Unfruitful Believers

"And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 25:30).


Unfruitful members of Christ's Church will be condemned and cast away in the day of judgment.


The parable tells us that the servant who buried his master's money, was reminded that he 'knew' his master's character and requirements, and was therefore without excuse; it tells us that he was condemned as 'wicked', 'slothful', and 'unprofitable', and cast into 'outer darkness'; and our Lord adds the solemn words, 'there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth'.


There will be no excuse for an unconverted Christian at the last day. The reasons with which he now pretends to satisfy himself will prove useless and vain: the Judge of all the earth will be found to have done right; the ruin of the lost soul will be found to be his own fault. These words of our Lord, 'thou knewest', are words that ought to ring loudly in many a man's ears, and prick him to the heart. Thousands are living at this day 'without Christ' and without conversion, and yet pretending that they cannot help it! And all this time they 'know', in their own conscience, that they are guilt. They are burying their talent: they are not doing what they can. Happy are they who find this out before time!It will all come out at the last day.


Let us leave this parable with a solemn determination, by God's grace, never to be content with a profession of Christianity without practice. Let us not only talk about religion, but act; let us not only feel the importance of religion, but do something too. We are not told that the unprofitable servant was a murderer, or a thief, or even a waster of his Lord's money: but he did nothing, and this was his ruin! Let us beware of a do-nothing Christianity: such Christianity does not come from the Spirit of God. 'To do no harm', says Baxter, 'is the praise of a stone, not a man or woman.'


~J. C. Ryle~