During a discourse with the disciples, Jesus spoke of a wise servant contrasted him with an evil one. The wise servant treated his household well, but the evil beat his fellow servants and began to drink with the drunken. Why? Why would the evil servant turn against fellow servants and begin to beat them?
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; (Matthew 24:48-49)
One possible reason could be that the evil servant saw the other servants as less than him. All of the people were servants, but he was given the responsibility of the household. At some point, pride must have entered his heart and his view towards them changed. Because he saw them as less than himself, he began to treat them lower than how he expected to be treated himself.
He may also have beaten them out of frustration. As the servants failed to perform to his expectations, he may have become angry. Instead of dealing with the servants’ short comings in a proper manner, he took out his anger on them. Because of their failures, his anger and frustration, he beat them in an attempt to get them to perform as expected.
The unwise servant may also have beaten his fellow servants in an attempt to get more out of them than their potential. He was not satisfied with what they could do and therefore tried beating them to get more out of them.
He did all of this because he failed to focus on the return of his Lord and to recognize that the work was not his but, The Lord’s who gave him the responsibility.
Ministers should never act in this manner. They should never attack those who look to them for leadership nor take out their frustrations upon the sheep. They are given the responsibility of leading fellow sheep and should never fail to recognize that they are equal to those that they lead. They may be give a position and responsibility greater than other sheep, but they still are sheep. Sadly to say, there are some who strive to build works greater than The Lord expects from them and in their attempt, they drive their people to accomplish more than what even The Lord expects from their. They may not beat them physically, but their actions are just as wrong and hurtful. Ministers should strive to keep their perspective of God’s work equal to God’s perspective.
Parents can fall into this same error. Out of anger and frustration they can treat their children in wrongful manners because they see them as possessions instead of people for whom they have been given a great responsibility. They also error in the treatment if their children by driving them to accomplish their expectations instead of the Lord’s.
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