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To say in our heart that our Master delays is to love the present evil age and not to love the Lord’s appearing — Matt. 24:48; 2 Tim. 4:8, 10; cf. Acts 26:16:
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We must beware of covetousness, not storing up treasure for ourselves but being rich toward God — Luke 12:16-21; 2 Cor. 6:10; Eph. 3:8.
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“Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32) means that we should not love and treasure the evil world that God is going to judge and utterly destroy; this is a solemn warning to the world-loving believers — vv. 28-32; cf. Rom. 1:21, 25.
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We must be watchful and beseeching so that the day of the Lord’s coming would not come upon us suddenly as a snare — Luke 21:34-36; cf. Matt. 2:3.
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To beat our fellow slaves is to mistreat fellow believers — 24:49a; Acts 9:4:
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We must not judge and condemn our fellow believers but be kind to them, tenderhearted, forgiving them, even as God in Christ forgave us — Luke 6:37; Eph. 4:31-32; cf. 1 Thes. 5:14.
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We must not revile or criticize our brothers but consider them more excellent than ourselves — 2 Tim. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 3:8-10; Jude 10; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Phil. 2:2-4, 29; Rom. 12:3:
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Reviling is when we cause the saints to inwardly suffer pain or to be inwardly wounded by assailing and criticizing them harshly with abusive language.
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The Lord’s way is to bind up our wounds (healing us) and to pour oil and wine on our wounds (giving us the Holy Spirit and the divine life) — Luke 10:33-34.
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One of the reasons the church is divided and damaged is that there are reviling words; those who take in reviling words bear the same responsibility as those who speak reviling words; in order for the church to maintain the oneness, we have to withstand reviling words.
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The consciousness of sin comes from knowing God; in the same way, the consciousness of reviling words comes from the knowledge of the Body; reviling words are opposed to the testimony of the Body.
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The Lord warns us that revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God in the next age as a reward to the overcoming saints — 1 Cor. 6:10.
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We must not lord it over our fellow believers but serve them as slaves to feed them with the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit — 1 Pet. 5:3; Matt. 20:25-28; cf. Num. 17:8.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 24:48-50 But if that evil slave says in his heart, My master delays, and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with the drunken, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know.When we mistreat a fellow believer by criticizing, opposing, or despising him, in the eyes of the Lord, that is to beat him. We have to say a strong word here. We can easily fall into this danger without any kind of realization. We can fall into criticizing the brothers and sisters. Sometimes we may oppose or despise some of the saints. Perhaps we would even fight against them. This is to beat the Lord’s slaves, who are our fellow slaves. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” p. 101)
Today’s Reading
[In Matthew 24:48 the slave said], “My master delays.” The slave believed that the Lord was coming again, but he also believed that He was delaying His coming. Anyone who does not believe that the Lord is coming quickly is an evil slave. The reason for the slave’s mistake, according to what the Lord said, is in verse 48. Even though with his mouth he said that the Lord would come quickly, in his heart he still considered that the Lord would delay. This kind of person is in peril. If one does not take the attitude that the Lord will come quickly, he will not be watchful.Many people do not want the Lord to come quickly. They are afraid that when the Lord comes, He will spoil and terminate their plans. They cannot pray John’s prayer: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20). We must have an attitude and a desire for the Lord to come quickly…. If you think that the Lord will delay, He will come sooner than you expect. (CWWN, vol. 15, p. 302)
All of us should be those who are feeding the Lord’s people at the proper time (Matt. 24:45) and using the Lord’s talents in full (25:20, 22). On the negative side, we should not be those beating our fellow slaves (24:49). You may not do your duty to perform your service, but instead you are criticizing and sometimes even strongly opposing the brothers. You are not doing the work but beating the fellow slaves. Some of the sisters are always busy on the telephone. When they hear something good about the brothers, they are not interested in letting anyone know. When they hear something bad about certain brothers, especially the elders, they become busy on the telephone. This is why many of the elders in the local churches are afraid to do anything wrong. Once they do something wrong, nearly everyone knows through the use of the telephone. These telephone calls are all beatings.
When something negative happens to any of the saints, some can never retain it. Passing on the news of this negative situation is a kind of beating. Sometimes you may have a subtle way of praying in the prayer meeting for a saint who is in a negative situation….You pray for people, but about ten percent of your prayer is a kind of judging. This is beating. The elders in one location may criticize the elders in another location. This is also beating the fellow slaves.
You waste your time of service in beating. Instead of doing the service, you beat the brothers, the fellow slaves. Many of the brothers can testify that they never heard me beating others by criticizing or exposing them. My only burden is to release messages. Although I have no intention of exposing anyone, many are exposed by the light in the messages I release. That is not my job but the Lord’s work. We all have to stop our criticizing, judging, opposing, and murmuring as a kind of beating. We must spend our time, our energy, and our everything to do a positive service for the Lord’s interest. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” pp. 539-540)
Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 15, pp. 297-302, 337-351; CWWN, vol. 57, “The Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry,” pp. 239-240