<p>25:21<em>&nbsp;His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant</em>- The term used in the previous parable (24:45). There, the &ldquo;faithful servant&rdquo; was faithful in that he provided food for the other servants within the household, and didn&rsquo;t beat the fellow-servants. Here, the faithful servant trades his Lord&rsquo;s wealth for a profit. The metaphors refer to the same essential activity- sharing the wealth we have in Christ for the benefit of our brethren. To cut them off, waste their energy and attention with empty arguments and pedantic concerns, ignore them&hellip; is to not trade the talents, to be unfaithful.</p><p><em>You have been faithful over a few things</em>- The equivalent parable in Lk. 19:17 says &ldquo;in a very little&rdquo; (<em>elachistos</em>). This very same word is found later in Matthew 25, when we read that the final judgment will be based around how we have treated &ldquo;the least&rdquo; of the Lord&rsquo;s brethren (25:40,45). The talents we have been given relate to them- how we have used them, what we have done for them, how we have served them with the riches given us by the Lord. There is obviously a connection between the manner in which we rule over the &ldquo;few things&rdquo;, and how we shall be given &ldquo;many things&rdquo; to rule over in the Kingdom age. Clearly what we are doing now is in essence what we shall eternally be doing, but on a greater level. If our lives are centred merely around ourselves and doing what we want, developing ourselves, rather than developing the Lord&rsquo;s work and doing&nbsp;<em>His</em>&nbsp;work, then we will be out of step with the life eternal. We are to start living that now. And then we shall live it eternally.</p><p><em>So I will set you over</em>- The preceding parable says that we have already been made ruler in the Lord&rsquo;s household in order to feed the members (24:45 s.w.). Our whole church experience, our relations with others and efforts for them, is to prepare us for being made ruler over all the Lord&rsquo;s goods (24:47). We cannot of course accurately imagine what new dimensions await us, but all we can say is that we are in training for them, and that training involves the care of others within the household now. To separate ourselves from that household, or cast others out of it, is to deny both ourselves and others the environment required for us to prepared for eternity.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Many things</em>- The Lord gave a related teaching in Lk. 16:10-12: &ldquo;He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?&rdquo;. What is given to us now is to test our faithfulness. If we don&rsquo;t perceive what we have been given, and so many believers tell me they are unsure about this,&nbsp;<em>then you need to ask the Lord to show you</em>. Urgently. And give your life to developing those things. The Luke 16 passage appears to say that in this life, we are stewards of the Lord&rsquo;s wealth; but if we manage that well, then we will be rewarded with wealth which is actually and personally our own. For eternity. That &lsquo;wealth&rsquo; will be of the same nature as that given to us by the Lord initially. Here we have a rare insight into the nature of our eternity. &ldquo;Many things&rdquo; is equivalent to &ldquo;all His goods&rdquo; (24:47; Lk. 12:44). There is nothing that is the Lord&rsquo;s which will not be shared with us and in some sense give to us to exercise our initiative over.</p><p><em>Enter into</em>- This is&nbsp;<em>eis-erchomai</em>, and is the Lord&rsquo;s confirmation of how the servant responded to the call to come to Him by &lsquo;coming&rsquo; to Him,&nbsp;<em>pros-erchomai</em>&nbsp;(:20). Once again we meet the teaching that our initial response at the Lord&rsquo;s return, our willing desire to go to Him, will be confirmed by Him bringing us closer to Him. The same word has just been used about the wise virgins &lsquo;going in&rsquo; to the wedding (25:10) having initially responded to the call without delay. The same word is used of Noah entering the ark (24:38), and these parables in chapter 25 appear to be an expansion upon that.</p><p><em>The joy of your Lord</em>- The joy of the Lord Jesus as revealed in His own teaching is specifically His joy at the repentance of others. He speaks of Himself as the shepherd rejoicing over the lost sheep (Mt. 18:13; Lk. 15:5) and the repentance of any sinner (Lk. 15:7), at the return of the prodigal (Lk. 15:32), joyful that the disciples believed in Him (Jn. 11:15), joyful at finding the believers in the world (Mt. 13:44). The reasons for the Lord&rsquo;s joy were all related to the salvation and spiritual blessing&nbsp;<em>of others</em>. He went on to say soon afterwards that His joy was to become the joy of the disciples even in this life (Jn. 15:11; 17:13). This will ultimately happen at the point of entry into the Kingdom at the day of judgment, but the essence of it is to begin now. And it can indeed begin now, if the Lord&rsquo;s joy at others&rsquo; repentance, growth and salvation becomes&nbsp;<em>our</em>&nbsp;joy, and our joy is no longer in ourselves and material things. There is also here a Joseph allusion- &ldquo;They were merry with him&rdquo; (Gen. 43:34). He would fain have them enter into the joy of their Lord.</p>