence harms or helps. Those who misuse positions and lead others wrong will answer to God and face the consequences of unfaithfulness. In one setting, giving counsel encouraging reverence for Sunday or acting contrary to God's will is being unfaithful to God's purpose and betraying sacred interests like this servant.
The foretold delay calls for patient waiting and continued cooperation with God, not neglect or abuse. People given great light may become inconsistent when the coming has long been foretold, and like those in Noah's day may use the long-foretold coming as reason to doubt. Fading faith in the soon coming, shown in words and actions with spiritual dullness in watching, leaves God's people unable to discern the signs of the times. The warning applies to a steward who neglects repeated calls to repentance and misuses entrusted means and influence, becoming disloyal, untrue, and without love for truth and God in irreligion felt by fellow workers. To smite and join the drunken is to harm coworkers by influence and worldly companionship, becoming a channel for evil angels to mislead younger apprentices and leavening promising youth, so that after sufficient trial those with no relish and no love for truth and no love for God should be separated from the work.