Gospel of Matthew Chapter 25 Vs. 26

Verses 26-30: The fact that the latter Man is called wicked and slothful and an unprofitable servant (verse 30), who is cast into “outer darkness,” indicates that he is not a true disciple of the Master.

 The Parable of the Talents

Matthew 25:26 “His lord answered and said unto him, [Thou] wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:”

Slothful

With no more trouble than he expended in digging, he might have gone to the ex-changers. The verse should be read interrogatively, Didst thou indeed know this of me? Thou shouldst then have acted with time promptness and care which one observes in dealing with a hard master. To omit the interrogation is to make the Lord admit that he was a hard master.

Thou knewest that... If you thought I was that kind of man, then you ought to have been faithful to your trust. In repeating the servant’s charge against him, the master was not acknowledging that it was true. He was allowing the man’s own words to condemn him.

If the servant really believed the master to be the kind of man he portrayed, that was all the more reason for him not to be slothful. His accusation against the master, even if it had been true, did not justify his own laziness.

It is not modesty after all that is at the root of the idleness of those who hide their talent in the earth; it is unbelief. They do not believe in God as revealed in the Son of His love; they think of Him as a hard Master; they shrink from having anything to do with religion, rather wonder at those who have the assurance to think of their serving God or doing anything for the advancement of His kingdom. They know not the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore it is that they hold aloof from Him, refusing to confess Him, declining to employ in His service the talents entrusted to their care.

At this point there is an instructive contrast between the parable of the virgins and the one before us. There the foolish virgins failed because they took their duties too easily; here the servant fails because he thinks his duties too hard. Bearing this in mind, we recognize the appropriateness of the Lord’s answer. He might have found fault with his excuse, showing him how easily he might have known that his ideas of his Master were entirely wrong, and how if he had only addressed himself to the work to which he was called, his difficulties would have disappeared and he would have found the service easily within his powers; but the Master waives all this, accepts the hard verdict on Himself, admits the difficulties in the way, and then points out that even at the worst, even though he was afraid, even though he had not courage enough, like the other servants, to go straightway to the work to which he was first called, he might have found some other and less trying form of service, something that would have avoided the risks he had not courage to face, and yet at the same time have secured some return for his Lord (Mat. 25:26-27).

His reasoning indicated he lacked faith in his master; he proved to be a worthless servant.