In the previous Notes in this series we have considered how the overcomers will be rewarded to reign with Christ in the coming age (Rev. 20:4; 3:21). Now there is a final, and quite crucial, point to see about this matter. That is, in this present age one of the main things the Lord is doing is, in fact, testing us to identify those saints who will be qualified to reign with Him when He returns.

We see this in the Parable of the Minas in Luke 19:11-27.

In this parable the Lord tells of a certain nobleman who is going away to a distant country to receive a kingdom. However, before he goes he calls ten of his servants to himself and gives them each a mina; that was worth about 100 days wages at the time, so not a small amount of money. Then he tells them all, “Do business until I come” (v. 13).

The Lord continues:

“And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.”
— Luke 19:15

Clearly, the point here is that, one day, the Lord will call us to Himself “that He might know how much every man gained” from what He committed to us (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10). What a sobering thought that is!

In the parable the nobleman says to the servant who gained 10 minas:

“Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.”
— Luke 19:17

Likewise, the one who gained five minas was set over five cities (vv. 18-19). However, there was another servant who did not gain anything for his master; he only returned the mina to him. The master rebuked that servant and said to take the mina from him and give it to the one who had gained the ten minas (vv. 20-26).

So, the Lord is saying in this parable that if we gain a profit for Him in this age, He will set us to rule with Him in the next age, for we will have demonstrated that we are qualified to bear such responsibility. However, if we gain nothing for Him today, neither will we reign with Him then.

D.M. Panton summarizes the point of the parable in this way:

Officers are required for the administration of a kingdom, and so God has deliberately interposed a prolonged period between His two advents, that our Lord might be enabled to so test his servants, in His absence, as to discover which are fitted for positions of responsibility and trust at His return.
….The Long Journey is now nearly over, and at any moment the investigation may begin.
— The Judgment Seat of Christ, page 35

May we be warned by these words, and by this parable, of our need to gain a profit for the Lord today, so that we may reign with Him in that day!

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— 25 March 2023 —