D
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:
１
We must beware of covetousness, not storing up treasure for ourselves but being rich toward God—Luke 12:15-20; 2 Cor. 6:10; Eph. 3:8.
２
"Remember Lot's wife" is a solemn warning to the world-loving believers— Luke 17:31-32; cf. Rom. 1:21, 25.
３
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.
E
To beat our fellow slaves is to mistreat our fellow believers—24:49a; 18:3-7; Acts 9:4:
１
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.
２
We must not revile or criticize our brothers but consider them more excellent than ourselves—1 Cor. 6:10; Phil. 2:2-3, 29:
ａ
To revile a brother is to criticize or demean him harshly with abusive language—cf. Luke 17:2.
ｂ
Those who take in reviling words bear the same responsibility as those who speak reviling words; such words damage the Body.
ｃ
God will never entrust authority to those who by nature like to criticize others.
３
We must not lord it over our fellow believers but serve them as a slave to feed them with the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit—1 Pet. 5:3; Matt. 20:25-28:
ａ
For one to lord it over the saints means that he replaces the Lord in their lives by making decisions for them or by telling them where to move, thus, insulting the headship and lordship of Christ.
ｂ
If we tell others where they should go without encouraging them to pray, seek the Lord's leading, and have the proper fellowship in the Body, this is a great insult to the Lord!
F
To eat and drink with the drunken is to keep company with worldly people, who are drunk with worldly things—24:49b; cf. Eph. 5:18:
１
Because of their divine nature and holy standing, the believers should not be yoked together with the unbelievers; this should be applied to all intimate relationships between believers and unbelievers, not only to marriage and business—2 Cor. 6:14; 1 Cor. 15:33; cf. Prov. 13:20.
２
We must flee youthful lusts and pursue the all-inclusive Christ with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart—2 Tim. 2:22.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 20:27-28 And whoever wants to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.1 Pet. 5:3 Nor as lording it over your allotments but by becoming patterns of the flock.
Matthew 24:48 says, “But if that evil slave says in his heart, My master delays.” The evil slave is a saved believer, as seen in the fact that he was appointed by the Lord (v. 45), that he called the Lord “my Master,” and that he believed that the Lord was coming. Verse 49 says that the evil slave beats his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with the drunken. To beat the fellow slaves is to mistreat the fellow believers, and to eat and drink with the drunken is to keep company with worldly people, who are drunk with worldly things. (Life-study of Matthew, p. 706)
Today’s Reading
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 bad about certain brothers, especially the elders, they become busy on the telephone…These telephone calls are all beatings.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.
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)
We should not make suggestions to others or give instructions to them. None of us is qualified to do this. At the time of the Acts, Peter, Paul, and the other apostles were not qualified by themselves to make decisions or give instructions. Then what about us? We must honor the Lord. We are not the Lord or the Master, and we are not the Lord of the harvest. Only the Lord Jesus is the Lord of the harvest. He is the Master, and we must honor Him by not making decisions in ourselves…Nevertheless, we have all transgressed in this respect in the past, for a lot of decisions have been made among us. Some decisions were made by individuals, and others by groups. In certain cases some even made decisions for others. But where is the Lord? When we make decisions in this way, it seems that there is no Lord among us. It seems that we do not have the Spirit but only ourselves to depend on. We make decisions and we give instructions. Instead of doing this, we must pray, fast, and wait on the Lord. We need to honor Him. He is our Master, and we are His slaves. We should say to Him, “Lord, You are my Master. I am neither qualified nor do I have the position and the authority to make decisions or give orders to others. Lord, I am waiting on You. I want to know Your will and Your heart. Lord, I want to know what You want me to do and what You want my fellow workers to do. Lord, I ask You what You want the churches to do.” We all must have this attitude; otherwise, we shall insult the Lord, and eventually He will give us up. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 2, “The Spirit and the Body,” pp. 284-285)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1977, vol. 2, “The Spirit and the Body,” ch. 1