Luke 12:45–46: “‘But if that slave should say to himself, “My master is delayed in returning,” and he begins to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, then the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee and will cut him in two and assign him a place with the unfaithful.’”

Again, the focus here, like you started talking about yesterday, is faithfulness. But what has happened to this servant? He was distracted.

And the distraction is not, “Oh, I’m going to do nothing.” The distraction is seen in beating other slaves—criticizing them. That is the distraction. Someone might think to himself, “My ministry is to launch criticism against other people.” But this passage is telling us that it is actually you being distracted from your own course, from your own path of faithfulness that you should be on.

The other believers become the problem, rather than you being on your own path, doing your own role or performing your own service. The other slaves become the problem. “And to eat and drink and get drunk.” It’s about you now.

So the distracted servant who is not on the path of faithfulness is beating the other slaves, abusing the other slaves. We have an abusive situation, which this passage is telling us comes because people are distracted from what they are supposed to do—from their own path of faithfulness.

They have left the “boringness” of the repetition they have been called to—just to repeatedly serve—and are distracted into taking advantage of other people and the resources available to them, making it about themselves now, not about the service.

The servant is about the service. Jesus said, “The greatest among you will be your servant” (Matthew 23:11). So that is the picture, the reasoning: faithfulness is not about what you can get for yourself; faithfulness is about how you can serve others.

Then we have the distraction: distraction when I am complaining about the other person, trying to sabotage the other person—that is my distraction. Another distraction that can come my way is thinking about how this will work to my advantage. Paul says of some people, “Their god is their belly, and they think about earthly things” (Philippians 3:19). That is going to be me when I am distracted. That is going to be you when you are distracted.

“He said, ‘The master of that slave will come on a day he does not expect him.’” How am I expressing my expectation of the Master? By faithfulness. Not by shouting louder, “I am expecting the Master,” but by going on in the routine assignment of serving the body of Christ, of feeding the sheep I have been given.

The thing that will show I am not expecting the Master is not only when I say, “I no longer believe in the second coming,” or I leave the faith. The thing that shows I am not expecting the Master is the distraction: instead of helping fellow servants, I make it about myself; I build an empire for myself; I elevate myself. Why? Because I have made myself the master. Those are the things that show I have been distracted. Simple.

And the distraction did not begin immediately. “But if that slave should say to himself…” It could happen after one year, two years. It could happen along the line. We see in one of the letters of Jesus to the churches in Revelation: “You have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4). So it could happen along the line. It means you started well, and the distraction came in along the way.

Do you understand? So the call is to be aware of this tendency in me to be distracted. It could be being a bully—which means I am thinking of myself as the master and have misplaced my role. Rather than the one who should just be serving you and feeding you, I have misplaced my role and become the one pummeling you and “eating” you, figuratively speaking. I have been distracted.

“And to eat and drink and get drunk.” And what will happen when the Master comes back? “He will cut him in two and assign him a place with the unfaithful.”

We pray that will not be my portion, that will not be your portion, in Jesus’ name.

God bless you. See you later.