But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Servants do not have a choice to do nothing. They either obey their master or disobey. And the charge of a household servant in management is to take good care of those under his or her leadership. He is to feed them and keep up their strength. This responsibility is beyond overseeing the distribution of food. It is to take care of their needs, as the master directs or as the servant has observed the master doing.

So those servants who are selfish and have a pleasure-driven outlook on life will not follow the Master when he is away. They will instead serve themselves and their wicked desires. And many in today’s world see this as a good and profitable thing — self-love, taking care of yourself first, making sure you are coming from a place of complete fullness before you give to others. But this is not Biblical. It is a worldly concept.

In practice, people become inward-focused. They make excuses for their self-centered lives. And they serve themselves first, instead of fulfilling the will of their master who put them in charge.

God is looking for us to change. The good news is he gives us a change agent in our hearts, called the Holy Spirit. He comes in and cleans our minds and helps us to move on from self-centered and sinful ways to goodness with pure motives and kindness. The Holy Spirit allows us to become what we always wanted to be but could never achieve on our own.

So how do we purchase or qualify for such an amazing change agent for good?

We cannot. We must accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. He died to pay the price for our sins. And then we can receive the Holy Spirit, a part of the Godhead, as a gift in our hearts. It requires a heart seeking after obedience and in the pursuit of goodness and perfection in loving others.

This parable outlines the choices very well. We can follow Jesus, surrendering our will to his, and live with him into eternity. All the while becoming more and more full of his goodness and mercy. Or we can choose to run life ourselves, always having to settle for being self-centered in certain areas, making excuses for our sin, and dealing with its consequences, ending in eternal death.

Lord, the choice is clear to me. I have made a mess of life when I tried to resist temptation and do good in my own strength. You are the one I surrender my will to. You are my Lord and my Savior, and I desire to be found doing your good works. Keep working on me because I want to become more and more like you, Jesus!