The parable of the unfaithful servant in Matthew 18:23-35 is spoken by the Lord to His disciples; it portrays a king who wants to “settle accounts” with his servants (v. 23); it speaks of one servant who had his sins completely forgiven by his master, the king (v. 27), but who was, nonetheless, later “delivered to the tormentors” for a period of time (v. 34); and the Lord Himself leaves no doubt that the lesson of this parable is for the believers:

So will My heavenly Father do to you also if you do not forgive your brother, each of you, from your hearts.
— Matthew 18:35

Clearly, then, in this parable, the Lord is warning us, the believers in Christ. He is saying we may face a serious, though temporary, discipline from Him when He comes as the true king to “settle accounts” with us at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). This will take place at the beginning of His 1,000 year reign upon the earth.

But it is not only this parable; there are many other portions of the New Testament as well that speak of the Lord’s coming judgment of His believers. (See the previous Note in this series, “The Unforgiving Servant (6): How Will He, and Others, be Punished?”) So many Bible teachers today basically write these portions of Scripture out of the Bible, saying that, somehow, they only apply to unbelievers or false Christians; others use them to falsely teach that believers can lose their eternal salvation.

In reality, what these portions show us is that the next age, the Millennium, will be a time of suffering for the believers who are not faithful to Christ in this age; still, after the 1,000 years, all of the believers in Christ will be eternally blessed together with the Lord and all the children of God in the New Jerusalem.

(If you would like to study this matter further, I recommend reading Watchman Nee’s book on this topic, The Salvation of the Soul.)

It is not easy to share on this matter, and I’m sure it is not easy to read about it, either. Still, clearly it is a major theme in the New Testament, one which we ignore to our own peril. As Peter warns us,

For it is the time for the judgment to begin from the house of God; and if first from us, what will be the end of those who disobey the gospel of God? And if the righteous man is saved with difficulty, where will the ungodly and the sinner be seen?
— 1 Peter 4:17-18

And early in the letter to the Hebrews the writer asks the believers,

How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
— Hebrews 2:3

A few chapters later he quotes the Old Testament to warn us:

The Lord will judge His people.

And then adds his own words:

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
— Hebrews 10:31; cf. Deuteronomy 32:35

Still later he again warns the believers, saying,

For our God is also a consuming fire.
— Hebrews 12:29; cf. 1 Corinthians 3:15

We need to consider this matter of the Lord’s coming judgment on His believers seriously and soberly before Him. Only in this way can we have a proper view of what it means to follow Him in this age, and so be prepared to see Him in the next.

Therefore, we can well close this study with the apostle’s own warning to us:

Therefore we make it our ambition, whether at home or abroad, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body, according to what he has practiced, whether good or worthless.
— 2 Corinthians 5:9-10

Sent to our mailing list on
—  22 July 2025 —