3. Submit Your Work for Judgement
Your work is not yours. It is His, therefore it is advisable to regularly submit your work for judgement from Him who has given it to you, or as we would call it in the corporate sector, a performance review.
After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
The man who had two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see I have gained two more.’
Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
Matthew 25:20, 22, 24, 25
In the above mirror, the servants submitted their work, or lack thereof, to the master upon his return. Why was this important?
1. It let them know if they had met their master’s expectations.
His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant![…]
His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! […]
His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! […]
Matthew 25:21, 23, 26
2. Faithfulness in the work they had done meant they had qualified for greater tasks i.e promotion
[…] You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things[…]
[…] You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things[…]
Take that talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents.
Matthew 25:21, 23,28
3. Their fruitfulness determined their reward.
[…]Come and share in your master’s happiness!’
[…] Come and share in your master’s happiness!’
And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 25:21, 23, 30
4.They got feedback on how to improve their performance.
Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
Matthew 25:27
The error the last servant made was that he blatantly refused to do the work he was given and rather than ask for help, he blamed his master for his lack of performance. Doesn’t this sound familiar…?
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called out to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, ” Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate it.”
Genesis 3:8-13
The third servant acted in the exact same manner as Adam and Eve:
1. Blatantly disobeyed his master as did Adam and Eve
2. As a result, he was afraid of his master, which is similar to the first parents
3. He did not take responsibility for his actions. Instead, he blamed the master’s character for his disobedience. Adam blamed God while Eve blamed the serpent.
And as we know, he suffered the same fate as Adam and Eve:
So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:23
Your Turn
Our work will be judged. Paul alludes to this when speaking against the division that had arisen in the church at Corinth:
For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15
Before you face the judgement Paul is alluding to, why not submit your work regularly to Him for judgement. This will ensure that you stay on track, get His feedback (before it is too late) and when necessary, undergo pruning (John 15:2) so that your work meets His expectation. It will also keep keep you humble because your focus will always be on Him and not on yourself.
Will you regularly submit your work for judgement?