In other words , a defense attorney ’ s strategy was usually to put the officer on trial instead of the defendant .
I was 21 years old when I became a police officer – one of the youngest to ever get on the LAPD . It ’ s an odd way to usher in adulthood . It was a life filled with adrenalinefilled violent moments , each of which would end up analyzed by people with one intention – to make you look like a horrible person , or a fool , in order to free someone you knew was guilty of a serious crime . It shapes a young man ’ s perspective .
It makes a person aware of accountability . What did I say ? What did I do ? Why did I do it ? Often there would be two or three trials in a day , with an officer running from one courtroom to another being grilled for an hour on something that transpired over 10 seconds .
Our Lord has much to say on accountability . At the end of Matthew 24 , Jesus is summing up His discourse to the apostles on the last days of our current age - the days before He returns . He offers them a choice : they can be good servants who the Master finds serving Him diligently when He returns . Or they can be selfish servants - they forget their master , who has been gone a long time , and live for themselves . Jesus says the Master will return when they least expect it , and these servants will be judged based on what they did with the responsibility He gave them .
He ’ s referring to Himself as the Master and to us as the servants and He says that we have a choice . Will we be serving Him when He returns , or will we be serving ourselves ? In the parable , those serving Him are rewarded and be , “ put on charge of all His possessions .”
The parable is about one servant with a choice . He is held accountable to that choice . Someday , we ’ ll stand before God ’ s judgment seat ( II Corinthians 5:10 ) and our lives will be reviewed . This judgment seat is only for believers . Unlike a courtroom in Los Angeles , no one will be there to condemn us , because our sins have been forgiven . But our lives will be reviewed : what did we do with the salvation we were given ? Were we serving Christ or were we serving ourselves ?
“ Will we be serving Him when He returns , or will we be serving ourselves ?”
Ephesians 2:10 says that we ’ re God ’ s workmanship , created in Jesus for good works . The previous two verses make clear that these good works have nothing to do with our salvation ; they are what is expected after our salvation . Those who have put their faith in Christ are expected to live as son and daughters of the King and to be about His business of loving and serving others .
We are not meant to do this alone but as part of a body , each using his or her gifts and holding each other accountable to use theirs . James 5:19 and 20 encourages us to correct fellow Christians who have strayed from the truth . Galatians 6:2 tells us to carry each other ’ s burdens . Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:15 to correct a brother in his sin .
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