The account of sleep, slumber, and folding of the hands leading to poverty suddenly overtaking me in these verses is easy to apply to the need to have a profitable income. However, this can also be applied to having a profitable spiritual life.
Jesus taught, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:23-27)
Jesus called the servant lazy who did not invest his master’s property and wealth while he was away. The master took away the talent that he had given the lazy servant and gave it to another servant who had given a return on the master’s investment. Then the master ordered, “Throw that worthless servant outside, into darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”(Matthew 25:16-30)
I am warned not to be a spiritual sluggard. It is wise for me to tend to the talent God gave me for him and his kingdom. Otherwise, poverty will come on me like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man at the resurrection of the dead.
