SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/4/2024 10:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Responsibility We Receive”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
25:14-15
Message of the verses: “14 "For it
is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own
slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. 15 “To one he gave five talents,
to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on
his journey.”
John MacArthur begins this section with a word that
I have heard him use before, but I took the time to look up what the word “antecedent”
means. The first meaning of this word
means “something coming before; something that happens or exists before
something else.” Now I will quote from
his commentary and try to understand what he is saying there. “The antecedent of it is the kingdom of
heaven (see v. 1) of which this parable is another illustration.” Now we will look at verse one “"Then the
kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and
went out to meet the bridegroom.” So
what we see here is that the word it refers to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus goes on to give another example of what
the kingdom of heaven will be like in this parable that we are now looking
at. He goes on to say that in other
translations the words kingdom of heaven is in italics in order to make the
connection clear. Now we know this we
can go on to look in more detail what Jesus is saying here.
“As
frequently mentioned in this commentary series, it is important to understand
that in the New Testament the kingdom of heaven and its synonymous phrase, the
kingdom of God, refer to the sphere of God’s dominion in Christ. But while maintaining that basic meaning, the
expression is used in two distinct ways.
Sometimes it designates the indivisible body of all redeemed
people. The Lord used it in that sense
when He declared, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like
children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 18:3; cf. 25:34).
That is the kingdom in its pure, exclusive sense.
“But
sometimes the kingdom of heaven refers to the visible, outward body of those
who profess to know and serve Christ.
Jesus made clear in that outward manifestation of the kingdom both the
true and the false will be found, the genuine Christian and the imitation (see
section on Matt. 13).”
Now
that we know that the kingdom of heaven can have two different meanings as
stated by John MacArthur we will have to figure out which of these meanings
fits best in this parable that we are beginning to look at in today’s SD.
MacArthur
goes on to write “It is in this visible, outward sense that Jesus refers to the
kingdom both in the parable of the virgins and in the parable of the
talents. The foolish virgins and the
faithless slave do not represent professed pagans, atheists, agnostics, or
reprobates but those who profess to belong to Christ. In each account, but genuine and counterfeit
believers are depicted.”
Now
we can look at the man who was about to go on a journey, who is found in this
parable, and we can see that obviously he was planning to be gone for a long
time, perhaps for many months or even a year of more. This man wanted his estate to be well managed
in his absence, and so what he does is that he called his own slaves, and
entrusted his possessions to them. Now
when we talk about slaves in this sections they were much different than what
we who live in the United States would think about slaves, as during this time
of the Roman Empire there were many more slaves that regular people, and so the
slaves could even be physicians or have other types of what we would now call
professions, but they were slaves.
Lord
willing in my next SD we will begin by talking more about slaves, the slaves of
this man who was about to go on a journey.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Talking more about slaves, Jesus was actually
a slave, and those that are believers are also slaves, and as a slave I am to
be going about doing the Masters work.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Be a good slave for the cause of Christ
obeying my Master.
3/4/2024 11:08 AM
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