Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be broken through. Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh. And Peter said, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even unto all? And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he hath. But if that servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the unfaithful. And that servant, who knew his lord's will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more. (Luke 12:35-48 ASV)
I will make a few comments on this portion in Luke. The servants are members of the master’s household. They should be looking for the master’s return. They have been committed with stewardship. The issue is faithfulness in carrying out stewardship - this is a matter of duty, of works.
Further, the faithful one is blessed, but the story portrays the possibility of unfaithfulness by the same servant, not another servant who is false ("But if that servant"). The overall meaning of the story should be clear. It is designed to warn the Lord’s servants, His believers who should serve Him, that they must be diligent in carrying out their responsibilities while eagerly anticipating His return.
The whole tenor of the Lord’s word here is to provoke diligence in works. It is not designed to show that the servant in danger of stripes is one who should repent and believe in the Lord. Therefore, the parable has to do with reward according to works in application to the believer. Salvation is not involved.
Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run; that ye may attain. And every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air: but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected. For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ. Howbeit with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it. Wherefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. (1 Corinthians 9:24-11:14 ASV)
The passage above shows that we believers are in a race to win a prize. As an example for us, the Israelites had left Egypt with the promised land before them as a goal. However, due to their sins, most of them were punished by God in the wilderness and died. Thus, they did not enter into the promised land.
Paul stated that he himself could yet be rejected if he did not bring his body under control. The prize is a crown, ruling responsibility in the coming Kingdom (the millennium). This can be lost due to not being approved by God (2 Tim. 2:12). While we are on this earth and in this life we are still in the race, with this prize to be awarded or lost at the future Judgment Seat (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
I say this to move you to shame. What, cannot there be found among you one wise man who shall be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded? Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 6:5-11 ASV)
The first letter to the Corinthians shows that even though the assembly there was genuine, having real believers who were positionally sanctified through their faith in Christ (1 Cor. 1:2), there were many problems there. The letter catalogs divisiveness, lawsuits, incest, etc.
When Paul reaches chapter six, he gives them a serious warning. Based upon the fact that brothers there were wronging one another in lawsuits, he asked them, "Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit [possess] the kingdom of God?" He was saying essentially, " Don’t you know that unrighteous practices of wronging and defrauding your brethren is going to cost you a share in the coming Kingdom of God?"
Then he warns them again, more explicitly, by cataloging unrighteous lifestyles that will be a basis for disinheritance. It is important to note that he begins this more explicit warning by saying to them: "Be not deceived. . . " He is saying, don’t be misled about this fact - anyone practicing an unrighteous lifestyle will not inherit the kingdom of God. The last verse shows that some, before justification and positional sanctification, were indeed engaged in such lifestyles. But, he is stressing in this verse that those who had lived these types of lives have now been accepted by God and justified by Him. Therefore, by implication he is declaring that such a lifestyle should be over; it should not be continued now that one belongs to the Lord Jesus.
He is not saying that a believer can not live such a life. It is amply clear that the Corinthians themselves were evidence that real believers can be fleshly and sinful. Further, he would not warn them not to be deceived about unrighteous unbelievers being disinherited. This would be self-evident.
To confirm this warning of Kingdom disinheritance, there are two parallel passages in Galatians and Ephesians (see below). Honest exegesis will declare that the warnings are to Christians. The Arminian school recognizes this, but wrongfully concludes that this means a potential loss of eternal salvation. The loss is not eternal salvation, but God’s blessing in the millennial kingdom age (there is much more exegetical detail on this kingdom disinheritance in other writings that I can recommend to you).
Many Calvinists will not admit that these verses apply to believers, simply because they too fear that it would mean a loss of eternal salvation. What both the Arminian and Calvinist schools miss is that the warning has nothing whatsoever to do with salvation. Rather, it has to do with reward. Cooperation with God in one’s living after the new birth is a matter of works, the basis of reward.
For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:13-21 ASV)
Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them; For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:1-8 ASV)
The last verse in the Ephesian passage is similar to the final one in the First Corinthian passage I discussed. Once the believers were darkness (compare "And such were some of you"), but now they are light in the Lord (compare "ye were washed", etc); therefore, the believers should now WALK (have their conduct) as children of light.
And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him: if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister. (Colossians 1:21-23 ASV)
"Faithful is the saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with him: if we endure, we shall also reign with him: if we shall deny him, he also will deny us: if we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for he cannot deny himself." (2 Timothy 2:11-13 ASV)
"At my first defence no one took my part, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their account." (2 Timothy 4:16 ASV) [Here Paul is expressing his wish that God not count something against unfaithful believers.]
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